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From: "Fred's Workshop" To: "ME!!!" Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2004 11:01 AM Subject: add to site: Jetfire vs Optimus
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 00:15:58 -0000
The below is a letter from a Dutch Transfan who wrote in to TFsource regarding Maz's article on MB Transformers. Read on, as it is a rather interesting story about Jetfire being the leader in MB toys.
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Dear TFSource,
I just finished reading your excellent article on the Milton Bradley-branded G1-TF's that were released in Europe in the early 80's. In the article, the writer ('Maz') appears 'baffled' why Jetfire is mentioned as leader of the Autobots instead of Optimus Prime. I believe I have the answer for you.
In the early 80's, the name 'Optimus' was owned by a company that made toasters, grills and other kitchen utensils. MB apparently could not secure the copyrights to the name 'Optimus Prime' because of the company holding that name.
In the first couple of issues of the dutch-translated version of the Marvel TF-comics, Optimus Prime was also called 'Jetfire' for this reason. Note that he was still the red-blue truck we know as Optimus Prime, just the name was changed. According to Ans Loos, back then editor of the Dutch translation of the Marvel TF-comics, the namechange was done because of the dispute between Optimus (the grill-company) and MB. This was mentioned in an answer she gave to a reader in one of the earlier issue's letterpages. The reader, by the way, wondered why Jetfire was called 'Optimus Prime' in the cartoon on foreign satellite TV :)
It is suspected that for the same reason as the namechange in the comics, MB decided to hold off on introducing the Optimus Prime-toy and instead used Jetfire as the leader. This way, there would be no confusion with the names after the situation would be resolved. MB did infact release Optimus Prime sometime later. From then on, and without any further explanation within the comics bar a brief editor's note on the first page, the comic also referred to Prime as 'Optimus Prime' instead of 'Jetfire'.
When reading the above, keep in mind that the cartoon was 'officially' not on air in Europe at the time. It could only be watched on British TV ('Sky Channel'), and there were no problems with the Optimus name in the UK as far as i can tell. Kids in mainland Europe -officially- only had the comic to go by.
Hope to have been of help and kind regards,
Email 2:
I've done some research on the internet, and apparently the 'Optimus'-company still exists today. However, i'm not sure if it's the same company that caused the trouble, as they seem to make stoves instead of grills. Have a look at http://www.optimus.se.
The credit goes to a Dutch Transfan named Erwin.
Discuss amongst yourselves and I'll give Maz the honor of updating his article when he gets a chance.
So TFsource did unravel one outstanding Transformers unsolved mystery :-D
Endemion
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 08:07:22 +0200
In the first couple of issues of the dutch-translated version of the Marvel TF-comics, Optimus Prime was also called 'Jetfire' for this reason. Note that he was still the red-blue truck we know as Optimus Prime, just the name was changed. According to Ans Loos, back then editor of the Dutch translation of the Marvel TF-comics, the namechange was done because of the dispute between Optimus (the grill-company) and MB. This was mentioned in an answer she gave to a reader in one of the earlier issue's letterpages. The reader, by the way, wondered why Jetfire was called 'Optimus Prime' in the cartoon on foreign satellite TV :)
Yup. I could probably whip up a scan of that if needed. The extremely odd bit is that this only seemed to have been a problem in the Netherlands. The same stoves were sold in the UK as well for example. Our laws always have been complex and odd I guess ;)
When reading the above, keep in mind that the cartoon was 'officially' not on air in Europe at the time. It could only be watched on British TV ('Sky Channel'), and there were no problems with the Optimus name in the UK as far as i can tell. Kids in mainland Europe -officially- only had the comic to go by.
Incorrect. The cartoon was airing in a number of countries. Just not the Netherlands. We didn't get the cartoon till 87 I believe.
So TFsource did unravel one outstanding Transformers unsolved mystery :-D
I was unaware of this being a mystery, but hey ;)
Argus.. nobody asked.. I'll contact Erwin about the bugs in his email ;)
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From: Fighbird
When reading the above, keep in mind that the cartoon was 'officially' not on air in Europe at the time. It could only be watched on British TV ('Sky Channel'), and there were no problems with the Optimus name in the UK as far as i can tell.
The UK did not have those problems, no, AFAIK.
Actually, UK *is* part of Europe, officially... and another UK based satellite channel, Super Channel, did also show the the cartoon. MB toys were sold in Denmark as well, but I never saw them on the shelves myself, so I can't really say, if Prime was released later... I doubt it, though, since most of what we got were US toys anyways. What is most likely, now that I think of it, is that we got the MB toys when Hasbro started cleaning out the TF stock in Europe around 1990/1991... along with all those nifty Mexican toys. ;)
Kids in mainland Europe -officially- only had the comic to go by.
Nope, we had the toys and the cartoons to go by (I don't know why this fellow wants the UK broadcast cartoons to be "unofficial"? The danish comic even ran adds for the cartoon broadcast on Super Channel...), and only later on the comic book, since those weren't around untill 1987/1988 for Scandinavia's part. |