Information for Collectors

I have received a number of questions from people looking for help in obtaining various items, particularly contest tapes. Hopefully, this section will help you track down some of the stuff you might be looking for.


Contest Tapes

Ms. Olympia

Ms. Olympia tapes from 1989 through 2003 (except 1999) can be ordered from http://www.musclestore.com. Tapes are $39.95 each. Also, recent Ms. Olympia tapes used to be available from Angel's Camp Mercantile at 1-800-4YOURFItness (1-800-496-8734). I do not know if they still carry them.

The 1999 Ms. Olympia video is available from Women's Physique World.

Ms. International

At one time, a video of the 1997 Ms. International was available from Classic Worldwide Productions, 5001 E. Royalton Road, Cleveland, OH 44147 (440-838-5377).

Other contests

Women's Physique World sells tapes of the Jan Tana Classics from 1992 onward, as well as recent NPC Nationals and NPC USA Championships. In some cases, they have tapes available with footage taken backstage at these contests. They also sell tapes of the Women's Strength Extravaganzas.

Related

Pumping Iron II - The Women is available from several sources, including Amazon.com and Deep Discount DVD.


Posing Tapes

Women's Physique World (WPW) makes extremely high quality tapes, essentially documentary style. Their videos typically include a mix of posing (generally non contest, though contest routines are included on some tapes), gym work, and interviews. Posing usually feature a variety of outfits - bikinis, leotards, dresses, etc.; no nudity. They have taped most of the top women since the early days of the sport, as well as many excellent virtual unknowns, and have a large selection to choose from. Many of their older tapes are no longer available in their original form, but a series of "compilation" tapes has some of the best of the older material. They run ads for their tapes in the magazine, but the ads only list a portion of the available tapes.

Women's Physique World
P.O. Box 443
Ho-ho-kus, NJ 07423
http://www.wpw.net

Click here for a list of all current WPW videos, plus many more that are no longer available.

Ray Martin Company is/was a WPW spinoff company. Their tapes are nearly identical in terms of production quality, but have a somewhat different style. There is generally a somewhat more sensual slant than on the WPW videos (though there is no nudity). Many of the videos are done as a "skit", which may include some "supporting actors" in addition to the featured woman. Often, the featured subject is given a "stage name", sometimes with a different hair color or style. For example, Melissa Coates appears in several videos as "Gina", with dark brown hair. This apparently is done simply for stylistic purposes, since it's generally fairly obvious who the women are.

Ray Martin / WPW
P.O. Box 429
Midland Park, NJ 07432
http://www.raymartin.net

A number of other tape producers are listed on my links page.


Magazines

Women's Physique World (address above) - the best magazine available covering exclusively women's bodybuilding. Content consists mostly of contest coverage and personality profiles; there are no training articles. WPW began publishing in 1984; click here for a full list of issues. Most back issues from the last 3-4 years are still available. Publication frequency has varied over the years; WPW is currently published quarterly.

Defunct Magazines

There are several magazines that are no longer being published, but are definitely worth pursuing, particularly if you are interested in the earlier days of the sport.

Women's Physique Publication (also known as WASP and WSP) - the best magazine ever produced on women's bodybuilding. Published from December, 1976 through 1991; subscription only. The last issue was #174, but many issues were "double issues", so the actual number of separate issues is 131; click here for a full list of issues. For most of its lifetime, WPP was truly journal quality - published on high quality paper, with no advertising and many pictures. Most issues were black and white, but for about two years (12 issues) they had color covers and a number of color pictures. They later went back to black and white due to printing costs.

Lady Athlete - published from January, 1979 through 1986; subscription only. Lady Athlete consisted exclusively of in-depth personality profiles, generally two per issue; no advertising. The majority of the subjects were bodybuilders, but many athletes from other sports were also included.

Body & Power - published seven issues in 1982-1983; click here for a list of issues. The format was nearly identical to Women's Physique World.

Strength Training for Beauty - started publishing in January, 1984, producing a total of 17 issues over a span of about three and a half years. Reasonably well produced, though perhaps less "hard core" than the magazines above.

Female Bodybuilding - published from December, 1986 through January, 1997, undergoing several name changes in the process. The production quality was not particularly high, although they did include a number of color pictures.


This page was created on Dec. 15, 1998.
Last modified on Dec. 6, 2004.

This page is maintained by fbb_fan@hotmail.com.