Yeah me too. My family was kind of poor as well and the only Transformers I had were the mini bots like Bumblebee, Cosmos etc and of course MUSCLE and while I didn't have a ton of them I had about 2 dozen and I loved them and played with them for hours. Oh and we also had knock off Go Bots that I would buy at the local drug store but I still enjoyed them and had fun with them as a kid. I learned to be humble and grateful for what I got and for what I worked hard in yard work and allowance to earn the toys that I bought and now as an adult I own every toy I had as a kid, always wanted or wished I had...now in my game room. I'm now 50 years old and still enjoy my toy collection.
Truth! I almost never had more than one of any given type of toy (unless acquired second-hand from a garage sale or something), but I had enough of these little dudes to fill up a tiny trash can. (Still small, but quite a bit bigger than the ones they came in.) At some point my dad realized I was even making my own toys out of trash I found in our backyard. I had a Dr. kit that I got probably for Christmas or something, and I made my own patient out a piece of fabric foam. He was impressed with my ingenuity.
My brother and I would use them as the "3rd army" enemy to our wars. (It was Army men Vs Army Ants Vs Muscle Things) It gave us an excuse and a back story, which allowed us to combine Green, Tan, and Grey army men to the same team to battle these "monsters". Some of the simplest toys ended up being the best.
Army ants were great. I've still got about a dozen of them in good shape. Nearly all of my muscle men have missing body parts and old paint on them. I got pretty creative with my wars.
I lived in Japan in the 80s and these were in every grocery store and 7/11. I would drop a ¥25 coin or two to get them whenever I could. I remember one store had a broken machine that would always drop two pods everytime! When we moved back to the US, M.U.S.C.L.E. had just started to become a thing. I had a bunch of figures no one else did! Plus, I knew all the lore and had a few magazines to show. The other boys definitely were jealous.
@@synthstatic9889 Living there back in the 80s was a trip. They were crazy for everything American, but it was ever so slightly askew. Most of the manga I read were post-apocalyptic or highly romanticized stories of the future. When you think about it, it makes sense. Japan IS a post-apocalyptic society. No one else had had a nuclear weapon used against them in wartime. I really think that it has scarred the psyche of the culture.
Nice, I used to dream up characters and backstories for mine. There was one I decided was Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget just because he wore similar gauntlets.
Funny you would say that because I was going to make a comment that I thought as my generation got older we started collecting DND metal miniatures for gaming when we grew out of our muscle men
@@asafoetidajones8181 That's cool, and funny, you will almost have to Modify them Otherwise I think they'd be fairly recognizable by most people especially of a certain age group LOL
I always grabbed the ones that I had to play with in the car on road trips. A couple of pencils and a pad of paper for drawing and some little action figures were all I needed.
It's kind of amazing that these toys did as well as they did, with no real form of media attached to it. Then again, no syndicator in the 80s would dare touch Kinnikuman.
they were really cheap compared to things like GI Joe or Transformers, but still were a name brand product instead of being perceived as a knock off. that let poor kids collect a bunch of figures without being made fun of for not having the "right" figures for that type of thing.
My first ever school fight was over Muscles. We made a game at my school with them and played for keeps, but since it was some weird freeform game the rules were fluid. I lost the fight, be we all lost the war since the school soon banned them. Funny enough, we also agreed that the Claw was the real best one, and would stare in awe when someone had him.
Loved these - remember looking through every blister pack on display at the local Kay Bee toys and couldn't find one that had the "Hand" figure. I had to have that "Hand" figure.....Tired to look through the translucent 10 packs, but couldn't tell what was in those either. My Mom told me to pick a 10 pack and we would just hope to be lucky. After getting home, we opened it, and right on top was the "Hand" - i was so happy LOL!!! So was Mom. I picked up a couple of unopened, unpunched 4 pack blisters about 10 years ago - i treasure them......
I fell hard for this toyline, never left a toy store without at least a four character blister pack. I loved them so much for their absolutely weird design and lack of backstory, was happy to make my own stories for these little pink goofs.
When I was in 4th grade, our class did a little mock economy thing where every kid got a bunch of fake money and we could buy/sell whatever we wanted in class for like a week. It just so happened a bunch of kids wanted to get rid of their MUSCLE toys right at that time, which I had none of before then. I made out like a bandit, selling whatever random crap I had lying around and spending all the proceeds on huge piles of MUSCLE figures which these guys were all but giving away. I'm sure I ended up with over 100 of them. And I had so much fun with those things!
I used to have a ton of Muscle Men back in the 80's, but I lost most of my collection when I left it at the playground one day. When I was 19-20, I tried checking the internet to see if I could buy more anywhere, but instead I learned a valuable lesson about the importance of choosing your search terms carefully!
@@Kaimax61 I remember the pseudo-wrestling organization "Kaiju Big Battel" and it reminded me a lot of Kinnikuman. I want to say they're still around, some of the "wrestlers" in that outfit have some wild gimmicks.
I LOVED these… I had a few cans, and picked up the card backs whenever I could. I even had the ring. A kid beat me up, and tried to steal some figures I had. I just held on to them, and curled up like a ball while he kicked me over, and over again. He managed to take one, and I got up and started swinging until a yard attendant came to stop us. I screamed “he took my stuff!” She made him give me my figure back, and we both got suspended. Those were the days…
In the late 70s Toys'r'Us had these things called Canful of Monsters in the party favors section. They were plastic garbage cans containing little rubber monster figures. I found out later that they were from Ultraman, though no Ultras were included. At about 3:12 you can see some of the designs. I still have at least three of them, including two of the Windom character.
Pretty I had those. Were they kind of a MUSCLE knock off with different colors? I just remember them and muscle men always being at the bottom of the toy box, lol
@@Peppersfirst No, the Canful of Monsters contained mini rubber figures of various monsters from the Japanese show "Ultraman". They were from the same company as MUSCLE and did use the same garbage can mold. The Canful of Monsters cans came in red, green or yellow. The MUSCLE cans only came in a sort of semi-transparent finish.
I loved this toy line! we had the ring and i think 50ish muscles, My favorite was the one that looked like just a hand. However, it fell into the crevasse in which the front seat belt of our 1984 Cavlier dissapeared into. So somewhere, maybe, there is a 1984 Cavalier with hidden treasure inside the passenger side seat belt hole.
