127 replies to this topic

[jkaris]

Send it EMS (via the US Postal Service). It has tracking and insurance built in. It's $23 for an envelope, but he should balk at the cost.

Or you could send it global priority mail. That is only $5 for the flat rate small envelope.

If it really is the Ricardo we know, he is legit. I have sold stuff to him before.

[Universal Ruler Supreme]

Personally, if it were me, I would ship it the fastest and most secure way possible, even if it comes out of my pocket. I would want him to get it as soon as possible, if not the same week. My dad sold some Binoculars for 500$ once to a guy in Italy. He paid Paypal, but he didn't get his package till a month later. He was a legit guy, but he was impatient and got Paypal to take the 500$ he paid us away and give it back to him cause he thought we jyped him. He got his stupid Binoculars about 3 days later. Fortunately he was honest and paid us back when he got them. This is a reason we don't sell to foreign bidders anymore. This is just to say Paypal is not always a secure method of payment. I hope I don't scare you off with this, but it is always better safe than sorry.

[Soupie]

Pictures of the auction.

Pic One

Attached Files

•  SHA___jaxon___One.jpg   186.55K   43 downloads

[Soupie]

Pic Two

Attached Files

•  SHA___jaxon___Two.jpg   173.83K   35 downloads

[ToyManiac]

Pictures of the auction.

Pic One

With "Adult Domain Names" and all.

[jax0n]

Hey everyone, I thought I'd give you all the latest. BTW, thanks for your responses on my last thread. As a matter of fact, I felt like a dumb @ss when I rec'd another email from Ricardo saying that he had read my thread here at AKIA and, he assured me he was legit.
Ok now heres the latest, and its getting a little wierd. I gathered and emailed all the various shipping methods & costs per Ricardos request. This was yesterday at about 11am pacific. Well I've sent him a total now of about 4 emails, and still no response..?? I hope the guys ok.. He was really excited about this, and even emailed me right after the Auction which was in the early-early morning. Then after that, he sent me approx. 3 other emails with his shipping info and whatnot... Then all of a sudden, he's M.I.A., no communication for almost (1) day now.. Hey Ricardo, if your reading this right now, I hope everything is alright. Please contact me with the shipping method you've decided to go with from the selection I sent you per your request, and we can get this show on the road..

Thank you,
Dave
jax0n

[Soupie]

With "Adult Domain Names" and all.

Ha, I hadn't noticed that... I have more pictures of the auction, including the bid history and jkaris' retracted bid of $3,300.



Also, I'm going to photoshop the above two pictures into one and shrink it down for easier viewing and greater, longer-lasting pleasure. I'll do all this and post it in another thread when I have time to get to my desktop computer.

[jax0n]

Hey Nathan,

BTW, your more than welcome to copy the High Res pics that I added to the auction also. But you will need to copy them to another server, because I'm probably going to toss any and all of the files that are just taking up server space and eating up my bandwidth.. It will be a couple of days before I do it though. =)

Dave

[jkaris]

Well, if rorleans backs out, you can always sell it to spacemonkey (#2 bidder) for his bid over aimeeee84 (#3 bidder), which would have been $338.

I know $338 is a good deal less than $407, but if rorleans is a flake, that's the best you can hope for, short of listing it again.

Make sure to have ebay refund your fees if rorleans backs out. No sense in paying fees for a non-paying bidder.

If it really is Ricardo, I am sure he will come through though.

[Soupie]

Wow, I was just re-reading the SR section at Tortle's Web site. Two of the original SHA owners report purchasing the figures from regular American stores (which means they were in packaging).

Furthermore, one of them reports that the SHA likely came with the head already detached and placed in the figure.

I was surprised at first, but it fit with something I had recently thought about. Perhaps SC's back half was not included because it would not easily fit in a four pack with three other figures.

Would the same be true of SHA? If there were only a few of them, maybe the Mattel workers took them apart before putting them in the package, as they did with SC. (Which is why we haven't found an attached one, though they carefully retained the easily-loseable head.)

What a pain that would be. That might be reason enough to stop making them.

However, a BHS, also reported as being found in regular packaging, has been found with Peg attached. Perhaps this fit easily into a four-pack and did not need to be removed.

Anyhow, after reading that at Tortle's site -- SHAs found in stores -- combined with the fact that none of the SR have been advertised, I personally am really liking the ideas that these guys were simply an accident.

Let's hear some reasons why this theory is bogus!

[Soupie]

I apologize to anyone who thinks I am beating this topic to a bloody pulp. But, er, here I go with some more!



TGB, I certainly respect your knowledge when it comes to all things toys. So when you say that you are 99.9% sure that Doc is gay, I have to agree with you.

