It was fun while it lasted, but now it’s time to put the craziness of San Diego Comic-Con 2014 behind us and get back to business as usual–and that means new toys hitting stores! The Marvel Minimates Guardians of the Galaxy figures series is running late, and won’t make it into stores in time for the movie… or so we thought! While perusing my local Toys R Us this week, I did a double-take when I walked past their exclusive blue-skinned, red-mohawked figure, accompanied by (most) all his friends! The Guardians of the Galaxy Minimates figures have now been released, including the exclusive Yondu figure!

I’ve grown to really like the bold pink and purple packaging design of the Guardians of the Galaxy toys, as it jumps off the shelf at me as being totally different from anything else that’s out there. So while I wasn’t expected to stumble across the Toys R Us Marvel Minimates Guardians of the Galaxy wave, they still stuck out like a Red Hulk in a room full of Green Hulks amongst all the other non-purple-and-pink-packaged toys in the superhero action figure aisle at Toys R Us.

The Toys R Us Guardians of the Galaxy Marvel Minimates series includes one figure not available anywhere besides in the Toys R Us two-packs: Yondu! The exclusive Yondu Minimates figure comes packed with a Sakaar Soldier army-builder, so you can buy the Toys R Us Yondu/Sakaar Trooper pack and the wave from comic book stores without having to worry about having any duplicate unique characters.

Why not just buy the whole wave at Toys R Us stores, you ask? Read on.

While Yondu is a member of the classic Guardians of the Galaxy team, he hasn’t had much association with the modern Guardians of the Galaxy in the comic books. I know intellectually that he’s in the movie coming out this week, but I have a feeling he’s going to be an incidental character in the movie.

Even so, Minimates Yondu is the first Yondu figure to ever be released, so I was pretty pumped to pick him up for my collection. He’ll look great next to the Bowen Yondu bust! (Or not–mixing high-end and low-end collectibles can often look disastrous.)

The other two (yes, just two) packs Toys R Us has are Marvel Minimates Guardians of the Galaxy Star-Lord & Ronan the Accuser and Marvel Minimates Guardians of the Galaxy Drax & Rocket Raccoon & Groot. If it seems like someone (or someones) is missing, that’s because there is!

If you’ve been paying close attention, Diamond Select Toys has said that the Nebula, Gamora and Nova Corps Centurion figures would not be available outside of comic shops and online specialty stores, and it seems that they meant it! If you want those three figures (and who’s not going to want Gamora but want the rest?), you’ll have to buy the set (sans Yondu) outside of Toys R Us stores.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Minimates Set with exclusive Gamora, Nova and Nebula figures is now up for order, and is expected to be released in August 2014. I don’t imagine there will be too many folks who want to have four out of the five Guardians and not get Gamora, so ordering the set from an online or comic book store and then just picking up the Yondu pack at Toys R Us seems to be the way to go with this series.

What do you think of the Toys R Us exclusive Guardians of the Galaxy Minimates case assortment, Marvel collectors? Will the lack of Gamora lead you to order the GOTG Minimates set from a specialty retailer, or are you okay with lacking the most dangerous woman in the galaxy in your Marvel Minimates Guardians of the Galaxy collection?