Simple – they’re made from 100% recycled awesome. That’s what the box says, and I’m inclined to agree with them!

Mighty Muggs appeared on the scene maybe around 12 months ago (from what I can tell) and have been slowly making their way through various markets around the world. They’re a mainstream “vinyl toy” creation from Hasbro, based on the popular “indie” vinyl toy market that is hugely popular in Japan and amongst modern urban artists (such as Jon Burgerman and others that you can find over at Fugitive Toys). Of course this has led some collectors to dismiss Mighty Muggs as a kind of corporate rip-off of “true art”, but I for one am totally into them.

Mighty Muggs have been released along various brand lines – Star Wars, Marvel Comics, Indiana Jones, Transformers, and GI Joe (and I’m sure there will be more in the future). The Star Wars range is the largest and seems to be growing the fastest too. The “Muggs” are released in “Waves”, with normally 4 Muggs in each Wave. Recently some characters from earlier waves (Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Spiderman) have been “re-released” in “revised” Waves, which has been great for those of us trying to catch up on older figures.

“Exclusive” characters are also thrown into the mix, with some retailers (Target, Toys’R'Us) offering figures not available in other stores, and some online retailers (Entertainment Earth) also offering the same thing. Again, it all plays into the collector’s world where some figures become harder to find / more valuable, but it also heightens the fun of searching for these figures that makes up part of the fun of collecting (at least for me anyway). eBay of course is a great source too if you’re looking to find Muggs for sale.

One of the great aspects of Mighty Muggs is the creation of “customs” by collectors and artists. You can purchase blank figures (in black or white base colour) and paint / design / create your own characters. Dr Mugg over at Mugg Lab has a great site dedicated to Muggs and also artists who are creating their own customs. This opens up a whole new world for collectors to become artists themselves and add some of their own character and interests to their collections.

Mighty Muggs are very popular in the US, as well as Singapore, China, Hong Kong, and I say with some hope – Australia! They’re pretty hard to find in here in Australia, which is why I end up looking quite a bit online for possible imports. Comic shops here stock them (like my favourite store – Comics Etc in Brisbane), as well as a few major department stores/retailers.

I’ve been fortunate enough with the work I do to travel the world a fair bit. It also affords me to search for toys that are hard to get to Australia, and hopefully they’re in a country where the exchange rate is favourable to the Aussie dollar (and that’s not many!). My first Muggs were Luke Skywalker (Bespin) and Lando Calrissian from the Star Wars range, found at Changi International Terminal 3 in Singapore. From there, I got hooked! I now have 27 Muggs and have picked them up from Singapore, USA, Manila and here at home in Australia.

So that’s the basics of Mighty Muggs! I’m going to work my way through my collection and review each one, but if you’re a Mighty Muggs collector and have some cool figures too that you’d like to share your thoughts about, please let me know!

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