7:42 oh wow. I have both of these still, I never did try to learn the significance of the characters outside of whatever narrative I gave them as a kid. 😄👍
It’s funny you mention that. I just found a container of my Muscle figures and Battle Beasts in my mom’s attic. I’m still trying to find the best way to display them, despite my wife’s reservations. 😂
I think the most important neglected piece of info was the new anime called Kinnikuman Perfect Origin Arc which is on Netflix right now. The SH Figuarts was actually a cancelled line that ran through the 2010's. The new SHF preorder for Kinnikuman is based on the new 2024 anime which uses a completely different mold than the original release. Ultimate Muscle actually did suffer a lot of changes by 4Kids especially in the dialogue.
Hope you're enjoying it so far! Heads up for anyone curious, a lot of the anime does have a lot of padding. They're not filler arcs as we know them today but more like each arc gets extended (usually by lots of one liners and jokes that are sometimes a bit more distasteful than the manga). Personally I enjoy it, you get a lot more out of the more obscure characters like Kinnikuman's parents, but if you don't want the extra then reading the manga is just as fun. Also also heads up, the original anime diverges kinda heavily near the end of the Ultimate Tag Team arc, the cliffnotes and who beats who are the same ofc, but its worth knowing in case. Oh yeah also also also headsup the fansub i found for the battle for the throne anime has a translators note that kind of spoils events in the reboot series. Its when Chojin Enma is on screen and that's all I can say without spoiling things myself. Sorry~
Where can I watch the original 80s series? I used to have some episodes recorded on a VHS from Japan back in the 80s. Please let me know, I really want to watch it.
Had a bunch of these when I was a kid in the 80s. Such a cool little toy. Couldn't bring any Transformers, GI Joe or Masters of the Universe toys with me on short trips but they'd let me bring some MUSCLE figures since I could just shove some in my pocket and it wasn't a big deal if I lost a few of them. The detail on those things was pretty incredible and the designs were varied and numerous.
i was definitely a MUSCLE collector as a kid and still have all of them, collected a lot of little figures from vending machines and packages. They're Just Neat Little Guys!
This provided me with some very warm nostalgia and some memories of bitter loss. There were at least a few days when I was a kid that I remember fondly. I wish I could go back and play with them one last time.
Do you ever go to toy shows? I see them fairly often at toy shows- sometimes you can get a good deal on them if the dealer is willing to haggle with you lol.
These guys were awesome! I had a ton of them as a kid. Loved how they came in a trash can. They were very detailed for such tiny little figures, and so many designs! Great fun and memories :)
Looking back at collecting these - it was really weird. I never was lacking in anything - my parents gave me all sorts of toys for Christmas (well...Santa gave them to me) and my birthday, but, unlike most of my peers, I did not have an allowance per se. My father gave me ten, or later, twenty cents a day which could be lost simply by not doing a single chore such as making your bed or keeping your room clean. Things were so far above that price range that I eventually just gave up trying to earn the pennies he offered (Children are not really known for their forward thinking/saving habits) and stayed broke and happy rather than bust my butt for a dollar a week. But I would get money from grandparents and at different holidays and to make it go as far as possible M.U.S.C.L.E. was the way to go! I had tons of these things, and I think I still have a few that have made into bins and boxes that have traveled with me throughout my life! Boy the nostalgia is strong with this one!
I had a bunch of these (because everyone did), but I wasn't really into wrestling. However, when Army Ants came out came out a couple years later, I LOVED those. Mini toys were great; I had some of the die-cast Star Wars minis too!
I LOVED these as a kid and had tons of them!!!! But at 46 I have no idea where they escaped to. Every now and again I will go through a box and find a few floating around in there and it totally brings me back!!!! I wish I still had them all. I even had the ring until my cousin stepped on it and broke a peg off it . But I hamade my own ring with a square piece of wood, nails for the posts and electrical tape for turnbuckles for the rubber band ropes!
I collected these. Had over a hundred. Even had a poster to check off each character. Made a whole tabletop mini figure battle game with them and my d20!
I got a bag of about a hundred of them from Goodwill, when I was a kid, and had endless fun playing with them! In 2008, I was in Tokyo and came upon a toy store where they had about 3 dozen of the figures but updated and painted with incredible detail. I had no idea the little pink figures I'd played with for years were a big deal! About 10 years ago, I donated a majority of my collection to the Austin Toy Museum to help them complete their collection but still have some hanging around. They brought me a lot of joy throughout the years. Thanks for the video!
Man, I had like 60 of the things. Found the bucket where I kept them when I was cleaning out my mom's house after she died. I had left it out in a shed outdoors, and they had basically turned to powder after 25 years in the Tucson heat. Those things were shit hot back in the day. The wealthier kids in my school all had complete collections. I managed to flesh mine out when K-mart was liquidating the 10pack garbage cans for $1 and the 28 packs for $5, but that was long after the fad was done.
despite the US not getting the original show, and as such, MUSCLE being more of a niche that isn't specifically tied to the original product, Kinnikuman is insanely popular in *Chile* of all places. Somehow they managed to get a dub of the anime done and running until Episode 52, which is crazy when you consider what a nightmare this show must've been for syndication.
(Yo soy muy fiel al estofado de carne~) personally been bingewatching the dub and it's interesting how little actually gets cut, jokes that no one outside Japan would get are more or less kept intact as is most of the violence. Notably however, many scenes featuring Brockenman and Brocken Jr. are trimmed down for obvious reasons.
M.U.S.C.L.E.S. was the first NES game I ever rented. The game is a wrestling game and, although fun for a young kid, the game did not age well. The game only currently offers a novelty experience. If the game were a platformer, with different characters having unique actions, it could have been a classic.
In Primary School me and my friends had hundreds of these. We were trading them like Pokémon cards before that was even a thing. The coloured ones were more popular than the plain pink ones and we often tried to collect the same figure in alternate colours. It was the tubs and maybe 4 packs we mostly had in Britain, I don't remember that many large individual blisters on sale. I don't think we ever got any of the anime released here though.
I remember Muscle toys because my cousins had them, I wish they made the original anime dubbed in English for American kids! But I’m glad we got the reboot Ultimate Muscle thanks to Fox box kids block, even though I was already in high school when Ultimate Muscle was made, my friends watched it because of its satire of WWE and WCW!
