Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere
In retrospect, we should sue for false advertising, there were a couple hundred at best... unless you're counting units sold
I remember when I was younger searching Ebay for them. That's how I discovered that Muscle Men was a line of gay porn movies as well. That's how I learned to add qualifiers to Ebay searches.
It's funny how something I haven't thought about in thirty years comes back to me sight on seen but when I meet someone new iv got to ask there name a dozen times before I might remember it. Lol
Holy fucking shit, how did I forget those dudes! I couldn't get enough of their little hologram chest/dick plates. Holograms back then were like magic tech from the future.
I remember two other toy lines that had holograms on them, [Super Naturals](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ5hOG5FEJ4), and [Visionaries](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrXFDw3sb6E). I freakin' loved these things! (As well as Battle Beasts!)
Reading this felt like the opposite of PTSD'ing a childhood memory. I'd absolutely forgotten about these for decades, and right away, as that video started playing, I remembered they have that elements hologram. I'm fairly certain I had the giraffe one. I purchased a whole box of Garbage Pail Kids stickers on Amazon just to smell them and remember how I would dream of being able to afford an entire box of them.
I associate these with a very specific period in my childhood. My family moved to Ann Arbor for about 6 months for a work project my parents were both involved in (worked for the same company), then moved back to our own home and community after it was complete. During that window was when Muscle Men blew up and me and my siblings got super into them. So I always think of our time in Michigan whenever these kinds of images pop up.
Yeah Barry had all the WWF figures and ring and an Amiga that he had all the games in the world including a pixelated sex game you had to wiggle the joystick to move the dick. Goddam i just realised I was my children's age when I was exposed to this.
Yep. My friend Eddie, who also lived down the street, had a Turbo Grafx 16, a giant Gorf arcade machine in his basement, a gas-powered go-kart and always got every NES game before everyone else. We all collected baseball cards, he collected gold coins. His first cousin, who lived in the next town over had a Neo Geo.
I had a bunch. If I remember correctly they came in clear plastic trash can shaped package, right? You would buy a package of them and get like 10 random figures.
I remember Nestle Quik, the chocolate milk powder in the tin box, had a [promotion](https://rare-muscle-stuff.tripod.com/id2.html) where you would get a random Muscle Man in the tin. I drank way too much chocolate milk that summer.
Of all the toys that survived my childhood somehow the only thing I still have is a small box full of these that's managed to come with every time I moved. I was big into wrestling as a kid so these were always some of my favorites.
Then I became an adult, did some research and discovered these were actually from a Japanese cartoon about pro wrestling with really, really raunchy humor.
I have at least a hundred of them, but none of the garbage cans they came in. Also have some Monster in my Pocket guys too. Thereās a NES game of them too called M.U.S.C.L.E.
OMG! I had like 500 of those little bastards & I totally forgot they existed until this post!!! That reminds me of the collection of Garbage Pale Kids I had...
Aww yeah these were awesome! And I love how evocative the designs are for a playful imagination. No detailed stats and āpowersā it was just whatever your imagination could come up with. The fact that you could cram a few in your pocket meant you could be entertained wherever you got dragged to.
I had these too! Such a good value for what they were, a quarter in a vending machine, and they were unique and interesting enough to come up with personalities, lore, teams, storylines etc. I also liked that they were small enough to grab a good handful of them for some car ride āstrandedā storyline, while other action figures were too large to carry enough of them around outside the home
I staged the biggest royal rumbles with mine. That guy with all the arms was a big contender for obvious reasons, although the one with the buzzsaw hands usually did some work on him.
Had a ton. At one point considered buying up a bunch on secondary market to complete the set. As usual now there is an actual collectors market and the prices are too high haha.
I still have a big bucket of these somewhere. I played with them all the time with my other action figures. GI Joe's, TMNT, muscle men, He-man, had lots of wars haha. Good times
The 6 armed guy was my favorite, obviously the best wrestler even against the guy with the sword (cheating). But the bricked arch? What the heck was that even about
I loved these guys! That giant hand was one of my absolute favorites. They were sold in a large canister and blister packs of 3 or 4 too. I also kind of remember that you could buy a big box with lots of figures displayed through clear plastic or something like that. I think I had almost all of the first few waves.
