M.U.S.C.L.E. Men - Part One

Known as Kinkeshi in Japan, the tiny figures were originally launched in 1983 as collectible erasers. They were then licensed in 1985 by Mattel, as M.U.S.C.L.E. using a much harder rubber.

M.U.S.C.L.E. stands for "Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere."

There were 236 figures released in the United States and Canada, and were popular enough to also have a board game and a crappy NES game as well.

They were distributed in clear, blister-packed random four-packs, semi-opaque garbage can 10-packs, and boxed fixed sculpt 28 packs.

The main hero was Kinnikuman, who, in the US, was "Muscle Man" and was the leader of the "Thug Busters". The only other named figure in the US line was Buffaloman, who was renamed "Terri-Bull," and was said to be the leader of the "Cosmic Crunchers". Some of the figures were sculpted to resemble popular wrestlers who had competed in Japan such as Terry Funk, Dusty Rhodes, Abdullah The Butcher, and Jushin "Thunder" Liger.

The "Battlin' Belt" was a carrying case that held ten figures - with a line of 200+ figures, this hardly made sense. This would be bad enough, if it weren't for the fact that you looked like an idiot for wearing it to begin with.

The ring was a 'Rock em Sock em Robots'-style. for the M.U.S.C.L.E. wrestling figures.

Each player inserts their figure into their base. A control lever in the back is used to move their figure around the ring and knock their opponent out of their base. Whoever is left standing is the winner.

The first shipment of figures were all a "bubble-gum" pink color that the collecting community calls "flesh". The second shipment was a half-and-half mixture of flesh and either dark blue, red, or purple figures. The third shipment contained no flesh figures, only dark blue, red, purple, magenta, salmon, lime green, neon orange, and light blue. Five figures came with the board game in an exclusive grape or light purple color.

Bandai's NES game was awful. While not the worst licensed game on the NES, it definitely ruined a weekend of my childhood when I rented it.

But enough about that. Starting here are the first 44 figures, with subsequent posts to show every one...

001 - KINNIKUMAN D

002 - TERRI-BULL BUFFALOMAN B

003 - SUNSHINE C

004 - KANI BESU

005 - PLANET MAN

006 - ERIMAKI TOKAGE

007 - PUYO PUYO

008 - SHISHIKABABU

009 - WAKUSEI BARUKAN

010 - JESSIE MAYBIA

011 - HIDORA KING

012 - OIL MAN

013 - KING COBRA

014 - ROBIN MASK C

015 - SUNSHINE D

016 - NEPTUNE MAN B

017 - KINNIKUMAN D

018 - DAIYAMAN

019 - BLACK KILLER

020 - KINNIKU DAIOU

021 - AKUMA SHOGUN A

022 - MANRIKI

023 - IWAO the ROCK MAN

024 - CUBEMAN

025 - PRINCE KAMEHAME

026 - NINJA A

027 - ASHURAMAN A

028 - JOHN STIMBOARD

029 - TERRYMAN C

030 - KEYMAN

031 - TERRYMAN A

032 - KING TON

033 - SKULL BOZO

034 - NOKOGIRA MAN

035 - WARSMAN A

036 - KINKOTSUMAN

037 - DYNAMITE PIPER

038 - TILEMAN

039 - SUNSHINE A

040 - KENDAMAN B

041 - BEAUTY RHODES

042 - GOREMUMAN

043 - CURRY COOK

044 - BENKIMAN

I have no affiliation with this website.

I am simply giving them credit for the pictures I used.

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EDIT: Part two is also posted if you would like to see more. I will have the other three up before Monday. Thank you.

EDIT 2: Since I saw this post going crazy and now going most viral, I worked my ass off and got the other three parts finished.

I will be posting them shortly. Thank you for your support.

Part 2:
https://imgur.com/a/bwYo4

Part 3:
https://imgur.com/a/szttT

Part 4:
https://imgur.com/a/vjr1Z

Part 5:
https://imgur.com/a/1b1BE