Colossal Rubber Tussle

I'm sure we all have a lot on our minds right now. Me, I've got the obvious things we've dealing with as well as preparing for our move in the summer. That's not the best introduction to this post, but I'm not afraid to admit it. I was dreaming about being quarantined in our new place and organizing M.U.S.C.L.E toys. Honestly it's the kind of this I'd do normally.

So, there I was, setting up the new Zone Base headquarters and decided it was time to hold a giant wrestling event with my toys. A real life issue is my childhood M.U.S.C.L.E toys are in various forms of storage at my Mom's house. Real talk, most have probably evaporated in that parents house wormhole that eats things. My 2000's Ultimate M.U.S.C.L.E figures are all sorts of assorted throughout multiple boxed next to most of my Microman toys. My current ones are readily handy as well as multiple other keshi lines.

I traveled to the local Dollar Tree to pick up a good $10 worth of those tiny crappy wrestling rings they usually have with el cheapo jobbers included. For the record, I was taking advantage of all current wrestling events being filmed without audiences. Clearly I have cats and Vince McMahon doesn't. Also my event was streamed on Instagram, completely free like this site. So hey, if you like what I do, please share, it's all I ask.

So I divided my teams up. Universal Monsters, The Worst, WWE, Transformers (Beast Wars and G1), Peanuts, Star Wars, etc. I set up a ranking system based on a very crucial formula (which ever I grabbed first). One of my many tablets served as the titan tron and in the crowd... my fish. I think he was awake. Play that 'click, click, boom' song, it was on. And by on I mean I woke up having to pee another ocean. In my defense, if they sold Surge in normal sized cans at the gas station... I'd still get the tall boy.

Super Surprise!

I love mini figures and keshi is my favorite format. From M.U.S.C.L.E to Decoys to other little rubber guys, it's just perfect for a blind bag or vending machine. Super 7 is a great company I've been a fan of sine discovering their magazine in the early 2000's. Clearly on the same wavelength I'm on, the company makes great products that I love. Their various keshi lines are perfect. Great sculpts in a variety of colors and characters. While I'm focusing on Transformers here, their other lines are just as wonderful. Universal Monsters (heart), Masters of the Universe (awesome), The Worst (their own rad creation), and Peanuts (so awesome) are just some of the epic selection they offer. They do keshi right.

The toys are usually available in various multi-packs or in blind boxes under the Keshi Surprise! line. Keshi Suprise! come in great little boxes (I appreciate good looking packaging). Inside the box is a little baggie containing your figure and a cool sticker of the character similar to buying keshi in a Gashapon machine. Super 7 has street cred, that's legit dope. Gashapon machines are not a common thing here in America sadly. Occasionally a specialty shop will have them (I used to clear a local shops machine out until the place eventually closed), but the closest we normally have is gumball style machines which results vary.

While I'm ok ordering from the Super 7 store, boy I'd love to grab a handful of these at Target or Five Below (which depending on your location, has carded M.U.S.C.L.E). Going out and hitting up my favorite blind toy spots is a good time. There's toy hunting and then there's blind toy hunting. Finding them at a store is only half the battle, there's also the gamble of whats inside. If there a code? Hope there's a code, if not I'm just grabbing a ton. Some people tour the world hunting for rare treasure, I scour the suburbs filling my drawstring backpack with little rubber dudes.

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.

Sooper Dooper 7

 

Super 7 has even more cool stuff coming and that includes a dead version of the X-Ray Optimus Prime figure for NYCC. Man, I really, really, really want those Keshi Surprise. Those are super neat.