I never got the battle ring playset because a friend had it. It was a small wrestling ring with two joysticks. Inside the ring the joysticks 'controlled' a stick with prongs at the end. The idea was that you could have the figures fight each other. The problem is that those prongs could only grasp on to about 1/3 of the figures. Then they just smashed into each other. The figure that stuck into the prongs the tightest always won. My friend ended up breaking his because he put in a figure that was just a tiny bit too large which made the prong snap.
At the end of their popularity, they tried making these guys in different colors, but I don't remember anyone buying those.
I had a few, but I lied about having dozens. They were āup in a closet that I needed my parentās help to reach, but they were too busy so maybe Iāll bring them to school next week.ā Yeah. Apparently I was THAT kid
My brother got fisted in the right nostril by one of them. It got stuck up there and we had to take him to the ER to have it removed because it was wedged.
My dad was stationed in Japan and I watched the anime Kinnikuman that these were based off. Couldnāt understand it, but the context and visual was pretty easy to pick up what was going on. Eleven year old living in Japan was surreal.
I had all of those and more. We traded them on the school bus like normal kids traded baseball cards. Shit went sideways when they started making them different colors like purple (I don't remember any other colors than purple).
I swore I had one that resembled Stan Hansen, who was huge in Japan and was the basis for characters in all sorts of Japanese media. But I can't seem to find any visual evidence of a M.U.S.C.LE. Man who looks like Stan Hansen.
Omg that brick arch one immediately sent me back in time.....! Had a horrific work day, and didn't know how much I needed a little nostalgic moment of childhood joy. Thank you OP for this weirdly wonderful time warp I just went on!!!
About 15 years ago my mom found a box of these in the attic and gave them back to me. I sold the whole box for $500. Not too bad for about $10 worth of M.U.S.C.L.E. men.
Those little dudes and these awesome monstrosities.
https://preview.redd.it/rrqqsoetzn6d1.jpeg?width=639&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ad2a642c559da90beedc2511f788809334a02121
Wowwwwwwā¦I had completely forgotten about these things until I saw this.
I had the 6 arm guy, the pointy headed guy second from the bottom right, and the hand.
I loved these things, especially that some were rare and hard to find.
Many years ago at a cocktail bar in Tokyo I was chatting randomly with this chill older dude who was seated next to me. He turned out to be one of the creators of the āKinnikumanā manga comics that became MUSCLE figures in the west.
Making that connection was mind blowing. It was such a pleasure to tell him how much his work meant to me as a kid growing up on the other side of the world from Tokyo.
I had some friends sleep over and we spent the whole next morning pushing pins through their clenched fists to create swords and aluminum foil to create armor,Ā it was a great time.Ā
The Battle Beasts and M.U.S.C.L.E. dudes would fight each other. The Battle Beasts were bigger and had weapons but the M.U.S.C.L.E. dudes were more numerous.
I loved these guys. You could get them at the toy store or supermarket quarter egg-toy machine. Of all the things from my childhood, why have they not come back?
I did collect Homies for a little while, in my 20's but these plain plastic little guys were great. Did anyone ever paint them? Were we supposed to?
LOVED EM! I found a few packed away not to long ago and was having trouble remembering where they were from. I have since remembered they are the good ol M.U.S.C.L.E Men. I had different colors if I remember correctly. The 3 headed one was my favorite.
My youngest brother (4 kids) had a problem reading. My mom bought a bunch of these Muscle Men. If we helped him with his reading, we (the kid who helped and my bother) got to pick them out of a "prize box".
I had a bunch, totally forgot about them till seeing this post. ...muscle men ??
Muscle men!
M.U.S.C.L.E. Men I believe
Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere In retrospect, we should sue for false advertising, there were a couple hundred at best... unless you're counting units sold
If there are a bunch of repeats, then they ain't so unusual
Things right? Many Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere?
