CrankyOldTruck wrote:
Oh my god are you people really that ****ing stupid that this is how you view this stuff?
Seriously, what the **** have I gotten myself into by joining this site? I thought that Star Trek fans were bad. Holy ****! What are there,like 3 adults here and everyone else is 12 or under with no clue whatsoever how the real world works?
Why don't you guys take a minute and look at it from PM's point of view. For all intents and purposes their branding has been placed on a TOY! Now don't go getting all up in my grill about this being a "Collectors Piece" because you'll just be preaching to the choir. Shoot, I went out of my way to pick up the TF:Prime Wheeljack in this paint scheme. But guess what? Most of the rest of the civilized world doesn't give two sh*** about the distinction between toys and collectors pieces so PLEASE...try to remember this and see if from their point of view!! They absolutely, positively DO NOT want their products in any way associated with kids toys or anything that the rest of society may perceive as a kids toy. I happen to agree with them on this approach. Now keep in mind that things were a lot more relaxed when the original toys first came out ages ago and back then PM couldn't have cared less but this is not 30 years ago. This is the 21st century and people will climb up a major corporations ass for the smallest offense and PM is not at all immune from this. We all know that some bitchy parent somewhere, at some point, is going to complain if they see what they perceive as a cigarette company promoting a "kids toy" so PM is just covering their butts. You want this product out on the shelves? Fine, you step up and pay the legal costs when some anal retentive parent bitches about it and sues. Until then, back off of PM and try to understand that they are doing what is in their best interests now as a company.
Okay, here's the problem though, Japan is not subject to the same laws in regards to cigarettes as the U.S-of-A. This toy will be sold on toy shelves, in Japan, because they don't have laws about Cigarettes and kid-appeal, or if they do, they are allot different than ours. This toy, will not be sold on the shelves of a Standard U.S store, by any means, and if so it's only like specialty stores like comic shops, but even then... I digress. The point is, Little Midwest Jimmy will not be able to buy the toy at ToysRus. People will really, 99% of the time, be buying this over Online retailers only. By all means Takara Tomy didn't have to change the deco for retailers to sell out of country, but they did; by Japanese Standards these are classified collectors' items, and they meet their laws. If anything Takara Tomy was playing nice guy by changing it, which they didn't have to because it was perfectly fine for domestic Japanese release. I think the problem is Philip Morris' legal division is under the impression, because stores like BBTS and the like do sell retail cases, that these stores sell to your average toy store or Target, which they don't.
I would think the laws that protect those who parody and lampoon would work...I say that because the very name "Exhaust" lends itself as a JOKE in regard to his deco.
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