Octopus Sculpture Made Out of Typewriter Parts

Squid Costume

We all sleep in a yellow submarine. (Photo by lane becker)

Tentacle Pot Pie

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea 3D Book Cover by Jim Tierney

Laughing Squid 15th Anniversary Poster by Josh Ellingson

This shirt is ten kinds of awesome, but the name is not nearly descriptive enough. Personally, I would have gone with something like “Sharkopter Vs. Squidmersible.” But that’s just me.

Get it at Chris Yates’ store on TopatoCo.com for $18.75. It is available in Teal as both American Apparel Standard and Classic Girl tees. Supplies in most sizes are currently running low, so buy it now!

Visit Chris Yates Studios for more about the artist and his works.

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.

After a long day with Daddy (and Mommy too!) at the science museum, Kid Indie Squid Kid returns to find his plush Architeuthis is running amok in his room!

Oh noes! How will this titanic stuggle end? Stay tuned to Plush Week to find out!

xkcd.com

My prize was one of the pins, and I opted for the tie tack option. The pin is made of cold cast bronze and is cast from an original sculpture by CTP contributor Sarah Dungan. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because I featured Sarah’s Industrial Fairytale Etsy shop in last week’s Holiday Shopping Guide.

You can see more of Sarah’s work at sarahdungan.blogspot.com.

Commander Battle and the Atomic Sub #2 (Sept-Oct 1954)

Sadly, there’s not much to say about Commander Battle and the Atomic Sub, which ran for a mere seven issues between 1954 and 1955. Published by American Comics Group (ACG), the book featured the adventures of the title character and his three “Atomic Commandos.” That’s right, this was a nuclear submarine crewed by only four people! (They apparently needed all the extra space to house their “atomic plane.”) The giant octopus depicted on the cover (which was drawn by Ogden Whitney) appears to have the upper hand arm against the Atomic Sub, but I have a feeling that the tables get turned by the end of the story.

All seven issues were probably written by editor Richard E. Hughes (who co-created Doc Strange and Black Terror for Standard Comics), and most issues (including #2) were penciled by Sheldon Moldoff (best known as one of Bob Kane’s Batman ghost artists, and as artist and co-creator of many of DC Comics’ other Gold and Silver Age characters.)

I might as well come clean. I own a lot of toys, and this will be the first of several theme weeks dedicated to toy cephalopods, both vintage and modern.

We begin with the Squid Sub from the Mega Rig® Building System by Matchbox.

The packaging here pretty much says it all. The submarine consists of a primary hull with modular accessories that can be attached in a number of different configurations. It has a working motor and launching harpoon, and it comes with a cute little diver man. The most important part, of course, is the “Squirting Squid.” In my customary nit-picky analysis, this large purple cephalopod more closely resembles an octopus than a squid. It has eight arms, each tipped with a single large sucker. (There is a strange slit in the middle of each arm, and I suspect this has something to do with maximizing the toy’s flexibility.) Its head resembles a cross between the bulbous head of an octopus and the pointy, finned mantle of a squid, but ultimately, it is not nearly long enough to be accurately called a squid.

Did I mention the sub was motorized? Because the screaming octo-squid really wants you to know that it is motorized.

The Mega Rig Squid Sub doesn’t seem to be in stores any more (I got mine a year or two ago on clearance at Wal-Mart), but you can still  buy it on Amazon.com.

Although I’ve never seen it anywhere, Amazon also has the Mega Ocean Adventure, which combines the Mega Rig Squid Sub with the Mega Rig Shark Adventure into a single über-Mega playset.

Previously on ISK: Matchbox Monsters: Kraken vs. Hovercraft!

Here Kid Indie Squid Kid models a cute little marine-themed bodysuit by OshKosh B’gosh. Of course it would be better if the giant octopus was attacking the sub…but still, it’s pretty awesome.

This is as good a time as any to mention the generally sorry representation of octopi on children’s clothing and toys. The problem is no that they are hard to find, but that they are rarely biologically accurate. Like the one show above, they usually have fewer than eight arms and little smiley faces. I doubt that in 95 million years of octopus history there has been a single case of an octopus that could smile!

Others go even further and are given cheeks, noses, teeth, and even clothes! Case in point, the octopus that Kid Indie Squid Kid is pointing to on this quilt.

Yeah, the little sailor hat is pretty dumb, and octopi most definitely do not have noses. But the blue rings are a nice touch, and I also like the way the arms curl…even if there are only six of them. This quilt, by the way, is part of the (now discontinued) Sea Life bedding set from Babies R’ Us.

So what is the discerning cephalopod-obsessed parent to do? Personally, I try to not to be too picky, while at the same time staying vigilant for the best octo-gear. The shape of an octopus’ arms and head, and the position of the eyes, can do a lot to lend a touch of realism to what would otherwise be silly and cartoony. For example, I would consider the “Under the Sea” OshKosh-topus to be fairly accurate. (Although not nearly as accurate as the Ahou Octu bodysuit by Finny’s Greens.)

By the way, we’ve finally started decorating Kid Indie Squid Kid’s room (ocean-theme, natch!), so you can expect many more super-cute photos like this in the near future. Oh yes.