1. Can you please explain "Mighty Muggs" to me? I understand they come from some urban vinyl movement or something or other? I think they're pretty stupid, and when I first saw them I thought, "huh, that's not going to last." Well, obviously I'm wrong and according to recent Q&A's online, the Mighty Muggs have outlived the Indiana Jones line. And what a money-maker for Hasbro. Same mold used over and over and over, and just slap some new paint on it. Am I'm just getting old, or what?
--Charlie

No, you pretty much nailed it.

Mighty Muggs are Hasbro's take on Urban Vinyl to some extent, but I think it's really more of a stab at the market for Kubricks, Minimates, and other "block" figures on a much larger scale. From a purely economic perspective, they're ingenious-- one mold, minor modifications, and you can make thousands of figures with minimal tooling investment. Considering they can do quite a bit between Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Marvel, Transformers, and G.I. Joe, in a way, it's pretty sensible. Why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars making characters from movies as action figures when it'll cost you a few bucks to just do a Mighty Muggs series... and if that sells, go back and make "real" figures?

Right now, it seems to be appealing largely to non-collectors or fans looking for something different. At first, I hated them. Now, I kinda like them, but don't plan to go out of my way to buy one-- if I see one I like, I might pick it up, but I don't see myself ever paying a premium for one. I think their main purpose is to be a desk accessory-- they look great next to a computer in a cube at an office, and their hands can hold pencils. (That's what my Boba Fett is doing.) The style may not appeal to everybody, but they do get people buying Hasbro products that might not ordinarily do so.

And the new Soundwave one is incredible. Of course, if Hasbro actually made a decent new-mold tape deck Soundwave that wasn't crappy, I'd probably not give it a second look.

2. Is the 7" Unleashed line done for good? I miss the detailing on them, and they look great loose, Vader rules over my desk at work. Also, now that the Force Unleashed game is out, it was really cool to see some the figures in the game and match up the face, so to speak (Vader does get his a** handed to him) but I did notice a few key characters missing from the figure line (i.e. Proxy, Shaak Ti, Kazdan Paratus) and even to have the Apprentice on a single card or maybe even a Felucian Warrior single carded would be nice, now that the game is out and these are familiar faces. Any chances of seeing these someday?
--Mazter Jedi

7-inch unleashed has died many times before-- so I'd hate to say "you'll never see it again" and be wrong, but the sales of the final entries in the series were poor. Wal-Mart's exclusive Shadow Stormtrooper/Obi-Wan/Anakin assortment got dumped at Ross stores. The Clone Wars Heavy Gunner Trooper figure is still widely available from stores' first shipments. Target's program failed miserably, with all the "tube" boxed items hitting heavy markdowns. People just don't care, and as such it's extremely unlikely Hasbro will bring them back any time soon.

As to the Force Unleashed, with 1.5 million copies sold in the first few days, we're absolutely going to see more toys. Plus since there's a novel and a graphic novel, it's very likely more fans will be familiar with the characters than they might be with other games. This is a good thing, and reissues are largely due to sales and fan outcry. Troopers of all kinds do well, as do most Sith Lords. But other figures? Who knows? I thought the Felucians were a giant pain so I don't know if I particularly want more of them... but the Stormtroopers? Those, I'd buy more of.

Hasbro confirmed we're going to see Shaak Ti and probably Proxy. Future single card releases of multi-pack figures are largely unknown, but Fan's Choice voting made a lot of exclusives come back-- there's no reason these can't be rereleased eventually. I really do hope they make more figures, or even some exclusive sets-- throw some cool troopers in with some other figures, and presto-- awesome Battle Pack. How about it, Hasbro? I've got money, and I'd be all over more Force Unleashed stuff.

3. I know that we have the Q&A from Hasbro every week, but has anyone every thought about giving the designers at Hasbro the ability to show off the figures and their design process after a figure was released?
--Brian

Around 2000, Hasbro took these really neat signs to a convention in Texas to show the production of a toy from start to finish. We saw early sculpts, sketches, even shots of a factory in China. It was really slick, but alas, this sort of thing isn't brought up as much these days. Presumably, it's because of proprietary business information. The process in which a toy is created is a real competitive advantage, so it isn't in Hasbro's best interests to tell us anything but the vaguest details. Although I would love to see a book on the subject some day, surely a publisher out there could make it happen.

4. I finished The Force Unleashed last night. So Vader played an instrumental part in creating the rebellion through his apprentice. Um...really? As a fan, what do you think of this story?
--Robert

Parts of it were great, parts of it were forced, and parts of it seemed kind of goofy. But overall? It worked.

To make a video game interesting, there have to be all sorts of missions and such. I think that in the context of a feature, all the kidnappings would be ridiculous. Actually, just for the game, having to rescue more than three people in such a short game is somewhat ridiculous. The problem is trying to work in a narrative while keeping certain play mechanics-- there needs to be an excuse to blast out of, for example, Imperial ships. And excuses to use the Force against rancors and AT-STs, and to fight Darth Vader. Trying to pen a story to contain all of these elements is tricky, but the whole "let's found the Rebellion" thing is a story I would have always liked to see remain untold. We know who was instrumental for ages, and certain characters' appearance in the game was more jarring than awesome. Especially given that their sudden appearance wasn't explained and if you weren't already a fan of certain books published in the 1990s, you'd have no idea who it was.

Since it built off of themes established in Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, I thought it was a lot of fun. A big part of Star Wars seems to be trying to keep it familiar, yet different. For that, it works. The thing to remember about this franchise is that Lucas can and will contradict things in future projects, canon or no, and some things are exaggerated for effect in that particular medium. I'm sure we'd see a completely different story if the main focus of this whole project wasn't a game-- "go kill a Jedi" three times, "go rescue these people" three times, etc. As a gaming experience, as a Star Wars fan, I'm satisfied with what I got. Except the length, for $60 I don't necessarily believe a gamer will get his or her money's worth.

5. Have you heard anything about a white/grey Darth VaderŐs TIE figher? If not, what are your feelings on the prospects for such a toy being released?
--Paul

While there are countless rumors about Hasbro making a new one in this or another color, for the time being there are no plans for it known to us. The existing toy will be reboxed and resold, but will most likely remain the dark blue color we've come to know and love and buy three or more times.

FIN

Last week I got to experience the first two episodes of The Clone Wars and much of Mega Man 9, which is essentially an NES game that was created just this year. Guess which one I liked better?

It's been a long week-- and I probably have an hour or three of work to do before bed, so later all.

Got questions? I bet you do. Email me with "Q&A" somewhere in the subject line and hopefully I'll get to yours in the next column!

Click here to read the previous installment of Galactic Hunter Q&A!