One of my fav movies is The Life Acquatic with Steve Zissou, starring Bill Murray as a Jacques Cousteau type marine adventurer (I don’t really recommend movies because invariably people have differenty tastes – for example I love Napolean Dynamite and Nacho Libre, but I have very good friends who think I’m from another planet for like them!) and other great performances from guys like Jeff Goldblum and Willem Dafoe and couple of Aussies in Noah Taylor and Cate Blanchett.

Anyway, combining my fav movies with Cubeecraft is always a fun way for me to pass some time after the kids go to bed, so tonight I’ll be making the cubed paper toy of Steve Zissou … and maybe Astroboy as well. Download Steve (and Astro) from Cubeecraft.

UPDATE: WE HAVE A WINNER!

Congratulations to “MegaPony” on being the winner of our Nokia App Competition! We’ll be shipping out the SDCC Exclusive Wolverine Mighty Mugg yo you shortly. Thanks to everyone who downloaded the app, we had a great response. The app is sticking around so if you still haven’t downloaded it yet, why not check it out now on Nokia Ovi Store.

Download from Ovi Store

I reckon he’s one of the best looking SW Muggs they produced, and I had to end up getting one from the States so I could rule a line under all the SW Muggs there are to collect (including exclusives!). I’m still missing a number of Marvel characters, Baroness from the GI Joe series, the 3rd wave of Transformers and a couple of the very early SDCC exclusives that are now very rare and very pricey!

Anyway, I’m happy with my complete set of SW Muggs for the time being, and will be saving my pennies again to start on the remaining few I need overall. Huzzah!

There was a reasonable amount of disappointment with this exclusive, since he’s basically exactly the same design as the Optimus Mighty Mugg from the second wave of Transformers Muggs, but just with some metallic paint. I probably have to agree, and I think the original SDCC’07 (or ‘08) Iron Man or the recent Wolverine (with retractable claws) was a much cooler exclusive, but nonetheless this was an important one to add to the collection. Now I just need the Wave 3 Transformers Muggs and I have all of the Transformers series … and they’re hopefully coming soon.

My set of Chubbies (that just sounds wrong on many levels) are for Anakin Skywalker. The smallest doll is of Anakin as a child in Episode I. He then fits inside th next biggest doll which is of Anakin in his turning-dark-side phase in Episode III. The largest doll of course is then of Darth Vader, somewhat fittingly consuming both the other dolls. There’s a similar lineage given to characters such as Obi Wan Kenobi, the Clone/Storm Trooper, C3-PO, Jango/Boba Fett and General Grevious.

Not sure where you can find them these days, but I really like my Anakin series and would like to find some more some time. As the marketing tagline for them says, “The circle is now complete”

So now if you have a Nokia phone, you can download the ToyTragic.com com app for free from the Nokia Ovi Store, and get your ToyTragic.com posts direct to your phone. It’s available for just about any Nokia device you have, including new touchscreen models, and of course it’s FREE! Download the app now from Ovi Store.

You’ll notice under the publisher’s name that there’s a few other apps and games available as well, so feel free to download or purchase anything else that you see there as well – it all helps

Now, to help fund the continuing efforts of the website, Dr. Mugg is organizing a fundraiser sale on eBay of some excellent custom Muggs, created by some of the coolest Mugg artists going around. Check out the eBay listings here, and place a bid on something you like!

You’d think then I would have had plenty of stress-free time to spend on the things that this site is all about. You’d think that wouldn’t you? I would, yet I find that it’s been months since I’ve posted anything new, or even kept up with adding info of new toys in my collection! I mean, I got some cool Indiana Jones toys for Father’s Day, more Mighty Muggs (including the awesome SDCC ‘09 Wolverine with retractable claws!), plus some cool collectible vinyl toys from a recent work trip to LA. But alas, they have been placed in the collection, but not talked about much since.

So it’s with that in mind that I look forward to writing some new material here shortly, and getting back some time in my schedule for the little plastic things in life that make me smile.

Seems that Marvel Mighty Muggs had the run of Hasbro’s Mighty Muggs display at last weekend’s Comic-Con 2009 in San Diego. More specifically, a re-launching of the Marvel Universe waves (reportedly up to 3 new waves of figures), including some new characters such as Warhammer, Juggernaut, Deadpool and another Wolverine (that makes 4 versions now!). There are some great pics over on The Blot of these guys, and some shots on ToyArk.com also show the hooded version of Spiderman on display as well.

I’m so happy to know that more Mighty Muggs are planned. Even though some of the lines have been discontinued, the popular Star Wars and Marvel lines look like being in good shape for a bit longer at least.

Quick tip when making this one – try using double-sided tape instead of glue, especially if using a heavier paper or card as I do, as some of the curves are a little hard to stick with glue.

Download The Vendor from the Inavatof.com website, or from Thomas’ profile on NicePaperToys.com.

A friend of mine alerted me to this story – seems the StarWars.com folks have got a fundraiser on for Make a Wish Foundation, auctioning a range of custom-made Mighty Muggs from prominent artists. Called “The Empire Muggs Back“, the exhibition and auction will take place at San Diego Comic Con, but we’re told to keep watching StarWars.com for “in-depth Empire Muggs Back coverage, info on the online charity auction, Mighty Mugg crafting tips and artist profiles.” Can’t wait!

Via StarWarsBlog: There are a lot of things that people called Michael Jackson throughout his life, but I don’t remember “pinball wizard” being one of them. Check out this interactive panorama (from Pinsane.com) of Michael Jackson’s personal “entertainment arcade” – it’s a mind-blowing combination of video game arcade and pop culture museum (lovin’ the Star Wars, DC and Marvel influences here). Ahh to have a kazillion dollars …