Musclemania: pre-MUSCLE weirdo wrestler minis (revisited)

When most collectors think of weird little wrestling mini figures from the '80s, they think of MUSCLE. But there's actually a similarly-themed toy line with a copyright year that predates the release of MUSCLE in the U.S. This set is called Musclemania, a rather obscure release that first came out in 1984 from a company called Select Merchandise, Inc.

I've briefly posted about Musclemania in the past, but I've since completed my set, so figured it was time for a more detailed post.

This is a really interesting line for many reasons:

• MATERIAL:  The figures were released in multiple kinds of plastic/rubber. What I believe are the initial 12 sculpts (pictured at the top of this post), are most commonly found in a firm-yet-flexible soft plastic. I believe all or at least some of these sculpts, in addition to 12 other sculpts (pictured lower in this post), were also released in a super soft, stretchy rubber. To make things even more complicated, I have also seen figures in a harder plastic.
• TIMELINE:  The timeline around when these different kinds of figures released is muddy. I believe that the initial 12 soft plastic figures came out in 1984, and that the stretchy versions--including the 12 new sculpts--were released around 1986.
• PACKAGING:  Musclemania figures seem to have been sold in both 12-packs and 4-packs. Based on what I've seen online over the years, I believe 4-packs and 12-packs were released in 1986 and contained the 12 "new" sculpts plus the previous 12 sculpts in stretchy rubber. I remember getting some of the 4-packs as a kid at Toys R Us in the late '80s. In my research, I still have not found out how the earlier, 1984 soft plastic figures were released. To my knowledge there hasn't been a packaging photo for the earlier figures found online. 
• SCULPTS:  Some of the figures look like they were sculpted to originally hold weapons, suggesting the theme might not have originally been wrestlers. Perhaps they were meant to be fantasy/space-themed toys, and then Select changed course to make them wrestlers to get in on a growing interest in wrestling among kids?
• COLORS:  The firmer figures seem to have been released in red, light blue, yellow, green, and translucent green. I'm not sure exactly how the trans green factored into assortments, but figures in that color seem to be more uncommon than the others. The stretchy figures came in light flesh, green, blue, and red. 

So all these years later there are still many unanswered questions with Musclemania. It's a bit of a mystery, which probably adds to its appeal.

Here's a closer look at what I consider to be the 12 initial sculpts. My favorites are the stranger, more monstrous guys, like the fish dude and gator/lizard-like dude. Note that two of the green figures are standard green and one is the translucent green.

And shown below are four of the 12 additional sculpts, in the stretchy rubber. These later sculpts have a distinct difference in design from the first 12. They were clearly designed to be more normal-looking wrestlers, eliminating the monster/space-like attributes that some of the first 12 figures have. This further supports the theory that the 12 first figures were originally planned to have a different theme, and that the 12 additional sculpts came later, after the wrestling theme had already been established and sold via the initial figures.

A curiosity that popped up recently is a set of Korean Musclemania figures in bright, transparent colors. These are assumed to be bootlegs, but I don't think much is known about them aside from the fact that the seller who discovered them bought them in large bunches in a plain plastic bags. The clear colors are yellow, pink, purple, and blue, and green (green is not pictured here). Only the 12 later sculpts are included, but the material is very close to that of the 1984 figures--soft plastic, not squishy rubber. I am glad to have these 12 sculpts in this firmer material, because the official, stretchy versions can melt/degrade with time.

And there we have it. There's quite a bit to talk about with Musclemania, considering its such an obscure line. For more coverage and photos, be sure to check out the great articles on University of MUSCLE and MinifiguresXD.

What do you think of these guys? Do you remember seeing them back in the day, or do you collect them now? Do you know anything more about them than what I covered here?

Beastly blues

Mini figure lines in this photo: Panzer World Galient, Villgust, Diener Space Creatures, Gorewad Monsters, MUSCLE/Kinnikuman bootleg, TMNT companion figure, Necros Fortress, Diener Mythology Creatures, vending machine bootleg kaiju, Musclemania, Mini Boglins, Monster in My Pocket, Freakies, Dragons N Monsters

Yucky yellows & petrifying pinks

I love taking these photos of like-colored mini figures. It's a good excuse to dig through my big ol' box of "little rubber guys" to figure out which ones I want to include in the shots! You can check out all of the "by color" photos I've done on my Flickr page here. I'm thinking I'll do blue next.

Here's a list of all the toy lines represented in each of the above photos:

Yellow: Terekoma vending machine bootleg, Ultraman vending machine bootleg, Monster in My Pocket, Mini Boglins, Musclemania, OMFG, Zoids vending machine bootleg, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure companion, Monstruos Mutantes, Diener Space Creatures, Kinnikuman bootleg, Space Ace, Martian Fink

Pink: Vending machine kaiju, vending machine MUSCLE bootleg, Mini Boglins, Diener Space Raiders, Monstruos Mutantes, ZOMBIE, fantasy playset skeleton warrior, OMFG, Galaxy Laser Team, Necros Fortress, Monster in My Pocket, Cosmix

Musclemania: Not so squishy

When I first blogged about Musclemania figures, I put up photos of the super squishy, super stretchy, soft rubber variety (because, well, that was the only kind I had). But there is a different kind of Musclemania figure out there that is, in my opinion, much cooler. See the dudes above. Not only do they appear weirder and more monster-like than the stretchy ones, they're also made of a MUCH better, nice soft plastic that's flexible but won't melt onto your other toys (my childhood stretchy Musclemania figures melted and gunked-up some of my other figures...and of course they gunked-up cool stuff, not something lame like my C.U.T.I.E.s). From what I can tell, this was the earlier variety of Musclemania toys, sold in 1984. There are a bunch of other sculpts and colors out there as well, which I'll be trying to track down.

Musclemania

What: "The toughest, meanest, battling monsters ever!," or at least that's what the package says. These guys take a similar approach as M.U.S.C.L.E. figures in that they're weirdo wrestlers, with some looking more monster/alien-like than others. The particular variety that I have, pictured above, are made of an incredibly soft, stretchy rubber (I had some of this same kind as a kid, and over the years they started to melt onto other toys and become really deformed), and come in red, blue, green and flesh colors. Different, harder rubber versions of the Musclemania figures seem to have been produced prior to these (as pictured/described on both the University of MUSCLE and MinifiguresXD), which could possibly explain why the characters pictured on the back of the package don't match up to the stretchy rubber characters inside--it appears as though the same name and packaging was being used to sell different figures than those that were initially sold under the Musclemania name.

When: The figures I have are marked 1986, but based on other reports different versions of the Musclemania figures were sold as early as 1984.

Where: Sold in the U.S. at least. I remember getting some at Toys R Us, but I'd guess they were sold at various toy stores and department stores.

Who: Select Merchandise, Inc.