Indie Squid Kid

photo by Chrysophylax

Cthulhu action figure by SOTA Toys.

Carcassonne board game by Rio Grande Games.

This detailed replica of the fascinating deep-sea cephalopod Vampyroteuthis infernalis most likely came from a museum or aquarium gift shop. It’s hard to say since I probably bought it about ten years ago. If I had known then that in 2008 I’d start a blog dedicated to cephalopods, perhaps I would have taken some notes…

The replica is about 6″ long and made of soft purple rubber. (It seems there is also a green version.) It has red eyes and four large glow-in-the-dark photophores. Apart from “TAMJ 97©” printed on the underside, I haven’t been able to find out anything specific on who made this toy or if it still available anymore.

Read more about Vampyroteuthis on Tree of Life.

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

Welcome to Toy Week!

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!

You shouldn’t have looked behind you…, originally uploaded by Cryptonaut.

Please remain calm.