# What the heck is "kung fu grip"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 2, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-kung-fu-grip/555868 "2010-10-02T21:37:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-kung-fu-grip/555868/1 "2010-10-02T21:37:21Z")
Growing up I remember hearing ads for action figures that had “kung fu grip”… what the hell was it? ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-kung-fu-grip/555868/2 "2010-10-02T21:42:55Z")
The way GI Joe’s hands were moulded so they could hold stuff, like their weapons. [This video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxbW_BY4X80) explains it. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-kung-fu-grip/555868/3 "2010-10-02T21:49:35Z")
From [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.I._Joe): > [@](#): > > # In 1974, named after the increasingly popular martial art, Hasbro introduced “Kung-Fu Grip” to the G.I. Joe line. This was another innovation that had been developed in the UK for Action Man. The hands were molded in a softer plastic that allowed the fingers to grip objects in a more lifelike fashion. Essentially, you could bend the fingers around stuff. ---
**Author:** ![bleibtreu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bleibtreu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bleibtreu)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-kung-fu-grip/555868/4 "2010-10-02T21:56:29Z")
You could see exactly how the hands worked in the commercial. Thanks to YouTube, you still can: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lxbW_BY4X80/hqdefault.jpg "Hasbro GI Joe w/ Kung Fu Grip TV commercial \*Not a JB song\*") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxbW_BY4X80) You didn’t bend them around something, but they were flexible rubber. You could hold them open, put something in the palm, and release them. They’d go back to their natural position, and hold whatever you had placed in them. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-kung-fu-grip/555868/5 "2010-10-02T21:56:34Z")
I read the G.I. Joe wiki doing a search for Kung Fu and I didn’t see that! I swear I looked! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-kung-fu-grip/555868/6 "2010-10-02T22:02:05Z")
> [@bleibtreu](#): > > You could see exactly how the hands worked in the commercial. Thanks to YouTube, you still can: > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxbW\_BY4X80](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxbW_BY4X80) > > You didn’t bend them around something, but they were flexible rubber. You could hold them open, put something in the palm, and release them. They’d go back to their natural position, and hold whatever you had placed in them. You are correct. I take that back. The hands are more like springs. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-kung-fu-grip/555868/7 "2010-10-02T22:53:40Z")
Oh, this isn’t about song lyrics. Never mind! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bleibtreu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bleibtreu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bleibtreu)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-kung-fu-grip/555868/8 "2010-10-02T23:19:16Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Oh, this isn’t about song lyrics. Never mind! 🙂 Heh. I didn’t know anything about a song with that title, but judging from the title and comments at that YouTube link a lot of people arrive at the page under the impression that it’s that video. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-kung-fu-grip/555868/9 "2010-10-02T23:28:15Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Oh, this isn’t about song lyrics. I can fix that. From [Little Skipper](http://www.yellowtailrecords.com/lyrics/lyr_mel_1.html#skipper), by Andrew Ratchin. (A song about Barbie’s little sister going out with G.I. Joe) _And Skipper wants to dress herself in leather But Skipper needs assistance to unzip Joe is armed and ready, willing, able With his trusty hand-grenade and kung-fu grip_ ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-kung-fu-grip/555868/10 "2010-10-02T23:44:34Z")
I was hoping someone would post something to which I could reply, ‘Oh, that was sublime.’ But since someone doesn’t know about lyrics: \*So she told me to come over and I took that trip And then she pulled out my mushroom tip And when it came out it went drip drip drip I didn’t know she had that GI Joe kung-fu grip \* [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/k_LP4IU6XD4/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AG-AoAC8AGKAgwIABABGHIgPihGMA8=&rs=AOn4CLBq_l9awn7u4_EWmGDBhu49BFGH0Q "Sublime - Caress Me Down") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_LP4IU6XD4) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-kung-fu-grip/555868/11 "2010-10-02T23:51:23Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > > [@John\_Mace](#): > > > > Oh, this isn’t about song lyrics. > > I can fix that. > > From [Little Skipper](http://www.yellowtailrecords.com/lyrics/lyr_mel_1.html#skipper), by Andrew Ratchin. (A song about Barbie’s little sister going out with G.I. Joe) > > _And Skipper wants to dress herself in leather > But Skipper needs assistance to unzip > Joe is armed and ready, willing, able > With his trusty hand-grenade and kung-fu grip_ I was thinking of something a little more “Sublime”. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-kung-fu-grip/555868/12 "2010-10-03T00:00:45Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I was hoping someone would post something to which I could reply, ‘Oh, that was sublime.’ But since someone doesn’t know about lyrics: > > \*So she told me to come over and I took that trip > And then she pulled out my mushroom tip > And when it came out it went drip drip drip > I didn’t know she had that GI Joe kung-fu grip \* > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k\_LP4IU6XD4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_LP4IU6XD4) I like mine better. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-kung-fu-grip/555868/13 "2010-10-03T09:17:49Z")
I loved that they worked a joke about this into the live action G.I. Joe movie. “Hey bro, you got some life-like hair over there… oww, and a kung-fu grip!”