1986 Newspaper Ad for Mattel’s M.U.S.C.L.E. Toys
December 18, 1986. Mattel’s series of M.U.S.C.L.E. toys are arguably more memorable than they deserve. The toys didn’t survive at retail all that long, but pretty much any child of the eighties remembers these hard rubber little men. Maybe it’s because of the Mattel commercials and the fact that the toys were so cheap that pretty much any kid who wanted one of them had no problems snagging at least one of the figures.
I was fascinated with M.U.S.C.L.E. as a kid. Since Mattel gave you no background on the characters other than they were wrestlers, my imagination went wild and I developed my own personalities and stories for the toys. It was only years later than I learned that M.U.S.C.L.E. and its awesome character designs were based on the Japanese anime and manga, Kinnikuman. I’ve come to love Kinnikuman, but it is strange having both the official story and the one I created about M.U.S.C.L.E. as a kid both living in my head.