My Collection

Romando Kinnikuman

I love these figures. Love them. I first saw them when Toyfare magazine did a pictorial about the Japanese Toy Fair, and was totally excited to see that the guys from my childhood M.U.S.C.L.E. collection were now huge, colorful, articulated figures.

I then bought a whole bunch while I was in college, kept them for a few years, and then sold them because I needed the cash. A few years later when I was on better financial footing I bought probably about 30 of them. I sunk a crazy amount of money and was trying to collect them all. It became evident while trying to track down a Mixer Taite figure that I was never going to get them all, and also that I was running out of room in my house for any other toys. With a heavy heart I decided to sell them off. At the time I was very bad at collecting "part" of a toy line, and was of the mind of having all of them or none of them.

So here I am again. My absolute favorite figure, Akuma Shogun, appeared on Ebay recently and I had to buy it. Now I'm trying to put together a collection fo just the main good guys and my favorite group of bad guys. It'll still be expensive and take a while, but I mean to keep them this time.

My collection so far:

Akuma Shogun

Sunshine

Geronimo

Robin Knight

The Ninja

Sunigator

Sunigator in Claw form

Alexandria Meat

M.U.S.C.L.E.

I've had a large number of these at various times of my collecting life, from the 80's as a kid to three years ago when I sold about 150 of them at a garage sale.

My attraction to these now is pretty much derived from the anime property it's based on, Kinnikuman, which is a sweet 80's wrestling/monsters mash-up. The characters are very cool, the story is funny, it's been largely ignored in the USA for a long time.

So I'm slowly re-building my collection, aiming for my favorite characters first. In the list below I'll give the character name if I know it and the M.U.S.C.L.E. poster numbers.

I am behind in keeping up my photos, so there are none for the time being. However I do have the following, by number:

002
003
004
005
006
009
014
016
020
021
023
024
030
031
032
036
039
042
043
046
048
049
052
053
054
058
067
070
071
072
073
075
079
082
084
091
101
106
108
109
111
117
123
124
125
126
133
136
140
141
149
153
154
155
156
158
161
165
166
167
174
178
182
184
204
211
215
216
222
223
225
228
231
234
235

Wrestling Ring

Woodseys

This is a cute little line thatI had some of as a kid. Most of the ones below are what I still have from my childhood.

I'm not really looking for these aggressively but it'd be nice to build this collection.

My collection so far:

Papa, Milkweed

Bramble Beaver, Grandma

Blue Bird

Woodseys Log Cabin

Woodsey Store

Definitely Dinosaurs

I bought one of these at a thrift store very cheaply with the idea of throwing it in my garage sale for slightly more.

Then I found more of them, and I bought those too.

Then when they didn't sell, I'm sure in part because the price I was asking was somewhat ridiculous, I bought some more.

Now I don't want to sell them because I find them pretty sweet. I think everyone should have a dinosaur line, and this one is mine.

An interesting side story, it's because of this toy line that I learned that humans and dinosaurs did not coexist. I remember being in a store when I was very young and commenting to my dad about how I found something about them sort of stupid. Then he said something along the lines of, "Yeah, dinosaurs were dead before there were people", and suddenly I had learn something.

Lastly, as much as I come across these guys pretty often I NEVER find any of the saddles for the dinos. It's becoming maddening, and I really hope I find some soon.

My collection so far:

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Triceratops

Spinosaurus

Stegosaurus

Anatosaurus

Pachycephalosaurus

Dimetron

Moschops

Deinonychus

?, Grak

Zorg, ?

Reeve

Fisher Price Sesame Street

For the sake of full disclosure I should say that my father worked for Fisher Price when I was young. As a result my house was absolutely filthy with FP toys. There are several collections that are or will be posted on this blog that are inspired by toys I got while he worked there.

Fisher Price Play Family figures, or as they're often known "Little People" are, in my mind, the prototype child's toy. They're so basic and fun and I had a ton of them as a kid. I didn't have the Sesame Street figures though as they came out before I was born.

I had often seen the Sesame Street playset at garage sales or collectibles stores, however it was often without any accessories, or the lithograph on the side was in horrible shape, so I didn't buy it for the longest time. Then one day at a small church rummage sale I bought the one below from an old lady which was absolutely packed with stuff. The handle was broken on one side, and the chalk board had crayon on it but the litho was in wonderful shape so I offered her $30 (a number that she was pleasantly surprised by).

The second playset is less cool, and I didn't really "want" it, but it was a decent price and it had one of the figures I needed. The figurines I've had amazing luck finding for very little money. The only two I'm missing now are Gordon and The Count. People keep telling me how not rare these figures are, but yet nobody seems to have them for sale around here. But, the hunt is half the fun.

There are a couple pieces I'm missing for the playsets too, but I feel pretty confident I'll find everything locally.

My collection so far:

Play Family Sesame Street Playset

I'm so very impressed with the above playset and the amazing attention to detail that I tried to jam my camera (well, phone) in and take a bunch of detail photos. Try to find anything outside of collectors toylines that gets that much love nowadays.