Dave's Cool Toys Blog

Welcome to Dave's Cool Toys Weblog

Dave's Cool Toys is moving our blog to a new location and hosting it on our site. The new url is http://www.davescooltoys.com/davesblog.

We would like to thank Typepad for everything and have been very happy with their service. We highly recommend them.

Please update your bookmarks to the new location.

We will be keeping this url active for a while, but all new posts will be at the new location. All of our recent posts are already there.

Unfortunately, comments left at this url will not be transferring to the new one, so if you'd like to visit us there and leave your comments again, that would be great!

I will be posting on a much more regular basis with an expanded range of categories at the new url. We hope to see you there!

Dave Ference Dave's Cool Toys

Family Fun in FamilyFun

Every month I sit in the waiting room of the orthodontist's office waiting for one, or both, of my kids. In the pile of magazines on the table the first thing I look for is FamilyFun Magazine. Every month this Disney-owned magazine is full of great activities, crafts, food, tips and ideas, travel information, and much more. The craft and food ideas are easy to do and not very costly. Many of them are very simple, but extremely clever. I have to admit that several times I've been tempted to tear out a page and bring it home (I have not).

My boys are getting older now and FamilyFun is geared more towards families with smaller children, although some of the ideas are still good for older kids, or could be adjusted slightly for their age. It's also a great gift idea for friends with smaller kids. Or maybe I'll subscribe now and save the best articles for gandchildren. (Yikes! did I just say that?)

The price is right too. A 12-month (10 issue) subscription from Amazon is only $9.95. I don't want to sound like Billy Mays, but that's only 99 cents each! If you order before June 30, there is also an additional $3.00 discount. Worth every penny.

I've seen some critisizm that FamilyFun lacks some diversity in its travel destinations and activities. I suppose I would have to basically agree with that. But it doesn't negate it's strong points, which are clever and inspiring ideas for all families to do together.

Dave's Cool Toys

Play-Doh, Play-Doh, and more Play-Doh

If you've visited my Toy Trivia web page, you might know that Play-Doh was originally created as a wallpaper cleaner. It wasn't long before it became apparent that it was a great modeling clay and it was quickly marketed as Play-Doh Brand Modeling Compound in 1956. Play-Doh was granted U.S. Patent No. 3,167,440 for a "plastic modeling composition of a soft, playable working consistency". The ingredients are a closely-guarded secret, but Hasboro has revealed a few... water, salt and flour. It doesn't contain peanuts, peanut oil or milk. You can visit the official Play-Doh website here.

If you'd like to know exactly what makes Play-Doh the versatile stuff it is, visit this page on HowStuffWorks.com to learn more about starches, surfactants, and inhibitors than you ever needed to know.

National Play-Doh Day is September 18th. To date, over seven hundred million pounds of Play-Doh have been sold. Factories produce about 95 million cans of the compound every year. More than 6,000 stores in the United States carry the compound, and it's sold in 75 countries.

I don't think anyone would argue that Play-Doh has one of the most distinct odors that conjures up hours playing with the mushy stuff as a child. I've been trying to find out exactly what that smell is, but the closest I've been able to come is almonds or marzipan. Supposedly the almond odor was added to cover up the "industrial" odor from the ingredients. Doesn't sound right to me. It is possible that it's just a lucky combination of the ingredients. At any rate, I love the smell of Play-doh, but not quite this much... the Demeter company has created Play-doh Cologne Spray for that "fresh, just-out-of-the-can" aroma.

On our Fun Stuff To Do page, we have featured recipes for such things at Silly Putty. But one thing we haven't had (yet) is a recipe for Play-Doh. I've done some research and found one here. In the future, I'll try it out and post the results here. I also found this page with a bunch of recipes.

If you have run out of ideas for your Play-Doh Fun Factory, try this amazing idea... making cookies! This woman made space invader cookies using the Play-Doh Fun Factory. What a great idea. The possibilities are endless. I would try this one, but I don't have the patience.

Need more Play-Doh? From now until May 31, 2009 (hurry) amazon.com is running a great promotion for a free Play-Doh Case of Colors with the purchase of the Play-Doh items at this link.

We've featured one of the amazing Sony Bravia commercials on this blog before. Another great one is the Play-Doh Bunnies commercial using stop-motion rabbits in a live street setting in NYC. It is absolutely amazing. Watch it here...

Dave's Cool Toys

Big Bang Cannons - new web page!