I was the perfect age when these came out. They were great because they were small, simple, and UNBREAKABLE!! I have such visceral memories of them. Great video!!
dude when I played "Ultimate Muscle" on Gamecube I KNEW it was like a familiar brand but omg.. the cel shading and humor of that game ... i tried to tell everyone about it. It probably still looks good. Its hilarious... not to mention the names
This is a joke that will only make sense to Wrestling With Wregret viewers, but hearing Terry Funk’s name immediately made me think “I’m changin’ the rules, I’m a small pink Japanese toy now.”
I never grew up with these toys but I love the Kinnikuman frachise. It specifically combines by favorite niches into each other perfectly, Wrestling, Anime, and Tokusatsu. I've also been practically religiously been keeping up with the current manga and was happy to see you showed the cover of a more recent arc to show it off. Plus a few months ago a continuation of the original Kinnikuman run aired on Netflix called Perfect Origin Arc. And surprisingly it's getting a second season in January of next year, probably the most volatile time for the series right now to get a third boom in the states.
Ah Kinnikuman strikes again! The last time I encountered this was when the manga for the sequel Kinnikuman Legacy, aka Ultimate M.U.S.C.L.E. showed up nearly 20 years ago. The Gachapon connection now makes sense that I see how big the figures were in scale.
In Italy, these toys were known as Exogini, and their story was completely retooled. They had no connection with wrestling, but were instead subtitled "the mysterious aliens". Commercials made no mention of their new story, which instead was relegated to a sticker album, where it was revealed that the Exogini were nanoscopic-sized aliens with the plan to invade every molecule in the universe.
I have some and the "board game" still. Some of my figures are straight from Japan. They did a "knock off" a few years back called Z.O.M.B.I.E.S that featured horror/action based figures like Chuck Norris and Bruce Campbell. Target tossed them onto clearance fairly quick so it was cheap to get them all.
S.L.U.G. Zombies, yeah? I missed out on Series 1, which I think were sold as single figures in blind boxes. But I was able to put together Series 2-4 from Target & Toys R Us. Target had Christmas themed ones too.
My mom worked at a place called Longs Drug Store, kind of like a Walgreens back in the day. She always brought these things home for my brother and I. I saw several we had in the video, and they were cool back then! Oddly enough, they come to mind every now and then and I wish I still had a few laying around.
We would play "Muscles" in order to win more muscles. We would agree which muscle was comparable and throw the muscle. And the other player would try to hit the muscle with his muscle figure and if he could hit that muscle then we could keep that muscle. For some reason "Annoucer" was the sought after figure. That game was full of skill and luck. I would aim with one eye and toss like I was skipping a rock to hit the other muscle. We could play this game for hours and cover blocks of street to try and win.
Yeah, I remember thinking that they were kind of cool, but I only ever had one or two of them that I probably picked up at a flea market or a carnival or something. I don’t think that I ever bought a full pack at a store.
Love the vid, memories of these toys popped back into my head just a few days ago and here you are! I used to have a ton of them. I "painted" them with coloured permanent markers. Wish I had kept some... I can almost still smell them lol
I just wish the original Kikikuman (I hope I spelled that right?) manga would get an official english release. It seems like an obvious target for Viz to do, since it is a Jump manga.
Indeed would be nice, but there are a few things from that series that would still make it a little hard to work with, so I do somewhat understand the hesitance. I mean, most people would never get behind one of the big fighters is a Nazi, even if he is far more humanitarian compared to his father, or the very idea of "Chanelman" being used the way it was.
@@motherplayer tbf even the original manga cleans up his design over time, and him being a nazi is so unrelated to his character that its more likely just because german=nazi was a wrestling trope. I'm a big fan of the series and I know I don't speak for everyone but i think if you edited the manga to use his late manga/new manga design no one would care besides maybe the usual performative internet ragemongers.
My favorite childhood toys were my M.U.S.C.L.E. men. Had the ring and would also draw my own. Was pissed when I found out my mom had got rid of them one weekend I was away. I’m still salty now that I think of it
I've still got a plastic tub full of of M.U.S.C.L.E. Things around here somewhere... I remember having an inordinate number of the Claw Hand Guy and the Brick Top Guy, which I was quite happy about.
Back in 4th grade at a school swap meet, I was able to get a shoe box full of the little freaks for 1-entire-allowance dollar. Just for a goof, I decided to check on eBay for the going rate these days and... yeah, no.
Will you cover littlest pet shop someday? The red headed stepchild for hasbro franchises besides the real american heroes,little ponies, disguised robots! Also another tight episode toy buddy boy.
Thanks much for the Vid! Still have all the ones i had from childhood in a zipper pouch. My mom sewed a Muscle logo on to it so it looked like the pouch was branded. ❤️🔥
The character designs were interesting to look at which stimulated the imagination and made for an eclectic collection. The wrestling ring was also fun enough for what it was, although prone to breakage. Otherwise the characters were extremely durable little toys that one could carry a handful in one’s pocket. Mine have held up perfectly fine 40 years later. All of these factors made for an extremely successful simple toy line. Toymakers of today should take note!
I was very surprised and excited when only a few years ago, I discovered a small, plastic lunchbox that had belonged to my brother when we were kids (of the 80s) and my mom had kept for years afterward. Inside of the lunchbox was, as would be relevant for me to even mention, a sizeable collection of M.U.S.C.L.E. figures that my brother and I had collected back when they had been released in the mid 80s. Most of them are the colored versions, but there is a fair amount of original "flesh colored" figures as well. One of my personal favorites, and still have, is the figure that looks like three columns of an ancient Greek or Roman structure. Don't know what his original name is/was, so my brother and I just called him, "Roman Empire."
I still collect these and other keshi to this day. Best toy of the 80s! For a little while in 1986, you could take them to school as "erasers" before the teachers got wise. Sorry, Mrs. Johnson!
I remember when I was about five or six, I found a torn-open blister pack in a toy-shop, resulting in several of the figures falling onto the floor., and I figured that made it okay for me to take one. My mom later called me out for acting guilty, and made me give it back and apologize. Beyond that, I still think they're pretty cool.
I LOVED M.U.S.C.L.E.figures when I was a kid. I was already collecting baseball cards so to start collecting these little action figures was a no brainer. They were so cool looking and didn't have to worry about them breaking. I'm on eBay right now and about to buy a bag of these thing for my 5 year old grandson.
