Giant Realistic Squid Made Entirely Out of Chocolate

They say, “dream it, and you can achieve it” (especially if you have some degree of advanced skill.) With that in mind, chef Amaury Guichon of the Pastry Academy in Las Vegas went and constructed a surprisingly realistic squid entirely out of edible chocolate. How about that! Save a choco-tentacle for me, chef.

The sculpture includes a giant anchor and chain (also made entirely of chocolate) that the squid appears to be tugging, presumably pulling an unfortunate ship down to Davy Jones’ locker. Definitely not how I want to go – I’d much rather drown trying to drink my way out of Willy Wonka’s chocolate river.

Equally as impressive as the sculpture are those chocolate machines Amaury uses that appear to dispense liquid chocolate with just the push of a button. I don’t know about you, but I need one of those. And if you think I didn’t just haul my refrigerator to the curb so I can install one in its place, well, you’ve seriously underestimated my sweet teeth. That’s right, not just one – they’re ALL sweet.

[via Laughing Squid]

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Make Your Own Giant Gummy Squid!

There are lots of people out there who love the taste of squid, but I’m not one of them. I think it might be the rubbery texture that gets me, but I also don’t think it tastes like much of anything, so why bother giving my jaws the workout? On the other hand, I could get behind chomping on squid if it were made from deliciously sweet gummy candy.

With this kit from Takara Tomy A.R.T.S., you can make your own giant gummy squid. The kit comes with everything you need to make this chewy delicacy, along with two other bits of gummy marine life – a goofy looking blobfish, and one of those adorable flapjack octopi – like the one in the video below:

I’m not sure what flavor the candies are, nor if you can make them in different colors besides orange, purple, and green, but beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to gummy squid.

You can order the kit from Amazon for about $30 (USD), which includes shipping from Japan. It looks like you can get a giant gummy megamausuzame, which appears to be some kind of a shark.

Old Spice S.Q.U.I.D.: 8 Guys, 1 Cephalopod

If you’ve ever played the video game Octodad, you know how difficult it can be to perform tasks using tentacles. Sure, a real octopus can open a jar with its spindly legs, but you’re not a real octopus. To take the awkward control scheme to the next level – and to promote their new Krakengärd scent – Old Spice decided to build a mechanical squid that can be remotely controlled over the interweb.

The game is being streamed live on Twitch this weekend, and is played by not one player, but as an 8-player co-op game. That’s right, each participant controls an individual tentacle, and must work together to perform what would normally be a pretty simple task. For instance, in one session, S.Q.U.I.D. players were asked to each play a part of a drum kit.

In the session where I participated, our job was to sort out the good plants from the bad plants on a moving conveyor belt. Yeah, you can guess how well that went.

I managed to put a couple of plants in the wrong bin, and a few on the ground. Along the way, a couple of us managed to entangle our arms, as if two lost souls were embracing from across the globe.

Players who participate in the Twitch chat and authorize Old Spice may get picked to control a tentacle. After an all too brief, and totally unrelated training session, you’ll be thrown to the wolves and asked to operate your very own squid leg, using eight keys. While the keys might seem familiar to FPS players, trust me when I say that no amount of playing Counter-Strike will prepare you for this. The S.Q.U.I.D. control scheme is about as intuitive as a game of QWOP, but with twice as many buttons.

The first day of S.Q.U.I.D. is already over with, but there are sessions being played from 1pm to 6pm PST today and tomorrow (5/20 & 5/22). Head on over to the Old Spice S.Q.U.I.D. page on Twitch if you want to get in on the tentacle controlling action, or if you just want to stand on the sidelines and watch everyone else make a fool of themselves. Spectators even get to send along special squid emoji while they cheer on other players and wait their turn.

You can check out some behind the scenes footage of how the S.Q.U.I.D. robot came together in the video below:


Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Old Spice. Technabob received compensation for writing it, however, our editorial team only recommends products or services we find interesting or have used personally, and believe will be good for our readers.