One thing that fascinates me is the rare, expensive, and obscure corners of the now vast history books of the many Transformers toylines over the years. To be clear, I don't go shelling out tons of money to actually buy a lot of these treasures. I have a very small handful rare/pricey bots, but the vast majority of my collection has been acquired on the cheap.
The main reason for my interest is the stories these bots have to tell about why they are so rare and/or sought after. This thread is here to explore these stories, and hopefully not cause the already high prices of rare bots to skyrocket even further.

That being said, no Transformers toyline is excluded from this discussion. (You'd be surprised how quickly a Transformer can become rare and expensive!)

Here are both my picks for an unbiased holy grail, and my own personal holy grail:

Unbiased:

The original G1 Predaking
Never that huge of a deal to me, but Predaking has always had THE highest asking price of any Transformer--even compared to his fellow G1 combiners. I've seen many a Transformers fan drooling over the prospect of owning one. The original toy (complete) goes for sometimes over $300. I've seen it as high as $700 or so before the reissues started happening in 2010. Personally, I'll settle for the much cheaper 2013 model in due time.

Totally Biased:

Tough to narrow this down. Throughout my childhood I always wanted Ultra Magnus, an easy quest to complete in my adulthood, I also kind of wanted Metroplex, and I was lucky enough to have him land in my possession for FREE. So the one that now eludes me the most is the original G1 Jetfire/Skyfire. I do have the recent reissue Generations version, but it lacks an important feature to me. Because I'm also a big fan of Macross/Robotech I love the fact that this guy doubles as a Valkyrie Fighter. The problem is the new toy can't do the Battleroid (two-legged-jet) mode. Probably because of rights issues with Harmony Gold, the owners of the US Macross/Robotech rights. Because of the complicated history of G1 Jetfire, we'll likely never get a fully functional reissue. Trying to procure the original toy (complete) will potentially cost you around $200, sometimes less, sometimes more.

 

I've got a complete G1 Jetfire I've been thinking of selling. No box of course but I'm pretty sure I've got everything else(instructions, guns, etc). I'd probably trade it for the right deal.

 

And as far as Holy Grails go I'd say mine has finally been acquired: Fort Max. Albeit I got a mint Brave Max-I'm stopping there as I like that color scheme better and really just wanted the mold. Moving onward my current Holy Grail(s) is a G1 Overlord or a Diaclone Swoop.

 

I'll say G1 Sky Lynx. Once I'm done, I'll hunt for him unless a third party company does an outstanding version. I'll take a leader/Ultra CHUG over a MP due to the size difference.

 

MISB Targetmaster Hot Rod corrected version.

 

More of a minor holy grail of mine, but I've always fancied getting a G1 Bumper.

 

My list might sound a bit odd, a marginal bias, and something that people might take aim at because it does not fall into what they consider "holy grail" items. But right now, I have three of what have been my been my "I wish I had obtained these sooner" holy grail pieces. Which are...

- "LG09" Brainstorm (first run)
- "LG22" Skull
- "LG31" Fortress Maximus

The first one took me 2 months and 8 sellers to obtain. It is also one of the factors on how I plan to display my pieces. The second was the reason why I started to include Destron figures into my collection, and is now stated to be my third most expensive piece. And the third would have been a trial to get in AFA friendly condition. Or, at least, outside of Japan.

But if I had to entail the means of choosing a vintage piece as a "Holy Grail" outside my own use of the term, I guess the all of the Headmasters and Headmaster Juniors from Takara's Super Collection Figures line. But only the robot mode ones for the Headmaster Juniors. Both in the original bags and look display worthy.

 

original G1 Predaking took me 20 years to complete (1988-2008)

granted, i was picky, cheap and choosy going from kid to adult during that time:
July 1988 - saw all 5 Predacons shelfwarming, picked up Dirge instead
October 1988 - Divebomb and Headstrong still on shelf, got them
May 1998 - got Razorclaw MIB at a toy show
mid-2004 - got Rampage off ebay around $30
late 2008 - got Tantrum MIB off ebay around $40 while i was deployed to Iraq

well worth it. my personal grail though was a TF Knockoff, the Four Star jets; a buddy in pre-school got the white one and it fascinated me for 24+ years.

-

 

My own Grails include
Beast Wars Metals X-9 Jaguar. A figure that never saw us release, and was a Takara exclusive before the widespread Internet age. And the chance of a reissue is super slim as I remember hearing a rumour that the Jaguar parts of the tooling were worn out after the run of Botcon2001 tigatron. The Transmetal Cheetor toy can still be made. But the Ravage mods are toast.

