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M.U.S.C.L.E. Legends
A section dedicated
to those whose contributions to the hobby are unparalleled.
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Tim Drage
Would the online M.U.S.C.L.E. community exist today if it weren't for
The M.P.S.? Of course it would... I was just lucky enough to be the first
M.U.S.C.L.E. enthusiast to design such a site. I wouldn't have probably
attempted it though, if not for my good friend from the U.K. Tim Drage.
In our early days of M.U.S.C.L.E. collecting, Tim encouraged me to
build a fan-site and supplied me with scans and images of M.U.S.C.L.E.
figures at a time when I had no digital camera or scanner at my
disposal. He followed suit and built the Internet's 3rd (and The United
Kingdom's very first) M.U.S.C.L.E. site. My web design and
graphic skills back then were horrendous, but I think I've at least
graduated to mediocre all thanks to this web-site. Tim
has moved on to bigger and better things such as producing short films
for
LEGO productions, but
Tim's M.U.S.C.L.E. site is still up
and running and is always fun to browse through especially if you want
to reminisce about the early days of our hobby.
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Taka Kurosaka
About a year after The M.P.S. was
formed, I learned that the concept of M.U.S.C.L.E. was no new concept
at all. In fact, it originated from a Japanese toy line called
Kinnikuman. Our beloved M.U.S.C.L.E. toy line paled in comparison to the
massive kinnikuman toy line enjoyed by youngsters in Japan. After I had
obtained almost every item that there was in the American toy line, I
found myself getting more and more interested in Kinnikuman. It wasn't
long after that when I became friends with Taka Kurosaka. Taka
knowledge about Kinnikuman is astonishing. He gladly offered tons of
information that helped clear up questions about the M.U.S.C.L.E. toy
line, and in turn quenched my thirst for Kinnikuman knowledge. He
didn't stop with The M.P.S. though. He has helped many others that run
Kinnikuman web sites, supplying them with Japanese names for the
figures, history, plots, translations, and much much more. A lot of the
Kinnikuman sites out there today wouldn't even exist if it weren't for
him. You don't find too many people like Taka who are so ready to
selflessly give of themselves, and he's helped the hobby to evolve and
grow more than he'll ever know.
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Kevin Mayle ~
The artwork
of Kevin Mayle
Kevin Mayle is a truly talented individual. I was and still am
extremely blessed to have his talents at my disposal. His
Kinnikuman and M.U.S.C.L.E. illustrations have graced the old M.P.S. newsletter
and have been incorporated into our site itself on numerous
occasions. Whether it's art or information.. Kevin selflessly
gives of himself, and has made our hobby much more colorful and unique
for doing so. Thanks Kevin! The endless hours of time
you've put into creating masterpieces for us is not overlooked, and we
truly appreciate it!
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Jason Radniecki -
M.U.S.C.L.E. Championship Wrestling
I met Jason on the web
shortly after I began collecting M.U.S.C.L.E. again in 1996. His
talents at web-page design even waaaay back in the days of HTML 3.0
were amazing! He also never ran out of fresh and interesting material
to put on his web site. He started the very first online M.U.S.C.L.E.
Wrestling league (M.U.S.C.L.E. Championship Wrestling) and his
customized hand painted M.U.S.C.L.E.'s served as the stars. They all
had their very own distinct personalities, which he brought to life
though his site. He drew many new people into the hobby, started a
craze of "M.U.S.C.L.E. painting", and was one of our biggest
supporters. He was always willing to help us in any way he could
with promotion and design aspects of the site. Jason's sense of
humor that permeated his whole site always kept me from taking myself
too seriously. Now in 2007 he's gearing up for a comeback.
He was sorely missed, and his site's second coming is creating quite a
buzz in the hobby!
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Nathan Newell
~
Nathan's M.U.S.C.L.E. Page
What can I say about Nathan that already
hasn't been said before. He's one of those in our hobby that are
affectionately referred to as "old timers". He was
there almost from the beginning and became part of our very close-knit
circle of collectors who spent endless hours searching for, buying, and
cataloging M.U.S.C.L.E. finds with us. When any of us would obtain new
bits of info, we'd meet in the old M.P.S. chat room, and discuss it for
hours, or submit it to our friends via online and printed
newsletters.. Always more than happy to share the results with
the rest of the M.U.S.C.L.E. community, he decided to start his own
site as well. The end result was truly amazing. Pleasing to the eye,
informative, easy to navigate, and above all... FUN! He was real
adamant about building a web site that was completely different from
the M.P.S. and succeeded in building a site which helped take our hobby
to the next level. Nathan's own brand of humor and imagination are
showcased through his great site, and no matter how much you go there,
you can never get enough of it. He's our biggest source of inspiration
to try and keep things fresh here at The M.P.S. Through the
years, Nathan has selflessly contributed his time helping us with
graphics, design elements, and research that has helped The M.P.S. evolve
into what it is today, and we're truly thankful.
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Patrick Gresham
Pat was one of the first
collectors I met when I began my quest to attain every M.U.S.C.L.E.
ever made. He encouraged me to make the transition from a simple fan
based site, to a more organized site for fans. His enthusiasm for the
hobby never ceased to amaze me. Pat was the first mega collector in our
hobby. A couple years into
the hobby, he had over 2,000 M.U.S.C.L.E. figures in his collection. He at one time had so
many M.U.S.C.L.E. four packs in his collection; he could completely
cover himself up under a big pile of them on the floor. His now defunct
website "Patrick Gresham's M.U.S.C.L.E. Page" was always
fresh, funny, and informative, and is truly missed.
