UofMUSCLE.com – M.U.S.C.L.E. Figures from Mattel

M.U.S.C.L.E. figure #56 (Neptune King)
by Professor Terry

M.U.S.C.L.E. figure #56 has a special place in my collection because of an involved and rather long backstory.

This story starts back in 1987 at the height of M.U.S.C.L.E. collecting for myself and my friends. Flesh figures had been available for a while and I had, what I thought was, a good chunk of different figures. I had primarily accumulated my collection by trading duplicates with other kids and raiding 4-packs.

Then colored figures hit the shelves and I fell in love with the bright colored versions of each figure. I bought countless packs of figures to build my collection – not once finding a figure that I didn’t already have in the original flesh color.

That was until one day I opened a 10-pack to find this Magenta (of course it was “pink” back then) figure I had never seen! My best friend, who also heavily collected M.U.S.C.L.E. had also never seen it. I literally thought I’d struck gold and paraded this “pink” figure in front of everyone.

I gave him a name – Mean Jeans (For the life of me I can’t see why now. He’s not even wearing jeans!). He became the jewel of my collection and envy of my friends. I was the only person who had one in any of the colors. The Magenta #56 in the middle of the all Magenta photo is the exact figure from the story. I never let it go.

I think back now and wonder why he never showed up in other colors, or even Flesh, in my area. Trust me – I looked. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one in my area looking either. My mother took us to a different shopping mall each payday because she liked the change in scenery. I looked for figures wherever I went. This was the only one I ever found.

Was it a production thing? Did certain figures just not make it to Australian shelves? I hear stories or recollections from American collectors and it just differs from my experience. This leads me to believe there was a slightly different process for distribution in Australia.

All the way up to becoming an adult M.U.S.C.L.E. collector, I thought I had a one of a kind piece. Of course I now know better. Today I have every color, Kinkeshi, Exogini’s, and two custom painted pieces.

The Purple M.U.S.C.L.E. may be a Class A but it’s the Magenta one that means more to me!