One of our most popular items at Dave's Cool Toys (and one of my favorites) are Big Bang Cannons. We've been selling them since 1995 and they are still one of our most popular items.

Our Big Bang Cannon product pages have quite a bit of information about the cannons, but it would be impractical to answer every possible question about them on each of those pages.

For that reason I have created a Big Bang Cannon web page. Not only have I tried to answer every possible question customers could have abour these great items, but I've included some history, operating tips, a link to a pdf file of instructions for your cannon (in case you lose them), photos, and much more. I'll keep it updated and add to it in the future.

Dave's Cool Toys

The Sound of Antwerp Train Station

The Sound of Music was on TV this past weekend. We didn't watch it, but I always have to try to catch the Goatherder song. I really do like that song and the puppet show that goes a long with it. I know. "Dork."

By a strange coincidence, one of the e-newsletters I receive had a link this morning to this incredible video.

Here's what I have been able to find out about it, although I can't guarantee accuracy. This took place in Central Station Antwerp, Belgium at 8:00 a.m. on March 23, 2009. It took over 200 dancers who rehearsed this just 2 times. It was staged as a publicity stunt for "In Search of Maria", a TV program searching for someone to play the leading role in the musical "The Sound of Music." It was staged by the Belgian commercial VTM Network and none of the morning commuters had any idea it was going to take place.

Whatever the circumstances, it is wonderful. Enjoy. Be sure to click the "HQ" button for the very best quality!

When you're done watching this video, you can see the "making of" video here.

Dave's Cool Toys

Your Sidewalk in 3D

We recently purchased the Crayola 3-D Sidewalk Chalk set. Crayola has been coming up with some very cool products lately and this is no exception. The packaging is very clever, letting you look through the glasses and view the art on other packages in 3-D (this is probably what sold me on buying it).

But would it work on our patio? My youngest son did some drawings and I went out to look at them with the glasses and they were very cool. He didn't make his lines very heavy, so the effect was limited.

Since I haven't really grown up yet, I had to try it myself. I started with my name, which you can see a picture of here. The concrete came out a little dark in the picture. The cool thing is if you have a set of the glasses you can click on the picture for a larger version and, with the glasses on, it will appear in 3-D as well. I made a spiral version with the colors blending so it looks like it's sort-of cone-shaped. I didn't get a good photo before my son's scootering mostly erased it, though.

To see a cool video that truly does capture the effect, visit this link.

To plan your artwork you need to remember that cool colors (blue, green) will appear farther away and warm colors (red, orange) will appear closer and lift up from the surface when viewed with the glasses.

Does the 3-D work? Yes! Very well. My Wife and Sister-in-Law both tried to put their foot under the "A" in "DAVE", since it appears to be hovering high above the other letters.

The effect works through a process called Chromadepth 3D. The special glasses pull any warm colors like red, toward the viewer, and cool colors like blue away from the viewer. All the other colors are sorted by their position in the rainbow, or ROY G. BIV. Other than the glasses, you don't need anything special to create 3-D art. Any good sidwalk chalk will work just fine. For this reason, you can take photos of your kids (or your) artwork and the photos will be able to be viewed in 3-D long after the art has washed away in the rain. Chromadepth glasses are available online from cheap ones to nice plastic ones (like those that come in the Crayola sets). Once your chalk is gone, you can even create more 3-D art with markers, crayons, or even on your computer. Just remember the order to create the 3-D effect in. I had limited success with crayons using the Crayola glasses. You can also find lots of artwork online that uses this effect. A quick search on Google Images found hundreds. Supposedly some movies also have inadvertently been created in Chromadepht 3-D just through the use of their color pallete including Mulan, Pocahantas, and Batman and Robin (although I haven't tried this). I also found some cool 3-D videos online (although many of them are just video slide-shows). Try this 3-D flythrough or this Blacklight Maze.

If you're looking for more chalk, check out the Chalk Fun kit at Dave's Cool Toys (shameless plug). You can make your own sidewalk chalk, then use your own chalk creations to make art on your sidewalk. Not only is it fun, but it's on sale!

Dave's Cool Toys

Amazing Ecomagination "Hologram"

This is amazing. I am completely stunned by this little bit of technological wizardry. I don't wish to plug General Electric, but this is so much fun to do, I couldn't help but post it.

At the GE Ecomagination website, you can view and participate in this very cool demonstration. I'm not sure what it says about GE exactly, but it is impressive. The call it a hologram, but anyone that knows anything about holograms would agree that it's a completely innacurate term. It's more like a 3-D interactive virtual reality thingy. They also call it Smart Grid Augmented Reality.

