Since the Transformers series began there have been many annoying little questions.  One of the biggest is of course WHY is Bluestreak called bluestreak?

As most any transfan now knows, he got his name early on as the toy line was developing.  The 2 original versions of this Datun Far lady were either Silver with either a black hood, or 2 tone blue with the silver hood.  The box art, the catalog, instructions and even some of the early ads showed the toy in the Blue version.  Somewhere along the lines, a genius at Hasbro decided to cut out the second coat of paint and keep the toy all silver.  Considering the fact that the version we have used red inner parts, such as the arms and legs, we really got the Black hooded version – minus the black. 

Names were picked well in advance of the final toy lines, art supplied to the manufacturer showed the blue bluestreak version, and it is believed that based on this he got his name. 

So in short, the silver version got the blue versions name. 

The remake was renamed silver streak to through thing further off balance. 

My question now is, if originally the silver version got the blue ones name, might the blue one have gotten the silver ones name?  (as we kinda see with Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, the whole “Rocket Packâ€? bit giving us a clue that they messed up the names).

If so, what name should he have gotten?
Quick Silver?  Silver Streak? 

Nice theory, but I don't think it's accurate.

Most of the original names were thought up by Bob Budiansky, and he didn't so much base this on looks of the TF, but more on the abilities and personality of the figure (which he also made up) -- with a few notable exceptions, of course.

In marvel US #1 (edited by Budiansky) we have Bluestreak introduce himself and this immediately explains his name.

According to the dictionary (quoted from memory) bluestreak means:
- to move very fast ("to move like a blue streak"): Bluestreak was the fastest ot the Ark-modified Autobots
- to talk very fast and a lot about basically nothing ("To talk a blue streak"): Bluestreak had a tendency to talk a lot about nothing to deal with his war trauma.

Seems like a better explanation to me.

Could very well be that initially the idea was to release the blue version and this color helped Budiansky in deciding about the name, but I think the name Bluestreak would've been used anyway (but maybe then for another toy).

That's a good point, the definition is supportive, however I believe it would have been better lent to a blue car than a silver car.  That would have just made the name sake that much more worthy.

This profound in depth insight towards the “Charactersâ€? and such does not explain why Hasbro felt the need to rename the re-release “Silver Streakâ€?.  Granted there might be another toy with the “Bluestreakâ€? name but I doubt it.  They also may be concerned with the rights to the movie titled “Bluestreakâ€?…well again there is also a movie titled “Silverstreakâ€? out there. 

There is plenty of evidence that the Transformers, a bashed together toy line from numerous toy makers and series made several mistakes along the way. 

It’s a well known fact that at least the bio’s for Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were switched, with the “Rocket Packâ€? mentioned with Sideswipes tech spec, where as clearly Sunstreaker had the booster. 

Bumper exists, was not supposed to, or maybe he was and they just stuck him in the wrong packaging to supply a huge demand as quick and cheap as possible. 

Skids, I recently uncovered shows us the sketched art of the Sedan version on the cover of his instruction book.  (makes me wonder if there are any Sedan Blue Skids out there…egads another Bluestreak?)

The TV series showed us a Blue and Gold Swoop, clearly the Diaclone version.  Artists must have been supplied the original art and painted him the wrong colors.

And again, another blow to the Bluestreak issue.  At times he was painted all silver, and other times with the Diaclone black hood. 

I believe they were handed the early cars (blue) with the art (blue) and came up with the name Bluestreak.  If it had been silver to start off with they would have called him Silverstreak. 

The original purpose in all this was to try and figure out what name could be given to the other versions. 
We have 2 names, Silver Streak, Blue Streak, for 3 cars. 
Since these were also names of movies, I would submit that a 3rd name also take from the color skeme as well as from a movie title.  So QuickSilver sounds like a reasonable 3rd name. 

So who gets what name? 

I spoke with Dr Weeter, a self proclaimed TransHistorian.  He says "That the Dinobots should never be activated AGAIN."

I'm not sure what that has to do with Bluestreak...so I asked him, and ol Blue said "SHUT UP!"

Back to you Ted. 

the comic was created right along with the toy line and the cartoon in  a massive marketing plan. Everything had to be explained and the groungwork had to be laid on thick. I feel there is no doubt that the name came from the early versions of the toy. When they realised later on that the changes were decided, all it took was a simple description in the comics to cover their misstakes. so you both are right.