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

Not too many posts fall into our window of about five years ago. The first is an Epilogue I remember starting. It’s the only clear memory I have of that Epilogue. I think 85% of the time spent on that Epilogue was just trying to start it.

The only surprise looking back was the AOTW. Wow. If the tournament format had been used at that time, then this one would have been one of the all-time greats.

I was ready to complain, “Geez, we don’t know the seller.” And share that’s why I like to use sellers’ names more often today. It helps go back when something seems familiar and/or worth looking back. They post didn’t have it, but the full size image did: hobbies-n-stuff. Sadly, I couldn’t do any follow-up. I could find his eBay profile.

Could the SUS from about five years ago be any more timely this week?

What else can be said? I believe what I wrote even more today.

One downside of the Alpha, Beta, Gamma labels not being adopted is that new collectors don’t quickly get an introduction. Those groups are all significantly different. You can’t have a nuanced discussion just using Non-Poster or Super Rare. To really talk about those Non-Poster figures you have to accept there are major significant differences.

Of course, that assumes that people actually want to have a nuanced discussion. At best, I can count on two hands the number of collectors willing to have a truly nuanced discussion. I’ve mentioned the disappointment when collectors didn’t react to a post like this one.

My experience suggests that people don’t react for two reasons: (1) they don’t care that much (basically the, “I love M.U.S.C.L.E., but that’s more than I care to think about.”); or (2) they just want to argue their specific point and not really work towards consensus.

Is this the most controversial MMMM to ever be revisited? I think the answer might be, “Yes.”

It’s based on one sentence, “It’s cost effective.”

I don’t think that’s true anymore. Obviously eBay is worse than ever. You could go to the popular Facebook Group, but they seem to support sellers like this one. So it can be dangerous for inexperienced collectors. You could also try LRG but it’s been seemingly slower than normal lately. (However, traffic from LRG has increased again. I’m hoping that means traffic is up, even if posts are down.)

I wonder if Terry’s case still has M.U.S.C.L.E. smell. I opened that 4-pack, expecting I’d get a little sniff, and got NOTHING. There wasn’t even a hint of that distinct M.U.S.C.L.E. smell.