First, you need a printed Solar Panel Marker. What? You don't have one? No problem. The website says "if you don't already have one" you can print it from a pdf which you can download there.

Next, you need a webcam and you'll need the latest version of Flash.

Once you have all that you're ready to experience this cool technology. From the Ecomagination Smart Grid site, you click on either "Launch Wind Turbine" or "Launch Solar Energy".

This will open a window which should display the image from your webcam. Make sure you are in the frame, then pick up your Solar Panel Marker and hold it up for the camera.

Now the magic begins. In the image, from the center of your printed Solar Panel Marker sheet, a landscape will unfold complete with windmills (or solar panels, depending on which you chose) and the Smart Grid scarecrow, which you may have seen on their commercials. Tilt and move the paper and the entire landscape tilts and moves with it. Blow into your microphone, and the wind turbines will begin to spin. The scarecrow even waves. I had some trouble with the Solar Energy version. It kept crashing my browser. But the Wind Turbine version worked extremely well.

Goodbye Busy Beetles

I've just found out that one of our favorite toys, Busy Beetles, and it's companion, Batty Lizards have been discontinued.

Busy Beetles are a wonderful set of interlocking puzzle pieces of beetles that interlock, Escher style, into an endless combination of patterns. They are based on the principle of Tessellations. They are great.

We've been carrying them since 1999 and they've been a popular item over the years. Before that, starting in 1997, we carried a similar item called "Tessera". They were the same shape, size, etc. as Busy Beetles, but in cool, dark pearlized colors. I still have a few sets in my office somewhere.

I've ordered the last Batty Lizards that the distributor has in stock (they were out of the Busy Beetles), but when they are gone, we will have them no more. If we find another supplier for them, we will get them back in stock.

Goodbye Busy Beetles. We'll miss you.

Dave's Cool Toys

Ultraman! Remember Ultraman?

This morning, I had an IM discussion with my sister-in-law about Ultraman. Please tell me you remember Ultraman? She had no idea what I was talking about. If you don't remember him, or would like to refresh your memory, there's a good bit of information at Wikipedia. But my best recollection of the series is that an alien was traveling near earth, and crashes into Hayata, an Asian gentlemen, killing him. To save his life, he somehow joined with Hayata. He gave Hayata this thing called the Beta Capsule, that he could press if he needed Ultraman. Of course, these giant monsters would attack Tokyo every week and Hayata would drop the Beta Capsule just out of reach and eventually, he would get it, press it, and Ultraman would appear. Ultraman would wrestle and fight with the giant monsters (did I mention Ultraman was also a giant?) and use some sort of ray that he shot by crossing his arms (as you can see in the picture). I think Ultraman was basically solar and if his power got too low, he would die. Of course he would be just about to run out of power when he'd finally kick butt, kill the giant monster, then turn back into Hayata until the next episode. I seem to remember something about him flying into space to recharge as well, but I'm not so sure about that .

One of the things I remember most vividly about the series was the cool claylike swirly opening segment, which, I think they used at the end as well. On the right is a rather poor copy of the opening sequence.

I'd forgotten about the kinda funny silhouettes in the opening sequence. This video doesn't do the swirly clay stuff justice. I don't think it was that blue.

Well, when I was growing up, we loved Ultraman. I have looked for DVDs of Ultraman before and, apparently, due to a legal dispute, there were none available. However it seems that the legal disputes have been resolved and Ultraman: The Complete Series is now available on DVD.

Amazon also has A bunch of Ultraman items available including action figures, masks, video games, and the Ultraman Theme Song Collection. I kid you not.

Just as I was finishing this post, I found a website with full episodes of Ultraman. I would like to think that they do not violate any copyrights, but I can't guarantee that, so proceed at your own risk.

Natural Ketchup

I stumbled on a video today that I thought was funny. Maybe you will too. I was actually looking for natural ketchup.

Grow Your Own Elf

For Christmas, my boys got a Grow Your Own Elf in their stockings. They are one of those little creatures you put in water and they soak it up and grow many times their size. So I found a large jug for them and my son, Josh, put his in. I think he expected it to grow in a few hours and was disappointed when the instructions said it would take 10 days.

But out of curiosity, we measured the "before" elf and he was 1.5 inches. The package said he would grow 600%, which would put him at 9 inches. (My son was not happy with me when I asked him to do the math on that one.)

