M.U.S.C.L.E. Mailaway Poster

Thanks to Doctor Dew for compositing and restoring the poster image above! 

The M.U.S.C.L.E. poster was a mail-away offer from Mattel. One could be ordered by sending two four pack proof of purchases or one 28-pack proof of purchase. At first, the poster featured all-pink figures. As the line expanded into non-pink colors, the poster was updated with the new colors. Shown here is the all-pink poster.



If you're looking for large, detailed scans of the figures, check out the MUSCLE Archive!

Poster Offers


Above, left to right: 4-pack offer, Close-up of 28-pack poster offer

The 28-pack Poster

The poster shown on the back of the 28-pack was drastically different from the one that was produced. First, the design is less "explosion" oriented, and more like a wrestling ring. Second, the number of figures on the poster is completely different. While the normal poster only showed 233 MUSCLEs, the 28-pack poster seems to feature 20 columns of MUSCLEs with 20 rows, for a total of 400 MUSCLEs! That number seems to reflect the number of Japanese Kinnikuman Kinkeshi, so it's possible that Mattel had planned on releasing the entire Kinkeshi line as MUSCLEs in America at one time.

So what figures exactly are shown on the 28-pack poster? Alas, we may never know. While it appears that there are definite figures on the 28-pack poster, when it's scanned at high resolution, you don't see much additional detail. Rather, you see more of that dot-printing technique than anything. This picture of the poster seems to be best viewed at a distance, but if you're curious, here's a high resolution scan.

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