A: My elder brother had a toy soldier called “Man of War.” It had a button on the back of the head. When you slid the button left and right, it would change the direction the soldier was looking.
B: We had one of those, too. And I had a monster called “Stretch-o” made of green rubber covering a malleable material: you could stretch its limbs out really far, but they would always slowly return to the original shape and length.
A: That sounds cool. I would have liked one of those, too.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons 照片：維基共享資源
B: It wasn’t great, to be honest. It was supposed to be a formidable foe, but the material was so malleable the legs couldn’t take the weight of the body. If you stood it up straight, it would gradually slink down to the floor.
A: That doesn’t sound very formidable to me. If it ever attacked you in a dark alley, you could just wait for it to fall over.
A: 我哥有一個叫做「戰士」的玩具兵，頭的後面有一個開關，把它左右滑動，就可以控制眼睛看的方向。
B: 我也有這類玩具耶。我有一個怪物叫做變形怪，外面是綠色塑膠，裡面包著延展性的材質，所以你可以把它的手腳拉得很長，不過最後都還是會慢慢回復到原來的形狀和長度。
A: 這聽起來還蠻酷的嘛，我也會想要這種玩具。
B: 其實也沒多好啦，它的角色應該是頑強的敵人，可是這個材質可塑性太高了，所以它的腿沒辦法承受身體的重量。你如果讓它站直，它就會慢慢倒下去。
A: 所以這個頑強的敵人也不太可怕嘛！如果它在暗巷裡攻擊你，你大可以就等著它倒下去。
（Paul Cooper, Taipei Times / 台北時報林俐凱譯）
English 英文:
Chinese 中文:
“Stretch-o”
The suffix “-o” is often added to the end of the name of a comic character with special powers. The name itself often summarizes the character’s ability, for example “Magneto” in the X-men Marvel Comics franchise.
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