Indie Squid Kid

Today at Target I got my first look at Stretch, the new octopus character from Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 3. The movie doesn’t open until June 18, but, as one would expect, the merchandise is out in full force. I saw Stretch figures in two different sizes: the 8″ (or so) “Deluxe Figure” which appeared to be made out of a soft, glittery material, and the much smaller (~2″) “Buddy Pack” figure which is made of a harder plastic.

(Sorry about the poor quality of these photos. The focus on my Droid phone’s camera is a little uneven.)

The official movie site says that Stretch (who is female, by the way, and voiced by Whoopie Goldberg) is “fun-loving,” and all the images there show a happy looking toy octopus. However, the toys I saw today are of a very surly cephalopod. Is she a villain (she has a villain’s “eyebrows”), or is she just grumpy? If so, WHY SO GRUMPY? I’ll guess we’ll have to wait until the 18th to find out.

Stretch’s bio on the official site also includes the following  description: “Toss her high on the wall and watch her climb her way down!” Clearly, Stretch was inspired by the 80’s fad toy, the Wacky WallWalker®.

My friend Chris and his brother Martin sent me these photos from their recent visit to the Boston Museum of Science.

Here Martin poses in front of a case displaying a plethora of model cephalopods (part of the Making Models exhibit). Squirters and Grabbers indeed.

And here he stands before an exhibit on collecting…and look, there’s someone’s octopus collection! I have that plush Blue Ringed Octopus in my own collection (although I haven’t got around to posting it yet), and, in all likelyhood, I have a few of the other ones as well. I’d say they should have featured my collection instead, but they’d probably have needed to dedicate an entire wing of the museum to it. Now there’s an idea…the ISK Hall of Cephalopods!

Target has always been good for the occasional cephalopod-themed product, but lately I seem to spot a new one every time I go there (which, for some reason, seems to be a least once a day ever since I got laid off last month). Here is an assortment of recent finds:

Little Tikes® Party Machine bubble blower

Disney Club Penguin "Squidzoid"

I know that Club Penguin is a MMORPG for kids, but I have no idea why this penguin is wearing a squid costume. I approve, of course, I just don’t get it.

Circo® Sealife Collection waste can

This same one-eyed, seven-legged pirate (presumabely) octopus adorns a whole series of new items from Circo: shower curtain, beach towel, bath towl, kids’ apron, kids’ dishes, etc. The collection also features cute little whales, sharks and submarines.

Mr. Sardonicus sent me this sighting of a super-detailed line of Japanese gashapon (aka capsule toys).

He says,

Produced by Takara/Tomy, the complete set includes 10 figures (3 octopi, 2 cuttlefish, 4 squid, and 1 “secret” argonaut) and runs upwards of $75, but it’s not too difficult to find individuals being sold on eBay for $10 or less.

I’ll definitely have to keep an eye out for these. Thanks Brian!

Yeah, I know, I’m a few days late, but Happy New Year!!! I probably say this every year, but I have a feeling that 2010 will be the Year of the Cephalopod. (Well, I don’t say that about 2010 every year, but you know what I mean.)

My week offline, while a pleasant change of pace, has resulted in a large backlog (well, larger than normal) of material for the blog. So, let’s start with a trio of octopuses I spotted at the Antropologie store at my local mall.

These De Vincennes Dinner Plates are Antropologie exclusives by artist Nathalie Late. They are $24 each and are also available at the Anthropologie website.

Pictorial Webster’s: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities by John M. Carrera.

When I was a kid I was always fascinated by the illustrations in the dictionary. I used to make up stories, often about a zoo that put all their animals in alphabetical order and you traveled through it in a series of similarly organized vehicles. Anyway, this book contains over 1,500 engravings from 19th century editions of the Webster’s dictionary. And yes, they are arranged alphabetically.

List price $35.00. Also available at Amazon.com.

Lastly, we have The ABC of Animals Activity Book by the North American Bear Company. It contains a cute little plush animal for each letter of the alphabet. O is, of course, for Octopus, and well…that’s all that matters isn’t it?

List price $75.00. Also available at Amazon.com.

