5/6ths

So guess what popped up on eBay a few weeks ago...

The final figure: White Headmaster Shuffler

Saved the best for last. You would think that because Shuffler is the hardest to find of the color versions of the Headmaster Warriors that he would be the hardest to find of the white ones as well. But according to Shmax at least two other people have white Shufflers while no one else has white Rodney or Trizer which I find odd. Especially because I haven't been able to obtain a regular Shuffler myself yet. At any rate, here he is, in all his glory:

Something else that distinguishes the KO Shuffler from the real one, the trunk doesn't fold down as far when he is in elephant mode on the KO. I assume it is a mold deterioration issue but I'm not sure.

KO on the left, original on the right

Since I don't have an original Shuffler yet, I compared the white version to the color KO. You'll notice on the color KO the trunk doesn't fold down as far either.

So that is it. Four of the six extremely hard to find white Headmaster Warriors.

Rodney, Lione, Trizer, Shuffler

I'll always keep an eye out for the other two (Kirk and Loafer) however I doubt I will find them anytime soon and probably not at the unbelievable price that I was able to get these for. In fact, I do remember seeing one of these guys on eBay a few years back, I think it was Rodney, up for 3/4 of what I paid for all four of these guys. I don't remember if it sold or not and that was before the KO's hit the market but that was a lot of coin for one small figure.

Maybe Heroic Decepticon can hook me up if he ever finds any in his travels ;-)

On another note this post marks the one year anniversary of this blog, yay! Actually it is the one year anniversary of 'Mostly Transformers' but since that site was hacked I am celebrating it anyway. My very first blog post was on 2/19/11, but I back-dated a few posts from that day. I thought that it was only fitting I celebrate the one year anniversary of my blog with something as special as White Shuffler. I'd like to thank everyone who has read and participated in my blog, hopefully you have enjoyed it as much as I have. Here's to another great year!

The White Lione!

Third of the four white Headmaster Warriors I recently obtained is Lione, the lion. I really wish they had completed all the designs originally scheduled for these Headmaster Warriors as the animal ones are really the neatest. Of course we got the Headrobots Cobra just recently, hopefully we'll get some more eventually.

And the inevitable KO comparison:

KO on the left, original on the right

And White Lione with his color counterpart:

Who is the final figure I obtained? The suspense is killing me!

Wait, what? There's another one?

So I had to build up the suspense somehow. Amazingly I actually ended up getting four of the six white headmaster heads in what I will now call the chance of a lifetime. However they are each so glorious (as Lugnut would say) that I thought they each deserved their own post. Today Trizer gets his spotlight.

This is just another beautiful figure and again, when you stand it up to the KO, there really is no comparison.

KO on the left, original on the right

There isn't much I can say that I didn't already talk about with Rodney, so again I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Trizer with his color counterpart

Two down, two to go. Who is up next?

Grail Find! Headmaster Rodney's white counterpart

If you had asked me a few months ago if I thought I would ever own this figure, I would have told you that you were crazy. The exclusive headmasters are rare enough as it is, saying nothing of their all white versions. But, an opportunity came up a while back to own this guy and the price was so good I just could not pass it up. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

So how does the original figure stack up against the recent KO that was released at the same time as the Headmaster boxset? There are a surprising amount of differences I've found:

KO on the left, real on the right

It becomes glaringly apparent how much the KO is a KO when stacked up against the original figure. I never did this with the colored versions but I should have as the differences are so obvious. Now if I didn't have the original figure I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. But in a side by side comparison the KO doesn't have the same amount of detail in the mold and the plastic is of much worse (and brigher) quality. You can really see it in the face here. Under this light the KO looks almost yellowed compared to the original figure. The rivets are also slightly larger on the KO.

I have never seen this guy anywhere other than officially sanctioned TF books so for me this was a once in a decade opportunity. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love reissues because they drastically reduce the price of the originals (although in this case it was a KO and not a reissue). Otherwise there is no way this purchase would have been possible. And I know the term Grail is overused in the TF community, but this time I think this actually qualifies. For me it is a grail when I think I will never, ever own a particular figure then by some happenstance I actually end up with said figure. I feel the same way about VSX.