Botcon 2016 Megatron.
I had a friend in line, at Botcon, on Saturday morning. And I was ready to paypal him as soon as he got it. And Funpub lifted the 1 per customer limit and some Child Molesting Scalper bought them all before I could get mine. What should have been a 90 dollar figure for me is now an unobtainable 500+ purchase

 

I was fortunate enough to find four of my top five Holy Grails this year. After acquiring 25th Anniversary Unicron, MP-12T Tigertrack, MP-7 Thundercracker and Igear Attack I'm left with MP-4S Sleep Mode Convoy. Short of Lucky Draw MP-1, it's the most expensive Masterpiece that I know of. I know it's morbid, but its awesome as well and I need one badly. As there's apparently only 4020 of these worldwide it's not likely to get any cheaper.

The shit of it is that I know just where to find him, I just can't afford him right now. Especially after buying MP-7 TC last month.

 

My holy grail was x9 jaguar whom I acquired years ago. Against my better judgement I opened him and played with him. I can't justify spending that much and not enjoying it. It was worth it.

 

Guilty for what?

It's a toy called a Transformer, kind of dumb to me to not transform them 

Hell, my 6 and 3 yr old have handled the vast majority of my stuff and I have some "rare" things. Pics floating around here to prove it even 

 

Always happy to trot my answers out for a thread like this, and to see how my answers have changed.

My top 10 grails:

- Ceji Joustra Diaclone "Camion Porte-Voitures" (Diaclone Magnus in Joustra packaging) - only 2 ever found boxed
- Ceji Joustra Diaclone "Countach" (Diaclone yellow Sunstreaker in Joustra packaging) - never found boxed
- Ceji Joustra Diaclone "Fairlady Racing" (Diaclone Smokescreen in Joustra packaging) - never found boxed
- Ceji Joustra Diaclone "Camion Grue" (Diaclone Grapple in Joustra packaging) - never found boxed
- Ceji Joustra Diaclone "Camion Pompier" (Diaclone Inferno in Joustra packaging) - never found boxed
- G1 Fortress Maximus with UK price sticker - Seen a few of these grey market imports in UK collections
- G1 MIB Targetmaster Scourge with a TRU UK price sticker
- G1 MIB Targetmaster Slugslinger completely pristine, no yellowing, no chrome wear, perfect stickers
- Ceji Joustra Diaclone Eagle, Lion and Robot spheres
- Ceji Joustra Diaclone Scorpion watch (same as Kronoform Scorpia watch, but in Joustra packaging)

All the best
Maz

 

Money aside, my grail is rather simple. I want a carded original prerub G1 Gears. It was my 1st Transformer.

 

My Holy Grail is a MISB Hound he was my first back in the day.

 

Nothing like that memory of your first Transformer hey? I still remember how bad I wanted Smokescreen and never did manage to get one. I felt pretty good when I got my MP Smokescreen

 

cool, me too.

-

 

My grails are G1 Artfire and G1 Battle Gaia. I have pretty much every else, a handful are reissues and a couple bootlegs but I'm not too bothered by the fact they're not vintage.

 

I totally relate. I was trying to acquire all of the first 20 Transformers Legends figures, and managed to get up to 11 out of 20. One of those pieces was my former holy grail, "LG12" Windblade. Including shipping, I paid nearly twice of what I was aiming to pay just to make sure that I had her. But when I snapped out of that goal, I decided to turn her into a loose/display piece. Her transformation was one of the easiest, and feel guilty for not selling her MISB when I had the chance. But I also enjoyed having her displayed for the duration I did own her.  

I apologize if you meant that differently... But this fansite has members that prefer their stuff AFA/MISB, AFA/MIB, MISB, MIB/unused, AFA/loose/complete, and loose/displayed/unused. So your preferences might be "dumb" to them as theirs is to you. With the rest wondering why it is "dumb" to have a preference.  

Just citing that because it is not ideal to dismiss anything outside your own preferences as "dumb". Especially when it comes to a fandom that is anything but cookie-cutter. And I also completely understand his "The guilt is worth it" moment (as I have detailed above).

 

Reminds me of all my Black Series. I kept them misb forever. Then one day I looked them and thought darn this is boring. Opened them all and I enjoy them all the time with my photography. Zero regrets