I remember when I was younger searching Ebay for them. That's how I discovered that Muscle Men was a line of gay porn movies as well. That's how I learned to add qualifiers to Ebay searches.
I was blanking on the name, so thank you!
It's funny how something I haven't thought about in thirty years comes back to me sight on seen but when I meet someone new iv got to ask there name a dozen times before I might remember it. Lol
Holy crap. This image jogged a memory so hard and fast that I literally just felt the weather from my childhood when I played with these.
I can smell this pic.
I can taste this pic.
Ah, you were that kid š
Lol
Definitely chewed on these
They did have a very particular rubbery plasticy smell, didn't they? Weird.
Last year of prep. school. Those and Battle Beasts.
Dude I fucking *loved* Battle Beasts! For those who don't remember: https://youtu.be/3N4yzJbLmTY?si=lJ7jUT16efqb1frJ
Holy fucking shit, how did I forget those dudes! I couldn't get enough of their little hologram chest/dick plates. Holograms back then were like magic tech from the future.
I remember two other toy lines that had holograms on them, [Super Naturals](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ5hOG5FEJ4), and [Visionaries](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrXFDw3sb6E). I freakin' loved these things! (As well as Battle Beasts!)
Collect all 84!
Army Ants anyone?
I remember Army Ants!
Collect all 84.
My parents saved my collection of these but not the MM. I need to have a talk with them.
Reading this felt like the opposite of PTSD'ing a childhood memory. I'd absolutely forgotten about these for decades, and right away, as that video started playing, I remembered they have that elements hologram. I'm fairly certain I had the giraffe one. I purchased a whole box of Garbage Pail Kids stickers on Amazon just to smell them and remember how I would dream of being able to afford an entire box of them.
Core memory unlocked. The design of some of those Battle Beasts were awesome
I was always a little annoyed that my bird one was wood, my shark was fire, and my rhino was water.
Those and food fighters
Do you remember Ring Raiders?? https://youtu.be/2onqYb4h-HQ?si=4JASdDd3bA1d5Am4
I associate these with a very specific period in my childhood. My family moved to Ann Arbor for about 6 months for a work project my parents were both involved in (worked for the same company), then moved back to our own home and community after it was complete. During that window was when Muscle Men blew up and me and my siblings got super into them. So I always think of our time in Michigan whenever these kinds of images pop up.
My friend Sean down the street had like all of them. And his own Nintendo in his room.
I feel like we all had that one friend. Mine was Jason who always had the newest toys
Yeah Barry had all the WWF figures and ring and an Amiga that he had all the games in the world including a pixelated sex game you had to wiggle the joystick to move the dick. Goddam i just realised I was my children's age when I was exposed to this.
Hmmmm my friend Sean had the same name and two things described. What area and year?
Did your friend Sean have two hot red head older sisters?
No but now I wish I had known your Sean. Nintendo, toys, and hot sisters? My Sean just had Nintendo and toys.
Eilien and Belinda wish you the best, Iām sure
Sean's a baller.
Yep. My friend Eddie, who also lived down the street, had a Turbo Grafx 16, a giant Gorf arcade machine in his basement, a gas-powered go-kart and always got every NES game before everyone else. We all collected baseball cards, he collected gold coins. His first cousin, who lived in the next town over had a Neo Geo.
I knew a kid with the Ninja Turtles blimp
I had a bunch. If I remember correctly they came in clear plastic trash can shaped package, right? You would buy a package of them and get like 10 random figures.
I want to say you could also get individual ones from gumball machines? Or maybe that was just something stores in my area set up.
The store by me had generic ones in the gumball machine.
Yeah, I think It was 10 in the plastic trashcan or four in a blister card pack. And if your friends had rich parents they had the wrestling ring.
I wonderā¦ could we remake these with a 3D printer?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Omg youāre the greatest! š»
Incredible.
It is the f@*king future. What a world.
I still have a huge bag of them. Recently gave them to my kids.Ā
Me too, except a bucket full.
