In Search of the "Holy Grail" of Hulk
A fanatic's story
Page 2.

The Spider-man stretch lasted me only about a week before he began to leak. I told my mother about this and she said that we were going to return it. She put the damaged Spidey into its box and took me back to Osco Drugs with her to exchange it for another one (this was the first time I found out what receipts do). When I went back to the toy aisle I was hoping to find a Hulk figure, but he was still missing…UGH! All the other stretch figures were still there so I just got another Spider-man.

As we were driving back home, my mother decided to make a pit stop at the CVS down the street. As I walked in with her, I looked up and there it was, the Mego Elastic Hulk, an entire row of them for 12.99 each!! I couldn't believe it! Years later I found out that Mego Corp distributed the Hulk figure separately from the other figures in the set due to the popularity of the Hulk live-action series starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno that was all the rage in the late 70's (which is also why he had a different color box from the others)!! But this didn't help my current situation!! I begged my mom to buy it for me, she said no, she said that I just got the same toy in the car. I told her that the Hulk was the one that I wanted. But my mother (being right off the boat from Honduras) could never understand my dilemma. To her a superhero was the same as any other and a toy is a toy with no difference at all. I knew she wasn't going to budge. So I began to pace up and down the aisle just staring at all those stretch Hulk's. I knew I couldn't leave this store empty handed. So I grabbed one of the Hulk's off the shelf and preyed my hand into the box taking the purple pants that came with the figure. For those of you who don't know, the Elastic Hulk and Spider-man came with pants that were placed in front of the figure rather than on it so my little hand just slipped in under the plastic and out with the pants. I put it in my pocket as we left the store (my mom would've killed me if she knew).
I would put the purple pants on the stretch Spider-man figure and pretend that it was the Hulk, but this just didn't work. The next day in school I got some green construction paper and drew an image of the stretch Hulk figure on it. I then cut out the image (which was the exact size as the actual figure) and placed the purple pants on it pretending that it was the real stretch Hulk toy (I was obsessed). This seemed to ease my frustration a little, but it didn't last long. Eventually I lost the pants, the image and I don't even remember what happened to my Spider-man figure. After a while my desire for the stretch Hulk eased (even though I saw the Elastic figures toy ad in a comic book every now and then that kept me dreaming of it).

One day during the early 80's my family went to visit some friends that lived in the same town as us in Waltham Massachusetts. My brother and I had fun playing with their son Frankie. Frankie was a little younger than me (maybe 5 at this time) and even though he went to a different school and had different friends, we were close. I remember on this visit going into a closet looking for something. When I looked down I saw it, the Mego Stretch Hulk figure! I couldn't believe my eyes!! Here was the toy I wanted so badly a few years back!! I took it in my hands and squeezed its soft body and then smelled its latex skin. Here it was, in the palm of my hands, the Mego Elastic Hulk!! I took the figure with me and asked Frankie if he would trade it for some of my other toys. He said that I could just have it because he knew how much I loved the Hulk. I couldn't believe it at long last the stretch Hulk was mine (I held it close for the rest of the night). When it was time to leave, my mother saw me with this toy and asked me why I had it. I told her that Frankie gave it to me. But she said that I wasn't supposed to take anyone else's toys and so I had to give it back, I was crushed.
By the mid 80's I once again forgot about the stretch Hulk. I was into Professional Wrestling and Hulk Hogan so I collected those LJN rubber wrestling figures. At this time my family would spend their weekends and summers in Buzzards Bay, Cape Cod. I would sometimes hang out with Frankie (our families both had summer houses there) and a few others and we would fake wrestle all day long. One Sunday during September, Frankie asked me if I would trade him my Paul Orndorff figure (he was pretty rare) for something. I thought about it for a second and then I asked him if he still had that stretch Hulk figure from a few years back. He said that he did but it leaked because of all the stretching he had done to it over the years. I didn't care. I just wanted that toy. Frankie said that he would love to trade it but he would have to give it to me when he went back to Waltham the next day. I was so excited!! Once again my desire for this Hulk toy erupted!!! I gave him the Paul Orndorff figure on the spot and said that I would pick up the stretch Hulk after school on Monday. He told me to come on Wednesday because his parents wouldn't be home (they hated when Frankie gave people his things). I said that it was alright and I would be there right after school on Wednesday.
Monday and Tuesday took forever to get through. It was so hard for me to sleep at night because I was so excited to finally get my hands on that ever elusive stretch Hulk toy. When Wednesday finally did come I could barely make it through school. At 3:30 I ran out the door and began to run to Frankie's house in the frigid rain (his house was down the street from my school). I was soaked when I got to his house but I didn't care. I saw his older sister, Clara putting out the trash (it was trash pick-up day) and I asked her if Frankie was home. She said that he just left with his mother and he would be back tonight. I asked her if he left anything for me, she said no (I couldn't tell her what I was looking for because I feared that she would tell her mom and ruin our trade). My heart sank as I scanned the drive way and saw nothing. I was disappointed when I began to walk home.
I called Frankie's house from time to time that day with no answer. Finally at night I got in touch with him. I asked Frankie what happened and he told me that he had a doctor's appointment he forgot about and had to leave. He said that he tried to put the Hulk figure in his sister's car for me to pick up but she went nuts because she thought the corn syrup that it was leaking would ruin her interior. So she decided to throw it in the trash and he couldn't do anything about it (he was such a wimp). I couldn't believe my bad luck!!! A Mego Elastic Hulk destroyed in some city dump. And the worst part of it was that I got there just after Frankie left and his sister was throwing out the stretch Hulk right under my nose!!!!!!!!! AAARRRGGHHH!! I was devastated by this and I told Frankie to give back my Paul Orndorff figure tomorrow or else and he did.

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