However, when you say that you are 99.9% sure that the SRs can be chalked up to test marketing, I still have some doubts.

Here's why. I found a useable definition of test marketing from learnaboutit.com:

Test Marketing is a limited introduction of a product or service to test public reaction for a full market strategy. Giving the public a small sample of what is to be offered is a form of test marketing.

So, if the TM theory is correct, it must go something like this.

1) Before selling MUSCLEs nationally, Mattel sold MUSCLEs to a small portion of the public.
2) Among those MUSCLEs sold at this time were the SR, including SC. (238 figures total.)
3) Whenever MUSCLEs were sold to the rest of the nation, the SR were not included.

Here are my issues with this theory in the form of questions:

1) Why was SC's back half not included?
2) Why are there more of SC in compariosn to the other rare figures?
3) Why would SHA be sold with parts un-attached? (Not proven)
4) Why would DM and DE have been proven unfit to sell?
5) Why are the SRs (+ SC) from the same or related parts?
6) Why would SHA and BHS have been proven unfit to sell? (Extra parts?)
7) Why no SC on poster?
8) Why no color SC?

[Mr. T]

Concerning whether SHA was once one piece. There's definitely some evidence to support that it was one mold.

1) Kinkeshi version, obviously, have proven those were molded as one and sold as one.

2) The American version has a little divot on the middle right arm on the middle finger indicating, most likely, where the head was once attached. However the difference between the Japan and US version, according to this assumption, is that the heads were molded on different arms. Japan-left, US-right.

Now, the SHA could have been separated at the factory and pieced together. But why would BHS come connect and the SHA not?

I think there is a more likelihood of a kid detaching the SHA head because it's much more essential to have a figure with a head rather than hole-less chest. Which is more enticing to detach, a spinning head or a plug?

[Universal Ruler Supreme]

Couldnt' someone have come across a few molds from the same kinkeshi lines, or made molds from kinkeshi's, then took some muscles or broken muscles, melted them down and cast them in those molds? I don't know much about this stuff, but I know Marty does. I know if I knew how to make my own molds. I would definitely try it. Just an idea. Someone should try it out if they can.

[Soupie]

Concerning whether SHA was once one piece. There's definitely some evidence to support that it was one mold.

No doubt, it was made with one mold. However, one of the original owners of the MUSCLE version reports purchasing the SHA already seperated.

This seems odd, but remember, Satan Cross should have his second piece attached as well, but he does not.

Which means Mattel did for some reason either not make SC's back half, or un-attached it and discarded it. So, thinking they may have unattached SHA's head is not totally unreasonable.

The question is why? I'm saying for both figures it may have been a matter of room in a four pack, or 28 pack for that matter.

2) The American version has a little divot on the middle right arm on the middle finger indicating, most likely, where the head was once attached. However the difference between the Japan and US version, according to this assumption, is that the heads were molded on different arms. Japan-left, US-right.

That is certainly interesting. TGB, any ideas?

Now, the SHA could have been separated at the factory and pieced together. But why would BHS come connect and the SHA not?

Again, remember that SC definitely was seperated, so it is feasible that Mattel may have done this. Why? Again, I suggest the "Packaging Dilemma."

[Mr. T]

Why? Again, I suggest the "Packaging Dilemma."

this is a good possibility. By comparison, the BHS and SHA attachments are much smaller.

Which means Mattel did for some reason either not make SC's back half, or un-attached it and discarded it.

I don't think the back half of SC was ever produced because of the same observation with SHA. There's no divot on the US SC to indicate it was. Plus, discarding the back end would have been a waste unless they just recycled it back into production.

[jkaris]

You can be pretty sure that they are not customs, since they are injection molded. That equipment is not cheap.

As far as the SHA head location. The Japanese version has had it attached on either side. The US version was most likely attached as well, hence the spur on the finger.

I still think they were part of a test run, although Marty's theory that a few got sent over by accident would make sense.

As far as SC being plentiful, I would assume that he was part of the main line, but for some reason got bumped off the final version of the poster. If you look on the backs of the 28 packs, you can see what the original poster was supposed to look like. Looking closely, it has about 400 slots. There are over 400 kinkeshi, but only 306 were out at the time MUSCLE came out (up to Part 21). Could have just been an error. shizznit happens. I mean, how many executives are going to scour over the poster with a fine tooth comb? To them, they all looked that same. A poster error isn't out of the question, or even unlikely. Another idea is that SC was a manufacturers mistake. 233/234 molds, hell, who would have noticed one more sculpt than had been ordered in a pile of pink plastic figures?