I got into Kinnikuman after watching Ultimate Muscle, over the years looking at various comic and collectible stores I've been able to score a handful of the original MUSCLE guys. Have been eyeing that collect set for a few years now but can't convince myself to pull the trigger just yet. I did however collect all of the manga prior to the relaunch even though I can't read it. 😅
To this day, I think Kinkeshi/M.U.S.C.L.E. is one of the coolest toy lines made in the 80s. A simple idea, taken to an extreme of creative breadth that is still just amazing. This year, for a birthday present to myself, I got the big Kinkeshi box from a Japanese seller on eBay. It took me hours to unwrap every figure in the box, but I'm finally living the dream of collecting them all -- and then some!
So oddly enough I just saw these things for the first time at the Austin Toy Museum last week and had no idea what they were despite recognizing virtually every other action figure and toy line IP they had there from the late 70's into the 2000's. Thanks for solving the mystery for me Dan!
I still have a bunch of these around here somewhere. As a kid, I was fixated on collecting the cube-ish guys. I knew nothing about any lore, and until this video had completely forgotten the name of the toy line, but I played with those things alongside my Transformers and GI Joes all the time.
I was hoping you would have mentioned the GameCube game. That game, was easily the most played game in my house as you could create your own characters, name them and then choose your finishing move and name that as well. My friends who were in their early 20's had a field day coming up with the most foul and offensive names imaginable, especially for the finishing moves. But I also collected the toys in the 80's for the reason you mentioned; they were affordable. I also collected some knock off's, the main one was a bunch of ninjas, usually red, yellow and black that had glow in the dark features. Anyone remember what they were called?
Dude! I am so glad you did this! Absolutely love these little toys!! Please please please please, look into doing GUTS next. It's like if muscle and GI Joe had a baby... A very cheap, affordable baby
I literally had hundreds and hundreds of these spanning from the beginning series to the last days of multi colored. Also had a couple playsets including a "WWF Style" championship belt with wrestling ring built in. Then one day they were all gone. I think my mom sold them all at a yard sale or something. Wish i still had them, or some...
My family was poor, so I had few name-brand Star Wars/Transformers/He-Man type toys, but these were cheap and sold in bulk, so I had a ton of 'em.
Ditto all out the quarter machine, as long as you got something right?
LOL! Me too! 🙌🏾 BEING POOR
Garage sale toys…….
Yeah me too. My family was kind of poor as well and the only Transformers I had were the mini bots like Bumblebee, Cosmos etc and of course MUSCLE and while I didn't have a ton of them I had about 2 dozen and I loved them and played with them for hours. Oh and we also had knock off Go Bots that I would buy at the local drug store but I still enjoyed them and had fun with them as a kid. I learned to be humble and grateful for what I got and for what I worked hard in yard work and allowance to earn the toys that I bought and now as an adult I own every toy I had as a kid, always wanted or wished I had...now in my game room. I'm now 50 years old and still enjoy my toy collection.
Truth! I almost never had more than one of any given type of toy (unless acquired second-hand from a garage sale or something), but I had enough of these little dudes to fill up a tiny trash can. (Still small, but quite a bit bigger than the ones they came in.)
At some point my dad realized I was even making my own toys out of trash I found in our backyard. I had a Dr. kit that I got probably for Christmas or something, and I made my own patient out a piece of fabric foam. He was impressed with my ingenuity.
I couldn’t even tell you why but I was OBSESSED with these things.
Same, had tons and couldn't get enough...lol
I still have a bunch of mine somewhere.
It’s the OG wrestling booker simulator
I just discovered a bag of these that's been moved with me for decades without seeing the light of day
@CinHotlanta lucky you! I wish I still had mine.
My brother and I would use them as the "3rd army" enemy to our wars. (It was Army men Vs Army Ants Vs Muscle Things) It gave us an excuse and a back story, which allowed us to combine Green, Tan, and Grey army men to the same team to battle these "monsters". Some of the simplest toys ended up being the best.
Army ants were great. I've still got about a dozen of them in good shape. Nearly all of my muscle men have missing body parts and old paint on them. I got pretty creative with my wars.
I did the same thing had army ants and these and gi Joe's they used to fight like hell
And Battle Beasts!!
yup, they were used as an unknown origin group of invaders battling my He-Man figures ....
You brought a memory back that I probably would have never thought about again in my life.
what else have you forgotten...in the wretched boring annals of your pathetic life
I lived in Japan in the 80s and these were in every grocery store and 7/11. I would drop a ¥25 coin or two to get them whenever I could. I remember one store had a broken machine that would always drop two pods everytime!
When we moved back to the US, M.U.S.C.L.E. had just started to become a thing. I had a bunch of figures no one else did! Plus, I knew all the lore and had a few magazines to show. The other boys definitely were jealous.
This is a great story, thanks for sharing! That broken machine sounds awesome, very lucky
I remember when Japan was the future.
@@synthstatic9889 Living there back in the 80s was a trip. They were crazy for everything American, but it was ever so slightly askew. Most of the manga I read were post-apocalyptic or highly romanticized stories of the future.
When you think about it, it makes sense. Japan IS a post-apocalyptic society. No one else had had a nuclear weapon used against them in wartime. I really think that it has scarred the psyche of the culture.
@@buzzkillmarquiswow that makes sense why everything in anome is so dark and twisted 😂
@@buzzkillmarquis That's an awesome story and an amazing childhood memory. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
My nephews had these. With no info, we made up backstories for them. A lot of fun!
I did the exact same thing with my nephew bro! Best wishes!
We use them for larger than mansized creatures at the DnD table
Nice, I used to dream up characters and backstories for mine. There was one I decided was Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget just because he wore similar gauntlets.
That is fantastic use of imagination! Two thumbs way up! 👍👍 Wish kids today had that same SKILL....
Funny you would say that because I was going to make a comment that I thought as my generation got older we started collecting DND metal miniatures for gaming when we grew out of our muscle men
I do too, but I modify, base, and paint them like normal minis. Their plastic takes paint and glue well and is easy to drill and carve.
