With General Motors and Toyota both having new full-size pickups in showrooms this year, Ford is understandably keen to push up the development cycle of its pivotal Ford F-150, likely due as a 2009 model.

Our boys over at KGP Photography have spotted some early mules of the next-generation model, and they believe that at least two dozen prototypes are now out in circulation. Sadly, they haven’t shown off much, primarily relying on Frankenstein’d versions of the current truck’s sheetmetal.

But KGP has now spotted this heavily masked prototype, which hints at the F-150 adopting a variant of Ford’s corporate 3-bar grille. It’s hard to tell what the extent of the rest of the changes are from this mule, but we’d expect to see a complete update, with new headlamps, grille, and bumper.

Interestingly, KGP indicates that they’ve seen both Regular and Super Cab mules, as well as a “non-extended cab configuration” that doesn’t readily represent anything in the current truck’s order book. Further, they’ve also spotted a standard cab, long-bed F-Series with seven-lug wheels (versus the six-lug design spotted on all other mules they’ve seen). KGP speculates that this could mean that Ford is preparing an F-Series that slots between the F-150 and its Super Duty trucks. We’ll withhold judgment, at least for the time being, as it could simply be an SD drivetrain mule under F-150 sheetmetal, or some such oddity.