Xmas roundup 2009
December 29, 2009
We had a marvelous Christmas here at ISK headquarters, and if you celebrate I hope you did too! This year was Kid Indie Squid Kid’s first Christmas, and even though he is a little too young to know what was going on, it was still very exciting. Family came to us, so we didn’t have to worry about traveling with the baby, and that turned out to be ideal, because I seem to have the virus and/or secondary bacterial infection that WILL NOT DIE.
It will come as little surprise that there were a number of cephalopods underneath our Christmas tree. Here’s a rundown of all the loot…
- Imaginext 3-Headed Sea Dragon Gift Set
- Imaginext Ocean Squid
- Arkham Horror: Innsmouth Horror Expansion (by Fantasy Flight Games)
- orange googly-eyed plush octopus
- Young Mad Scientist Alphabet Blocks (by Xylocopa from ThinkGeek)
- polymer clay tentacle pendent/ornament (by bunny X productions)
Well, I think that’s it for now. I’ve been unplugged for a week so I got to ease back into things, you know?
2009 Holiday Shopping Guide: Toys!
November 30, 2009
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
Toy Week: Imaginext® Seablade™ the Octopus
September 15, 2009
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
Imaginext™ Deep Sea Diver
July 9, 2009
Fisher-Price Imaginext™ Deep Sea Diver (2002)
This toy squid is perplexing. It accurately has eight arms and two club-ended feeding tentacles (the detail which these kinds of replicas get wrong more often than not), but
instead of extending forward from the front of the head and encircling the mouth, the arms are arranged along the middle of the body like the legs of an insect. Adding insult to injury, the feeding tentacles trail behind it like some kind of double tail.
It has a beak, which is good, but the horizontal orientation combined with the forward-facing eyes give its head an ant-like quality. Speaking of the eyes, the illustration shows hourglass pupils, like an octopus. This is wrong for a squid, but it’s also oddly specific—as if the designer had a visual reference for the eyes, but just winged the rest of the figure without much thought.
Seriously, was the design of this toy dictated over the phone or something? Had the designer seen a squid one time, perhaps while high, and figured he remembered it well enough? Did he then get distracted by a picture of a spider half-way through?
I don’t want to rag on the Fisher-Price Imaginext line too much, since it recently has produced a couple of cool (and more accurate) cephalopod toys…but those will be the subject of future posts.
