Of all the items in my Transformers collection there is one thing figure that I love above all others, my original G1 Grimlock. For a kid, Grimlock was just about the coolest thing ever in that he was a robot that turned into a dinosaur. Over twenty years I’ve held onto Grimlock through several house moves, high school, college, graduate school, and even marriage. I even have gotten my wife to engage in the “Cesium Salami/Beryllium Bologna” dialogue from Transformers: The Movie.
A year ago rumors were swirling that Hasbro has deemed the United States worthy of an American release of the Takara Tomy MP-8 Grimlock. This was huge news due to the fact that the Japanese version ran upwards of $150 and was very hard to come by. Over that year there were further rumors of cancellations and who would exactly be carrying this new Masterpiece Grimlock, as Toys R Us were initially slated to carry it. It wasn’t until earlier this month that we had confirmation that it would be a and that it would be a Toys R Us Exclusive and sold through Entertainment Earth during San Diego Comic Con.
My patience paid of late last week as I was finally able to pre-order Masterpiece Grimlock through TRU.com. Unfortunately he will take anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks to arrive in my Den of Nerdery.
Every year at San Diego Comic Con there is a slew of retailer exclusive action figures, variant comic books, and shiny metal that sends fanboys into a froth covering every franchise from Twilight to Ghostbusters. For people like me, they have to rely on the secondary market or on the retailers themselves after the convention to secure the exclusives of their choice.
Unfortunately for my bank account there are some very strong showing from my three favorite properties:
- GI Joe: Sgt. Slaughter 3 3/4″ – $9.99
- Transformers: G1 Prowl Mighty Mugg – $15.99
- Marvel: Ultimate WWII Captain America 3 3/4″ $9.99 & Iron Man 2 Mark VI Mighty Mugg – $15.99
The greatest difficulty in obtaining these exclusives is that when they go up on Monday on Hasbro’s consumer site … things get ugly real fast. There is never a set time for them to be released so if this year is anything like the last two years I will spend half of my day hitting the F5 key.
It’s like triage in a disaster zone, you have to pick what you want the most and make the difficult decision and cut your losses. Not that I want to jinx myself, but I have a pretty strong record … let’s hope for a good day on July 26th. For a more in depth look, io9 put up a decent rundown of their top 25 picks for SDCC ‘10 Exclusives.
This time last year I was jonesin’ for San Diego Comic Con exclusives like the Cobra Commander & Nemesis Prime. So far this year, there hasn’t been previewed that looks exciting, or worth the effort to A) find someone to pick it up for me at the show, or B) wait until it is released and purchase it online.
Sure this year’s list is chock full of awesome stuff that I don’t or won’t collect; but a combination of ratcheting down my purchases as well as saving for a home to store all of my collection is most certainly a motivating factor.
However, my wife pointed out to me earlier in the week that NBC is going to be doing an update of their Cylon toaster … now with an LED glowing eye! You can actually pre-order now for $90.00.
For a more detailed listing of the action figure exclusives, Action Figure Insider is maintaining a pretty thorough list here. And as always, for up-to-date convention news and updates … go check out the big boys who have the staffing and testicular fortitude to report live from the floor at SDCC.
Comments (0) 
Themocracy