Kinnikuman

Guys of my age will probably remember these weird little flesh-coloured rubber figurines that popped up in toy stores in the late 80s, about 2" tall and sold in blister packs, boxes and plastic bins. The figurines had a wrestling theme, consisting of some downright bizarre designs (humanoid slinky, humanoid cassette player, humanoid with mangle built into his chest) and had no apparent purpose, being non-articulated and having no backstory whatsoever except for some vague story on the packaging hinting at an extraterrestrial origin and an appetite for wanton destruction and mayhem. It was one of the stranger toylines of that era, and it wasn't until much later that I found out that 'M.U.S.C.L.E' figures, as they were dubbed by Mattel, had their origins in Japan, being gumball machine prizes ('kinkeshi') based on a manga and animated series about a heroic wrestler from an alien planet.

I've watched some of the Kinnikuman animated series on Netflix since making that discovery, and it is every bit as weird as the figures, like a children's cartoon written by David Lynch; characters include a humanoid toilet and a character with a bottom for a face. I've been quite enjoying watching it, and it's nice to be able to put some of those character designs in context, although that context by no means explains everything (like why a giant spring is fighting a fish-man on a pyramid in one episode).

While trying to get to grips with Blender's sculpting tools, I decided to have a go at making Kinnikuman, since his head design is so simple (a sphere with giant lips and a pointy mohican). Having done that, I then - feeling too lazy to make the whole body - imported the head into Poser 10 and stuck it on the body of DAZ's Freak figure. The Freak actually makes a pretty good body for the character, or would do if his legs didn't look like a pair of stockings filled with walnuts.