Giant Squid (Wild Republic by K&M International)

Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972

Who hasn’t heard of the legendary giant squid (Architeuthis dux)? From Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to Peter Benchley’s Beast (fun read, that one!) and to countless artistic depictions of epic underwater clashes with sperm whales, it certainly has quite the reputation as a genuine sea monster. But in truth, it’s a shy and elusive animal that doesn’t come close to achieving the immense proportions shown on pages and screen, and it’s about as outmatched against a sperm whale as a frog is against a water snake.

Nevertheless, the giant squid is still among the most fascinating of sea creatures, and a favourite of mine since childhood. Long before I became a parent, I was in the hobby of collecting plush marine animals from the many zoos and aquariums across North America that I visited. For this review, I’ll be covering a giant squid made by Wild Republic and purchased at the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco, California. I highly recommend a visitation if you’re ever in that fabulous city.

The main colour on this squid is wine or burgundy with beige for the mouth and the underside of the tentacles, a black beak, and very pale pink on the hole of the funnel and the rim of the mantle. The huge, bulging eyes, which are made of clear plastic, are black and sparkling gold. A real giant squid’s eyes are more of a whitish shade, but the gold really looks good on this toy, so no points lost there.

Plush toys often have exaggerated or diminished features, but this one scores very high indeed in terms of accuracy. The body has the correct rocket-like shape, with fins located near the tip for locomotion. The funnel is the right shape and in the right location, and as I noted before, the eyes are appropriately huge. There are eight shorter tentacles and two extra long ones with flattened tips, called the tentacular clubs. These are used to catch food, which consists of either deep sea fish or smaller squid. Once a morsel has been seized by the clubs, the squid pulls it in toward its parrot-like beak, which is well represented on this toy!

From the tip of its mantle to the end of its clubs, this toy measures 77 cm (30”) long, although more than half that length is taken up by the tentacles, just like on a real giant squid. The most recent size estimates place males at 10 metres (33 feet) and 150 kg (330 lbs) and females at 13 metres (43 feet) and 275 kg (606 lbs). That makes the giant squid the second largest extant invertebrate after the colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni), which is not as long, but much heavier.

This is a truly wonderful giant squid toy, one that is anatomically accurate, satisfyingly big, and definitely a lot of fun to play with. Highly recommended!