Epilogue – Week of May 12th


I can’t figure it out.

MMMM needs to change. The Epilogue needs to change. And I don’t know how to do it.

MMMM needs to change because Professor Terry, for a variety of reasons, can’t routinely post. I don’t want to copy his posts – plus my M.U.S.C.L.E. collection is pretty hyper-focused. There are a few exceptions, but most everything can be seen here and here. I did talk to Soupie about an idea we both thought sounded fun, but we ran into one of Terry’s problem – we’re busy.

Funny Soupie anecdote; we once made a M.U.S.C.L.E. discovery and forgot it. No joke. Neither of us can remember what it was – I mean nothing. A total blank spot.

For now, the Epilogue is still going ok – but how much longer? The first Epilogue was a nice “catch all.” It evolved and changed over time, but eBay listings always played a large part. What should I do when the largest part is rendered pointless?

M.U.S.C.L.E. on eBay has become an absurd, disgusting, sewer. It’s so bad that finding four especially terrible listings is getting more and more difficult.

What M.U.S.C.L.E.-related thing would you guys like to see more of in the Epilogue?

Shocked. I was shocked that the 600+ day thumb wrestler didn’t win last week, but I can understand why the faded $15 BIN won.

I wanted to include this guy as an AOTW, but I realized it’s just my own issue. I HATE when people screw a key-chain into a figure and pretend it’s any type of product/craft (or worse, piece of art). I hate the $8.98 price tag, but I hate when people do this even more.

Consider this. You can buy 50 key-chains for $6.99, which is $0.14 per key-chain. And let’s, for argument’s sake, say a single M.U.S.C.L.E figure costs $2.00.

The $8.98 price tag is a mark-up of 320%. Fuck you seller.

Hey, but what about the person’s time? Shouldn’t that count for something?

No. It takes no skill; no creativity; and no effort. Fuck every person that tries to pull this stupid scam.

Ok, let’s get to some assholes we can all agree on. The AOTW #1 was selected because of its $80 opening bid for a trash can and 11 figures. But what makes it special, at least to me, is the inclusion of the #208 Purple figure. I will argue this is the most common Color figure. Every appearance makes me smile; and its inclusion in overpriced lots makes me laugh.

The AOTW #2 might border on controversial because the Dark Blue #15 is a Class B figure. However, nobody should care. It is not special. It bumped up based on popularity. A $33.95 BIN for these two figures is absurd.

The AOTW #3 easily earned a spot with its $100 BIN for 32 Flesh figures. That’s $3.13 per M.U.S.C.L.E. figure. I think they only people that argue M.U.S.C.L.E. figures are worth more than $1 per figure are the people trying to sell them (or hoping to sell some soon).

Finally, the AOTW #4 basically told that last asshole, “Hold my beer.” Here is a lot of 10 figures with a $95 BIN. That’s a whopping $9.50 per-figure for, at most, $5 worth of figures.

Cast your vote and crown this week’s AOTW Fatal-Four Way winner. Here are the four combatants:

vs.

Remember to cast your vote and crown this week’s AOTW Fatal-Four Way winner:

[poll id=”77″]

Since discovering that our ULTIMATE AOTW Battle of the Champions Fatal-Four Way Winner #1 is still trying to sell her empty box, I like to check in each week.

Fifteen weeks ago it had dropped down to $160. Fourteen weeks ago the price was $149. She sat firm for a period at $145. Nine weeks ago it dropped to $139 and soon after it dropped to $135. Two weeks ago it hit the new low of $125.

It has taken 14 weeks to decrease almost 22%, but no decrease this week. Where is our weekly 1.6% decrease.

This is the level-of-asshole it takes to be an ULTIMATE champion.

Amazing. She’s one of the greats.

  1. #1 by Bad Luck on May 17, 2019 - 12:40 pm

    So, just my two cents, but the Epilogue thing has become kind of repetitive and solely focused on auctions, with the lion’s share of the attention going to name somebody an “asshole”. I care way more about your opinions about what made MUSCLE cool, and what current/burgeoning/rumored toy lines would be good spiritual successors. Give us something to move forward on, because treading water on useless ebay sellers is not exactly good energy.

  2. #2 by Walker26 on May 21, 2019 - 3:45 pm

    I don’t know how much more new material can be generated with M.U.S.C.L.E. Does anyone do custom painted figures or canvas art? Auction Watch solely focused on Japan auctions. Ever thought about branching out to other toy lines from your childhood or your kids’ favorite toys? What small toy lines doesn’t LRG talk about (Army Ants, GUTS, Madballs)? Toys in Kickstarter campaigns. Just thought maybe what is going to be said about M.U.S.C.L.E. has been said, so a new toy focus might help.

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