Brockenman and Brockemam Jr.
by Professor Terry
This week MMMM is going to touch on a controversial part of the Kinnikuman line. The Brockenman and Brockemam Jr. figures.
I find it very interesting that this Nazi wrestler is an integral part of the Kinnikuman storyline. He is included in every single Kinnikuman and kinkeshi line that has been released. I assume the Japanese don’t think the use of the swastika is a sensitive issue.
In the M.U.S.C.L.E. line there is not one of the five different Brockenman sculpts. It makes me wonder what Mattel thought, in deciding which figures to produce as M.U.S.C.L.E., when they were looking through the kinkeshi sculpts and saw the different figures with the swastika on their arms in Nazi war type outfits!
As an ex-history teacher and collector of World War II memorabilia, I have always found Nazi Germany a sad but interesting subject. Because of my historical interests – I actually quite like this figure. I can stand him with my war relics and he doesn’t look out of place. I focus more on his uniform rather than the fact he’s a Nazi.
As you can see, I have a lot of different Brockenman figures and have all been relatively inexpensively- no figure for more than $50. Even if I disliked this figure, he’s in every Japanese Kinnikuman set I collect. My favorites are the Romando versions because he was released with several different paint jobs and all look really authentic. I especially like the red one with the skull and bones on the front as it’s a nice solid heavy figure with a great paint job.
I wish that there was a M.U.S.C.L.E. version of this figure because my collection doesn’t look the same without one. But there is a Non-Poster Alpha version of Brocken Jr.. Maybe one day he can be added to my collection.
(Editor’s Note: This was supposed to post early Monday morning, but a fun 4th of July weekend, somewhere between this and this – and certainly including this, derailed things.
I also wanted to offer some congratulations to Professor Terry. I have always had an intense negative reaction to the Brocken figure, which I think is fairly understandable. And unfairly I have negatively judged people who openly and intensely liked the figure. I want to thank Terry for helping me to think about the figure in a different way. I know there will always be people that like the figure for the wrong reasons, but there will also be people that appreciate the figure for completely different reasons.)
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