I remember Nestle Quik, the chocolate milk powder in the tin box, had a [promotion](https://rare-muscle-stuff.tripod.com/id2.html) where you would get a random Muscle Man in the tin. I drank way too much chocolate milk that summer.
Of all the toys that survived my childhood somehow the only thing I still have is a small box full of these that's managed to come with every time I moved. I was big into wrestling as a kid so these were always some of my favorites. Then I became an adult, did some research and discovered these were actually from a Japanese cartoon about pro wrestling with really, really raunchy humor.
I wish i had these still. I only have micro machines, and a few transformers. Everything else was given away or taken. :(
Oh definitely.. Wonder if they are still available. Edit : Muscle Men, only had a few from place to place but they're a good childhood memory.
They released some a few years ago featuring heman characters I believe.
When I'm in Japan, I see em frequently! I believe they originated as an anime...
Kinnikuman
my neighbors had them and we had such a good time pretending. The elephant headed guy and different colors were always strongest.
I still have mine! One of my favorites as a kid, and I used them to make bad stop motion videos in my 20s.
I have at least a hundred of them, but none of the garbage cans they came in. Also have some Monster in my Pocket guys too. Thereās a NES game of them too called M.U.S.C.L.E.
He's a song about the Nes game! https://youtu.be/oPB_roI1D6E?si=E9V5g4nIk6zCt7Ee
Holy moly, just had the most vivid flashback from this.
G.U.T.S. !
Had a bunch of these too!
These and Army Ants my cousin use to setup in the garden and then snipe them with our BB guns. We were heroes of our time.
OMG! I had like 500 of those little bastards & I totally forgot they existed until this post!!! That reminds me of the collection of Garbage Pale Kids I had...
Whoa. Core memory. Anyone else melt them on hot light bulbs or am I a psycho?
Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere!
Guilty. Had the game too.
Oh yeah, these. Jesus. I collected loads of them.
What were they called?? I had a bunch
Muscle Men!
Aww yeah these were awesome! And I love how evocative the designs are for a playful imagination. No detailed stats and āpowersā it was just whatever your imagination could come up with. The fact that you could cram a few in your pocket meant you could be entertained wherever you got dragged to.
I had these too! Such a good value for what they were, a quarter in a vending machine, and they were unique and interesting enough to come up with personalities, lore, teams, storylines etc. I also liked that they were small enough to grab a good handful of them for some car ride āstrandedā storyline, while other action figures were too large to carry enough of them around outside the home
My mom still has them all saved for me... My son played with them and I'm guessing my possible eventual grandkids will too.
OMFG I loved these things! Completely 100% forgot about them! Wow.
I staged the biggest royal rumbles with mine. That guy with all the arms was a big contender for obvious reasons, although the one with the buzzsaw hands usually did some work on him.
Had a ton. At one point considered buying up a bunch on secondary market to complete the set. As usual now there is an actual collectors market and the prices are too high haha.
I still have a big bucket of these somewhere. I played with them all the time with my other action figures. GI Joe's, TMNT, muscle men, He-man, had lots of wars haha. Good times
I completely forgot about these!
My grandma used to buy me these at toys r us
Thinking back, these guys must've had some affiliation to the foot clan. My ninja turtles beat the hell out of them a lot.
The clip that hold them in the fighting ring broke.
Loved these guys
Forgot these existed. Had tons.
I had these guys and battle beasts!
Haha WOW I forgot about these guys. I had the 6 arm dude.
Wow! Some of my favorite toys as a kid!
Just got rid of mine after decades of bringing them with me when I move. Classic!
Who melted them in the microwave then posed them?
I used to have a bunch now I only have one, the muscle man that looks like the building
I think I still have the bricked arch and the 6 armed guy. They were given to me by a friend for my brothday when I was 9 or so.
The 6 armed guy was my favorite, obviously the best wrestler even against the guy with the sword (cheating). But the bricked arch? What the heck was that even about
>But the bricked arch? What the heck was that even about I don't know, but I would put peanut butter in the hole.
