In 2009, TakaraTomy released their latest addition to the Masterpiece toyline, MP-08 Grimlock. This figure was based heavily on the original toy and cartoon model of G1 Grimlock. It featured many gimmicks and accessories including an eye color-changing ability (cartoon blue or other media red), an LED mounted in his right fist, a gun, his Energo Sword, the intelligence transfer helmet from the G1 episode "Grimlock's New Brain", and the waiter accessories (apron, bowtie, tray, drinking glasses) from the G1 episode "Madman's Paradise".

However, early advertisements depicted one more accessory excluded from the final product: Grimlock's crown from the Marvel Comics. The item eventually did make its way onto the market in the redecoed special version of the figure called MP-08X King Grimlock. This version of Grimlock excluded all the cartoon accessories, replacing them with the crown, while keeping the sword and gun. It also featured a somewhat shinier and more vibrant color scheme, particularly all of his black plastic becoming a dark blue color, in an attempt to better resemble his colors in the Marvel Comics.

As you can probably tell, both of these figures are/were highly coveted by the fans and collectors. And now, Hasbro has decided to get in on the action with their own U.S. release of Masterpiece Grimlock! Previously revealed back at the 2010 Toy Fair (thanks, once again, to Jason, for his excellent coverage of the event), the Hasbro version of Masterpiece Grimlock has become the main feature in an extensive gallery on ACToys.net.

This gallery shows a good look at rhe finer detials of the figure, revealing its differences in terms of deco to be very minimal when compared to the TakaraTomy version. In fact, a closer look implies that its deco may actually be more accurate to the original G1 Grimlock toy than the Japanese version is. And this extra G1 toy-accuracy does not affect the figure's already-present show-accuracy to the cartoon model much at all (the differences in appearance are that minimal).

But as for the amount of die-cast metal to be used on the toy, well... it isn't quite known how that will differ, but I'd expect Hasbro's MP Grimlock to be "less heavy" than the TakaraTomy MP Grimlocks (unfortunately, the gallery doesn't show the toy's "material details").

But as a way to differentiate from the two Japanese Grimlocks, the Hasbro version comes in the color scheme of the MP-08 version, but with MP-08X's accessories. Meaning he'll have the regular non-comic colors, but with the sword, gun, and crown included; and minus the helmet and waiter stuff.

To see the gallery of this awesome figure, click here.