Product Review: P.L.A.Y. Giant Squid Stuffy

This squid stuffy is part of P.L.A.Y.'s Under the Sea plush toy line. It is stuffed with 100% recycled plastic bottle stuffing, made of reinforced yet soft and fuzzy fabric, and squeaks like all good stuffies. Part of the proceeds from each squid sold go to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, so buying a squid stuffy does a little to help a worthy cause.

Photo by Erin Koski

After several people commented on how much they loved the squids they got in their July BarkBoxes (we got a crab instead), I finally embraced my love for cephalopods and purchased a squid for Brisbane. I have no regrets.

Officially it's a giant squid, but it's not really that big so it could just as easily represent a Humboldt squid, or a pencil squid, or a common arm squid. I am of the opinion that it most represents a flying squid, with the calamari being a close second. Yes, that does mean I just spent upwards of thirty minutes looking at pictures of squid on the internet. Make of that what you will.

Photo by Erin Koski

This is a surprisingly sturdy stuffed toy, several people have mentioned it holding up far better than most of their dog's plush squeakies. Maybe there's something about P.L.A.Y. stuffies that doesn't scream "Disembowel me!"? Brisbane has not attempted to shred it yet. He doesn't normally set out to destroy, but once the toy is breached and the stuffing exposed, the urge to unstuff is too great.

Pros: Reinforced seams and sturdy fabric. Soft, bite-able mouth feel. Tentacles make it fun to shake and kill. It's a squid. I love squid.

Photo by Erin Koski

Cons: Do you know how many tentacles squids have? Two. Squids have two long tentacles plus eight shorter arms, for a total of ten appendages. How many does this squid stuffy have? Six. It has two long tentacles, but only four shorter arms. I know making a full compliment of squid appendages would have been needlessly expensive and possibly compromised the durability of the toy, but it still makes my inner zoologist kind of twitchy. This Giant Squid may have been in some sort of tragic accident, or lost half its arms in an epic battle with a sperm whale.

Bottom Line: The P.L.A.Y. Giant Squid is everything I dreamed it would be.