The Octopus by Fisher Price

A vague memory slowly worked its way out of my subconscious the other day. A young me was playing with a toy at a pizza parlor. There were several parts to the toy, but the one that intrigued me the most was a rubber octopus. After a little searching, I found this toy. It was the Fisher Price Aero-Marine Search Team. Now I had no idea at that time what “Aero-Marine” meant (and I still had to give the “Aero” part some thought today), but there was both a helicopter and a submarine as well as some sort of cage, a diver, a pilot, and a treasure chest.

The centerpiece of it all, though, was the aforementioned octopus. The octopus was not only malleable rubber but also had a gradiating multi-hue coloration. It was the most realistic animal toy I ever played with. The most realistic killer animal toy I ever played with.

The octopus was featured in a couple other Fisher Price sets, including the Deep Sea Diver set. I guess it was too good a toy for Fisher Price to use just once. But I got it in the Aero-Marine Search Team set, and whatever adventures that Aero-Marine Search Team had involved that octopus. Anytime they went for the treasure chest, that octopus was there. It was that octopus, not the Aero-Marine Search Team, that was the real hero of that toy.

Doug

Doug is a child of the 80s who was raised in Ohio and is now living the life of oblivion in the bay area of California.

Latest posts by Doug (see all)

Never Miss an Episode

Stay up-to-date on the latest from the Retroist Podcast. Sign up and receive email notifications when there's a new episode of the Retroist Podcast or when we launch new podcasts.
* indicates required

12 thoughts on “The Octopus by Fisher Price”

  1. I had seen this in ages! I had this when I was 7 years old and just loved it. It was one of my favorite toys and I just loved that octopus also. It was the coolest.

  2. I had this, too! And I loved it, played with it, or various parts of the set, for years! Loved it. Wow, what a memory flashback!!!

  3. plaidman76 says:

    Holy cow, I had this too! totally forgot about it until I saw that sub and helicopter. Crazy how a simple picture of a toy can bring back so many forgotten memories.

  4. I think I had this. The sub is very familiar, and I’m pretty sure I had 2 octopi, so since I know I had the Deep Sea Diver, this could be where the other octopus came from. At least one of them is still rattling around here somewhere.

  6. Doug, great post, friend!

    I never had any of the Fisher Price figures…but I sure wish I had. They look amazing. Thanks for that link by the way, mwentworth! :)

  7. Doug says:

    Vic, thanks! mwentworth, is this the series that had this white plastic piece that looped around like a silly straw and went into the astronaut’s back or foot to simulate a space walk?

  8. Don Hilliard says:

    From the box, it looks like the “Aero-Marine” set was a catalog-only combination of the Deep-Sea Diver and Helicopter sets. Many toy companies at the time had special deals with Sears or Montgomery Ward for their Christmas catalogs, with combinations or even exclusive items “NOT SOLD IN STORES!”; since they, well, weren’t sold in stores, the manufacturers usually put them in plainer packages (usually sturdier ones, too, since they had to survive a second freight trip via the Post Office, UPS or the delivery truck to the local catalog store.)

    @Doug: Yep, that’s the one. (I think there were several “Adventure People” space sets – and I had one, which included the squiggly white “umbilical” for spacewalks!)

  12. TattooedSteve says:

    I still have the Deep Sea diver with the brass helmet and his air hose with the warning flag on top of the floater. He came with the Octopus and treasure chest too, but they were lost over the years. And he still shares a shelf with my very first vinyl Great White Shark in my bathtub to this day.

Leave a Reply