@@asafoetidajones8181 That's cool, and funny, you will almost have to Modify them Otherwise I think they'd be fairly recognizable by most people especially of a certain age group LOL
I always grabbed the ones that I had to play with in the car on road trips. A couple of pencils and a pad of paper for drawing and some little action figures were all I needed.
Yes! Those were different times for sure.
Wow! How could you survive a road trip without phone or Nintendo Switch?! (that's what a modern kid would say)
In a pinch you could use them as erasers.
It's kind of amazing that these toys did as well as they did, with no real form of media attached to it. Then again, no syndicator in the 80s would dare touch Kinnikuman.
The commercial and trash can were enough
they were really cheap compared to things like GI Joe or Transformers, but still were a name brand product instead of being perceived as a knock off. that let poor kids collect a bunch of figures without being made fun of for not having the "right" figures for that type of thing.
@perfectallycromulent a major part was the pocket ability and being able to take some to school 🏫 🙃
It started as a cartoon in Japan did you watch the video
My mom would buy them for me because they were the cheapest thing in the storm
My first ever school fight was over Muscles. We made a game at my school with them and played for keeps, but since it was some weird freeform game the rules were fluid. I lost the fight, be we all lost the war since the school soon banned them. Funny enough, we also agreed that the Claw was the real best one, and would stare in awe when someone had him.
Yeah, the claw is what everyone wanted.
Loved these - remember looking through every blister pack on display at the local Kay Bee toys and couldn't find one that had the "Hand" figure. I had to have that "Hand" figure.....Tired to look through the translucent 10 packs, but couldn't tell what was in those either. My Mom told me to pick a 10 pack and we would just hope to be lucky. After getting home, we opened it, and right on top was the "Hand" - i was so happy LOL!!! So was Mom. I picked up a couple of unopened, unpunched 4 pack blisters about 10 years ago - i treasure them......
NICE, GREAT JOB ON GETTING THE HAND!
Congrats. The hunt is the best part of collecting.
I seem to remember having at least 3 hands, maybe even 4 or 5. I was the opposite of you. I wanted to stop getting the hand.
Kinnikuman figs. are still big in Japan to this day. They even have metal versions now which are still sold in capsule machines.
I would love to collect those
there's a new Kinnikuman anime on netflix!
Also, not actually mentioned in this video - kinniku translates into "muscle" - so the name in the US kind of makes sense?
i had so many of these as kids, loved them
Its the proto rival of monster in my pocket.
@@te9591 I had both they were all cool imo though I liked the colours of Monster in my Pocket
I fell hard for this toyline, never left a toy store without at least a four character blister pack. I loved them so much for their absolutely weird design and lack of backstory, was happy to make my own stories for these little pink goofs.
Still have mine at my parents house. I have so many of these little dudes. So many good memories.
Awesome.
When I was in 4th grade, our class did a little mock economy thing where every kid got a bunch of fake money and we could buy/sell whatever we wanted in class for like a week. It just so happened a bunch of kids wanted to get rid of their MUSCLE toys right at that time, which I had none of before then. I made out like a bandit, selling whatever random crap I had lying around and spending all the proceeds on huge piles of MUSCLE figures which these guys were all but giving away. I'm sure I ended up with over 100 of them. And I had so much fun with those things!
I used to have a ton of Muscle Men back in the 80's, but I lost most of my collection when I left it at the playground one day. When I was 19-20, I tried checking the internet to see if I could buy more anywhere, but instead I learned a valuable lesson about the importance of choosing your search terms carefully!
😂🤣😅😂🤣😅😭😭😭😭
Fun fact. These(along with the original comics) were where Samoa Joe got his finishing move the Muscle Buster.
wasn't there a wrestler who dressed as Curry Man?
@@hippiepeter Christopher Daniels, but not exact borderline stereotype like the character lol.
It was already being used by luchadors in the 90s.
@@Kaimax61 I remember the pseudo-wrestling organization "Kaiju Big Battel" and it reminded me a lot of Kinnikuman. I want to say they're still around, some of the "wrestlers" in that outfit have some wild gimmicks.
Fun fact, Ramenman is possibly the most favorite character in Japan and mainly China.
Still have a gallon ziplock bag full of em!!!
Will you send them to me please
Lucky!!
I have a sandwich bag full myself
Mine are stuffed into a Folger's coffee can, and the board game is with the rest of my board games.
Oh yea? I still have the checklist poster!
(but seriously, yea, that's awesome. I still have most of mine in a bag somewhere in storage)
I LOVED these…
I had a few cans, and picked up the card backs whenever I could. I even had the ring. A kid beat me up, and tried to steal some figures I had. I just held on to them, and curled up like a ball while he kicked me over, and over again. He managed to take one, and I got up and started swinging until a yard attendant came to stop us. I screamed “he took my stuff!” She made him give me my figure back, and we both got suspended. Those were the days…
I knew nothing about these little guys other than that they were everywhere growing up! Great video, thanks!
In the late 70s Toys'r'Us had these things called Canful of Monsters in the party favors section. They were plastic garbage cans containing little rubber monster figures. I found out later that they were from Ultraman, though no Ultras were included. At about 3:12 you can see some of the designs. I still have at least three of them, including two of the Windom character.
Pretty I had those. Were they kind of a MUSCLE knock off with different colors? I just remember them and muscle men always being at the bottom of the toy box, lol
@@Peppersfirst No, the Canful of Monsters contained mini rubber figures of various monsters from the Japanese show "Ultraman". They were from the same company as MUSCLE and did use the same garbage can mold. The Canful of Monsters cans came in red, green or yellow. The MUSCLE cans only came in a sort of semi-transparent finish.
@@Peppersfirst You might be thinking of Monster in My Pocket...
@@LlanoRiverBlue Yes, Mobster in my Pocket was a kind of spin off toy from Muscle, as was Cuties, which was a similar line for girls.
I loved this toy line! we had the ring and i think 50ish muscles, My favorite was the one that looked like just a hand. However, it fell into the crevasse in which the front seat belt of our 1984 Cavlier dissapeared into. So somewhere, maybe, there is a 1984 Cavalier with hidden treasure inside the passenger side seat belt hole.
Always cool to revisit old topics and see how things have changed over the years.
Thanks for the return to the Americanized version of Kinnikuman
7:42
oh wow. I have both of these still, I never did try to learn the significance of the characters outside of whatever narrative I gave them as a kid.
