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

Exactly five years ago a super funny inside-joke was released. Do you remember this?

I think it has aged pretty well, but it is also a nice snapshot of LRG.

I wonder if the video is funny to newer M.U.S.C.L.E. collectors?

As a longtime LRG member I still laughed at the Doc stuff. It is very strange that seeing Doc’s ass can be the mark of being a longtime M.U.S.C.L.E. collector. I can’t imagine another hobby having that badge of honor.

“Badge of honor” is maybe the wrong idiom. It’s more like surviving a horror.

I haven’t seen things like this recently. This feel like a love-letter of a project. You don’t see as many of those today. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m just missing it.

Or maybe they aren’t needed as much as they once were. Maybe it’s a good thing.

Five years ago, on Valentine’s Day, I scrapped a post and basically just said:

If you love M.U.S.C.L.E., then always be a positive force in the M.U.S.C.L.E. community.

And soon after that, more UofM auctions news was being posted. I remember trying to launch that to help eliminate all the headaches collectors were having with scams and shilling. I was trying to do good and help the community. It never really worked out.

But I’m not sad about it. Writing this post has actually made me pretty happy about the state of M.U.S.C.L.E. collecting. Sure there are terrible eBay prices, but we’re not seeing the scams and schemes we were seeing five years ago. I think that’s meaningful. Stupid prices can be ignored, but scams actively hurt the hobby and people. M.U.S.C.L.E. collecting is such a small hobby that doing bad things really make a big splash and leave big ripples.

The good thing is that positive things leave a bigger splash and bigger ripples.