Seems that Marvel Mighty Muggs had the run of Hasbro’s Mighty Muggs display at last weekend’s Comic-Con 2009 in San Diego. More specifically, a re-launching of the Marvel Universe waves (reportedly up to 3 new waves of figures), including some new characters such as Warhammer, Juggernaut, Deadpool and another Wolverine (that makes 4 versions now!). There are some great pics over on The Blot of these guys, and some shots on ToyArk.com also show the hooded version of Spiderman on display as well.

I’m so happy to know that more Mighty Muggs are planned. Even though some of the lines have been discontinued, the popular Star Wars and Marvel lines look like being in good shape for a bit longer at least.

Probably the happiest Mighty Muggs Alert I have posted so far – I finally found, and purchased, a Yoda Mighty Mugg! Never actually seen one up close down here in Oz, and the ones I’ve seen on eBay have always been waaaayyyy overpriced for me. But finally managed to win one on the weekend for a reasonable price (even though shipping costs about the same as the item!) and he’ll end up being delivered sometime in the next few weeks.

Narrowly missed out on a Han Solo (v1) and Darth Maul (v1) from the same seller (the only “old” ones I don’t have now) but they’ll surface again I’m sure at some point

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

OK, so I have some good news and some not-so-good Mighty Muggs news. The good news is that I picked up Starscream and Grimlock yesterday (Transformers Wave 2 – the ones that didn’t get canceled) and they are winging their way through the postal system to come and take up residence in the man-cave. You can check them out on the Mighty Muggs page.

The not-so-good news is a further negative comment from Hasbro about the future of Mighty Muggs. There has been a lot said lately about Hasbro’s apparent decision to sell all Mighty Muggs (in the US at least) through Toys’R'Us stores only (no longer through retail giants such as WalMart, Target, etc), and further comments lately from Hasbro about expanding on the range also seem to indicate that there’s a limited lifespan on the product. Still not sure what to make of all of this, and what effect it will have here locally, and I’m waiting to see what happens with a rumored new line of Transformers Mighty Muggs relfecting the upcoming Revenge of the Fallen movie.

I went on a Mugg hunt into the city today and took my 7yr old daughter with me. We had a lovely afternoon together, and she didn’t even complain at the amount of time we spent in the comic shops! Isn’t it nice when you can spend quality time with your kids AND Mugg hunt at the same time?! It was also very exciting because I picked up my first “exclusive” Muggs today along with a few others :

• Indiana Jones (Entertainment Earth Exclusives) – Short Round, Sallah
• Marvel (Preview Exclusives) – Thanos, Red Skull
• Marvel – Thing, Dr Doom (Wave 2)
• Star Wars – Plo Koon (Wave 6)

I’m hoping to pick up some more Star Wars exclusives shortly, namely Admiral Ackbar, Shadow Stormtrooper, Commander Gree, Shock Trooper … and then I’m onto Wave 8 & 9 of Star Wars and keeping on through the Marvel releases. I only need to get the SDCC Exclusive Fertility Idol now and I’ll have the full Indiana Jones line, but trying to find him locally is proving a bit difficult. But that’s what makes the hunt so much fun! You can see the full list of Mighty Muggs in my collection here.

At the time I write this, there are currently 29 Mighty Muggs in my man-cave. I’ve started to double up so I can resell some down the track, but for the most part they are all just single figures that I treasure as part of my collection. In a recent Mugg-hunt, I secured quite a set of early wave Muggs from a local department store chain. My favourite part of the find though was discovering my Stormtroopers. (more…)