We had a marvelous Christmas here at ISK headquarters, and if you celebrate I hope you did too! This year was Kid Indie Squid Kid’s first Christmas, and even though he is a little too young to know what was going on, it was still very exciting. Family came to us, so we didn’t have to worry about traveling with the baby, and that turned out to be ideal, because I seem to have the virus and/or secondary bacterial infection that WILL NOT DIE.

It will come as little surprise that there were a number of cephalopods underneath our Christmas tree. Here’s a rundown of all the loot…

• Imaginext 3-Headed Sea Dragon Gift Set
• Imaginext Ocean Squid
• Arkham Horror: Innsmouth Horror Expansion (by Fantasy Flight Games)
• orange googly-eyed plush octopus
• Young Mad Scientist Alphabet Blocks (by Xylocopa from ThinkGeek)
• polymer clay tentacle pendent/ornament (by bunny X productions)

Well, I think that’s it for now. I’ve been unplugged for a week so I got to ease back into things, you know?

Christmas octopus sees you!, originally uploaded by Cryptonaut.

Cephalopodmas (aka Squidmas, aka Solstice) is next Tuesday, so every day this week I will post a bonus photo of a different cepahlopod holiday ornament.

I don’t think this rubber octopus was intended to be a Christmas decoration, but it has a string on it so…POW! ORNAMENT!

Welcome to the 1st Annual Indie Squid Kid Holiday Shopping Guide!

Every day this week I will feature the best new products for the cephalopod enthusiast in your life. In most cases, these will be products that I don’t own (yet…hint, hint) and haven’t previously reviewed. To kick the week off, we start with one of my favorite subjects…TOYS!

Imaginext®

Ocean Squid

Part of Imaginext’s new Ocean line, and of course it’s the one piece I haven’t been able to find yet.

List Price: $6.00 — Buy on Amazon.com (but it will be cheaper if you can find it in a retail store.)

Ocean Mega Playset

This set combines four different pieces that are usually sold separately. It not only includes the Ocean Squid (see above), but it also comes with a green plastic ammonite (one of the Ocean Boat’s accessories).

List Price: $74.99 — Buy on ToysRUs.com

3-Headed Dragon Gift Set

Spotted at my local Target store, this set includes not only an awesome three-headed sea dragon, but a Tylosaurus (from Imaginext’s discontinued Dinosaur line) and a repaint of Sea Blade the Octopus from their Pirate line.

List Price: $29.99 — Target in-store exclusive.

Safari Ltd.®

Incredible Creatures Giant Pacific Octopus

This is yet another example of something I haven’t been able to track down in the store. Safari’s Incredible Creatures are larger scale (and more detailed) than the Wild Safari line, but are made of softer plastic and are comparable in price.

List Price: $10.99 — Buy on SafariLtd.com

Also still available: Wild Safari Sea Life Octopus and Giant Squid.

Matchbox®

Mega Rig Pirate Ship!

There’s a lot of talk about pirates versus ninjas, but if we learned anything from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the pirate’s natural enemy is actually the cephalopod.

List Price $39.99 — Buy on Amazon.com

Also still available: Mega Rig Squid Sub

Playmobil® Pirates

Giant Octopus

List Price: $19.99 — Buy on PlaymobilUSA.com

Pirate Raft

List Price: $10.99 — Buy on PlaymobilUSA.com

LEGO® Pirates

Kraken Attack

List Price: $10.99 — Buy on Amazon.com

We have arrived at the end of Action Figure Week, and now it is finally time to talk about George Lucas’ favorite cephalopod—Squid Head!

To me (and, I assume, nearly anyone else who was born in the 1970’s), Star Wars toys are the quintessential action figures. I actually don’t remember the first time I saw Star Wars, or when I got my first Star Wars action figure, but in all but my very earliest memories I am already a fanatic, and I seem to have always had Star Wars toys.

Debuting in 1977, Kenner’s 3 ¾” figures were revolutionary, displacing 12″ dolls (like G.I. Joe) as the industry standard, and this size continues to dominate the action figure market today. The original toy line was produced until 1985, and Kenner revived it in 1995. There has been a steady stream of Star Wars figures on toy store shelves ever since.