We will never know for sure, but all this speculation sure is fun!

[Soupie]

I still think they were part of a test run, although Marty's theory that a few got sent over by accident would make sense.

As far as SC being plentiful, I would assume that he was part of the main line, but for some reason got bumped off the final version of the poster.

I like the test run theory too, but there is no logical reason that DM and DE would not have made the cut.

Also, SC still begs the question: Why was he not made in any other colors?

If SC was an error, perhaps the other guys were too.

Okay, okay, I'll shut up already...

[TOPHER]

Congrats to the buyer and seller of the SHA.
I was in the running for it,and was going to bid just as much as
I did when we had the SHA up on the forums last year ,and lost ,
due to my miscalculation of the time.The winning bidder was.....satan+,
a Brazilian,is he rorleans ?if so than he's got 2.If any one remembers,
that SHA had a slight ink smudge on one of his feet,maybe if it is satan+,
he got this new mintier one to replace his smudged one.
Also satan+ started a thread awhile back,with not much reply,
about the back of the 28 packs with the
different poster and noticed as I did the large amount of figures on it,much
more than our regular poster.To my old eyes it looked as if it were 20x20
in the grid,well over 223.
Maybe Mattel had intended to produce all of them
worldwide and had the trial run of the 233 just to see how popular Muscles would
fare with other kids in different countries.In the meantime while the first 233
were out Mattel decided for the go ahead and start on the second batch after
the 233.Had some molds made,started production and then had the plug pulled
abruptly without ever finishing the second batch.Leaving us with our super rares.
There,that was fun.I do like the Quick promotion idea though,cause that went
through my mind when I won a couple of them on ebay last year.

[jax0n]

and we wait, and wait, and wait.... Hey, its me Jax0n.. and Yes, stilla waitin'. =)
Finally rec'd an email from buyer saying we would finalize everything today (Saturday).. Hmmm, ok.

Anyways, check this out.. For some of you, this is probably old news, but I came across this Auction on ebay.. Check this out..
CLICK HERE to go to Auction Page

Hmmm, you guys have me thinking like you now.. =) A couple of things I noticed were of course the stretched/blurry photos with no shots of the backs of the figures. I also sent an eBay message to the seller asking if he could please provide some better photos and maybe some of the backs.. This was 2 days ago.. Still no reply. =(

The Seller comes off as being naive on the little guys.. But is he really? Hmm, the seller says,

All of the figures seem to be in good condition. In the second scan.....you can see some smaller pieces... wings...etc... I have no idea if these items go with the figures, but they were in the bag when I found them.

But in the heading, he refers to them as:

27 Original M.U.S.C.L.E Men FLESH Colored/Kinnikuman

Now this is totally my opinion, but how would he know to refer to their colors as FLESH colored.. You think it would read: Pink colored.. Being that he has no idea if the loose SHA head belongs to the body in the above picture.. Thats All.. Just my 2cents.. =)

[jkaris]

Anyways, check this out.. For some of you, this is probably old news, but I came across this Auction on ebay.. Check this out..
CLICK HERE to go to Auction Page

They are kinkeshi, except for the purple one, which is a M.U.S.C.L.E.

These small action figures measure roughly 2 inches in height and are made from a very soft rubber. All are flesh colored, except for 1 - which is purple. This one is one of the Mattel Muscle Men...which were manufactured later...and in various colors. This figure is actually made from a harder material.

[jkaris]

Here is the auctions main page. Very big file.

Attached Files

•  sha_2005_09_28_main.jpg   623.11K   36 downloads

[jkaris]

and the bidders

Attached Files

•  sha_2005_09_28_bids.jpg   214.08K   30 downloads

[jax0n]

Hey everybody, well GREAT news.. RICARDO from Brazil successfully received his SHA today.. Man, what a nail biter this was. But everything worked out smooth. I actually tracked everything along with him. I even got on the phone with USPS customs dept. because I rec'd an email from Ricardo saying it never showed up. But everything turned out perfect, and Ricardo is sure Happy!

Jax0n

Oh yeah, my feedback is finally at 10 at eBay.. hehehe

[Satan+]

Hello all and specially David (jaxOn) . My name is Ricardo , I am from Brazil , and I am the winner of the last SHA´s auction .
First , I would like to register a positive feedback to David . He intend to sell his others collections like He-Man , Star Wars and Transformers and I think it can help him .
Second , I will confirme the authenticity of this SHA ... It is 100% M.U.S.C.L.E. and in very mint condicion ( light flesh color and no defects as well ) .
So , I think with this SHA my collection is more valuable .
Thanks a lot .
Ricardo .