So we waited, and watched, and he started growing in the jar on our kitchen counter. He was a lazy elf, lying on the bottom of the jar. We moved him when we needed the counter space, then put him back so he could continue to grow. Eventually, as he grew I realized the jar I used (a 1 gallon pickle jar) was a bit optimistic. And he never quite reached 9 inches. He stopped growing at about 6 inches on about day 4 and never really grew any more.

My wife thinks he looks like Butch Patrick. I'll let you decide, he's pictured here.

You can see from the picture on the right that my son took, that even though he didn't reach his full potential, he sure grew quite a bit in 10 days.

Out of curiosity, I did some research to see why these grow creatures work. I discovered that they are made of a "superabsorber" similar to the material in diapers (also marketed as "Instant Snow"), combined with a polymer to keep their shape.
Specifically, they are "a plastic called a graft copolymer of hydrolyzed starch-polyacrylonitrile (commonly known as “Acrilan”, “Orlon” or “Creslan”)". Got that?

As I looked online, I discovered that these growing creatures make a great science experiment for school or home. Kids start with several identical grow creatures, and grow them under different circumstances, such as both tap and distilled water, or adding salt, sugar, or vinegar to the water and measure if they grow more or less. To see some interesting experiments done by Jack Spangler, a kindergartner, with grow creatures, check out his blog, here. It is excellent!

Now that I've composed this blog post, I'm wondering what would happen if I kept our little friend in water indefinitely. Will he continue to grow after, say 2 months? Or will he reach a limit? Well... we have one more, so check back in a few weeks!

Bears. Inside Out.

Kent Rogowski has created one of the most unusual books I've ever seen. Simply called, "Bears" He opens up Teddy Bears, turns them inside-out, re-stuffs them, then takes their portrait.

The absurd creatures that result from this make for the most interesting photos. Many of them seem a bit sad, some seem to be on life-support due to what I believe are noise making devices, now on their outsides.

The description from his website states "They are at once hideous yet cuddly, disturbing yet endearing, absurd yet adorable, while offering a metaphor for us all to consider. These bears, which have lived and loved and lost as much as their owners, have suffered and endured through it all. It is by virtue of revealing their inner core might we better understand our own." OK. I think that might be going a bit far. But I was fascinated with them.

Check out some of his inside-out teddy bear photos here.

Freakiest Fish 2008

Just in time for Halloween, Oceana has announced the winner of this year's Freakiest Fish contest. And the winner is... the Fanfin Seadevil. The wire-like filaments that stick out of it's body detect movement in the water. Fortunately, you probably won't come across this beauty at the beach. It's rarely been observed or captured.
To send a halloween card with this lovely fish, click here. They have a few other cards with the runner's up as well.

Personally, I don't think this fish compares to last year's Blobfish. He was something else.

Link.

Banzai Water Park... more like a foot bath.

I came across this horrible misrepresentation of a toy today. It's the Banzai Wild Waves Water Park . A savvy consumer, David Ng scanned the "Water Park's" box and took a photo of his children standing next the actual product to show how extremely misleading the product shot is. Many manufacturers spend a great deal of time and money making their product look as good as possible, but this obviously goes well beyond that and purposely tries to deceive the consumer. Apparently, the box also claims that you may not return the item to the store you bought it at (try and stop me!)

I checked on Amazon for this item and the photo there (at left) was a somewhat more realistic version. Clearly the children in this shot were photoshopped in. Probably at the last minute to avoid prosecution. The box also states "product may not be as appears on image". Well that may well protect them legally, but that statement opens the possibility of putting anything you want on the box! One of the many strengths of the Web is the ability of consumers to get the word out about poor quality products, and they certainly have done that at Amazon.

For a fascinating look at the difference between advertising photography and reality check out Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality.

Mr. Bacon Head (Mr. Potato Head in disguise)

So you've got about ten Mr. Potato Head's sitting around your house. You've used all the eyes (even the "angry eyes"), ears, mouths, even the pipe (if you have one). Maybe you even have Darth Tater.

But now you're bored with the accessories you can purchase. What to do? I know! Bacon!

That's about all I can figure this guy was thinking when he created this excellent Mr. Bacon Head.

Incidentally, I think I'm linking to the original photo of this guy, but I couldn't be sure.

And... while I was bopping around on the web, looking for other Mr. Potato Head items, I found this cool little article and pictures of Walt Disney Imagineers working on a giant Potato Head Animatronic.

I also came across the most amazing story (I couldn't link to it because this is a G-Rated blog and some of the comments were not).

