BUMBLEBEE name secured at last?

According to Prime Nova, one of our fellow Seibertronians, "Hasbro has finally secured the rights to the name Bumblebee!

"Minicon Sparkplug will be released under that name in the first or second wave of Minicon Battle Packs to secure the name on store shelves. Hasbro is also looking into releasing the G1 toy somewhere. I'm told there are also designs for TWO new Bumblebee toys as well. One for the Alternators and a second for the tail end of Cybertron.

"I think they're serious about keeping the name this time. :)"

Thanks for the information Prime Nova! Keep the rumors coming!!!

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EDIT BY SEIBERTRON:

Thanks to Nevermore, we've found out that there's some additional information regarding whether or not "BUMBLEBEE" is an official name. Apparently this has been part of some long standing debates at the other TF sites.

Some information from the United States Patent and Trademark Office:
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=76634431

A thread has been started at Transfandom.com by Aerosurge regarding this back on July 20th, 2005: http://forums.transfandom.com/invboard/index.php?showtopic=30197 and a thread was started by Nevermore at TFArchive.com back on April 7th, 2005: http://www.tfarchive.com/community/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29877.

The reason this is in the Sludge Report and not in the News section is because it's a rumor - plain and simple. Please keep that in mind when reading this page. When Hasbro or the Government says "no dice" on this name or someone says the name can apply to our favorite yellow Autobot, then it's news. Until then, it's a rumor which has been posted purely for entertainment purposes. Please remember that a rumor is a piece of unverified information to which we make no claim to the validity of this information. Is this information about the "Bumblebee" name fact or fiction? We provide this entertaining rumor so that YOU can decide ...

Since the writers have included Bumblebee in the story for the 2007 Transformers movie from Dreamworks, I don't doubt for a moment that Hasbro and/or Dreamworks are actively trying to secure this name especially if Volkswagen happens to come around and decide that they'd like the Beetle (new or old) featured in the movie. If they want the name "bumblebee" badly enough, Hasbro and Dreamworks might just get it. Just about anything's possible when money is involved.

Keep your fingers crossed ... we might just yet have a BUMBLEBEE once again just around the corner.