It is disappointing to see how at this point there are still people who think Philip Morris USA is the main force behind this toy's inability to be sold to U.S. consumers, when it is actually a much greater force at work here: The United States government.
No joke, no crazy conspiracy theories; this toy cannot be sold to U.S. consumers not because of some IP infringement or something, but because doing so would be a U.S. Federal law violation.
Under the
Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement and the
Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, it is illegal for any company to sell any merchandise to U.S. consumers if said merchandise is perceived to be children's merchandise that even remotely gives off the slightest minuscule impression of advertising tobacco-based goods.
While we fans know good and well that advertising tobacco-based goods to children is not the intention behind this figure's existence at all, no matter how much we may try to separate our hobby from being mere children's playthings and instead being "collectibles" for adults, the courts WILL consider this thing a "toy" and WILL consider its Marlboro-homaging deco as advertisement of tobacco-based goods on that which they consider to be children's merchandise.
As small-minded and ignorant as that sounds, the world we live in is still not yet ready to accept the reality of adults who buy and collect toys, as the concept is still fairly new and infantile in the grand scheme of things.
If this toy were to be sold to U.S. consumers, it is Philip Morris USA who would face federal charges for allowing their brand of tobacco goods to be advertised on children's merchandise, regardless of whether it would be their direct fault for making the toy or not. They would still be at fault for letting it happen, and the courts would most assuredly see that they suffer the consequences of TakaraTomy's actions.
If we put things into perspective, it really isn't Philip Morris USA's fault that TakaraTomy decided to make this toy, but it's their hide on the line here, not Takara.
Had Takara decided to not be so faithful to the real life car's deco in the first place, instead going the route of Hyperspeed Wheeljack by using a deco that gives off only the vaguest hint of the Marlboro chevron, then it is far less likely that Philip Morris USA would have made such a fuss over this toy in the first place since a deco like Hyperspeed Wheeljack's wouldn't be deemed by the U.S. federal courts as something that might be trying to advertise tobacco-based goods on a children's toy.
Even the changes that Takara made to the deco after the fact might have possibly let this toy come to America had they gone with that changed deco from the start. But since they didn't, and had instead begun with the Marlboro-accurate deco, the deco changes came too little too late for them to fix this toy's situation. As soon as word hit everyone's radar that this toy was meant to resemble the Marlboro-sponsored racecar, this toy was forever doomed to its current fate.
The only possible way this toy could be sold to U.S. consumers at this late in the game would be for its deco to be given an extreme, radical, drastic alteration to its deco to make it almost completely dissimilar to the look of the real life Marlboro racecar. Like, by getting rid of the entire amount of its red paint altogether, or something. But that simply isn't economically financially feasible for Takara to do at this point, what with the toy virtually ready and set to go on the Japanese market.
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