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

Ugh, it’s been a hectic week. I was too busy and too tired to pull anything together for Tuesday or Wednesday. Sorry guys. Auction Watch is here to get things going again.

The first auction, M.U.S.C.L.E. large lot colored muscle kinnikuman, is a really interesting lot of figures.

It is a pretty big lot of Color figures with an opening bid of $7. If it was just a big lot with a fair opening bid, then it would be a good lot to watch. And the fact it is being sold by our old friend Doc makes it even better.

But the most interesting lot is that it prominently feature a large number of popular sculpts. It is like Doc has mixed a traditional large lot with the popular grouping. As of writing the lot is already at $42.59. That is 37 figures for $1.15 each. I am very curious to see the final price. Considering the recent Sunshine lot I could see this lot climbing hire.

The second auction, M.U.S.C.L.E. custom lot of claws muscle kinnikuman, is also from our friend Doc. The lot is five custom #153 figures.

The figures look to be resin, not the more recent, and more popular, rubber that is used in many custom figures. Custom figures, especially direct copies, are a very hard to predict when it comes to opening bid and final price. Sellers may have purchased a coloration they loved, but buyers can have radically different opinions.

With this auction the #153 colorations seem like they would be attractive to most collectors. I would have rather seen a $0.99 opening bid, but given the popularity of #153 a $1.40 per figure price does not seem outrageous.

As of writing this lot has only received one bid. Given #153’s popularity that is a little surprising. It will be interesting to see if #153 collectors pursue these figures. Or has resin become more undesirable? Do most minifigure collectors prefer the newer rubbers? Again, this will be interesting to watch.

The third auction, M.U.S.C.L.E muscle Men Numbers 28, 32, 39, 40, and 43 Flesh Color Used Mixed Lot, was so stunning to me that I had to include it. It would be easy to vilify the seller. That is not my goal.

This auction, and their other M.U.S.C.L.E. auctions, left me utterly dumbfounded. This seller took the time to identify each figure. For someone unfamiliar with M.U.S.C.L.E. figures that can take a fair amount of time. Clearly the seller was willing to invest some time in selling these figures.

If they were willing to invest their time, then it seems reasonable that they would check eBay to see the final prices of some M.U.S.C.L.E. auctions and maybe some listing prices. This step appears to have been skipped.

Many single figure auctions are currently priced between $1 and $3. This seller has created a lot of five figures and essentially priced them at $5 each.

The seller has managed to take away the convenience of a single figure auction; plus taken away the value of buying a lot of several figures. It is magnificent in its terribleness.