Kinkeshi figures

[PhilC]

Have you ever heard of Kinkeshi figures ? They are rubber figures meant to represent wrestlers from the Manga Kinnikuman. The figures are also known as M.U.S.C.L.E. figures in North America and in the UK. Some of them were copied and sold as Cosmix figures in France, and Exogini in Italy.

I've discovered this figure range a few weeks ago, bought some on various websites, and started to paint a few days ago. Here they are:



The painted characters are:

- Shishkeba Boo


- Ashuraman


- The Ninja


- Jesse Maybia


And a picture with unpainted figures, to show the variety:


My favourite so far is Asuraman, who will stand for a Demigod in my (future) 1/72 HOTT Ancient Indian army.


Have you ever seen these funny figures, or collected them as a child at the end of the 80s ? More to read, and more pictures in these posts:
https://philotepsfigures.blogspot.com/2020/08/kinkeshi-figures.html
https://philotepsfigures.blogspot.com/2020/08/asuraman-jesse-maybia-and-ninja.html

[Santi Pérez]

I never heard about them.

They are funny figures and you have made a great paint job on them, PhilC.

Congratulations.

Santi.

[Bluefalchion]

We had a bunch of them at my house when they first came out when I was a kid. They were indeed called M.U.S.C.L.E. in the United States. I can't remember any more what those letters stood for. My brothers and I had 6-8 of them, but they are all long gone.

But the paint job you have done with them is really incredible! How in the heck did you get paint to stick to such a rubbery (and vintage) surface?

[MABO]

I did not know them either. Crazy stuff. Not my piece of cake, but great painting as usual.

[sberry]

I never heard about them before. A really weird and bizarre bunch of figures - and a very nice and crisp paintjob!

[Peter]

Never seen these figures before! But you did an excellent paintjob on them!

PS: No Romans for Remco's army?

[cooey2ph]

very nice!

[Wiking]

These figure are also new to me.
All nice painted.

I like the six arm figure Ashuraman.
How often you build, paint something and think by yourselve: I need a third arm.
Ashuraman had all three and that twice !

[PhilC]

Thank you all for your kind comments. Here's another batch of Kinkeshi, from left to right: Chainman, Robin Mask and Pentagon.

We had a bunch of them at my house when they first came out when I was a kid. They were indeed called M.U.S.C.L.E. in the United States. I can't remember any more what those letters stood for. My brothers and I had 6-8 of them, but they are all long gone.

M.U.S.C.L.E. means "Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere." Don't ask me why, I didn't work for Mattel in the 80s (I still don't).

How in the heck did you get paint to stick to such a rubbery (and vintage) surface?

I painted them as any plastic figure: white primer, then acrylic paints and washes.

More pictures and explanations here: https://philotepsfigures.blogspot.com/2020/08/pentagon-robin-mask-and-chainman.html

[Kekso]

I've never heard of that brand neither. But they seem fun to paint. I congratulate you on your good paint work.

[T. Dürrschmidt]

Very good painting, very weird figures….but nevertheless fun.

[PhilC]

Hello everybody! I've been away from this forum for months, but now that I am on holidays, I can take time for painting and pictures.
After such a long break, the 1/72 figures looked too small and too difficult to paint, so I chose to start with a few more Kinkeshi figures. They are:

- Black Shadow:


- Canadianman:


- Hammerhead:


- Treeman:


And the link to the post if you're curious: https://philotepsfigures.blogspot.com/2021/08/more-kinkeshi-figures-black-shadow.html.

More to come soon!

[Peter]

Great painted figures Phil! Good to see you're back!

[Kekso]

I like them too. My vote goes to Canadianman

[MABO]

Good to see you here again. Nice addition to your collection of strange characters. Are you ready now to get back to 1/72?

[Xantippos]

Cool! I am a great fan of the Kinnikuman series. Actually, I never knew about the small rubber figures, I just watched the show as a kid, only later I saw them online! I always wanted to have big action figures of them, but as far as I know, they never existed until Romando made them in the years 2000 on. I have a few of them, they are hard to find and very expensive! I've even made custom figures of some of them.

My favourite of the ones you painted is Chainman . The metallic looks so realistic!