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

Parody In The Market

Creative people develop, discover, invent, and/or conceive new books, movies, toys, tools and a multitude of other things. Creative people even find ways to improve, simplify, and/or advance these original creations. Greedy people take these things and simply copy them.

The runaway success of M.U.S.C.L.E. brought greedy people out from beneath their stones. These people had to know that M.U.S.C.L.E. would be an easy toy to copy. It had no moving parts, no painted features, and no identifiable characters. To a child, what would be the difference between a flesh M.U.S.C.L.E. bought in a 4-pack to a flesh M.U.S.C.L.E.-like figure bought in a 25-cent capsule?

It has been nearly impossible to know the origin of a loose counterfeit figure, most often they seem to be from 25-cent capsules. This assumption is based on people often selling a lot of M.U.S.C.L.E. figures with one or two counterfeit figures, probably from a 25-cent capsule. When several counterfeit figures appear in a lot of M.U.S.C.L.E. figures, the assumption is that they were originally purchased as a counterfeit package of figures.

One of the joys of collecting Mattel’s line of M.U.S.C.L.E. toys is that it is filled with a sense of mystery. Counterfeit M.U.S.C.L.E. figures have been such total mysteries that even the most experienced collectors know next to nothing about them. The goal of Art 100 is not only to showcase the curiosity of counterfeit M.U.S.C.L.E. but to serve as a repository of information.

Art 100 is separated into 7 subdivisions:

The 233 Counterfeit Collection

Frankenstein-like Amalgam Figures

Counterfeit Packaging

Counterfeit Figure Typology

Identified Brands of Counterfeit Figures

Masquerading MUSCLE’s

Thumb Wrestlers

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If you have anything to add to these courses, then please do not hesitate to contact the University of M.U.S.C.L.E..