One trusted sign of the zodiac of a plaything craze isannoyedtoy storage owner , and in 1976 , there were plenty of them . The reason ? The Kenner Company had introduce a fresh 10 - inch rubber-base paint doll that never remained on shelves for more than a few bit at a time .
He was Stretch Armstrong , and the $ 11 miniature that made Kenner over $ 50 million in revenue had a secret : He was basically just a big pouch of corn syrup .
Stretch came to market beforeStar Wars , He - Man , G.I. Joe , and other brand shrink fibre down to just a few in to make their vehicles more affordable . take to his literal length , he may have been the largest legal action human body ever give rise . By tugging on his arms , legs , and torso , the toy dog couldexpandto a Reed Richards - esque 4 feet long . Similar - sized toys may have had fabric outfit and cool accoutrement , but kid could n’t tie them into literal knots .
The estimation for a stretchy miniature was hatched at Kenner in 1974 by design director Jesse Horowitz , who partake in a artificial satellite office in New York with the company ’s vice President of the United States of research and maturation , James " Jeep " Kuhn . " My job was to come in up with ideas , " Horowitz tells Mental Floss . " Every workweek or two , he ’d take a tone and say , ' I care that one . ' "
One of the sketch that entrance Kuhn ’s eye was what Horowitz called " Stretch Man . " It was a flesh that kids could do by like taffy , distort his limbs until they snap back into position . Initially , the idea used coiled springs for a skeleton , but that was send packing whenconcernsgrew over the potential for kids to cut themselves on the metal .
" Jeep , being a chemical locomotive engineer , said , ' We could put some syrup in it instead , " Horowitz says . " So we sent our writing table out to bribe a bunch of Karo sirup at the local A&P. We cleaned out the shelf . "
In the office , Kuhn , Horowitz , and a example maker named Richie Dubek boil down the corn whisky syrup until it was barren of air and filled their sample latex molds . They showed it to Kenner president Bernie Loomis , who cursorily signal off on the product .
For aggregate production , the company finally settle down on using a mold to make a latex paint “ muscleman ” without a brain : His cervix would be the fill place for a gooey extract of edible corn syrup , which was cut with micron - sizedbitsof glass and wood particles to help increase his mass . After some experimentation , Kenner come at just the right viscosity of syrup that would let Stretch fall to his regular proportions without harming his latex paint dermis .
The patentspeculatedthat the process could be practice to everything from a sumo wrestler to a giraffe to a “ shapely cleaning lady . ” While Horowitz had considered pretend a sumo human beings , his prototype was too hard and the idea was toss out . As for the woman , he suppose Kenner considered it , but not as a stretch figure . " They thought they could take the maize syrup and make a more realistic bird , since Bernie want to beat Barbie at the fourth dimension , " he read . " But it never go anywhere . "
In the end , the ship’s company stuck with Stretch for their holiday 1976 debut . Supported by television spot , the plaything was quickly cleaned off shelf , joiningPonggames and Kenner ’s own Bionic Woman figure as one of the adult retail winner of the season — not to mention one of thelargestconsumers of corn syrup in the country .
In the effect kids nick Stretch , he come with 10 tiny bandage to re - seal his skin . Still , the force of play sometimes allow for him oozing his gelatinous cerise germ plasm , particularly around his cervix , where his head had been affix with an O - closed chain to close his sirup porta .
Stretch betray steady from 1976 to 1979 , at which point the bauble seemed to wear off . Market vividness could have been one reason : In gain to Kenner ’s Stretch Octopus , Stretch Monster , and Stretch X - Ray , the Mego Corporation allegedly took some manufacturing mystery from a disgruntled ex - Kenner employee and started issuing a line of pliant superheroes like Batman , Spider - Man , and Superman . Kennersuedfor unjust competition , and a justice barred Mego from exporting mill technology to make the dolls . But it was a mostly moot point as the toy ' popularity was already well in decline .
Today , Stretch ’s relatively fragile nature has made him a valuable aftermarket point . Armstrong dolls in a boxwood that are n’t bleeding copiously from ' 70s wounds canfetchover $ 1000 on auction sites , with especially rare versions or prototypes deserving more . Mego ’s Batman knockoff , study by some to be a holy Sangraal of stretchable collecting , oncesoldfor $ 15,000 .
Horowitz keeps in touch sensation with collectors , who are typically interested in his original sketches and molds . One of the earliest Stretch samples , however , did n’t live on long enough to become a vintage collectible . " I think of learn one of the first samples home and putting it on our bookshelf , " Horowitz articulate . " Because it was confront the window , the ultraviolet radiation spark just ate right through the latex and the red sirup arrive dripping down all over my married woman ’s Word of God . I was in the kennel for a while after that . "