The photo you see here is not an octopus hat for a Mr. Potato Head. It is a picture of Louis the octopus at the Blue Reef Aquarium, in Cornwall. He was given a Mr. Potato Head for Christmas and he loves it so much he will become agressive and attack the net when workers attempt to remove it from the tank. He's even learned to get food out of the secret compartment in the back.

Spore. Was it worth the wait?

This years most hyped video game (so far) has been Spore. And it looks way-cool. Everyone has been waiting and building anticipation for the release on September 8. Well, now the dust has settled and reality has set in. How do people like Spore? Well, the user reviews have not been good. At this moment on Amazon it has received 1,314 reviews and has only one star.

However, the poor reviews are not entirely for the game itself, but rather for the Digital Rights Management that Electronic Arts has put in place on the game. Apparently you can only make three installations of the game, then you must contact the manufacturer to request more codes (you pay for the call). Users have commented that you do not "purchase" the game you "rent" it. They have also called the software that is installed with the game a "virus" that is impossible to remove without reformatting your drive. It runs in the background at all times, using system resources. Many commenter said they had decided not to purchase Spore because of the very restricted digital rights.

But how is the game? I had a hard time finding out how users liked it because so many of the reviews I've read simply bash the game because of the digital rights. The most I've found is that some users feel that the game is far more limited in how you can create creatures than they were led to believe. Some reviewers have also commented that it's less of a game and more of an experience. Someone looking for hard-core gaming will be disappointed. I also noticed that professional reviewers seem to love the game. They rave about how innovative and vast it is.

My guess is the user reviews are being a bit unfair and will turn in favor of Spore once players begin exploring the universe. Electronic Arts' choices with regards to the Digital Rights Management are unfortunate. What will matter the most is how they handle the situation. Will they be strict with their policy, or will they admit they made a mistake and rectify the situation. They have the opportunity to turn a negative into a positive. Will they see it that way?

Spore sells for $49.99 and is available on Mac and PC.

Bigfoot Body Found? Maybe...

Amazing scientific discovery, or sad hoax? According to two "Bigfoot hunters" this is the body of a Bigfoot (the creature, not the large vehicle) and they have made history.

If it is currently after Noon on Friday, August 15, 2008, you probably already know whether this is an actual Bigfoot specimen, or a man in a wet costume.

Either way, this photo will probably spur a lot of new Bigfoot toys (see how I cleverly tied this into toys so it would be appropriate to post it here).

The story goes like this. Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer claim that they not only have a Bigfoot body, but that they also have video of several live Bigfoots (Bigfeet?). I haven't been able to find any information on how the Bigfoot died.

Now, I don't want to pre-judge these guys, but appaently at least one of them was involved in a bigfoot hoax in the past. It also is somewhat suspicious that photos of a dead bigfoot are not any better than the grainy, contrasty photos we've seen of live ones. Other problems with this story are that the guys involved run a Bigfoot expedition business and that they are hoping to sell the body for much more thant one million dollars (which they supposedly turned down).

The details on this amazing creature/pathetic hoax are as follows (directly from their press release):

• The creature is seven feet seven inches tall.
• It weighs over five hundred pounds.
• The creature looks like it is part human and part ape-like.
• It is male.
• It has reddish hair and blackish-grey eyes.
• It has two arms and two legs, and five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot.
• The feet are flat and similar to human feet.
• Its footprint is sixteen and three-quarters inches long and five and three-quarters inches wide at the heel.
• From the palm of the hand to the tip of the middle finger, its hands are eleven and three-quarters inches long and six and one-quarter inches wide.
• The creatures walk upright. (Several of them were sighted on the same day that the body was found.)
• The teeth are more human-like than ape-like.
• DNA tests are currently being done and the current DNA and photo evidence will be presented at the press conference on Friday, August 15th.
  

NES System Lunchbox. way-cool.

If you like toys, like I do, you probably have a few old video game systems sitting around the house. Maybe you let the kids have them in their room, maybe you keep them to play older games, or maybe, you are keeping them until you have an amazing idea with what to do with them.

Well... this guy got an idea and turned his Nintendo into a lunchbox. It is very cool. As I was reading his instructions, I felt a few things could have been done differently, such as the hinges should be on the inside. Some of the comments were similar, and some were interesting such as a red power LED that turns on when there's food inside (I like that). It certainly needs some sort of latch. So how much is an old NES worth? I looked them up on eBay and they seem to be going for about $20.00, so that makes this a rather expensive lunchbox. But you could probably pick up a non-working one for much less.

