Grails and White Whales
 

Having acquired one of my grails, it got me wondering about what other toys/figures other people are searching for.

What's your "Holy Grail"? The one item that you desire the most above all others. And on that note, what's that one item that keeps getting away?
I hate when I've had my eye out for a toy and when I finally find it, I can't get it due to other circumstances.

So what's your Grail/White Whale?

The Orange Fin Fang Foom with Purple shorts from SDCC 2012 or 2013.

I have wanted a 3.75 scaled Foom for a while and even though this was just a repainted Legends BAF I really wanted it. I loved the Masterworks and Gigantic Battles sets and I love adding some height to my display with the larger figures.

I have given up ever seeing this in person, let alone actually getting it for my collection. This was just previewed at the con and was never actually produced. Both the larger formats were canceled by the time this set was announced, forever unattainable...

For a while mine was Hot Toys Iron Monger. The avg cost for it was always too high, and every attempt to nab him on ebay for a decent price resulted in being sniped by someone who put in a huge bid. Finally, as pure luck would have it, I was looking at the FS threads on another site and a member just posted he had one for sale that was right around what I wanted to pay. Long story short, it's a fantastic figure and a formidable presence in my collection.

Igor from Iron Man 3 Assemblers. I actually bought multiples of the assemblers line to mix and match. Although to be honest, I waited for them to show up at a discounted price. So they died for a while, but then Hasbro showed previews of possible figures to continue it.

So just like when they showed the orange Foom, I thought I had a chance to own them as well.

My grail was the Goodsmile Tachikoma. I knew I was going to take a serious hit to the wallet to get it, but the hardest part was actually finding one that wasn't ridiculously priced.
My White Whale is Masterpiece Soundwave. He's always in the back of my mind and I could have had him a few times, but yeah, life and stupid responsibilities keep getting in the way...

Warren Paper Products 1937 Dr. Huer's Laboratory:
http://i804.photobucket.com/albums/y...udd1/grail.jpg

CCC.

White Whale: 1992 GIJoe Roadblock.

Roadblock (v4) G.I. Joe Action Figure - YoJoe Archive

It was 1992, found the new assortment of Joes at TRU. Didn't have enough money to buy the whole set, so I decided to buy only the new characters and left new versions of older characters (like Duke and Roadblock) on the shelve for another day. I chose poorly.

That version of Roadblock was recalled, and later version of him never came with the same accessories.

I HAD THAT IN MY HANDS!!!

I have Harley, Ivy & Batgirl, this is the one I need to complete the set.

The Hot Toys line will always be a "if I win the lottery..." type of thing with me.

Not into vintage stuff, but that actually looks pretty cool.

Here is a small portion of my Grail's mixed with other Figures.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...F4EE72AAEA.jpg

I got my Tachikoma when it was released. I don't think it sold well and my friends and I found them for like $60 shipped. Or they might have been cheaper than that.

I only have Harley and Batgirl but I want Supergirl from this line. At one point Supergirl was selling for like $30 shipped on ebay. Still kicking myself for not getting her then.

My holy grail is a Bandai Macross Elintseeker and Super Ostrich. I've seen plenty but to get a decently mint one it'll cost about a grand and I'm too much of a cheap ass to pull the trigger at that price.

MOTU European Tytus and Megator. Also, TMNT Hot Spot and Scratch.

Marvel World Adventure Playset by Amsco:

http://www.grayflannelsuit.net/blog/...Amsco-1975.jpg

As well as the Spidey, Bats and Supes mini sets:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...9ff6ee5a07.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...8eddfce9e2.jpg

They were going to be releasing a slightly larger version of it a few years ago, but for some reason it never got made. Talk about a let down:

http://www.figures.com/gallery/data/10381/DSCN31831.JPG

More than slightly, it was going to be 1/18 scale. I have enlarged Strange's Sanctum and it is easy, but the Daily Bugle and Baxter Building are much harder and probably what killed the project.


CCC.

the old Secret wars black costume spider-man figure. My mom bought me one brand new as a kid back in the day, i had him and baron zemo. for some reason he got lost and i never saw him again.... while it's a just a rubber smaller scale figure with limited articulation, i've always wanted to get another one. while i could easily afford one, i can't justify buying one due to the current going price of a mint one.

It's just sheets of foldable card. With all the tech a toy company has at their disposal I can't see it being an issue. This was a guaranteed sale for them and generated a lot of interest at the time. I think they were rrp'ing it at $50, but I'd wager they could have raised that to fit whatever extra costs were incurred in manufacturing had something proved more awkward. Frankly, I think they could have just reissued the original without scaling up and they would have made money. Maybe even sold add-on packs of other famous locations with sheets of more modern characters and that would have been profitable too. I reckon this would have come down to a rights issue.

It would be on cardboard, have to be for structural reasons. I saw pics of the Baxter Bldg, it was almost 4' tall. Imagine the shipping costs alone on that, and the upper floors were necessarily out of scale on the outside.


CCC.

Silly as it sounds, I've spent years trying to track down King Hiss from the old 90s Attack Pack toyline.
I've managed to get my hands on every single other figure (minus unreleased prototypes), including three of the final four vehicle wave King Hiss was part of, but that little bugger keeps eluding me. At best I've come across a lot of old auctions and sites that had him pictured and/or for sale, but haven't been fortunate enough to snag one.

DUDE, holy crap i remember those from when i was a kid.... i recall the black bat winged one was awesome! wow way to jog back an old memory !

I wish I had kept my old Battle Beasts from back in the day. I really digged that whole fire/water/wood thing that they had going on. Didn't they do an updated version recently? I can't remember it doing so well...

Minimates did a version of Battle Beasts; I loved the originals too and all the cool vehicles

Haha, that was "The Darkclaw", definitely one of my favorites along with the Battle Bird bat Nightslayer. They were such a fun concept, I was sad to see Mattel bury and ignore the line.

I was fortunate enough to rediscover them in the late 90s when ebay and online etailers were young, so I managed to acquire pretty much everyone except two of the LaserBeasts. I wound up having to sell most of them, but man were they great to own, if only for a little while. I can't even begin to imagine the absurd amount of money it would take to rebuild that collection so I try not to think about it ;)