I love TOTO.  It has all the expected zaniness of anyone's best preconception of what a serial should be. My ideal vision of serials is rarely lived up to in reality.  But Octopus does and does it very well. 

Once I got into silent serials I realized that yes, it's true, the silent era was the real golden age of serials. There was money spent on sets, lighting and effects and time spent on making them interesting (plots, scripts, atmosphere).  Of American silents that have a almost complete existence I'd put TOTO at the top.  I can only imagine possibly Mysteries of Myra being better, if all or most of the footage was ever found.

One for instance of how much better the cinematography on Octopus is over any sound serial I can think of is the boat chase in... ep 2 or 3... can't remember off hand. Anyway it really struck me at just how great the camera setups and editing were on this scene.  Comparing it to sound serials with similar boat chases such as Dick Tracy, you really see how much effort went into TOTO's visual actualization.

Also, the laundry list of cool and outre stuff that Dave lists, is all there and well-realized on a level you just don't see in later serials. 

-Shonokin
The Pulp Reader