There are two things at work here when considering any one item being put on the shelves at WalMart, Target and TRU: 1) the time it takes for design, development, manufacturing, packaging, etc... and 2) convincing the chains to make space for a $10 (I'm just guessing on what these cost, if someone wants to correct me please do) assortment of items in a box on a shelf, as opposed to a hang-peg.
If Hasbro were to come to you and ask -- Would you prefer that we make either:
(a) an urban vinyl Star Wars line with the first assortment consisting of Darth Vader, Boba Fett, a Stormtrooper, Han Solo & Chewbacca?
or
(b) deluxe figures that are re-issues of premium versions of Star Wars characters but each character comes with a 4" wide x 4" deep x 8" high plastic diorama display environments - where in some waves the dioramas will click together and in other waves the dioramas will be stand alone? The first assortment would feature Luke, Han, Leia & Chewie in Death Star Trash Compactor dioramas and a fifth diorama would feature C-3PO & R2-D2 next to a Death Star computer terminal in the hangar bay. (if you don't like this example, insert your own concept here, perhaps the Cantina or Outlander Night Club or Anakin's hovel or Ewok Village or Echo Base, etc...)
I would like to think that many of us here would prefer (b) regardless of how we feel about the Mighty Muggs concept.
I mean they tried rip-cord motorcycles, they tried larger figures w/action features (Force Battlers), they tried their own take on the HeroClix market (Attacktix), they tried metal figures and now they're trying to move into the Urban Vinyl market. With the exception of the last item, all have failed, but that's only because the Mighty Muggs haven't been out that long. I predict in a year, that Mighty Muggs will be lumped in with all of these other sub-lines as failures.
One more thing - I think these are MUCH WORSE than the choppers. If the Choppers had been scaled for the 3.75" line and were part of that "system" then more people would have bought into them. So while they did STINK, what hurt the choppers more than their own lameness was the fact that they weren't in the 3.75" scale. Look at the Spiderman Web Racers - they are motorcycles with figures that can be removed from the bike and the figures are smaller than regular Star Wars figures. If Hasbro had really wanted to make them in the 3.75" scale they could have. Change the scale on the choppers and at least you bring the 3.75" completists into the fold. The 3.75" scale is what helped the Titanium Figure Line stick around for as long as it did, change the scale on the metal figures and they don't go beyond the first wave.
So all I would prefer is that Hasbro focus on their bread-and-butter - the 3.75" line of figures.