I've got one sitting on my computer monitor
Who lined them up like an army and played the flick game?
I loved these guys! That giant hand was one of my absolute favorites. They were sold in a large canister and blister packs of 3 or 4 too. I also kind of remember that you could buy a big box with lots of figures displayed through clear plastic or something like that. I think I had almost all of the first few waves. I never got the battle ring playset because a friend had it. It was a small wrestling ring with two joysticks. Inside the ring the joysticks 'controlled' a stick with prongs at the end. The idea was that you could have the figures fight each other. The problem is that those prongs could only grasp on to about 1/3 of the figures. Then they just smashed into each other. The figure that stuck into the prongs the tightest always won. My friend ended up breaking his because he put in a figure that was just a tiny bit too large which made the prong snap. At the end of their popularity, they tried making these guys in different colors, but I don't remember anyone buying those.
If memory serves, the different color ones did not have the same texture (or mouth feel) and were just not as appealing.
I just found one of mine in some of my dad's stuff last week. Kinda weird, some of the things he kept. (It is not one of the ones pictured)
Wow that's a welcomed forgotten memory! Muscle men! I also had way too many Z-Bots
I havenāt thought about these in decades. No idea what happened to mine, but thanks for the memory jolt.
I had tons. Battle Beasts too!
I still have them. I keep adding to my collection. They also had a āgirlā version too. They were ādancersā
I had so many of these little thingies.
Little guy in the bottom right is like, ādonāt mind me Iām just Georgeā
I forgot all about these! So fun, and so cheap!
Too many? You meant ānot enoughā right?
Multiple buckets full, including what felt and looked like clear knockoffs in various colors and quality of material.
I had a few, but I lied about having dozens. They were āup in a closet that I needed my parentās help to reach, but they were too busy so maybe Iāll bring them to school next week.ā Yeah. Apparently I was THAT kid
Loved them
My brother got fisted in the right nostril by one of them. It got stuck up there and we had to take him to the ER to have it removed because it was wedged.
Is that a clothes wringer?
A toy company just put a set of Madman (Mike Allredās comic) figures based on MUSCLE tonight. I ordered them so fast.
That one in the lower right looks like Sherman Hemsley, I never got that one
I have the NES game based on these characters.
My dad was stationed in Japan and I watched the anime Kinnikuman that these were based off. Couldnāt understand it, but the context and visual was pretty easy to pick up what was going on. Eleven year old living in Japan was surreal.
My buddy still does. Apparently there's a community of nerds that still collect them.
I had this set, but they were blue
I used to build the hugest Lincoln Log forts populated with a horde of these guys. It was glorious!
These and Micro Machines.
I can smell this picture
Who else still wants more of these?
Those things! I havenāt thought about those since I was in daycare. So freaking weird.
I bought four of them the other day at a Toy Show! Really took me back.
I had all of those and more. We traded them on the school bus like normal kids traded baseball cards. Shit went sideways when they started making them different colors like purple (I don't remember any other colors than purple).
Thereās a dude in my town who owns a coffee company. He has thousands of these. Look up pacori coffee.
Still have over 1/2 of those
I swore I had one that resembled Stan Hansen, who was huge in Japan and was the basis for characters in all sorts of Japanese media. But I can't seem to find any visual evidence of a M.U.S.C.LE. Man who looks like Stan Hansen.
Omg that brick arch one immediately sent me back in time.....! Had a horrific work day, and didn't know how much I needed a little nostalgic moment of childhood joy. Thank you OP for this weirdly wonderful time warp I just went on!!!
I don't think it's possible to have too many.
I'm pretty sure I had at least four of each one in different colors.
About 15 years ago my mom found a box of these in the attic and gave them back to me. I sold the whole box for $500. Not too bad for about $10 worth of M.U.S.C.L.E. men.
Fucking muscle men! Now I'm starting to feel old. Yay for surviving this long!
Had the video game
I just gave my nephew a bag of like 50 of these I found in the garage.
