MATTEL gave us Millions of Unusual Small
Creatures to collect, so as you could imagine, keeping track of what you had in your
collection was no easy task! That's when MATTEL came to our rescue with The
M.U.S.C.L.E. Poster. A handy guide/poster/checklist to help you keep track of
all your little wrestlers. The M.U.S.C.L.E. poster is
what collectors still reference when it comes to
identifying figures and sorting their collections. There
were two different posters made by MATTEL, and a
prototype that was featured on the back of the
28 pack
packaging for a short while.
 The
original M.U.S.C.L.E. Poster
This poster is probably the most familiar
to those who collected M.U.S.C.L.E. in the 80's. This poster featured all 233
M.U.S.C.L.E. in their original pink/flesh color. The majority of these posters
available on ebay etc., will usually have moderate to
considerable wear. The poster had little stars in the lower
right hand corner of each picture, so you could check off each M.U.S.C.L.E. as you
acquired them. Many posters you'll find will have those little
stars checked off or filled in with marker, ink, etc.
It's not unusual to find ripped corners, scotch tape, or
pin holes on most posters. After all.. it was the
80's, and kids didn't collect items with the hope of
them being worth a ton of money someday. They
actually used their toys for the purpose they were
intended for.. to play with! The posters were no
exception to this rule. I remember my friend
folding his poster up and putting it in his back pocket
so he could reference it during trading sessions at
school!
 The
Colored M.U.S.C.L.E. Poster
This next poster was released
later on when MATTEL started introducing colored M.U.S.C.L.E. into the toy line. It was
identical to the poster shown above, but as you can see... Several M.U.S.C.L.E.'s on the
poster (76 to be exact.) were colored. Another interesting fact
about the colored poster is that it actually has an error on it.
Back in February of 2005, LittleRubberGuys message board member "AForbes"
discovered that the M.U.S.C.L.E. figure featured as #8 on this
poster is in reality #10!
The numbers of the colored figures
on this poster are as follows...
DARK BLUE
8, 9, 13, 21, 24, 38, 48, 49, 51, 53, 80, 87, 115, 146, 147, 159
PURPLE
1, 6, 12, 32, 52, 59, 63, 72, 76, 79, 81, 90, 119, 121,127, 132,
137,142, 144,
153,205, 226, 230, 232
NEON GREEN
18, 198, 200, 202
RED
31, 37, 70, 78, 84, 91, 95, 120, 128, 129, 158, 160, 162, 184,
209, 212, 214, 218
NEON ORANGE
92, and 203
MAGENTA
105, 170, 176, 188, 201
TURQUOISE or LIGHT BLUE
47, 86, 173, 192, 196
SALMON
97, 114, 171
28
Pack poster
This was the poster featured on the back of 28 packs for a short while. It
has the outline of a Wrestling Ring for a border, and pictures way more than 233
M.U.S.C.L.E.'s. Since it looks like most of the figures pictured here are artist
renditions, it is believed to be a prototype that was never made available to the public.
There was
something else interesting about this version of the
poster as well. There were way more than 233 figures featured
on this poster.. over 400 to be exact! Some speculate that
this may have been a Kinnikuman poster
from Japan featuring all of the figures in the Japanese
toy line, but no one can say for sure.
Sorry
about the quality of this picture, but the image doesn't
look that much better on the packaging itself!
|
