SEPTEMBER 27, 2005--FIRST PHOTOS!

Scientists have finally photographed a live wild giant squid. Read the story at the National Geographic News web site.

Remember Jules Verne's character, Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus, in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? One of his most dramatic encounters involved a giant squid (Architeuthis dux) such as this one. We don't know much about the habits of giant squids because scientists have not actually found where they live! We do know that they are eaten by sperm whales, as their beaks have been found in the whales' stomachs.

While the average length of a giant squid is 60 feet long, our plastic squid is "only" 9 1/2 and 18 inches long, including the feeder tentacles. It can't do you any harm, but it can provide fun and a learning experience. Realistic in many details, our sturdy, solid plastic squid has real-looking sucker feet on the shorter tentacles and a beak where the tentacles attach to the squid. There are also suckers on the ends of the two long tentacles, which are bendable and somewhat posable. The shorter tentacles are very flexible, but they are not posable. The body of the 9-inch squid including the shorter arms is almost 5 inches long. The eyes are prominently painted, the tail is realistically moulded, and there is even a mouth moulded into the bottom, just barely seen in the photo. Our squid is durable and sturdy, made of solid plastic, and is suitable for school displays, as a learning experience for children, as a wonderful gift for Jules Verne fans, as an addition to sea life collections, and it can also be used as a toy. It comes with an informational tag in English ("giant squid"), French ("le calmar geant"), German ("riesenkrake"), Italian ("seppia gigante"), and Spanish ("calamar gigante"). You can learn more about this fascinating creature of the deep on a web page called In Search of Giant Squid. Once you've seen what a fascinating and mysterious creature this is, we think you'll want to take one home!

Be sure to look over our other squid toys and gifts.



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