Back in October, Funko shocked the Funko Hikari Sofubi Vinyl collecting world when they unveiled a whole display case of Funko Hikari Groot vinyl figures at New York Comic Con 2014. We didn’t have long to wait until the first one went up for pre-order the following week, but that was another shocker, as Funko announced the edition size on the standard Groot Hikari figure as 5000–by far the single largest run of any Hikari. It seems like Funko has come back down to Earth for their first Groot variant, though–the Funko Hikari Planet X Groot figure is limited to just 1000 and now up for order!

My eyes lit up with excitement at NYCC 2014 when I stumbled across the whole display case of Groot Hikari figures that I didn’t even know existed (and nor did anyone else outside of Funko until that day), but I’ve been a little bummed for the past two months that Funko hadn’t solicited any of the cool Groot variants shown at the convention besides plain, super-high-run Groot.

Thankfully, it looks like the more interesting Groot colorways are about the start rolling out, beginning with the just officially-announced Planet X Groot Funko Hikari Vinyl figure!

There’s nothing wrong with the standard Groot Hikari figure–I ordered that one too–but it’s definitely not as visually compelling as this yellow/orange/brown Planet X variant, which makes Groot look like he’s glowing (or on fire, if you want to be morbid). And with a run size of just 20% of what the regular Hikari Groot is getting, I expect the Planet X variant to sell out much quicker and retain its value a whole lot better.

This particular exclusive Groot vinyl figure won’t be available at any retail stores–it’s an exclusive to Entertainment Earth, one of the few online retailers to obtain their own Funko Hikari exclusives thus far. EE is offering free shipping on Planet X Groot–which I absolutely appreciate, as the boxes for these 9″ figures are huge and the shipping would probably be $12-$17 otherwise.

The Entertainment Earth exclusive Funko Planet X Groot Hikari figure is now up for order, and is scheduled to be released in March 2015. For a super-hot character like Groot, I think there’s a pretty fair chance of this selling out before release, especially since EE has been able to sell out early of various Hikari Astro Boy and Skeletor exclusives with the same run size. I know I won’t see this exclusive Groot any cheaper, so he was an instant pre-order for me.

What do you think of the Planet X Groot Funko Hikari variant, Marvel collectors? Does this fiery version of Groot capture your heart more than the standard version, or is the price-point of the Hikaris still too high to capture your love (and dollars)?