Star Wars Mini Muggs

Biggs Darklighter Mighty Mugg
with Mini friends

I was stopped in my tracks at Target a couple weeks ago by Hasbro's new Mini Muggs, a half-scale follow-up to the company's iffy Mighty Muggs line. While it took me some time to warm up to their Mighty predecessors, the Minis grabbed me right away, thanks mostly to the line's MVP, Bossk. Only three sets are currently available (you can see them all here), but I imagine it's only a matter of time before we see more. (Here's hoping we finally get a Slave Leia!)

Not only are these things cuter than the full-size toys, but the three-packs, priced around $12.99, allow you to bulk up on characters a lot faster.

A truly devastating follow-up would be Mini versions of the Marvel Muggs, which in Mighty scale were on the whole much more appealing than their Star Wars counterparts. My collecting budget braces in anticipation...

Favorite Action Figures: Darth Vader (removable helmet)

Darth Vader (removable helmet)

This figure was part of Kenner's Power of the Force 2 line and was the first in its scale to reveal Darth Vader's badly scarred face and head. I was for some reason amazed that this figure was made -- it seemed too gruesome to be a toy back in 1998, when McFarlane was just getting started with its brand of creepiness -- but I knew I had to have one.

I don't think I ever found this one "in the wild," instead paying $12.99 (more than twice the regular retail price) at one of those "collector's stores" whose staffers often come by their merchandise by arriving at real toy stores before anyone else.

Even though Hasbro has since surpassed the gory detail of this figure (see the battle damaged Anakin Skywalker from 2005's Revenge of the Sith line), this was the first time we got to see under the helmet on a Vader figure, which to me was a big deal.