Originally Posted by
griffin
As long as you declare it, you can't get into trouble for it... just like if you had food, drugs or real weapons in your luggage.
If you go with the Federal Import form filled out (if you were planning to get a Megatron toy), you will be allowed to take it with you if you are in WA and arriving in Perth first. If you arrive on the East Coast first and travel to WA by a domestic flight, then you will have it confiscated until you can get a transit permit, if that state requires one.
If you arrive at Perth without the Federal Import form, Customs will hold the toy (for a few weeks) until you come back with one... provided you declared it to them before they find it.
Customs know what to look for with certain prohibited items, and since MP Megatron was packaged in robot mode, it's shape was something they were trained to look out for... and even since 2007, as they found and held my Gold MP Megatron, which was only just a couple years ago... and the package wasn't even opened to see what was inside.
That process at the end of 2014, to retrieve that toy from Customs, was what prompted me to research the process for all states of Australia and post up this topic.
Unfortunately, you would need to renew it every 3 years, IF you wanted to legally own one of the Megatron toys in the first posting.
Victoria and NSW look to be the states that require the most effort and cost to legally own those toys, but at least there is a process in place to legally own them at all. It's possible to have them in your home without a permit and never have a problem, but if you ever decide to sell the toy, or your house gets robbed and reported to the police, or ever gets raided by the police, you could face severe weapons charges.
The risk is minimal, and I don't know if any member here even has one, but none of us here would risk telling members to NOT worry about the permits just because they are toys, as we would be soliciting an offence, and face prosecution as well. It is entirely your decision.
Aside from a couple of stricter states, we probably have it pretty good in Australia at the moment for legal ownership of Gen1 & MP Megatron. Importing them is a free process that just requires filling out a form, and most states allow free ownership in private homes (not to be taken out in public).
Considering that it just takes a few incidents highlighted by the media of robberies with fake/imitation weapons, politicians could tighten the laws at any time, to have them require licensing like real firearms. (you can cause the same amount of panic and fear from a fake weapon, and commit the same crimes, as most don't fire their real guns... so it is no different to taking an unloaded real weapon to a robbery)