😄👍
These, and Battle Beasts, are the only toys from my 80s childhood that I feel nostalgic about.
It’s funny you mention that. I just found a container of my Muscle figures and Battle Beasts in my mom’s attic. I’m still trying to find the best way to display them, despite my wife’s reservations. 😂
I wish I still had my battle beasts!
Army Ants were sweet too.
I think the most important neglected piece of info was the new anime called Kinnikuman Perfect Origin Arc which is on Netflix right now. The SH Figuarts was actually a cancelled line that ran through the 2010's. The new SHF preorder for Kinnikuman is based on the new 2024 anime which uses a completely different mold than the original release. Ultimate Muscle actually did suffer a lot of changes by 4Kids especially in the dialogue.
how did it suffer,beetlebomb was translated perfectly from the original material
@@alexfield3950 he is actually called Geronimo in the Japanese version. Yeah he is supposed to be native American!
@@hannahmabbott7370 I know,I was making a joke
These were my favorite toys to play with back in the day... my favorite was the guy that looked like a globe
I loved the one that looked like a wall/arch.
Your preference was wrong. Weirdo.
I'm currently watching through the original Kinnikuman so that I can watch the new Netflix series. Thanks for the vid!
Hope you're enjoying it so far!
Heads up for anyone curious, a lot of the anime does have a lot of padding. They're not filler arcs as we know them today but more like each arc gets extended (usually by lots of one liners and jokes that are sometimes a bit more distasteful than the manga). Personally I enjoy it, you get a lot more out of the more obscure characters like Kinnikuman's parents, but if you don't want the extra then reading the manga is just as fun.
Also also heads up, the original anime diverges kinda heavily near the end of the Ultimate Tag Team arc, the cliffnotes and who beats who are the same ofc, but its worth knowing in case.
Oh yeah also also also headsup the fansub i found for the battle for the throne anime has a translators note that kind of spoils events in the reboot series. Its when Chojin Enma is on screen and that's all I can say without spoiling things myself. Sorry~
Where can I watch the original 80s series? I used to have some episodes recorded on a VHS from Japan back in the 80s. Please let me know, I really want to watch it.
@@satanwest2923 idk where to watch it legitimately, but plenty of 🏴☠️ sites will have it. 9anime kissanime etc. Be careful out there.
Because they were packed so terribly here in the US, I would go through the bin of these at Revco and always find a loose one or two I’d take.
Surprised you didn't mentioned the original Kinnikuman manga got soft rebooted and a new anime debuted in Netflix a couple months ago.
Yeah, that the brand is STILL GOING feels like kind of a big detail to leave out.
Had a bunch of these when I was a kid in the 80s. Such a cool little toy. Couldn't bring any Transformers, GI Joe or Masters of the Universe toys with me on short trips but they'd let me bring some MUSCLE figures since I could just shove some in my pocket and it wasn't a big deal if I lost a few of them. The detail on those things was pretty incredible and the designs were varied and numerous.
Mom, they're not dolls! They're "Muscle figures"!
i was definitely a MUSCLE collector as a kid and still have all of them, collected a lot of little figures from vending machines and packages. They're Just Neat Little Guys!
This provided me with some very warm nostalgia and some memories of bitter loss. There were at least a few days when I was a kid that I remember fondly. I wish I could go back and play with them one last time.
I have a toy fantasy of finding a bag full at a garage sale or antique store. Had a couple but that was it.
Do you ever go to toy shows? I see them fairly often at toy shows- sometimes you can get a good deal on them if the dealer is willing to haggle with you lol.
These guys were awesome! I had a ton of them as a kid. Loved how they came in a trash can. They were very detailed for such tiny little figures, and so many designs! Great fun and memories :)
*ULTIMATE MUSCLE!* 💪
KINNIKU BUSTER!
Looking back at collecting these - it was really weird. I never was lacking in anything - my parents gave me all sorts of toys for Christmas (well...Santa gave them to me) and my birthday, but, unlike most of my peers, I did not have an allowance per se. My father gave me ten, or later, twenty cents a day which could be lost simply by not doing a single chore such as making your bed or keeping your room clean. Things were so far above that price range that I eventually just gave up trying to earn the pennies he offered (Children are not really known for their forward thinking/saving habits) and stayed broke and happy rather than bust my butt for a dollar a week. But I would get money from grandparents and at different holidays and to make it go as far as possible M.U.S.C.L.E. was the way to go! I had tons of these things, and I think I still have a few that have made into bins and boxes that have traveled with me throughout my life! Boy the nostalgia is strong with this one!
I had a bunch of these (because everyone did), but I wasn't really into wrestling. However, when Army Ants came out came out a couple years later, I LOVED those. Mini toys were great; I had some of the die-cast Star Wars minis too!
OMG Army Ants!
I had those mini Star Wars metal figures, and the Ion Canon play set! I loved that thing as a kid!
Army ants were awesome!
@@darthpaul99 wish I still had them! I had the Falcon and the Bespin playset
I LOVED these as a kid and had tons of them!!!! But at 46 I have no idea where they escaped to. Every now and again I will go through a box and find a few floating around in there and it totally brings me back!!!! I wish I still had them all. I even had the ring until my cousin stepped on it and broke a peg off it . But I hamade my own ring with a square piece of wood, nails for the posts and electrical tape for turnbuckles for the rubber band ropes!
My brother and I had them and one time we tried to melt them together to make a statue! Lol.
😆
I collected these. Had over a hundred. Even had a poster to check off each character. Made a whole tabletop mini figure battle game with them and my d20!
A good slice of fun. Thanks, guys.
I got a bag of about a hundred of them from Goodwill, when I was a kid, and had endless fun playing with them!
In 2008, I was in Tokyo and came upon a toy store where they had about 3 dozen of the figures but updated and painted with incredible detail. I had no idea the little pink figures I'd played with for years were a big deal!
About 10 years ago, I donated a majority of my collection to the Austin Toy Museum to help them complete their collection but still have some hanging around. They brought me a lot of joy throughout the years. Thanks for the video!
