When regular lawncare isn’t enough
http://theletterspage.libsyn.com/episode-116-creative-process-shear-force
As if I didn't already know, this delightful episode proves that Christopher and Adam are my people. :D
You kids today with your cartoons that have "good writing" and "strong characters" and "continuity that makes sense", you don't know what it was like back in the 80s. You don't know!
Geez. I want an entire Shear Force supplement for something. Also a Maneater. XD
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Missed opportunity for a joke: "I'm not friends with my Transformers friend anymore...he's a different person these days."
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And I just got to the discussion of (R) and TM and (C)...as expected, here's the write in. You are a little off base, but only a little.
The off-base bit: One doesn't need to have even applied for a trademark registration to use TM. TM just means one is claiming the words/symbol/whatever as a trademark. (One can claim and have a trademark without registering it.) So you can use TM on something even without applying. It is true that the (R) means you have a registration of that mark. (And falsely claiming that can have bad consequences.)
You did get the right end result, though: in this example, SHEAR FORCE would be the name of the line, and KUDZU would be a major element's name, so both of those would likely have registrations; the Greenhouse and Noxious Thicket would be both harder to register and not necessary to do so:
SHEAR FORCE(R) Greenhouse(TM)
KUDZU(R) Noxious Thicket(TM)
(I'm a trademark attorney. But I'm not your trademark attorney. Consult your own trademark attorney for legal advice. This is just informational.)
NEAT
But yeah, Shear Force as a whole is just plain awesome. I would have absolutely loved to have those as a kid. The only thing missing is transforming/combining robots for it to hit every note.
As I recall the rough history of the '80s, after the FCC deregulated kids' TV, it was Hasbro looking to market its line of transforming/combining toys from Japan that jump-started the toy wave; I imagine that Shear Force arose as a reaction to those transforming and combining robots.
This episode brought to you by Monsanto.
Sumac Umlaude - or perhaps just Sümac.
The biggest way we know this isn’t a real thing is that nobody is like “pfft, plants are GIRLY!” Only people who grew up thinking Wraith was the supercool bad@$$ which Batman was for us could look at a giant purple tank covered with “evil” violets and not be like “did your GIRLFRIEND send you those flowers, dorkweed?”
Rebel Thorn is an OFFSHOOT? Dude, it was right there…
Ole Ander is a Swede.
The Obnoxious Thicket
The Cultivator should be a member that betrays the team and starts his own…sinister…quasi-religious…secretive brotherhood…of personality…
Matt “Mad Dog” Mattock the Third, Esquire. He’s a funder who obnoxiously insisted on being on the team.
There’s a Swamp Thing story where his formerly human antagonist Jason Woodrue turns into a guy made of wood, who calls himself Wood-Rue and teams up with Poison Ivy to wipe out humanity. I wonder why I thought to bring that up here.