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®.

Welcome to Action Figure Week!

Defined as a “posable character figurine,” the term “action figure” was originally coined by American toy company Hasbro in 1964 to market their G.I. Joe line to boys. The success of G.I. Joe was followed by other popular toy lines, like Mego’s DC and Marvel superheroes, but it was a little movie called Star Wars that earned the action figure a permanent spot in the pantheon of classic toys. Just don’t call them dolls!

Cephalopods may seem like unlikely subjects for the action figure treatment, but there have been several notable examples over the years. As luck would would have it, I happen to own most of them! So here we go…

This may look like a Cthulhu action figure, but it’s Killamari from Mattel’s “Street Sharks” toy line. The corresponding Street Sharks cartoon series (by DIC Entertainment), which was probably created to promote the toys, ran from 1994-1996. The basic premise is that a mad scientist (Dr. Paradigm, aka “Dr. Piranoid”) has transformed the four sons of a rival professor into shark-men. They team up to fight the evil geneticist and his band of  monsterous mutant sea creatures. Killamari is one of these “Seaviates.” He is a mutant squid that can fire poisonous projectiles from his mouth and suckers. Killamari is highly intelligent, but has limited abilities of speech, a fact that has sparked a rivalry with fellow Seaviate Slash (a mutated marlin). He was voiced by D. Kevin Williams (who also did a number of other voices in the series).

Killamari was released in 1995 as part of the first Street Sharks assortment. At 6″ tall and nearly 5″ wide at the shoulder, it is a pretty big hunk of plastic. The toys and cartoon were a bit after my time (I was in college), but I picked this figure up a flea market sometime in the late 90’s. I got it as-is, so I’m not sure what accessories it would have come with originally. However, this photo of the figure in its packaging indicates that there was a “dart” that fired out of the toy’s head.