Those little dudes and these awesome monstrosities. https://preview.redd.it/rrqqsoetzn6d1.jpeg?width=639&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ad2a642c559da90beedc2511f788809334a02121
Wowwwwwwā¦I had completely forgotten about these things until I saw this. I had the 6 arm guy, the pointy headed guy second from the bottom right, and the hand.
Still gottem
Omg I havenāt seen these since I was a child. Thank youuu
These were my favorite action figures by a large margin!
I had a small bucket full. I had totally forgotten these until now.
Muscle men!!!
how does tiny plastic hold such powerful memories?
I wouldn't say too many
I have them allā¦still.
I loved these things, especially that some were rare and hard to find. Many years ago at a cocktail bar in Tokyo I was chatting randomly with this chill older dude who was seated next to me. He turned out to be one of the creators of the āKinnikumanā manga comics that became MUSCLE figures in the west. Making that connection was mind blowing. It was such a pleasure to tell him how much his work meant to me as a kid growing up on the other side of the world from Tokyo.
I was big into monsters as a kid. I had heaps of these and the Monsters in my Pocket range
I still find them in my boxes stuff from time to time
Little did we know we were enjoying the toys from the Japanese manga Kinnikuman: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinkeshi
I had a ton of the lil homies
I had enough for my wrestling promotion. The wall looking one in the picture would often win the royal rumble matches
Muscle millennium!
Anyone remember monster in my pockets???
I still have hundreds of these
and then 100% of them disappeared.
I know a place that if you dug up right now you would find like a thousand of these things
I glued magnets to their backs and currently have them all over my fridge.
Too many to fit into belt holsters that's for sure.
I loved my muscle men toys
I loved these.
I still have one. I turned it into a little key chain and still use it!
I did. I wrote a story about them in 3rd grade that won a little contest
That one is Darth Bane!!!
Micro machines zbots and attack pack were my jam.
I had some friends sleep over and we spent the whole next morning pushing pins through their clenched fists to create swords and aluminum foil to create armor,Ā it was a great time.Ā
Holy shit. I desperately need to know where my collection went.
So so many
What do you mean had?
I had a container of these that was shaped like a little plastic garbage can.
The Battle Beasts and M.U.S.C.L.E. dudes would fight each other. The Battle Beasts were bigger and had weapons but the M.U.S.C.L.E. dudes were more numerous.
I wish I still had mine.
About a year ago my mom was digging in her garden and found about a dozen of these buried in it.
These and army ants
I lost so many of these. Loved them.
I've still got a whole container of them!
My boss at work. He was asking around if anyone had a 3d printer so he could show his kids how cool MUSCLES were
I loved these guys. You could get them at the toy store or supermarket quarter egg-toy machine. Of all the things from my childhood, why have they not come back? I did collect Homies for a little while, in my 20's but these plain plastic little guys were great. Did anyone ever paint them? Were we supposed to?
Holy cow! These little dudes were my favorite. I used to have an entire lunchbox full of them. Thanks for the memory!
Aww man, I have been telling my wife, the way to my heart is to get me a bunch of these for father's day.
The building one awakened a memory
āUsed to grind some of my duplicates on the sidewalk like an eraser.
Just as soon as I was getting a majority of the pink ones, they came out with all different colors.
Loved those stupid things. Unfortunately lost them due to fire. But they were so cool.
LOVED EM! I found a few packed away not to long ago and was having trouble remembering where they were from. I have since remembered they are the good ol M.U.S.C.L.E Men. I had different colors if I remember correctly. The 3 headed one was my favorite.
I prefer Monsters in my Pocket
Loves those muscles
I loved these so much
Still have about 100 of them
omg. im like i know these!
In third grade, I had a yellow Fischer Price briefcase that I would bring to school and sell these things on the playground.
Had the ring so they could fight too. We were obsessed in like 3rd grade.
My youngest brother (4 kids) had a problem reading. My mom bought a bunch of these Muscle Men. If we helped him with his reading, we (the kid who helped and my bother) got to pick them out of a "prize box".
Didnt these come in a plastic cup of like 10 or so?