Holy Grails

So everyone who collects Transformers probably has a list of these...

(any excuse for a gratuitous Monty Python picture) But I'm talking about Holy Grail's. These are the toys that you have always wanted but have never had chance to own. This is a breakdown of mine. I've missed out on a few of them on eBay over the years (damn you snipers!) and still regret them even now.

So in no particular order here we go...

1) Mini-con 8 Pack

These were a European exclusive release (sadly not in the UK). My guilty pleasure are Mini-cons. I have pretty much every Mini-con ever released. I have a ludicrous amount of repaints of all of the Armada Mini-cons (X-Dimensions, Universe, Micron Booster, etc). This set always managed to fall outside of my grasp. I remember coming very close in an eBay auction and then work got in the way (some sort of meeting if memory recalls), which meant I missed out. Yes everything in this set is pretty unspectacular but it has always been one of my most wanted sets. Dive Plane is a particular stand out figure from the set as I'm a sucker for a submarine Transformer.

2) Gold Bumblebee's 

This is sort of a two for one. I love Bumblebee toys (yes I'm that idiot who buys virtually every iteration of Movie Bumblebee). These 2 always escaped me. The first is Costco exclusive Battle Ops Bumblebee and the second is Lawson Bumblebee. Costco Bumblebee was a massive missed opportunity. Costco put him on sale in the US pretty much straight away and flooded stores with them on Black Friday. I ignored them all over eBay at the time. Now they go for in excess of $100 each on eBay. Lawson Bumblebee was just straight expensive from the start. Prices were usually around £50 at the start and now regularly fetch £100+. I have both normal versions of these figures but my complentionist tendencies and my love of gold meant I've always wanted them both.

3) Dark of the Moon Leadfoot

Another modern figure that I missed out on. DA-34 Leadfoot was a Takara exclusive and was only released for a short amount of time. It retailed at about £15 but now fetches over £350+ (even unboxed!) on eBay. I always wanted a consistent set of Wreckers from the film and although I have Leadfoot in other sizes the deluxe class was the best. I did notice one appear on Gumtree a few years ago but it disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared. This is one of those that I would love but am never going to get anywhere near.

4) Botcon 2011 Stunti-con job set

I love Transformers Animated (yes I pretty much love every Transformer out there but Animated is pretty much my favourite line). When I heard it was being resurrected for Botcon I was sat looking through pictures just thinking......"I'm never going to own this!" and I've been proved right. It pretty much never comes up for sale as everyone who has it doesn't want to part with it and even if it did I couldn't afford it. It makes this one not so much a holy grail as pie in the sky.

5) Omega Supreme

This falls under the category of a massive miss in both my childhood and now as an adult. I remember a Christmas fayre at the local school in my tiny village as a kid. They had some sort of importer there selling toys they had brought from America to sell and they had Trypticon, Omega Supreme, Sky Lynx and Swoop (amongst others). My dad had taken us to the fayre and I remember seeing this and thinking that I could actually own one of these. My mother came back from work late that evening and I told her about them and she agreed to come and look with me. Sadly by this time the man had packed up and gone. I was crushed. So when they announced Encore Omega Supreme here was my chance. Unfortunately it just arrived at the wrong time again where I couldn't really afford it. Now sadly Omega goes for big bucks on the secondary market. Maybe someday I might get lucky and get a second hand one on the cheap.

6) Metroplex

Yes this is probably the most recent one and weirdly the most common figure out there. Metroplex just came at the wrong time for me again. I turned down the chance to buy him at a Toys r Us in Coventry (only time I've ever seen the figure in the flesh) as I thought it would be more widely released and probably easily reduced at some point.......it wasn't. The price on the secondary market has again rocketed. I've been outbid at many points with people paying way more than the original RRP. With a re-release of the Takara version next year I can only hope people try and offload these just beforehand. You never know this time I might get lucky.


Well thanks for reading. There are a few other really obscure American store exclusives that never see the light of day, Target Revenge of the Fallen Legends, Walmart Bombing Run Battle, Toys R Us Cybertronian Warriors Pack, to name a few, that I could list here as well. They don't really fall under the category of Holy Grail's though and more would like to have to complete things.

If you have any Holy Grail figures of your own feel free to comment below with your own.