Star Wars Mini Muggs Review (Bossk, IG-88, Boba Fett)

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Mini Muggs

Star Wars Mighty Muggs

3 Inch Scale

By: Hasbro

$12.99

What can I say… I like the idea of Mighty Muggs but in hand they never quite live up to my expectations. I’m a toy collector. When I buy a toy, I think of myself as if I was 10. Would I have liked this figure then? Probably not. It’s a neat low end statue and if you can look at it purely as that, it’s pretty cool.

I’ve reviewed a fewhere on the site, but they were mostly impulse buys. As much as I wanted to love the vinyl guys, once I got them out of the package they always seem to fall short of my expectations. I loved the paint and the concept, but something was off. Here’s what I said in one review that sums up my feeling on Mighty Muggs:

There was something too static and unfun about Mighty Muggs. As it turns out, I’ve come to realize the problem with Mighty Muggs is that they were just too damn big. Apparently Hasbro has figured this out as well and launched a new line of Muggs, MINI MUGGS! Right now these are purely Star Wars and Target exclusives, but with any luck that will change.

Packaging:

One of the best parts about Hasbro’s Mighty Muggs were the boxes. Hell, I’d argue that inside their boxes they were fun but once you actually got them out they sort of lost part of their appeal. The window boxes featured the cutesy characters and also a neat top that was good for display.

Hasbro realized how cool those boxes were and that many fans collected the boxes as well. So they opted to make a single box here, that works as if it’s three boxes in a row. It’s a neat effect and although clearly not as good as three individual boxes would be… It works.

The back of the box gives us the cutesy pictures again and also shows the rest of the figures in the series.

Sculpt:

In terms of raw sculpting, these all share the exact same sculpt. That’s pretty much the motto of Mighty Muggs, but like their larger counterparts there are some Mini Muggs that have unique sculpting. That’s not the case in the pack I’m reviewing however. These guys are for all intents and purposes, the same figure repainted.

It’s the paint that makes these guys. Thankfully, the paint is just as good as it was on the bigger ones. Sure, some detail is lost but the idea is mostly the same. You can’t tell me that Mini-Bossk isn’t cute. Truth be told IG-88 doesn’t really work in this format, and yet… I love this little robot figure. It’s not necessarily IG-88 as I know andbut despite all that, it somehow has it’s own charm. This is also the first time he’s been in any Mugg format.

Boba Fett really isn’t as impressive in any Mugg form and to me, lacks some of the charm of even IG-88. Masked characters like this just aren’t as receptive to the Mugg format. That said, the Mini Mugg Boba Fett is still pretty cool.

But let’s be honest with ourselves, it’s all about Bossk here. Bossk isn’t a very exciting character, but as a Mini Mugg he’s adorable. The larger Bossk Mighty Mugg never appealed to me, but this smaller version just clicks.

Everybody works better because of the small size. Mighty Muggs were little cute versions you wanted to put in your pocket anyway… Except unless you were named Andre the Giant, you never had pockets big enough. Now you do! Mini Muggs are exactly 3 inches, making them even smaller than vintage GI Joes.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, though. For one, there’s the aforementioned lack of detail. While these guys are smaller, it does seem like some paint aps were simply skipped. It’s nothing major, but the mold lines on the head are. It doesn’t really make any sense that these smaller versions have mold lines but the bigger ones don’t. Of course my biggest complaint is in the weapons. More on that in the “Accessories” section.

Articulation:

When it comes to articulation, there’s some more quibbles. While the articulation completely mirrors the regular Muggs, this disappoints me. Now was the time to add more articulation to the Muggs. Especially in the wrists and waists, which Muggs most certainly could benefit from.

It boggles the mind that thehave better articulation than the Mighty Muggs. They really should emulate more of the construction of the Odd Pods, IMO. Especially with these smaller guys being more playable.

Accessories:

Of course my absolute biggest complaint is with the weapons. For reasons I can’t fathom, the weapons are now non-removable. Why? Nothing at all has stylistically changed with these figures, so why can’t they remove their weapons? What’s worse is that the free hand is sculpted the EXACT SAME as the regular Mighty Muggs, so there is no reason that the weapon holding hand wouldn’t be too.

The absolute worst part about this being that the weapons aren’t even truly molded into the hands. No, they’ve been glued into the hands. It’s like someone drilled a hole into the hand, glued the weapons in and then painted over it. It’s evident on every hand. It’s just mind numbingly stupid.

The playability factor immediately goes down considerably without the ability to remove their weapons. There’s just no need for it. No money could have been feasibly saved by doing this. It’s just a really, really stupid error on Hasbro’s part.

Value:

The original Mighty Muggs were overpriced. Even when they came down to about $8, it just wasn’t worth it. There wasn’t enough playability in a single figure. The Mini Muggs three pack costs just a little bit more than a SINGLE Mugg did before. Which means the value is a lot greater here.

It’s great to get these in threes. Of course single figures with a pricetag of $4 would be even better, but I suspect this was done to prevent any peg warming Muggs. Even with the non-removable weapons, I feel these are a much greater value than the regular Muggs.

Score Recap

Packaging – 7Sculpting – 8Articulation – 3Accessories – N/AValue – 10

These guys, get a much higher score than the regular Mighty Muggs. I know it sounds crazy, but by simply shrinking these figures they’re a million times better than they were before. Mighty Muggs should have always been hand held and the Mini Muggs do that. You could realistically stack tons of these on your desk and work and that’s just fun.

It’s a shame that Hasbro didn’t try and improve on the Muggs and left them largely the same, though. Especially when you consider that the one change they did opt for, is detrimental to the final product. I still give these guys a good recommendation, even if you’re like me and didn’t really care for the regular Mighty Muggs.