Indie Squid Kid

design by APSketches

What devilry is this? A T-shirt post on a day other than Tuesday?? Well, given the current trend of T-shirt sites that offer their designs for one day only, one has to learn to be flexible.

Of course, once again, I am a little late to the punch here, but this shirt is still available (only $10!) for a few hours more. It’s an octopus next to a pirate skull! What’s not to love? Buy it while you can from Ript Apparel.

I also have to give a shout out to Natalie for tipping me off about this one!

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

Underwater Land is a CD of marine-themed children’s songs, and it was Shel Silverstein’s last musical project before his death in 1999.  The Silverstein estate has finally released the album as both a CD and MP3 download, and both can be purchased from the Underwater Land project website, where you can also hear samples of several of the songs. The CD comes with a 32 page booklet featuring the lyrics of all 17 songs and previously unpublished Silverstein illustrations, and the download comes with a PDF version.

Underwater Land contains two cephalopod-themed songs: “Cuttlefish” and “Captain Octopus.” On the website you can hear a sample of “Captain Octopus” which is about all the different things an eight-armed sailor could do at once. Here’s excerpt of the lyrics…

And he can…

Raise the flag,

And paint the mast,

And lower the boom,

And polish the brass,

Squeeze the Juice,

And shine the boots,

And iron the captain’s sailor suit,

And still have one hand free

To give a salute.

(Via BoingBoing)

This lovely green octopus is from Fisher-Price’s Imaginext Adventures Pirate line, and it is a vast improvement over Imaginext’s previous attempt at a cephalopod toy.

Despite his pleasant hue, this is one bad ass octopus. For starters, his name is “Seablade.” As in, “I don’t care that I’m a squishy invertebrate…I will totally cut you!” Furthermore, he has a sweet skull-and-cross-bones tat, and he hangs out with blood-thirsty pirates. Yet, as we are told, he is fiercely loyal to his terrestrial friends.

Seablade features “Spinning Action” and comes with a pirate figure, sword, piece of treasure, sea star, and coral.

It originally retailed for about $6.00 (although these days it costs quite a bit more at Amazon). It seems to be getting scarce in stores, but I’ve seen it fairly recently at Kohl’s.

Previously on ISK: Imaginext Deep Sea Diver