If a lunchbox isn't what you were looking for, how about an Alarm Clock? I also found one that was turned into a DVD player. You can also purchase an analog clock made from an old Nintendo cartridge (although I think you could make a better one yourself).

And last, but not least, I found an NES controller turned into a wallet!

I'll be watching the thrift shops for old NES systems now.

NES lunchbox mod

NES Alarm Clock mod

NES Cartridge Analog Clock

NES Controller Wallet

Human Flipbook

This is excellent.

I love flipbooks. They are little movies in the palm of your hand. They could be stills from an actual movie, cartoon drawings, or they can be made by hand on any note pad.

I've got a nice little collection of flipbooks and when I started Dave's Cool Toys, they were one of the first items I looked for. Needless to say, I sometimes search the web for new flipbooks and similar items. The last time I was surfing, I came across this wonderful website for the Erbert & Gerbert's Human Flipbook. It's actually a page about a TV commercial for Erbert & Gerbert's Subs & Clubs. What a wonderful commercial it is!

I'm not sure how old this commercial is and if it's still running. I hope so. They used 150 T-shirts, created a flipbook-style animation on them, then photographed each t-shirt on a model (actually an intern) in order to create an extremely creative Human Flipbook commercial. Click below to watch the video now, or go to www.humanflipbook.com to watch, and be sure to watch the "making of" video.

Bob's Pickle Pops (don't call them Pickle Sickles)

I like a good pickle. So do my wife and kids. So, when I came across the Pickle Sickle, now called Bob's Pickle Pops (more on that later), I was intrigued. Their slogan is "The bizarre tasting popsickle craze from TEXAS you cant get enough of". Poor grammar and punctuation aside, it had me curious, so I ordered a box of 16.

Bob's Pickle Pops come in liquid form in a plastic sleeve. You pop them into the freezer and wait for them to freeze solid, then snip off the end, and eat them. What are they actually made from? They are actual pickles, squeezed like oranges into a juice. There's some coloring added, which explains the bright yellow-green color. The full ingredient list is: Water, Cucumber, Vinegar, Salt, Alum, Calcium Chloride, Natural Flavoring, Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate (Preservatives), Oleoresin Turmeric & Yellow #5 (Colors), Polysorbate 80 (Emulsifier). This was basically the same as the ingredients listed on the giant gallon jar of pickles from BJ's in our Fridge. 1 pop has only 3 calories, 0g of fat, 0mg Cholesterol, and 245 mg Sodium (10% of the Daily Value).

As for the name change. Apparently the name "Popsicle" is a registered trademark of Unilever and they weren't too happy with the name "Pickle Sickle". They contacted the company and they decided to change the name to avoid any possible legal muck. Probably a smart move.

The USDA has accepted Pickle Pops as a healthy alternative to sugary pops (such as Popsicles), which means they are acceptable to be sold in schools in the U.S. The USDA doesn't determine what is allowed to be sold in schools, however, and it it therefore up the individual state or district.

And how do Pickle Pops taste? First let me say I really wanted to like Pickle Pops. I really did. And I tried them a few times. But they were a bit like eating very salty, frozen vinegar. I just couldn't finish one. My wife wouldn't try them. My younger son said he liked them, but I noticed he "saved" it for later (it's still in the freezer). My older son didn't like them at all and his friends either wouldn't try them or didn't like them.

Pickle Pops are available from their website, www.bobspicklepops.com, $19.95 plus Shipping and Handling for 20 pops. They are expecting to begin showing up in supermarkets around the country soon. They are also available in a Hot Pepper version (oh my). They are available for fundraisers as well.

OK. As I'm writing this, I feel like maybe I didn't give Pickle Pops enough of a try. So I'm going to the freezer right now and try them again...

No, I just can't eat them. I ate about 7 small bites and just couldn't eat any more. Sorry Bob.

Dave's Cool Toys Shipping Charges Increase (Sorry)

Unfortunately, due to the soaring cost of fuel, and the subsequent increased shipping costs, Dave's Cool Toys has been forced to increase our shipping charges. I have spent a great deal of time working out these charges to keep them as low as possible. We are not trying to make money from what we charge for shipping. For that reason, I have increased the lowest charge more than the rest and added a charge for orders over $100.00. This allows the bulk of our orders to increase by only 25 cents. We thank all our our loyal customers for their support and understanding! Go here to see all our shipping charges and policies.