Tenticals separate or together?

[Catzella99]

I'm making a few cthulu toys for my family and I'm new to crochet. Would it be better to make each face tentical individually and attach as such or to make them all connected and attach as a whole? They are rather small toys at 12 inchs tall. Which do you belive would be better looking and not too hard for a beginner?

[Granny Square]

Welcome to the 'ville!  I had to look up what (he?) looks like.  He seems to have sort of curly tentacles.

To make a curly 'string', like say one of those curly hair ties, you'd make a chain and then work back in US DC putting 3 to 5 DCs into each stitch (the more in each stitch, the curlier).

Experiment a little - make a chain and measure the length, and work back with 3 SCs in each stitch and see how it looks (for a small 12" toy, you don't want a stitch taller than that).  Maybe try 3 SC into each chain for part of it, and 4 SC into each chain for a bit, or even 2, to see what you like - maybe the tentacle could start straighter and end curlier.  It's going to compress a lot when it coils up, so if you made a 12" chain, you might end up with a 6" tentacle (I'm not sure what the ratio is, this is why you have to do some 'swatching' first to see what will work for you).

Since this is a rather small model at 12", the easiest thing to do is while making the face, wherever you want a tentacle to 'sprout', make a chain of a length you think will work based on your experiments above, then work back toward the face with 3 SC into each chain (or whatever worked with your swatch).  edited to add - doing it this way, the face and the tentacles are all 'one piece', so no cutting, sewing on, or weaving in ends. 

Edited August 16, 2021 by Granny Square

[Granny Square]

Here are some existing (free) patterns whose tentacles appear to be made similarly to the the way I described 

https://ruralrebellion.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/free-pattern-friday-cthulhu/

http://cthulhucrochet.blogspot.com/2010/05/cuddly-cthulhu-with-free-pattern.html

https://www.instructables.com/Dread-Crocheted-Cthulhu/