M.U.S.C.L.E. (Mattel/Bandai, 1985-87)

I didn't know it way back in the day, but yet another of my favorite toy lines also came from Japan (doesn't everything?).  Back then, the whole line was shrouded in mystery, but today, we know its complete origins.

In 1985, completely out of nowhere and in the middle of a toy world dominated by 4-inch action figures, Mattel suddenly launched packages of 2-inch, flesh-colored, non-posable rubber wrestling figures, and a new toy line was born.  They christened it "M.U.S.C.L.E.," and went so far as to make it an acronym, standing for "Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere." Their permutations seemed endless, as did the amount of different figures available.  After all, they said "Millions" right there in the title! 

As it turned out, Mattel had entered into a partnership with Bandai (which wasn't their first) to bring figures from a popular Japanese franchise, Kinnikuman, to America.  Kinnikuman encompassed comics, animated series(es), toys, and much more, and had run for years (and still does).  Every figure had a name, and was a character from the long-running series' universe.  But instead of adopting the property, they simply dumped the figures on the toy-buying public.  They did bother to change the lead character to "Muscleman," and rename a character "Terri-Bull" to serve as the bad guy, but everything else, including the allegiance of each character, was up to you.  And you know what? It worked.

Like many folks, I prefer adaptations that are as accurate as possible for Japanese properties brought over here, but the lack of any information with this line really sparked kids' imaginations. You made your own teams; it was wide open for interpretation.  "Hey, this guy is a light bulb; this guy is made of bricks!" (One guy was actually a urinal, but we didn't know that at the time, and neither did Mattel, I'm sure.) One thing that Mattel/Bandai did right was to make the figures harder rubber, and much more durable.  In Japan, they were part of the "keshi" craze; soft rubber, eraser-like figures that come out of gashapon machines [see this post for an awesome Godzilla keshi set].

So how many figures were there? In that first year, a mail-order promotion began appearing, allowing you to order your own poster checklist, which revealed that there were 233 figures.  However, this wasn't the whole story, because the Wrestling Ring playset included 2 exclusive figures, and there is also one rare non-poster figure that somehow got in (and in recent years has been proven to exist in sealed packages), setting the officially-accepted count for a complete flesh-colored set at 236.

And, an entire set of 236 fits in an "oversized-shoebox" size archival box! We should do a post on everything we've learned about how to store things safely long-term (yes, they are all individually bagged, but don't buy your ziploc bags at Michaels or Wal-Mart. You want polypropylene, NOT polyethylene. 

[3/2024 UPDATE: And here is what a complete set looks like on display--turns out it takes up quite a bit of room to display 236 figures:]

After the first year, Mattel could've kept adding new figures, but instead the decision was made to re-issue existing figures in new colors.  Sometime during that second year, kids' interest waned, and the line folded and blew away in the wind.  It would've been interesting to see the animated series adapted and new figures issued, but it wasn't meant to be.

There is quite a bit of confusion over the colored figures; for example, not every figure is available in every color (in fact, far from it). Also, counting the original flesh color, there are ten different colors available, as can be seen below:

The light purple color is mega-rare, because only five figures were made that way, which we will get to in a moment.  First, let's talk about the ways that the M.U.S.C.L.E. (I hate typing that) figures were sold.

Four-packs were the most popular, because they were the cheapest, AND you could see what you were getting.  Much allowance was scrounged and maximized to buy as many four-packs as possible. Yards were mowed.

10-packs were sold in an opaque garbage can.  I never cared for these as a kid, because I couldn't see the figures I was purchasing (especially with the wrapper on).  The trash can may seem random, but it's actually another Bandai carry-over.  In Japan, assortments of keshi figures (usually Ultraman enemies, from what I've seen) were sold this way.

There were four different 28-packs, and they were the top of the line, and obviously the most expensive.  Unlike the other sizes, they were not randomly packed, and included figures you could get nowhere else.  This is a second-year example that included colored figures:

While the back of the 4-packs sets up the hero and villain, it was the back of the 28-packs that gave us the closest thing to a backstory, with an included comic strip! I suppose no other item in the line had enough room on its packaging:

Speaking of Bandai and keshi, the 28-packs always remind me of their awesome Ultraman sets (which are sets of 30 figures):

Every great toy line needs a playset, and the crown jewel of the M.U.S.C.L.E. toy line was what every fan wanted:  the wrestling ring.

It wasn't even that large of a playset, but the concept of joysticks to move your figures and make them fight was brilliant.  On paper. Unfortunately, it's probably for the best that I didn't get one that Christmas, as they are pretty fragile.  The plastic clips that hold the figures tended to break easily (intact examples usually have white stress marks, at the very least).  But that wasn't all:  the orange cardstock that served as the floor tended to get scratched up quickly, AND the elastic bands that made up the ropes around the ring were prone to breaking or getting lost.  

Bandai produced this item themselves for Mattel.  Notice that the back of the box shows a prototype version of the playset with different joysticks, and, most notably, different clips to hold the figures! Too bad we ended up with the fragile ones. (They really should've been metal.)

We mentioned the rare light-purple color.  There was also a board game, which included ten figures.  What's important here is that, while light green was already an existing color, the five lavender-colored figures in the game are the only ones ever produced that way.  Because of this, complete examples of the game can be tough to come by.

We have already mentioned the mail-away poster, but for completeness, there was also an NES game, a FREE figure in select jars of Nestle Quik (that was awesome), and something called the "Battlin' Belt" that was the Kenner Chewbacca Bandolier Strap of the M.U.S.C.L.E. line.  I see what they were going for, but I thought it was dumb, even as a kid.  However, these are the types of items that always end up worth a fortune, because fewer people bought them originally.  

All in all, one thing you can definitely say about this toy line is that it causes hardcore nostalgia.  It's certainly one of my favorites from the 1980's.  Discovering its origins and finally getting questions answered through some great websites (links below) has been extremely rewarding over the years.  I've noticed in recent years that you just don't run into the figures like you used to.  It used to be commonplace to see a couple in a random bag of toys in a thrift store, but that never happens to me anymore.  I'm sure they are being hoarded, because prices have been climbing! 

If you are interested in learning more--much more--about M.U.S.C.L.E., here are some places you should go:

The University of M.U.S.C.L.E. - This is the definitive website on the subject.  Do you want to know which figures were available in which colors? Are you curious which figures make up the different 28-packs? They have the answers.

Nathan's M.U.S.C.L.E. Blog - Jump to each figure by number, and see exactly how and where it was available! Great in-depth info also on each type of item in the line.