Darth Vader—Mighty Mugg

One of my newest obsessions (and some of the best looking toys I've ever seen) are the new Hasbro Mighty Muggs. Pictured here is one of my favorite characters of all time... the bad-ass Darth Vader looking all cute and cuddly. This was the very first Mighty Mugg I purchased from the initial Wave of Star Wars characters.

The craze of these designs come from our friends in the Far East. Vinyl caricature type sculpts have been the craze their for years overseas. Recenetly they have started to take off in the U.S. As more and more imports became available through unique storefronts (such as Kid Robot here in NYC) and online carriers the trend has catapulted. Hasbro jumped all over this new trend and started the Mighty Muggs line. Now almost all their licensed action heroes are getting this treatment. There have been 3 Star Wars line (and will be more to come) as well as an Indiana Jones line and 2 Marvel comics lines.

The minimalist and rounded approach to each of these figures is very striking. As well as a stroke of genius from the folks at Hasbro. Great looking vinyl type anime takes on classic characters for $9.99. In the past you would have to pay roughly 5 times that to get an import. These are some of the best looking collectibles in the toy aisles... I'm sure you'll see some of these in my Top 10 List of 2009.