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

Being away from the site for a little while meant some events from five years ago slipped through the cracks. But there are two events that I would be sad to overlook.

Garry is maybe my favorite Sociology 100 profile ever. My only sadness is that I didn’t share more of my interaction with Garry in the write-up.

I can’t remember the website, but I saw a post with dozens of “the worst tattoos.” Garry’s forehead tattoo was part of the list, but I was more intrigued by the M.U.S.C.L.E. figures in his hair. I tracked down an old myspace page of his and my excitement grew even more. He had a childhood picture with his M.U.S.C.L.E. figures. I love those types of pictures more than any M.U.S.C.L.E. toy.

I finally found an email address to contact him. I wanted to get permission to share his picture and talk to him a little bit about his apparent love of M.U.S.C.L.E. figures.

Thankfully the email address was current. We emailed back and forth and the post was created. In 2011 I felt that the site shouldn’t have too much of my voice. The tone should be “academic.” That may be true for some posts, but looking back at posts like this one it seems like a massive failure. I didn’t share how friendly and enthusiastic he was. I didn’t share how much I enjoyed our interaction.

Maybe the biggest failure was not acknowledging the elephant in the room. Given Garry’s appearance I probably created unfair expectations of my interaction with him. He shattered any of those expectations. He was a cool guy that loved M.U.S.C.L.E. figures.

The other post that almost slipped through the cracks is Are We There Yet? I think I simply loved the idea of the installation.

I may have crowbarred the project into the M.U.S.C.L.E. universe, but I do believe in what was written. Five years later I look back at my writing and see much more optimism for the M.U.S.C.L.E. hobby. I thought trying to make information more easily available would open peoples’ minds and make them ask more questions. I think the opposite happened. I introduced the Classes and it solidified things; made the hobby too absolute. Has the M.U.S.C.L.E. hobby hit the end of its evolution?

Is that all there is?

Much more closely to exactly five years ago I was curious about Bubbles. I don’t think anyone else cared. I can’t find any evidence to suggest people cared. I didn’t add the bubbles to the Manufacturing Error Figures archive and nobody seems to care.

I had suggested that Dr. MUSCLE should experiment on whether the bubbles were a result of torture. I don’t have time for that. I conducted an emergency experiment. And I believe bubbles are legitimate errors.

There’s no way you could intentionally created a bubble. I grabbed a Flesh #14 from my drawer of unsorted figures. He was in mint condition. I heated up a pin and tried touching it to a figure in different ways. Burns and melting. No bubbles.

Sorry if the pictures aren’t perfect. I was going for speed. I just wanted my answer.

And finally the Mattel Quality post.

I don’t actually have too much more to say about this one. It was posted almost exactly five years ago. I thought it was kind of interesting. That’s it.

I don’t think ending of the Quality post was the correct decision. Feels like the post is ending with a whimper.

Too bad.

Have a great weekend!