Squid Head™ (Kenner, 1983)

Part of the first wave of figures for Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Squid Head appears only briefly in the crowd of aliens that reside in the palace of Jabba The Hutt. In fact, this figure is a great example of two long-time Lucas traditions: 1) making toys of obscure characters, and 2) giving those characters dumb, yet descriptive, names. And like all obscure Star Wars characters, Squid Head’s back story would be fleshed out over time through the RPGs, comics, and novels of the Expanded Universe.

As it turns out, his name is actually Tessek, and he is a Quarren, an alien species from the ocean planet Dac. Dac is also the homeworld of the Mon Calamari (such as Admiral “It’s a traaaap!” Ackbar). Despite their name, the Mon Calamari are actually fish people, not cephalopods, and the two species have a long history of antagonism, often ending up on opposite sides of various galactic conflicts.

So, even though he is from a species native to the deep ocean, Tessek somehow ended up on the desert world of Tatooine in the employ of Jabba the Hutt…as his accountant. I suppose it is best not to dwell on the unlikeliness of an air-breathing humanoid species evolving from deep-sea invertebrates (presumably) on a planet with very little dry land.

Anyway, getting back to the figure, it is fairly obvious why this guy is called “Squid Head.” His beak-like mouth is surrounded by four tentacles, and two fin-like structures project off either side of his head. The suction cups on his finger tips provide a final squiddy touch. The toy comes with a blaster pistol and a real cloth cloak and skirt (which is held in place with a silver plastic cummerbund).

I lost my original Squid Head figure when I was a kid. I picked up this replacement on the collectors market, so it’s in fairly pristine condition. I do still have the card that my original figure came packaged on (above). It features a nice close-up shot of the Quarren accountant enjoying a tasty beverage on board Jabba’s Sail Barge. As a bonus, you can just make out my sad nine-year old attempts at drawing Imperial Shuttles, an AT-AT walker, and some kind of creature that is maybe supposed to be a Tauntaun.

Tessek™ (Hasbro, 2000)

Even though Kenner began producing Star Wars action figures again in 1995, it would be five years before they made an updated Squid Head. (2000 was also the year that Hasbro, which had owned Kenner since 1991, consumed the Kenner brand for good.) The new Tessek figure was released as part of Star Wars: Power of the Jedi, a toy line that contained a combination of figures from the original trilogy and the recently released prequel, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The new Tessek figure is more detailed than the original and has molded plastic clothes. The colors of this figure more closely match the way the character appeared in the the original movie.

The Star Wars toy line has undergone seemingly constant rebranding over the past 14 years, and Star Wars: The Legacy Collection is the name of the current line (although I think the packaging has been redesigned again). It includes characters and vehicles from all six films as well as the two Clone Wars animated series.

Quarren™ Soldier (Hasbro, 2008)

This figure, the only non-Tessek Quarren figure to-date, is a “realistic” version of the alien warriors as portrayed in the Chapter 5 of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series (2003-2005). In that segment (which is my favorite after Chapter 13, where Mace Windu single-handedly defeats an entire army of droids), amphibious Jedi Knight Kit Fisto leads an battalion of Clone scuba troopers and Mon Calamari knights against Separatist battle droids and the Quarren Isolation League. Here’s a link to the segment on YouTube. I highly recommend the entire Tartakovsky Clone Wars series, which is available on DVD.

There are a few other Quarren characters from the Star Wars Universe that have yet to be given action figure treatment, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.

If you were paying attention at the beginning of the week, you’ll remember that the world’s first action figure was Hasbro’s G.I. Joe. By the 70’s, the line had moved away from war toys and toward adventure and superheroes, and 1976 would mark the end of the original line of 12″ figures. One of the last G.I. Joe Adventure Team vehicle playsets was the “Sea Wolf Submarine,” seen here in a 1976 product catalog.

photo from www.plaidstallions.com

This working toy submarine is pretty cool in and of itself, but obviously I’m more interested in the large plastic squid that was included along with it. It is 11″ long and a sickly shade of light gray. I’m not a aware of a species of squid that looks quite like this, but considering that it’s nearly as big a G.I. Joe himself, I’d guess this was based on the Humboldt Squid.

Here’s my G.I. Joe squid, which I got off Ebay a few years ago. The right tentacle club is stamped “© 1975 Hasbro.”