Stretch Armstrong

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For the band, see Stretch Arm Strong.

Stretch Armstrong was an Action Figure first introduced in 1976 by Kenner. Stretch Armstrong was in the shape of a well-muscled blond man wearing a pair of swimming trunks. Its most notable feature was that its arms and legs could stretch outwards.

The doll was re-issued in the 1990s with a new canine friend "Fetch Armstrong".

Also released were "Stretch Monster", Stretch Armstrong's reptilian green nemesis, and "Vac-Man". Unlike the Stretch dolls which contained a syrup-like liquid inside a rubber sheath, Vac-Man (and associated models like the Vac-Pac) contained a grainy solid. By attaching the provided pump to a socket on Vac-Man's head, air could be sucked out until the body became rigid. It could then be stretched, but unlike Stretch Armstrong, it would retain its stretched shape until air was let back in.

[edit] In popular culture

• Stretch Armstrong was mentioned in an episode of Family Guy, titled Screwed the Pooch, where Peter noted that his arms stretch "all the way out to next week".

• It is also used on the front cover of the Half Man Half Biscuit album "Voyage to the Bottom Of The Road".

• In the movie Detroit Rock City Stretch is used to foil a convienance store robbery.

• In an episode of Robot Chicken, Stretch is portrayed as a family man who must deal with losing his "powers" in his old age.