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

The first auction, Lot of 16 M.U.S.C.L.E. Muscle Men Figures Cosmix Kinnikuman Purple Claw Bootleg, is a helpful reminder I’m always right.

The seller spent $118.50 taking a gamble.

But it wasn’t a gamble. It was a total waste of time.

I believe M.U.S.C.L.E. buyers need to be in a constant state of shenanigans readiness. And if something seems to good to be true, then trust that internal voice.

“But that’s too negative! There are good sellers out there.”

Yeah, and there are no red flags with those auctions. Those auctions are open, honest, and actually make an attempt to be transparent.

I actually feel bad for the seller of the first auction. They made a purchase, full of optimism, only to be met with disappointment when the box was opened.

How would you feel if you paid $118.50 for this figure?

But there is something that I like about this auction. It is the auction description:

You’re bidding on / buying a Lot of 16 M.U.S.C.L.E. Muscle Men Figures. There are 16 figures, 3 of them are damaged, you can see those in the last two photos. There are also 3 Cosmix figures, one is damaged, another has some kind of paint on the back but cant be removed. Also there are a few Sunshine figures and a couple Class B figures too. The purple claw, I purchased hoping it could be real, turned out to not be real. I have a friend who has a set of custom figures made in France, he told me they were made of resin, so there for they are very hard and a completely different material then the muscle figure’s. This I’m guessing isn’t one of those because this purple claw I purchased (from france) is what I’m pretty sure to be almost the exact material muscle figures are made up. It’s very strange, it’s completely off and looks more so like the fake france figures, but it’s a muscle like material instead of resin, so Idk, it’s a bootleg of a bootleg I guess. Regardless, if you cant afford a purple claw, but want one in your collection, then here ya go. Also, as you can see in the photos, it’s scraped up pretty good, specially on the backside where the Y/S .N.T should be. My opinion is someone made this using a France bootleg, but made it in a similar muscle material and then scraped it up to make it look like it had been around the block a few times and then scraped up the “S” area so you couldn’t tell it was an “8”. That’s my guess. Any way! Happy bidding!

Open, honest, and actually making an attempt to be transparent. This is a good seller.

He spent $118.50 and listed at $0.99 as a starting price. I wish there were more M.U.S.C.L.E. collectors like this one. He’s one of the people trying to make the hobby better.

The second auction, Lot of Four Muscle Figures – Rubber – Made in China – No Reserve!, is just plain awesome.

I think I recently highlighted it in an Epilogue, but it’s opening bid was just a bit too high. That’s not the case today. Of course, I’d love for the opening bid to be even lower – but I might have to place a bid. These oddities have always fascinated me.

But I’ve never felt the urge to own them. The second auction seems like an instant collection at a decent price.

However, I don’t know if it is a decent price.

This second lot forces me to reflect on the oddity that is M.U.S.C.L.E. prices. They are such an incredible mixture of objectivity and subjectivity. And making it even crazier, there isn’t even total consensus on the subjective and objective facts.

For example, take the Class A auctions from 1-tallponderosa-1.

I would argue that two of these auctions are fair, open, and honest. And both have perfectly reasonable opening bids.

The Red #116 starts at $7.99 and the Purple #93 starts at $9.99.

But the fifth auction, M.U.S.C.L.E Men #136 Harigorasu – Magenta Class A – hard to find – Mattel Muscle, seems laughably priced. Time and time again this figure is listed and goes unsold.

You’ve heard the rant before so I won’t repeat it.

The Magenta #136 might be the poster-child of the unsellable Class A figure. And that’s a list I believe will continue to grow, rapidly, as the people needing Master Sets gets smaller and smaller.

Maybe that opinion is too subjective. I feel like I can use some objective facts to support it. I would love to hear a counterargument. Would I think their objective facts are too subjective?

I could go round and round. But I’d rather end on something that seems fun.

The sixth auction, Muscle Men Toys Figures, is a fun lot. It has 61 figures and starts at $25. In the modern collecting world about $0.40 per figure isn’t terrible.

Plus it seems like a relatively clean lot with a nice mix of figures. Of course my two favorite figures are the Uncanny Hex-Man and Iron Claw figures.

This might be a bold claim, but I have a feeling that the winner of this lot will be a FLAF fan.

The colors of the two figures match carded examples. This might be the only way for a collector to, currently, know they 100% have a Strong Men figure.

But caring about something that minor is probably not a sub-culture of FLAF fans.