The Energon Pub

Heya.
Merry Xmas (belated) and a peaceful and happy new year to all.

So TrailBreaker returns to the line up at long last, which I count as a type of Xmas present for me (don't see why I shouldn't, since I've wanted his reappearance for years!)

He's 'only' a little legends miter for now, but I guess he'll be used somewhere in the deluxe line up soon enough to top the reappearances of Perceptor,Grappel,Wheeljack and Tracks.

Do you think Trailcutter was a well thought out name? I'm not complaining, and I can't think of a better one (TrailBasher? TrailBuster? TrailBoss? TrailWise?), but I'm interested to hear peoples' thoughts all the same.

Keep having fun. Be good to each other.

Not a 'bad' name, especially if it'll help get a Classics Trailbreaker in deluxe mode.

Nah, I don't really like it. I know why they don't use "Trailbreaker", but "Trailcutter" doesn't really have the OOMPH that "Trailbreaker" does. Maybe it's just the G1 in me.

Trailbuster sounds good though!

I'm not a big fan, but they can call him whatever they want, in my collection he will be Trailbreaker. Just like I don't accept the name Tankor for Octane.

I assume Trailblazer was unavailable as well? I find it a bit silly that they've been able to work around "Jazz" though. I can think of a hell of a lot more products called Jazz than I can called Trailbreaker.

craggy wrote:I assume Trailblazer was unavailable as well? I find it a bit silly that they've been able to work around "Jazz" though. I can think of a hell of a lot more products called Jazz than I can called Trailbreaker.

I'm pretty sure that's why Hasbro has been using "prefixes" like "Special Ops Jazz" or "Autobot Skids", etc.. The plain-ol' name isn't distinct enough to trademark.

It's not a name I really like, but it's not terrible either. At least they didn't call him Agent Trailblast or something like that.

Energon Is My Drug wrote:

craggy wrote:I assume Trailblazer was unavailable as well? I find it a bit silly that they've been able to work around "Jazz" though. I can think of a hell of a lot more products called Jazz than I can called Trailbreaker.

I'm pretty sure that's why Hasbro has been using "prefixes" like "Special Ops Jazz" or "Autobot Skids", etc.. The plain-ol' name isn't distinct enough to trademark.

yeah, of course, like I said, they're working around it. But do they think less people will buy Autobot Trailbreaker than will Trailcutter? It doesn't make much difference to me, but I know there are people who mind, and I find it somewhat interesting that Hasbro has one policy for one character's name and another policy for another's. Might just be a number of characters issue though. Heck of a lot easier to fit "Special Ops Electric Boogaloo" in front of Jazz than Trailbreaker and still keep it a legible sized-font.

craggy wrote:
yeah, of course, like I said, they're working around it. But do they think less people will buy Autobot Trailbreaker than will Trailcutter?

Autobot Trailbreaker sounds MUCH better.

craggy wrote:"Special Ops Electric Boogaloo" in front of Jazz than Trailbreaker and still keep it a legible sized-font.

Is that a "Breakin' 2" reference? Sweet!

I think it sounds dumb, but it's no big deal because it's not plastered all over the toy itself and you can forget about what they want to call it. Someone teach me why they dont use original names. Obviously from what I'm hearing it's a rights thing. Who owns the original names?

It's an okay name I guess.

I think there's a difference between Trailbreaker and Jazz.

If I remember correctly, they can get away with "Special Ops Jazz" and "Autobot Skids" because the base names are just to generic to copyright/trademark anyway.

In the case of Trailbreaker, it's not too generic a name, but rather that someone else has trademarked/copyrighted "Trailbreaker" since his last appearance.


As for "Trailcutter", well, there's a lot of names worse out there, so it ain't too bad.

Valandar wrote:I think there's a difference between Trailbreaker and Jazz.

If I remember correctly, they can get away with "Special Ops Jazz" and "Autobot Skids" because the base names are just to generic to copyright/trademark anyway.

In the case of Trailbreaker, it's not too generic a name, but rather that someone else has trademarked/copyrighted "Trailbreaker" since his last appearance.


As for "Trailcutter", well, there's a lot of names worse out there, so it ain't too bad.

That's my understanding as well. Trailcutter's close enough. I just hope this legends figure is a precursor to a deluxe down the road the way Jazz and Hound were.