A friend of mine alerted me to this story – seems the StarWars.com folks have got a fundraiser on for Make a Wish Foundation, auctioning a range of custom-made Mighty Muggs from prominent artists. Called “The Empire Muggs Back“, the exhibition and auction will take place at San Diego Comic Con, but we’re told to keep watching StarWars.com for “in-depth Empire Muggs Back coverage, info on the online charity auction, Mighty Mugg crafting tips and artist profiles.” Can’t wait!

The San Diego Comic Con is fast approaching (July 23-26) and Hasbro has just announced one of their “exclusive” SDCC releases for 2009.

In honor of the 25th Anniversary of the TRANSFORMERS brand, OPTIMUS PRIME, leader of the AUTOBOTS and one of the most well known characters from the TRANSFORMERS brand lore, is getting the popular MIGHTY MUGGS line treatment for San Diego Comic-Con. This special edition OPTIMUS PRIME MIGHTY MUGG figure, which comes with a detachable cannon, shines with a metallic finish and comes in commemorative foil packaging.

Some collectors are a bit p’ed that they’re just releasing a shiny version of a Mugg that already exists (fair enough too), but some are also saying that the release is vague enough to perhaps allow for them to actually be releasing a “Revenge of the Fallen” movie version of Optimus Prime instead. We’ll wait and see.

Previous SDCC exclusive Muggs include Iron Man (a metallic-paint movie version), Peter Parker, Commander Gree (Clone Wars Trooper) and of course the golden Indiana Jones Fertility Idol. All are only available at ComicCon, and then later on of course through online stores or eBay.

Rumor has it that there’ll be another Star Wars exclusive Mighty Mugg announced, so we’ll keep you posted as soon as anything happens. In the meantime, if you’re going to ComicCon this year and would like to help an Aussie collector out by picking up some of these Mighty Muggs for him, please email (hello AT toytragic DOT com) Toy Tragic