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Johnny Karis -
LittleRubberGuys.com
Johnny is one of the collectors I met a
little later than all of the others listed here. He is a huge
Kinnikuman fan, and what he's done for our hobby is unparalleled.
Johnny heads up a forum of discussion boards which were originally
created by old M.P.S. Member John Morey. The L.R.B. boards have helped the hobby
to grow by leaps and bounds. His Kinnikuman, M.U.S.C.L.E., Ultimate
MUSCLE, and Battle Beasts discussion boards have helped to bridge
collectors of these four very different, yet very similar toy line's,
and in turn has generated new interest for all three hobbies. Just when
we thought it had all been done, and many were losing interest in the
M.U.S.C.L.E. hobby, Johnny saw an opportunity to make it better and
took the bull by the horns. When Kinnikuman Ultimate MUSCLE came to the
states, the boards really lit up! Frequenting the boards has definitely
renewed my enthusiasm for the hobby, and helps me to see what kinds of
things collectors are looking to get out of this hobby. His boards have
helped us develop our very own little subculture of "MUSCLE
Heads". If it keeps going the way it has been, our dreams of a
"MUSCLE-Con" may very well come to life someday.
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From the LittleRubberGuys forums..
"Soupie" ~
Soupies M.U.S.C.L.E. color image archive
This cat took up the daunting task of trying to figure out exactly how
many colors were available, for each and every one of the 233 figures
in the M.U.S.C.L.E. toy line! He then compiled all of this data
into an unbelievably organized and informative online guide. His
site is an invaluable tool for all M.U.S.C.L.E. Heads, and we salute
him!
Doc Moore ~
Jason and
Tsubasa's M.U.S.C.L.E. and Kinnikuman Site
a.k.a. "Doc Moore"
on the AKIA Forums.
In depth bio's on Kinnikuman
wrestlers, and more!
"General Veers" ~
Rare
M.U.S.C.L.E. Stuff
A great guy who has painstakingly researched the many mysteries of Rare
M.U.S.C.L.E. items. He's always willing to offer help, and share
his wealth of knowledge with anyone who asks.
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Matthew Dale, Nathan Newell,
Barrett X, Matt Davis, Paul Griffin, Joe Dunnigan, John Morey,
Karl Youngblood, Peter Vanderhaeghe, Jonathan Karis, Douglas Grote
& Chris Olian
I'm an avid collector of various
pop-culture items, with my favorite toy line being M.U.S.C.L.E. The
Fall of 2000 brought on certain circumstances in my life that forced me
to start selling of bits and pieces of my vast toy collection to get
generate cash flow. At first I started selling off items that
weren't all that important to me, but as time passed, and the need for
money became more and more urgent
I had to start making sacrifices. One of my most prized
possessions as far as toy collecting goes was my full set of 233 Pink
M.U.S.C.L.E. Men. After several days of struggling with the idea,
I finally decided to put them up for auction on the web, all the while
in the back of my mind hoping that it wouldn't fetch the reserve price
I had set. November first rolled around, the auction ended, and the set
did indeed sell for my asking price. I was very disheartened, and even
though I had made some money.. I was very saddened knowing that I would
soon have to part with the collection that took me so long to complete.
One consolation was that a collecting buddy (Matthew Dale) who I
had built a friendship with over the course of forming The M.P.S. had
bought them, so I knew they were going to a good home.
The third week in December I received
a package in the mail from my buddy Matthew. The outside of the package
read... "do not open until Dec 25th". I respected his wishes
and waited until then to open it. Imagine my surprise when I opened the
package on Monday the 25th to find my complete set of 233 M.U.S.C.L.E.
Men staring back at me!! I was dumbfounded! Speechless!
Attached was a card and it read as follows....
Many of us owe you a great
deal for the vast number of hours you have put into establishing the
online M.U.S.C.L.E. Community. It is inconceivable that you of
all people should have to give up your collection of pinks. So in the
name of M.U.S.C.L.E. Heads everywhere, we wish to present you with this
small token of our appreciation. Signed...
Matthew Dale, Nathan
Newell, Barrett X, Matt Davis, Paul Griffin, Joe Dunnigan, John Morey,
Karl Youngblood, Peter N. Vanderhaeghe, Jonathan Karis, Douglas Grote,
Chris Olian
Now... the extraordinary thing about
this situation, is that I have never even met a single one of these
guys in person! They are all buddies I've made within the online
M.U.S.C.L.E. community!! Thanks to them, I had been reunited with my
most prized possession in collecting. As I sat back grinning from ear
to ear, it started to sink in. Everything has got its price, except for
friendship. These guys spent their hard earned money not only to help
me out, but also to help me keep what I had worked so hard to achieve.
Why? Because they felt they owed it to me.
It still shocks me that people are so
appreciative of what I've done by forming the M.P.S. As a matter of
fact, I've always said that someone else would have done something like
this if I hadn't. I consider myself very fortunate to be the first
one to form a M.U.S.C.L.E. web site and collectors club. I've made many
friends over the years, and I have no intention of backing away from
the hobby anytime soon. If nothing else, this experience motivated me
more than ever, to get our community buzzing with lots of activity
again. I'm honored to share the title of "M.U.S.C.L.E.
enthusiast" with the people listed above. This experience has made
me see that a club such as ours goes far past the act of collecting for
oneself, and I'm truly honored to know that these people think this
much of me. It's good to know that there are people out there with
hearts as big as theirs. From the bottom of my heart... Thank you all
very much! I don't know if I can ever be able to fully express my
gratitude for what you have done for me, but you can bet I'll try.
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