We only saw Diamond Select Toys unveil the full Iron Man 3 Minimates series in full last month, but the series has now arrived in comic book stores (slightly after the Iron Man 3 movie)! While I came out short in my quest for the Toys R Us exclusive Iron Man 3 Minimates figures two-packs, I did manage to see the entirety of the rest of the series–including the specialty shop exclusives–at my local comic book store…   

I think I can definitively say that comic book and specialty stores really got the short end of the stick with their exclusives for the Iron Man 3 Minimates series. The four specialty-store exclusive figures are War Machine Mark 2 (which doesn’t appear in the Iron Man 3 movie at all), Aldrich Killian in a business suit (riveting stuff), Tony Stark in a Cowboy Outfit (from a scene many people thought was boring and hated), and the underdeveloped Maya Hansen (who unfortunately, no one liked).

Meanwhile, Toys R Us is getting four of the most desirable figures as exclusives: the Silver Centurion Iron Man Armor & the Iron Man Skeleton Armor figures, along with the Heartbreaker Iron Man Armor & iconic “Suit Up” Tony Stark figures. These are the four figures from the movie that I absolutely must have in Minimates form, but I haven’t been able to track them down (yet).

In what has to be considered a majorly shocking event, as of writing none of the Toys R Us Iron Man 3 Minimates exclusives have turned up on ebay at all. Amazon has some of the Skeleton Armor & Silver Centurion Iron Man Minimates sets in stock already, so they obviously have been released, making it all the more miraculous no one is trying to auction-scalp them yet. I’d imagine that will change over the next week as these exclusives hit more stores.

It’s worth noting that there’s a variant figure among the pair of two-packs that will be released both at specialty stores and Toys R Us (Iron Man 3 Minimates Iron Man Mark 42 & The Mandarin and Iron Patriot & Extremis Soldier).

While the Toys R Us Iron Man Mark 42 Minimate uses cheap-looking yellow paint, the specialty-store Mark 42 Iron man figure uses superior shiny gold paint. The Mandarin figure in that two-pack has an alternate hair-piece, so if you buy both versions of the Mark 42/Mandarin Minimates set, having a second Mandarin isn’t a total wash.

If you’re looking to buy the specialty store assortment of Iron Man 3 Minimates, BigBadToyStore has a better price than I’ve seen anywhere else at $34.99 for all 8 figures. I’ll post full reviews and photo galleries of the Iron Man 3 Minimates exclusive two-packs of the Skeleton Armor Iron Man & Iron Man Silver Centurion Iron Man and “Suit Up” Tony Stark & Heartbreaker Armor Iron Man figures just as soon as I manage to hunt those figures down.