M.U.S.C.L.E MAYHEM

It was sometime in college that I learned more about M.U.S.C.L.E figures origins. I had bought quite a ton of the little guys as a kid, which lead me to being interested in other similar figures. Monsters in my Pocket, Transformers Decoys, random little rubber figures in vending machines and ticket redemption booths at the arcade (hey, this one's He-Man!). Turns out they were a type of figure called keshi with roots in Japan (it's by absolute coincidence that so many things I like come from there). M.U.S.C.L.E was based on a series called Kinnikuman but here in America was given a sort of Garbage Pail Kids treatment (larger packs of the toys even came in garbage cans).

Kinnikuman is kinda similar to Dragon Ball in ways (light comparison, don't come at me) while M.U.S.C.L.E just gave the figures a basic story of weirdo creatures (Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere) that just happened to be wrestlers who fought a lot. Even though the early 2000's U.S reintroduction of the series (Ultimate MUSCLE) was a pretty direct adaption of Kinnikuman (boy I bought a ton of those), I'll admit to preferring the M.U.S.C.L.E setting. No real reason I suppose, it's just a fun light setting for these little weird dudes to exist in. Not to mention, whenever I get newer M.U.S.C.L.E figures, it's cool to see Ric Flair to enter the wrestling anarchy.

Counter Punch, Clones, and Decoys

Man the animation for this commercial looks great, I really like the Clones in action.

GIG Cominer gift sets commercial

I wish the store employees were this happy to sell me Transformers at Target.

Cloudbursting my bubble

Note the Power Suits in this old Diaclone commercial kinda look like...

Good old Pretender Cloudburst's shell...

Who just got a Primemaster update, which is just small enough...

To fit a modern Diaclone pilot with a minor modification, and hey...they look a little similar to that inner robot.

This never occurred to me until I saw a guy in Microfans posting his custom Power Suits using Primemaster decoy armor. My mind was blown with just a little paint and a piece to give the pilot something to stand on in the suit how suddenly Cloudburst was adapted. I wonder if this was intentional? Either way, it's super cool.

I wish I could Hascon

I can't wait to own a million tiny Pretenders.

While I couldn't make it to Hascon, I've been certainly enjoying the coverage (pic from TFW2005) so far and am looking forward to getting my Titanmaster Arcee soon (thanks Kilby!). It's nice living in times where even if you can't go to an event, you can still enjoy the sights and news in real time (assuming the 4G signal is good) and talk about everything with others either not there or maybe are there and taking a minute to check their phone.

I'm hoping to hear some sort of official announcement of the new fan club (I'm so much more into fan clubs than shows) and more about the upcoming cartoon. Oh, and I suppose even more new toys would be great. Really would like to see more Power Of the Primes stuff and more on those new simple transform evergreen figures (gee, think I said something like this would be good before). I hope to get more info on store exclusives. I like store exclusives. Feels like an old BotCon that I didn't have to drive out of state for.

I'm finding myself literally chomping at the bit for Primemasters. They look so wonderful. I can't contain my excitement for them. I already love Titanmasters so very much. I was so worried that whatever replaced them wouldn't be as awesome until I saw they were actually more awesome. I'm going to be ridiculous over Primemasters. I already am. But when I actually get them in hand... I just might explode.

Monster Pretenders

Things I hope happen in Power of the Primes would include these shells returning as Primemaster decoy shells.