Talk:Wind Sheer (disambiguation)

Misspelling for Trademark Purposes

It's much easier to get and hold a trademark on a made-up word or deliberately misspelled word than on a correct, common one. (Since it's much less likely anyone else will be trying to use it.) This is why I theorized that Hasbro maintains the misspelling of "Wind Sheer" for trademark purposes. But, it's hardly an important point. JW 21:23, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I figured that's what you were getting at. But since Hasbro overwhelmingly prefers correctly-spelled words for TF names despite the trademarking issues that plague the line, I think it's overly speculative to suggest that they reversed their normal thinking for this one name. - Jackpot 21:42, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Hasbro overwhelmingly prefers correctly-spelled words for TF names

"Overwhelmingly" is simply untrue. Of the 22 or so characters who appeared in Beast Wars, the only ones whose names are in the dicionary are Inferno, Rampage, Ravage, and Depth Charge. Of the 16 main characters in Beast Machines, only Savage, Noble, Thrust, and Obsidian are in the dictionary. For the 2007 movie, of the 13 Transformers who appear (counting Brawl/Devastator as one), the count is 7 dictionary, 6 non-dictionary. For the 12 in "Transform and Roll Out!", the count is 4 dictionary, 8 non-dictionary. So, the dictionary percentages for those four franchises are 18%, 25%, 54%, and 33%.

Hasbro uses made-up or misspelled words quite a bit. JW 22:02, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

While I think the franchises you picked are weighted towards your side of the argument, I'm not going to actually support my own side by counting percentages from the others. And I'll also admit that I was thinking of names like "Thundercracker" as being still "correctly spelled" because their component dictionary words remain unblemished. However, "Thundercracker" is still a non-dictionary, easily-trademarked neologism, so your point stands. I think I can phrase my thoughts more correctly by saying that, even if Hasbro does like to make up new words, it's not their style to simply misspell them. They'll either create compound words ("Starscream," "Sunstreaker") or significantly alter existing words ("Rhinox," "Cheetor"). Minor misspellings like "Brakedown" and "Demolishor" are, I think, the exception. - Jackpot 02:05, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, they're weighted toward the franchises I'm most familiar with. And I'll grant the "minor misspellings are the exception" point. JW 02:09, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Or maybe they just fucked up. The "trademark" bit is wildly speculative. --M Sipher 22:05, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I sleep more soundly if I convince myself that Hasbro does things for good reasons, not from outright ignorance.

I also believe in Santa Claus.

Regardless, I have no real problem with the speculation being cut. JW 22:09, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

And now we have an actual Wind Shear. Although personally I do prefer the spelling Windsheer as a character's name. Bass X0 (talk) 07:08, 18 December 2013 (EST)