This ain’t no fake toy!
With the advent of Facebook, I’m reconnecting with a lot of big-time collectors from my pre-TFW2005 banning days. Lots of goodies are being revealed in the process and one of the most notable recently is a production sample of a non-modified version of MP23 Exhaust, otherwise known as Marlboor Wheeljack.
If you need a refreshed on the odyssey of MP23 Exhaust, then go here for further reading. I will now assume you know everything about how this toy came to be.
The original deco of MP-23 and the box the housed him.
So it’s really not a huge surprise that a few non-nerfed MP-23 Exhausts survived the culling. The hammer from Phillip Morris came down awfully late in the life-cycle of the figure. I would imagine that there are probably 100’s if not 1000’s somewhere, unless part of the litigation was that all completed pieces were destroyed with proof. According to the buyer of this piece, only 2 are known to be seen in existence.
the collector card for the original MP-23 on the left and the nerfed version that was mass-released on the right.
The buyer is now selling the piece with a hefty price tag of $8,000 USD. And here I was thinking he was going to keep it in his collection. A pity. The listing can be seen below.
Who wants to complete their MP collection?
I’m happy to see that illegal contraband like MP-23 is finally appearing in the wild, but I’m a little sad to see that the first person to acquire this amazing piece just wants to flip it for a quick buck. There’s a few manic Masterpiece Collectors out there that have reached out to me asking if I think it’s real. I definitely think it’s real. All the stories line-up but if you are asking me that question in hopes of not needing this figure to have a truly finished MP collection then you’re flawed. This is not a mass release. Just like lucky draw Gold MP-01, this is outside of the realm of completist. You have to climb a few rungs of insanity to think that your collection has a huge gaping hole that will only be filled by figures whose production runs are in the single digits.
Someone out there is likely to purchase this specimen, but I think $8000 is a price that the seller is just fishing with. The true price ought to be somewhere between $1500-$3500, I think you’d find a buyer easily for that cash. Then again, how much was the piece originally trading hands for? We may never know. Happy hunting Collecticons!