Rebecca Milner from the Trends in Japan blog reminds us all that Manga icon Kinnikuman celebrates his 29th birthday this year. In honor, Bandai offered a commemorative premium solid gold figure that comes in a crystal capsule. (While “kinniku” means muscle in Japanese, “kin” is the word for gold).
The made-to-order items (the deadline passed on August 21st) will reach collectors TODAY, August 29th, officially Kinnikuman Day. Bandai quotes an estimated cost of ¥49,350 but notes that the actual price will reflect the current market price for gold. That is so hot. I wish I could go to the houses of some of these people who bought a $451 USD solid gold Kinnikuman and sit on their couches and touch all their stuff.
I just took a Kinnikuman trip via Wikipedia back to the 80s.
Originally created as a parody of Ultraman, Kinnikuman was a clumsy goof of a superhero whose services were only called upon to battle monsters if no other superheroes were around.
Kinnikuman’s powers came from eating garlic, which would gradually fill the “garlic meter” on his forehead until he could grow into a giant to fight the monsters. His main attack was the “Kinniku Flash” beam.
As Kinnikuman developed, it began focusing exclusively on professional wrestling in which Kinnikuman would wrestle ridiculous parodies of popular Japanese superheroes and their adversaries, including “The Toilet Paper Mummy,” a giant hand, and monsters based on things like pachinko machines and telephones.
But this is the part that jogged my memory. I had some of these.
As the popularity increased, an anime came about and lots of merchandising. Amongst the most popular merchandise were the “Kinnikuman Keshigomu”: erasers made in the shapes of the Kinnikuman characters. The kids were playing with them as toys and called them “Kin-Keshi” for short. They were subsequently marketed as such, and accessories like a wrestling ring were soon to follow. The wildly popular Kinkeshi figurines came to the United States in the mid-1980s under the brand name M.U.S.C.L.E., which stands for “Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere”.
Man, at the time I thought these were the stupidest, ugliest things. But now as I reflect, I’m thinking it was kind of brilliant to market erasers as toys. Probably cheap as hell. I wouldn’t mind having a bunch of them in their funny little poses around my desk right now actually. Kind of an amusing trajectory: from rubber to gold. Happy birthday, Kinnikuman!
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