Artist unknown (via tentacle garden)

It hasn’t hit the mainstream yet, but I feel confident that cephalopod/bear mashups will be the big Internet meme of 2011.

To close out Plush Week, here is, hands down, the coolest plush cephalopod in my collection…maybe the coolest plush cephalopod EVER MADE. Measuring over two and half feet long, Wild Republic’s Gaint Squid dominates the toy box. This awseomely anatomically accurate Architeuthis (although the tag claims it to be simply a “Squid”) was produced in 2005. I picked mine up from a vendor at Dragon*Con a few years back, but it is still available online. For example, Amazon.com.

In addition to its overall size, this toy has many other impressive details. It’s eyes are nearly two inches in diameter, it has a ventral siphon, and there is a well-defined collar separating the head from the mantle. If you part the fuzzy arms and tentacles, you will find a pointy black beak. The only thing this squid is missing are the suckers.

A week ago on Father’s Day, I said I would reveal the outcome of Kid Indie Squid Kid’s encounter with the plush Architeuthis. And the winner is…

Kid Indie Squid Kid clearly had the upper hand (or tentacle, as the case may be me) in this battle. Although he seems to have enlisted the help of a certain ursine ally.

design by Danny Christopher

I can’t decide if this shirt shows an octopus that loves his teddy bear, or one that just ate a child. (Although, I suppose there’s no reason it can’t be both.) At any rate, I tend to favor the sweet interpretation over the sinister.

This is actually a shirt that I own, but don’t have a good photo of myself wearing it (as is my custom for T-shirt Tuesday). Not yet anyway. I would have taken one today, but being sick for three days in a row isn’t particularly conducive to ones’ photogenic-ness.

“Octopus” is currently Sold Out in all sizes at Threadless, but I have a feeling they’ll reprint it eventually. Here’s the detail link so you can buy it when they do!

This design is also available as a Blik wall decal!

While this shirt isn’t Christmas-themed per se, to many people the impending holidays instills a feeling not unlike the sensation of being charged by a Giant Squid and a Grizzly Bear on a bicycle.

Raptor Bandit Industries is the merchandise arm of The Adventures of Dr McNinja webcomic, and is part of the TopatoCo family of independent creators.

The shirt is $18.50 and is available in men’s and women’s sizes.

Buy it now from TopatoCo.com

Ursapus by Everyeskimo

Everyeskimo posted this wonderful creation to her blog on Friday, and it was apparently for sale in her Etsy shop. However, it must have been snapped up instantaneously, because by the time I got there Friday afternoon it was nowhere to be seen!

Coincidentally, Kid Indie Squid Kid was trying out his new bear costume over the weekend!

I’m not saying you have to decide which is the cutest, but if I did, I think you’d know the correct answer…

Sighted by Chris Butler (via cult youth., via BuzzFeed)