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

There might be lots of shitty M.U.S.C.L.E. sellers in the world, but, thankfully, there are lots of cool M.U.S.C.L.E. collectors too. This post is cool collector proof.

Lots of people send in pictures for the various visual archives on the site. They don’t have to do it. They get nothing in return. They simply want to share with other M.U.S.C.L.E. collectors. That’s pretty cool in my book.

This is kind of a mixed bag update. Sometimes the pictures get lost in the mix because I think, “I’ll post this when I get another one.” Then I forget. Today we’re catching up.

First up is an update to the MUSCLEMANIA archive. Danny C. added to his past contributions by sharing a picture of his Light Blue #12 MUSCLEMANIA figure.

The next two pictures were sent in by Mike.

The first is a significant upgrade on a previous FLAF/Strong Men figure. Mike provided a much clearer picture of the Blue Naked Mask figure.

He also shared, yet another, severely deformed #61 figure. What was going on with this mold that caused so many errors?

The last two pictures come from Eric Pierce.

The first picture is a Tweaked keshi figure. It is part of the very odd subgroup of figures that were turned into vending machine keychains. Eric was especially surprised because he found it “in the wild” (a store) near Portland.

Eric’s final picture doesn’t fit into any category. It felt like highlighting some cool pictures, sent in by cool collectors, made this a perfect ending for the post. Below is the very cool story he shared with me.

I think you might be the best person to tell. These two figures are from my childhood. The one on the left comes from the first four-pack I ever picked up, back when M.U.S.C.L.E first came out. I didn’t like his little top knot, so I cut it off. I foolishly have these and a handful of other MUSCLE figures away a number of years ago as part of a sort of cleansing I thought I was doing for myself by getting rid of my past. But it ended up hurting me, deeply. I’ve dreamt about these figures for years, because i had kept them for so long, nearly thirty years by the time I got rid of them, and then flippantly gave them to a collector of sorts, not even specifically a toy collector, because I couldn’t bring myself to simply give them up to Goodwill or something similar. One such dream was me tracking down the person I gave these to and trying to ask for just a couple of the ones I gave back. I woke up stressed from this dream back in February, and immediately began working toward this goal. Long story short, I contacted the person, gave a description of the only two figures I could clearly remember having that I gave up – the flesh sumo wrestler, minus his top knot, and a salmon colored fox. The person I had given these to was cool and got them back to me today. They are worth more to me than any super rare could ever be. I have come to understand that the giant aquarium I have filled with the toys from this line is a way for me to fill the emotional hole I created by giving them up in the first place. I just had to share that with someone, and I believe that you and I are similar in the emotions we hold for this special toyline.

I asked Eric is I could share the story and he said, “Yes.”

Below are the figures from the story.