 The M.U.S.C.L.E.
Preservation Society was founded and is still ran by myself, Darrin M.
Vindiola Sr. It started out as a simple fan site in the fall of 1996, and
then took on the official M.P.S. name in May of 1997. We are accredited
with being the internet's very first M.U.S.C.L.E. web page.
It all started out
in a toy-collecting newsgroup back in the fall of 1996. I saw a
post with a subject heading that read... "M.U.S.C.L.E. Anyone?"
I quickly read it, and soon started corresponding with a nice guy from
the U.K. named Tim Drage. We were both amazed at how many people
remembered M.U.S.C.L.E. but after spending months scouring the Internet,
we couldn't find a single web site dedicated to them. I threatened
to put a change to that, and Tim encouraged me to do so. With no
scanner or digital camera at my disposal, Tim supplied me with scans and
images of several M.U.S.C.L.E. figures. I then used AOL's homepage
builder to construct the internet's very first M.U.S.C.L.E. site.
Tim was with me in the very beginning and if it weren't for him, it's
quite possible that The M.P.S. might have never been formed.
"Darrin's
M.U.S.C.L.E. Page" rapidly started to gain a following that quite
honestly shocked me. After a few months in early 1997, I renamed it
"The M.U.S.C.L.E. Preservation Society". The M.P.S. was a
hub for collectors to meet, chat, trade, buy, and sell M.U.S.C.L.E.
Soon I had M.U.S.C.L.E. fans from all over the world e-mailing me from
Australia, Canada, The U.K., New Zealand, Germany, France, Japan, and
China! It was quite the phenomenon, and I was ecstatic to be right in the
middle of it. Soon we started offering memberships to our society
for the cost of $10.00 a year. A year’s membership got you a
membership card, certificate, access to member’s only web pages, and a
subscription to The M.U.S.C.L.E. Times newsletter. The M.U.S.C.L.E.
Times featured articles, stories, memories, comics and more.
The first official M.P.S. website banner
One of our main
goals we started pursuing in 1998, was to try and get the toy line
re-released. We started an online petition to Mattel that fell on deaf
ears even after several well thought out attempts of presenting it to
them. In 2002 M.U.S.C.L.E. Heads got their wish... sort of.
The M.U.S.C.L.E.'s cousins from Japan "Kinnikuman" arrived to
the states in the form of a cartoon series, and the merchandising wave
followed. It wasn't the same as the old days, but the
"M.U.S.C.L.E. like" toys were pretty cool, and it inevitably
brought more exposure to our hobby.
During the last few
years, The M.U.S.C.L.E. Preservation Society fell by the wayside due to
personal circumstances, and I couldn't keep it running the way it
deserved to be ran. In fact.. a few years ago, I handed The
M.P.S. over lock, stock, and barrel to another collector who promised to
keep it running when I could no longer buy out the time to do so.
Long story short.. the results were disastrous and the site was
abandoned. When I learned of these developments, I decided that I
couldn't sit by idly and let my baby fade into oblivion. I launched
the site once again under the name "Darrin's M.U.S.C.L.E.
Dojo". The Dojo enjoyed a year and a half run, until I
revamped it in 2006 and renamed it "The M.U.S.C.L.E.
Guild".
Finally.. in 2007 I
had an epiphany. I realized that numerous people never stopped
referring to my site as "The M.P.S." what’s more.. many
friends and collectors were referring to me as "The father of the
hobby". So at a time when the hobby seemed like it could use a
much needed shot in the arm, I decided to bring back The M.P.S. after
nearly a five year hiatus. Will the M.P.S. once again regain the
following and glory that it enjoyed back in the 90's? Only time
will tell, but as long as I can provide an informative and fun spot for
new and seasoned collectors to frequent, that's enough for
me.
A lot of people say
that I'm responsible for the birth of this hobby, but I don't believe
that. There were a lot of hard-core collectors with me in the very
beginning that put in endless hours of cataloging and research, and all
of them were more than happy to share the wealth of knowledge they
acquired along the way. M.U.S.C.L.E. is a great toy line, and it
only would have been a matter of time before someone started up an
organization or club dedicated to them. I guess it does feel
good knowing that I had a hand in all of this, and I can only hope that
the hobby will continue to thrive in the years to come.
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