engineering

Stretch Screamers

Stretch Screamers is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Stretch Screamers rather than just read about it. In short: Stretch Screamers was a series of electronic toys by Manley Toys Limited of Hong Kong. Design Stretch Screamers were a line of toy monsters from the early 2000s that could be stretched, causing them to scream.

Key takeaways

Stretch Screamers belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Stretch Screamers to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Stretch Screamers from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Stretch Screamers was a series of electronic toys by Manley Toys Limited of Hong Kong.

Design Stretch Screamers were a line of toy monsters from the early 2000s that could be stretched, causing them to scream. They also featured a "balloon feature" that when squeezed, balls of colored liquid would pop out. Older models featured plastic hands that were prone to popping off of the rubber arms and the balloon effect was filled with an iridescent colored fluid. Newer models had soft rubber hands and gel and floating objects replacing the colored fluid inside the balloon effect. Stretch Screamers had several other toy lines including, Mini Stretch Screamers, Blister Beasts, Splat Bugz, and Stretch Screamers Oozers. At one point in the early 2000s, the toys were quite popular, so much so that they had their own McDonald's Happy Meal toy line in 2003, but they have since fallen into obscurity and have been discontinued and have been known to fetch high prices online. The toys have since been redesigned and re-released in both 2010 and 2016 in the UK and several other countries.

Toys Series 1 and 2

"Mummy" was featured in the first TV ad, and it had an emaciated grey, semi-skeletal face with a red tongue and yellow eyes. It wore an Egyptian style cloth tunic which could be removed from the figure. When the head was squeezed its left eye would bulge out in a ball of bright yellow iridescent liquid. This figure shares a sound chip with the other mummy figures that would appear in the Blister Beast line as well as the 2010 and 2016 UK editions. It also appeared as the sound chip for the mini-dungeons from the mini Stretch Screamers line. "Wolfman" featured a wolf-like face with yellow cat-like eyes. It stood bipedal like the rest of the figures. It had yellow skin and a removable red open shirt. Its hard plastic lower half featured torn denim shorts and highly detailed sculpted in fur. The wolfman stretch screamer also featured a unique sound chip which none of the other figures would share. When the head was squeezed the "balloon effect" would protrude from the figures' right cheek. "Ghoul" heavily resembled Ghostface from the Scream film series. The figure was covered in black bandages and a removable black cloak. When the head was squeezed a ball of red iridescent liquid would bulge out of the figure's mouth. This figure shares a sound chip with the Gross Gargoyle as well as the other ghoul figures that would appear in the Blister Beast line as well as the 2010 and 2016 UK editions. "Frankenstein" was featured in the first TV ad along with the Mummy. The original Frankenstein figure strayed away from the traditional flat-top head Frankenstein design. The figure had long black sculpted in hair, pale green skin, yellow eyes and brown bolts in the temples. It featured a brown vest that tied together from the front. When the head was squeezed its brain would emerge in a pink ball of iridescent fluid. Its sound chip was the most reused. It is shared by Scary Cyclops, Rage and Lava from the Blister Beast line as well as the 2010 and 2016 UK editions. "Scary Cyclops" featured a Ray Harryhausen-esque design with singular eye, light blue skin, gold teeth and earring. It also had a slouched stature to emphasize its balloon effect. It had a removable brown shirt that tied together. The figure along with the rest of the characters in series 2 featured detailed squishy hands as opposed to series 1's hard plastic hands. The cyclops had brown shackles around its wrists and barefoot detailed hard plastic feet. It also featured a bellybutton which was unique to the figure. When the body was squeezed a ball of green gel would bulge out from the figures' left shoulder. It also contained a small rubber man's head that was featured on the box art as well. It shared a sound chip with the Frankenstein figure as well as the other ones featured under Frankensteins' description. Gross Gargoyle resembled less of a stone Gargoyle and more of a jaundiced skinned Demon or Goblin. It stood crouched with a hunched back to emphasize its balloon feature. Its face had a large nose and ears, a singular white horn jutting from its head, a wide-open mouth filled with sharp bright yellow teeth. Its eyes had yellow whites and red irises. It wore tattered red shorts and a removable dark green cloak that when removed reveals the figures' scoliosis inflicted spine. Its arms were particularly long and its wrists wore silver shackles with remnants of chains still attached. It is similar in gait to the Scary Cyclops except the hands only have four fingers on each hand instead of five. When the body was squeezed a yellow mass filled with gel and rubber bones would emerge from the figures' back hump. It shares a sound chip with the Ghoul. Angry Alien was a truly unique design. It was an alien with a light blue head with green compound eyes. It did not have a removable costume as its body was a purple and yellow space suit complete with hard plastic helmet over the head which would contain the balloon effect. The space suit had oxygen tanks on the back of the figure and tubes that would lead up to the helmet. It had squishy grey tri-fingered hands and hard almost claw-like bisected feet. The figure also had a detachable ray gun that would attach to a hole on its right thigh. When the body was squeezed it would cause the aliens' red brain to bulge up against the helmet. It had a unique sound chip that sounded shrill and other worldly that would not be shared by any of the other figures. Creepy Creature was an aquatic fish-like monster baring some resemblance to the Gill-man. Like the Angry Alien, the figure did not have any removable clothing as its skin was green and scaly, complete with fins, webbed hands, bright green eyes, very large gills and an open mouth filled with several rows of short white teeth. When the body was squeezed, the balloon effect would emerge from the figure's chest in the form of a green mass with rubber organs. It had a unique sound chip that sounded of gurgling and belching. The McDonald's happy meal toy line also had creature figure that was very similar in design. "Blister Beast" were a line of the Stretch Screamers series that featured four new characters that each had multiple balloon effects, two of which had larger heads where the balloon effects would come out while the other two had smaller heads and larger bodies to accommodate the balloon effects. Mummy Ghoul Rage Lava Oozers

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Stretch Screamers

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Stretch Screamers claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Stretch Screamers before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Stretch Screamers ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Stretch Screamers

In research: Stretch Screamers appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Stretch Screamers in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Stretch Screamers is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2000s toys, Action figures, Doll brands, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Stretch Screamers outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Stretch Screamers in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Stretch Screamers means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Stretch Screamers out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Stretch Screamers in simple terms?

Stretch Screamers was a series of electronic toys by Manley Toys Limited of Hong Kong. Design Stretch Screamers were a line of toy monsters from the early 2000s that could be stretched, causing them to scream.

Why does Stretch Screamers matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Stretch Screamers?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Stretch Screamers.