Transformers - Reveal the Shield - Solar Storm Grappel

It became clear that my local TJ Maxx wasn't going to come through with the rare, wave ending Voyager figures from the Reveal the Shield line, but some research on line proved that Marshall's was the place to be! As such, on a recent out-of-state drive I had the good fortune to pass by such an establishment, and was more than happy to pillage their nearly-complete selection of said voyager figures!

In particular, I was excited to find "Solar Storm Grappel" (note the spelling) - a good looking figure with a sad bio that I was delighted to add to the Preserve. The figure has a special history with me as well, as Grapple was the only G1 figure that I didn't originally get in my youthful collecting days with my Dad. My reasoning then, however flawed, was that he was a repaint of Inferno, and I instructed my Dad to skip him over. By the time I came to my senses, that wave was off of store shelves and in the misty past it wasn't so easy to track down any retail product that has ever been conceived and sold. As such, it was many years later (and not a very concerted effort on my part, more of an itch in the back of my brain) when I was first learning about the Internet and spending time on the Transformers 'message boards' (ca. 1993 - a year much closer to the actual production of G1 Grapple than it is to today...yikes) when I had my next chance.

A mega-collector blew out his collection one week, and I picked up several great figures, like a boxed 1984 Prime, a spare boxed Prowl and Cyclonus, and yes a beautiful boxed Grapple. Prices at the time seemed a tad steep, though in retrospect they were rock bottom, given some of the market changes that have taken place. Solar Storm Grappel here represents a much shorter hunt, but I'm glad to have been able to add him to the Preserve through good old fashioned store-hopping, and not an aftermarket device. In some ways, it's closure to a decades long oversight, and how often do we ever get those?



Posted by charlie on July 5th 2011, 08:20 AM
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