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

Life got a little busy, so talking about the results from AW #292 had to wait.

The first experiment sold for $26. The second experiment also sold for $26 too. That’s certainly weird, but probably nothing more than a coincidence.

Before going any further I need to, again, thank Bill. This little experiment wouldn’t have been possible without him – plus $26 goes directly to Feeding America.

Back to the listing, I was most interested in seeing the overall activity (bidding, watching, etc.). The Purple #2, while Class A, probably appeals to a specific sub-set of M.U.S.C.L.E. collectors. I felt the Quik figure probably appealed to the majority of M.U.S.C.L.E. collectors. It’s a fun piece of M.U.S.C.L.E. history and there’s no such things as a complete set.

While I didn’t have any specific expectations, I did expect more viable bidders with the Quik figure. Instead, it was pretty much the same. A few “I’d pay a dollar” bids, but really three people interested in winning (feel free to argue the viable bidder number is actually two people).

The Purple #2 listing only had 124 page views on eBay. The Quik listing only had 28 more page views on eBay (152).

Matt Skeels might want to suggest these are all inflated numbers because of my coverage on this website. My ego appreciates it, but I don’t believe it to be true.

But, for the sake of discussion, what if Matt’s suggestion is 100% correct? Then M.U.S.C.L.E. isn’t just smaller than we thought, but aggressively shrinking.

With the holidays quickly approaching I was hoping to see some good stuff on eBay. I felt confident some money-mismanagers would be trying to list their stuff for holiday spending money.

To my disappointment there wasn’t anything like that. Looks like I’ll need to wait until buyer-remorse January. However, there was one interesting listing.

The first listing, M.U.S.C.L.E. Original Shipping Box, 1985, is a cardboard box. It has an opening bid of $8.88. As of writing, there are zero bids.

After running this website for a decade and collecting M.U.S.C.L.E. figures for almost two decades I can safely claim I’m an insane M.U.S.C.L.E. collector. I could, probably, also claim that not many people love M.U.S.C.L.E. more than me. There might not be anybody that loves our stupid hobby more.

I don’t need that box. Don’t get me wrong, there may have been a time I bid on it. Hell, I may still throw a few dollars at it. But what am I going to do with it?

Very practically I wonder, “How do I display it?” Again, I love M.U.S.C.L.E. – but it’s just a boring cardboard box.

I can remember, at some point, people bitching about Quik figures. Bitching about how stupid they were because it is a Flesh figure with white cardboard and often dirty plastic. I can understand that perspective, but the figures don’t take up much space. And they can be displayed many different ways.

This seems like something that needs to end up in the hands of a normal person. Otherwise a M.U.S.C.L.E. collector will keep saving it, folded up, in a closet.

Let’s see what happens.