The M.U.S.C.L.E. 28-Pack

These 28 packs used to cost around $8.00 There were 4 different sets sold in all. They were probably the best value for your dollar, with the plus being that you knew you weren't going to get any doubles. So by obtaining these four different sets, you could quickly get the heavy lifting done of completing half of your collection. 

The back of the 28 packs gave you a vague backstory on the M.U.S.C.L.E. universe, via a comic strip.  There was also a mail away offer for the collectors poster featuring all 233 M.U.S.C.L.E. figures.

However, the M.U.S.C.L.E. poster featured on the box was not the poster you would receive in the mail. The picture shown was a prototype and a closer look reveals that it features way more than 233 figures. I wish I could post a better quality picture of this poster, but the image on the box wasn't much better quality than this. 

The best quality scan I've seen of this image, with a great write-up can be located at my old friend and M.P.S. Alumni Chad Perry's site 'Univesity of MUSCLE' and can be viewed here.

In the end, it's believed that the graphic was quickly thrown together, just to have something to show for the promotion. It's likely that when this packaging was produced, the collectors poster we are familiar with, hadn't yet been completed, or was in the process of being created.

While the packages didn't specifically list what figures were in each set, we quickly cataloged their contents from unopened sets we acquired back in the 90s. Shown above, are my four sealed mint sets that I opened up back in 1997. The sets and figures included in each box were as follows..

#1 Thug Busters Set
10, 13, 17, 21, 24, 25, 26, 38, 43, 44, 48, 49, 51, 53, 54, 64, 67, 70, 72, 76, 78, 84, 90, 91, 95, 103, 161, 232

#2 Cosmic Crunchers Set
18, 45, 47, 79, 86, 88, 81, 83, 89, 92, 97, 105, 114, 120, 128, 129, 132, 144, 184, 188, 196, 192, 198, 200, 201, 202, 203, 205

#3 Mighty Maulers Set
5, 6, 12, 52, 57, 59, 63, 74, 80, 87, 94, 115, 169, 170, 171, 173, 175, 176, 193, 194, 204, 207, 209, 212, 214, 218, 226, 230

#4 Cosmic Showdown Set
4, 7, 8, 9, 32, 37, 62, 65, 66, 69, 98, 99, 119, 121, 122, 127, 130, 137, 142, 146, 147, 148, 150, 158, 159, 160, 162, 233