Muscle Men
Wow. Just had a another flashback to my childhood, and I have no idea where it came from. It came unbidden from the depths of my memories like a baseball bat to the back of the head. You don’t see it coming, and it hits you hard.
There were these cheap toys called “Muscle Men” that came out when I was around 10 or 11 years old. They were these tiny little men made of flesh-colored rubber. There were all sorts. I loved playing with them. I had several dozen, and I was nowhere near to collecting all 200+ different ones. I’m not sure where my mom found them, but I loved playing with them all the time.
Now for a bit of geekiness. I decided to make a tournament ladder for all of the Muscle Men. I had names for them all, and I setup a tournament-style competition between them all. I would make them hit each other, and tackle each other, and do all sorts of wrestling moves for them. I never would decide who would be the winner before the fight. I would let my imagination run free with the fight, and one of them would always win. I would note the winner on my tournament tree, and move on to the next fight.
I had a great time playing with all of them. I don’t know what happened to them. They got lost somewhere along the way in one of the many moves of my childhood. Ah… well… Such is life.