Man, I had like 60 of the things. Found the bucket where I kept them when I was cleaning out my mom's house after she died. I had left it out in a shed outdoors, and they had basically turned to powder after 25 years in the Tucson heat. Those things were shit hot back in the day. The wealthier kids in my school all had complete collections. I managed to flesh mine out when K-mart was liquidating the 10pack garbage cans for $1 and the 28 packs for $5, but that was long after the fad was done.
despite the US not getting the original show, and as such, MUSCLE being more of a niche that isn't specifically tied to the original product, Kinnikuman is insanely popular in *Chile* of all places. Somehow they managed to get a dub of the anime done and running until Episode 52, which is crazy when you consider what a nightmare this show must've been for syndication.
(Yo soy muy fiel al estofado de carne~)
personally been bingewatching the dub and it's interesting how little actually gets cut, jokes that no one outside Japan would get are more or less kept intact as is most of the violence. Notably however, many scenes featuring Brockenman and Brocken Jr. are trimmed down for obvious reasons.
M.U.S.C.L.E.S. was the first NES game I ever rented. The game is a wrestling game and, although fun for a young kid, the game did not age well. The game only currently offers a novelty experience. If the game were a platformer, with different characters having unique actions, it could have been a classic.
My friend and I are still intermittently using his collection of M.U.S.C.L.E. figures for our tabletop roleplaying games.
These muscle go great if you have a mini wrestling ring!
In Primary School me and my friends had hundreds of these. We were trading them like Pokémon cards before that was even a thing. The coloured ones were more popular than the plain pink ones and we often tried to collect the same figure in alternate colours. It was the tubs and maybe 4 packs we mostly had in Britain, I don't remember that many large individual blisters on sale. I don't think we ever got any of the anime released here though.
I remember Muscle toys because my cousins had them, I wish they made the original anime dubbed in English for American kids! But I’m glad we got the reboot Ultimate Muscle thanks to Fox box kids block, even though I was already in high school when Ultimate Muscle was made, my friends watched it because of its satire of WWE and WCW!
I was the perfect age when these came out. They were great because they were small, simple, and UNBREAKABLE!! I have such visceral memories of them. Great video!!
dude when I played "Ultimate Muscle" on Gamecube I KNEW it was like a familiar brand but omg.. the cel shading and humor of that game ... i tried to tell everyone about it. It probably still looks good. Its hilarious... not to mention the names
This is a joke that will only make sense to Wrestling With Wregret viewers, but hearing Terry Funk’s name immediately made me think “I’m changin’ the rules, I’m a small pink Japanese toy now.”
I never grew up with these toys but I love the Kinnikuman frachise. It specifically combines by favorite niches into each other perfectly, Wrestling, Anime, and Tokusatsu. I've also been practically religiously been keeping up with the current manga and was happy to see you showed the cover of a more recent arc to show it off.
Plus a few months ago a continuation of the original Kinnikuman run aired on Netflix called Perfect Origin Arc. And surprisingly it's getting a second season in January of next year, probably the most volatile time for the series right now to get a third boom in the states.
I made my own ring with a shoebox and two rubber bands.
4 pencil in the corners and some rubberbands
Ah Kinnikuman strikes again! The last time I encountered this was when the manga for the sequel Kinnikuman Legacy, aka Ultimate M.U.S.C.L.E. showed up nearly 20 years ago. The Gachapon connection now makes sense that I see how big the figures were in scale.
Oh man these take me back! 😊😊😊😊
In Italy, these toys were known as Exogini, and their story was completely retooled. They had no connection with wrestling, but were instead subtitled "the mysterious aliens". Commercials made no mention of their new story, which instead was relegated to a sticker album, where it was revealed that the Exogini were nanoscopic-sized aliens with the plan to invade every molecule in the universe.
I have some and the "board game" still. Some of my figures are straight from Japan.
They did a "knock off" a few years back called Z.O.M.B.I.E.S that featured horror/action based figures like Chuck Norris and Bruce Campbell. Target tossed them onto clearance fairly quick so it was cheap to get them all.
S.L.U.G. Zombies, yeah? I missed out on Series 1, which I think were sold as single figures in blind boxes. But I was able to put together Series 2-4 from Target & Toys R Us. Target had Christmas themed ones too.
@@ioncewasmikey I think that was their name. Did they come in a coffin shaped box and also a carded blister pack?
@@katenunyabizness9221 Yep, those are the ones!
My mom worked at a place called Longs Drug Store, kind of like a Walgreens back in the day. She always brought these things home for my brother and I. I saw several we had in the video, and they were cool back then! Oddly enough, they come to mind every now and then and I wish I still had a few laying around.
My grandma bought a few packages of these. A bunch got stuck in the vacuum cleaner.
We would play "Muscles" in order to win more muscles. We would agree which muscle was comparable and throw the muscle. And the other player would try to hit the muscle with his muscle figure and if he could hit that muscle then we could keep that muscle. For some reason "Annoucer" was the sought after figure. That game was full of skill and luck. I would aim with one eye and toss like I was skipping a rock to hit the other muscle. We could play this game for hours and cover blocks of street to try and win.
I had ONE figure as a kid. Didnt really find it all that "fun".
I did find some a the Goodwill a year ago, and those things resell for a lot of money.
Yeah, I remember thinking that they were kind of cool, but I only ever had one or two of them that I probably picked up at a flea market or a carnival or something. I don’t think that I ever bought a full pack at a store.
Love the vid, memories of these toys popped back into my head just a few days ago and here you are! I used to have a ton of them. I "painted" them with coloured permanent markers. Wish I had kept some... I can almost still smell them lol
I just wish the original Kikikuman (I hope I spelled that right?) manga would get an official english release. It seems like an obvious target for Viz to do, since it is a Jump manga.
Indeed would be nice, but there are a few things from that series that would still make it a little hard to work with, so I do somewhat understand the hesitance. I mean, most people would never get behind one of the big fighters is a Nazi, even if he is far more humanitarian compared to his father, or the very idea of "Chanelman" being used the way it was.
@@motherplayer tbf even the original manga cleans up his design over time, and him being a nazi is so unrelated to his character that its more likely just because german=nazi was a wrestling trope. I'm a big fan of the series and I know I don't speak for everyone but i think if you edited the manga to use his late manga/new manga design no one would care besides maybe the usual performative internet ragemongers.
My favorite childhood toys were my M.U.S.C.L.E. men. Had the ring and would also draw my own. Was pissed when I found out my mom had got rid of them one weekend I was away. I’m still salty now that I think of it
I always thought gasha was from the phrase "got ya" like haha suckered you spent $ on stupid shit.... Gotcha!
