Why didn't the Jet Vehicon figure come to the US? I know Break Down had issues of cost and safety, but why didn't Jet Vehicon get sold in the US?
Money and / or safety. Or if you're the type who's into such theories, cause Hasbro exist only to taunt and confound people.
Jet Vehicons can be used as throwing stars, so Hasbro probably thought they would be a big no no over here.
Probably because Habro just didn't get around to it, honestly. Same reason the Gears remold of Ratchet and the Frenzy version of the FRumble mold didn't come out either.
Its not just the addition of the wings, but just about every part of the Jet Vehicon's vehicle mode was remolded from the Car Vehicon and like Breakdown, probably pushed the cost of the thing out of the deluxe price point. On the wings though, they are made of some pretty rigid plastic and have some unfriendly edges to them. So, safety concerns played a concern too.
Keep in mind, the Cyberverse line did get two Jet Vehicons, so they did get a release here, just not at Deluxe scale. As for the Deluxe not getting a release, probably for several reasons. 1. Remember, Hasbro doesn't do budgets by figures, they do them by waves; a redeco in a case allows more money to be spent on another figure in that same case. Given the sheer number of new parts (As I recall, only the torso, thighs, and head share parts with the RID Vehicon), that's a lot of new tooling for a figure, they may not have been able to balance the budget for an unnamed character. 2. US Safety laws would've required some retooling of what Takara did, adding in further costs. Those wings are probably a breaking and cutting hazard and if the front fenders came off may not pass US Choke tests since they're far sleeker then the car Vehicons. (Choke tests at least used to consist of someone trying to break the product, then taking the pieces and putting them into a simulated baby/child mouth and rattling it around to see if it swallows it. If it does, they fail.) 3. Given development cycles and receptions, Takara released it at a point when Prime was faltering in the US. Remember, Prime didn't do well which is why the series got rebranded as Beast Hunters with new packaging; venders didn't want any more Prime figures cluttering their shelves which forced Hasbro to change themes. You'll notice every figure got remolded to be more "feral" who got released, no one got a clean release at that point, which meant the Jet Vehicon wouldn't fit in. Prime is faltering in the US, you've got redesigns and remolds for all your key characters for what will ultimately be the entirety of your rebranded toyline. The Jet Vehicon requires extra work to meet US safety standards and is going to be expensive, so much so that it may have to be the only new figure in the case. Do you release a new figure that doesn't fit your theme in an attempt to meet adult collecting desires of a nameless mook in a wave with a bunch of redecos that will likely sell poorly, or drop it and have a case of mostly new named figures that may sell well in your line that's already faltering? Hasbro went with the quantity. I don't exactly blame them. Prime was not a moneymaker; Hasbro had to fully rebrand and redirect the toyline to get it to stay on the shelves and even then had to end it early with the last wave of deluxes not getting a full release and several figures ending up as Target exclusives simply because no one else wanted to touch them. That is not the environment that sees figures like the Jet Vehicon get a release; had it been part of a line more like Cybertron (a line that did so well and lasted so long they stuck in retooled Armada and Beast Wars figures just to fill in the last waves), it almost undoubtedly would've.
Toy safety laws in the US confound me. You know what breaks into sharp edges easily and is used more by kids than toys? A plate! Hell, you can choke on popcorn more easily than you can kill yourself with a toy. I grew up in an area where everyone I knew had a gun by age 6 (besides me) and I can only think of one person I knew who was shot, and that was by the police. It seems so silly to ban toys for having sort semi-sharp edges or being breakable/swallowable.
Surprised no one mentioned the effect of being squeezed into shelves completely stacked full of movie toys was also a MAJOR player. To the giant companies buying in bulk, the show figures were less significant than something tied to the gigantic impact of the movies - even as old stock haunted the shelves.