I mean a lot of gachapon stuff is really cool and surprisingly high quality
...in Japan
I've still got a plastic tub full of of M.U.S.C.L.E. Things around here somewhere... I remember having an inordinate number of the Claw Hand Guy and the Brick Top Guy, which I was quite happy about.
Back in 4th grade at a school swap meet, I was able to get a shoe box full of the little freaks for 1-entire-allowance dollar. Just for a goof, I decided to check on eBay for the going rate these days and... yeah, no.
I absolutely love these pink guys, and I still have a lot of them. Great review 👍
collectible toys are very popular among kids nowadays, it's so stupid they don't bring back M.U.S.C.L.E.
There's technically still a chance since they brought back the series with a new anime on Netflix but it hasn't caught on yet.
These were freaking awesome!!!🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Don’t know how the translators would think Terri-Bull was a better name than Buffalo Man.
They liked quippy names in the 80's.
Thank you so much, for this blast to the past. I had forgotten all about them, until now. So cool!
Wait they changed Buffaloman into Terry bull in USA? That's crazy
My guess: Calling him “Bison” would make people confuse him with M. Bison.
@@nicholaslienandjaja1815this was pre-street fighter 2
Man, I totally forgot about these guys. We thought they were tops back then but they’d grime up like silly putty in an alley
Never forget... 4kids entertainment was going to dub the OG series...
Crawl, Walk, Run. All your 80s toys needs.
Will you cover littlest pet shop someday? The red headed stepchild for hasbro franchises besides the real american heroes,little ponies, disguised robots! Also another tight episode toy buddy boy.
Thanks much for the Vid! Still have all the ones i had from childhood in a zipper pouch. My mom sewed a Muscle logo on to it so it looked like the pouch was branded. ❤️🔥
The original "pocket monsters", or "Ketsters" for short.
My favorite part about collecting Muscle men, was the Quik smell, from getting them in the chocolate milk powder tins. 😁
We collected these in the mid 80s Alaska.
What were the ones with a BH on their clothes
The character designs were interesting to look at which stimulated the imagination and made for an eclectic collection. The wrestling ring was also fun enough for what it was, although prone to breakage. Otherwise the characters were extremely durable little toys that one could carry a handful in one’s pocket. Mine have held up perfectly fine 40 years later. All of these factors made for an extremely successful simple toy line. Toymakers of today should take note!
I was very surprised and excited when only a few years ago, I discovered a small, plastic lunchbox that had belonged to my brother when we were kids (of the 80s) and my mom had kept for years afterward. Inside of the lunchbox was, as would be relevant for me to even mention, a sizeable collection of M.U.S.C.L.E. figures that my brother and I had collected back when they had been released in the mid 80s. Most of them are the colored versions, but there is a fair amount of original "flesh colored" figures as well. One of my personal favorites, and still have, is the figure that looks like three columns of an ancient Greek or Roman structure. Don't know what his original name is/was, so my brother and I just called him, "Roman Empire."
WOW I remember these!
I collected so many of them!
I might have my collection stored away in a box somewhere!
Thanks for that blast from the past!
Thanks for this. Have so many fond memories as a kid playing with these!
This video was just what I needed, to start off my night. The 80s was the best decade to be a kid.
Dude, I never thought I'd see these again. I had a bunch of them. I have no idea what happened to them. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
I still collect these and other keshi to this day. Best toy of the 80s! For a little while in 1986, you could take them to school as "erasers" before the teachers got wise. Sorry, Mrs. Johnson!
I remember when I was about five or six, I found a torn-open blister pack in a toy-shop, resulting in several of the figures falling onto the floor., and I figured that made it okay for me to take one. My mom later called me out for acting guilty, and made me give it back and apologize.
Beyond that, I still think they're pretty cool.
Lol .that was funny. I must have always seen some toy package opened in a toy store many times
I LOVED M.U.S.C.L.E.figures when I was a kid. I was already collecting baseball cards so to start collecting these little action figures was a no brainer. They were so cool looking and didn't have to worry about them breaking. I'm on eBay right now and about to buy a bag of these thing for my 5 year old grandson.
I got into Kinnikuman after watching Ultimate Muscle, over the years looking at various comic and collectible stores I've been able to score a handful of the original MUSCLE guys. Have been eyeing that collect set for a few years now but can't convince myself to pull the trigger just yet. I did however collect all of the manga prior to the relaunch even though I can't read it. 😅
To this day, I think Kinkeshi/M.U.S.C.L.E. is one of the coolest toy lines made in the 80s. A simple idea, taken to an extreme of creative breadth that is still just amazing. This year, for a birthday present to myself, I got the big Kinkeshi box from a Japanese seller on eBay. It took me hours to unwrap every figure in the box, but I'm finally living the dream of collecting them all -- and then some!
Oh man... scrolling mindlessly through and saw this, and I was immediately taken back to my childhood. I forgot all about these. Thank you!
So oddly enough I just saw these things for the first time at the Austin Toy Museum last week and had no idea what they were despite recognizing virtually every other action figure and toy line IP they had there from the late 70's into the 2000's. Thanks for solving the mystery for me Dan!
I still have a bunch of these around here somewhere. As a kid, I was fixated on collecting the cube-ish guys. I knew nothing about any lore, and until this video had completely forgotten the name of the toy line, but I played with those things alongside my Transformers and GI Joes all the time.
I was hoping you would have mentioned the GameCube game. That game, was easily the most played game in my house as you could create your own characters, name them and then choose your finishing move and name that as well. My friends who were in their early 20's had a field day coming up with the most foul and offensive names imaginable, especially for the finishing moves. But I also collected the toys in the 80's for the reason you mentioned; they were affordable. I also collected some knock off's, the main one was a bunch of ninjas, usually red, yellow and black that had glow in the dark features. Anyone remember what they were called?
Dude! I am so glad you did this! Absolutely love these little toys!! Please please please please, look into doing GUTS next. It's like if muscle and GI Joe had a baby... A very cheap, affordable baby
I literally had hundreds and hundreds of these spanning from the beginning series to the last days of multi colored. Also had a couple playsets including a "WWF Style" championship belt with wrestling ring built in. Then one day they were all gone. I think my mom sold them all at a yard sale or something. Wish i still had them, or some...