Consolation Prizes

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'150212\' date=\'Apr 14 2007, 05:53 PM\']
That Presto item looks interesting. You could make the bottom less "done" than the top, meaning there might be hope yet for cardboard-crust frozen pizzas.
[/quote]
Sadly, I think they're still gonna taste like cardboard no matter how perfectly prepared they are.

(that said, sometimes you're in the mood for a cardboard pizza.

Speaking of Presto, my dad gave me a Presto hot-air popcorn popper for my 26th birthday waaaaay back in 1981. It was a nice gesture, but this was possibly the worst appliance ever created.

Ah yes. I think we had another brand with a deeper chute, so the kernels didn't fly out, but the hot-air trend was the beginning of the end for popcorn. Neither that nor any microwave brand holds a candle to a decent batch of oil-popped corn.

[TheGameShowGuy]

Seal A Meal (have two of them in my basement someplace- stored near my well used homegames.) The 70s were full of gadgets: The aforementoned hot dogger, that one burger machine , then the two burger machine, Slo-cookers, Hot Air Poppers,yogurt makers, Coney Island hot dog steamers (70s version steamed 1 dog and recommended beer instead of water), Fry Daddy (do they still make those?) and others. Here in New York, Alexander's Department Store was the place to get these gadgets (many first seen by me as game show parting gifts).
But today the Seal A Meal has been replaced by those vacuum sealers and the burger makers by the Forman Grills. They also have a new version of the Coney Island Hot Dog Steamer -but it steams many hot dogs!

[catkins522]

[quote name=\'TheGameShowGuy\' post=\'150219\' date=\'Apr 14 2007, 10:45 PM\']
Fry Daddy (do they still make those?)[/quote]

Yep.  They do.

Charles Atkins

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'Clay Zambo\' post=\'150196\' date=\'Apr 14 2007, 02:57 PM\']
[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'150171\' date=\'Apr 14 2007, 07:26 AM\']
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gflmByeV2pE

My question is, has anyone here ever owned, or known anyone who owned, a Dazey Seal-A-Meal? I have a great deal of difficulty seeing the practical utility of such a device. With regard to the slogan, it would take much more than a Dazey Seal-A-Meal to simplify my life.
[/quote]

Never owned one.  Mom said they were too much trouble.  Seems to me they wouldn't simplify anything; they might improve one's life (minimizing one's consumption of processed foods; possibly saving money), but not simplify it.
[/quote]


IIRC, Sears also had a food sealing device on the market around the same time, and there were a few game shows that offered that version as a prize (CBS TJW comes to mind, no??).

For you young'uns out there, there was a time when Sears (along with Kenmore) had their brand name on everything they sold -- but back then most of those items were simply bought in bulk from their respective manufacturers and they plastered their Sears (or Sears-related brand name) over the original manufacturer's name and sold it as their own. The first-generation Atari games come to mind.

I'm not sure if the Sears food sealer device was their own, or if it was made by Dazey and given the relabeling treatment as well.  

One thing you have to remember as well: in those days Zip-Loc bags were still a novelty and they pretty much owned the market in that category.  The Seal-A-Meals were designed to seal food as good or better than Zip-Locs, but once other plastic bag companies jumped on the zip-to-seal bandwagon, the Seal-a-Meals were quickly becoming garage-sale specials!


And doesn't Jiffy Pop have microwavable products nowadays (swapping the foil for some sort of cellophane material as the "lid"?

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'TheGameShowGuy\' post=\'150219\' date=\'Apr 14 2007, 09:45 PM\']
Fry Daddy (do they still make those?)
[/quote]
Besides the link Charles gave, you can find it in almost any Wal-Mart store.
I also remember a larger model called the "Gran Pappy", that I haven't seen in awhile...there's also a Fry Daddy Jr., if memory serves.

Also, here's a link for Jiffy Pop (featuring that kettle drum thing), and one for a hot dog cooker.

[chris319]

Below is a link to the Presto web page. Yes, Presto still makes an array of deep fryers:

Presto Deep Fryers

The Seal-A-Meal mechanism was patented, so in all likelihood Dazey manufactured the Sears units (in the United States, imagine that). The patent specifies that the user be able to take his frozen portion of pork chops, peas and mashed potatoes out of the freezer and reheat it in boiling water. I don't think you can do that with a Zip-Loc bag. Of course this is all pre-microwave oven technology.

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'150224\' date=\'Apr 15 2007, 12:22 AM\']
For you young'uns out there, there was a time when Sears (along with Kenmore) had their brand name on everything they sold -- but back then most of those items were simply bought in bulk from their respective manufacturers and they plastered their Sears (or Sears-related brand name) over the original manufacturer's name and sold it as their own. The first-generation Atari games come to mind.
[/quote]

 

Yup.....The Atari VCS (later 2600) was called the "Sears Video Arcade"....They also had an Intellivision as the "Sears Super Video Arcade"...They even went so far as to slap different names on some of the games, although no examples come to mind at the current moment..

[dzinkin]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' post=\'150232\' date=\'Apr 15 2007, 09:27 AM\']
[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'150224\' date=\'Apr 15 2007, 12:22 AM\']
For you young'uns out there, there was a time when Sears (along with Kenmore) had their brand name on everything they sold -- but back then most of those items were simply bought in bulk from their respective manufacturers and they plastered their Sears (or Sears-related brand name) over the original manufacturer's name and sold it as their own. The first-generation Atari games come to mind.
[/quote]
Yup.....The Atari VCS (later 2600) was called the "Sears Video Arcade"....They also had an Intellivision as the "Sears Super Video Arcade"...They even went so far as to slap different names on some of the games, although no examples come to mind at the current moment..
[/quote]
I can think of two examples offhand from the 2600 line: Atari's Air-Sea Battle was released by Sears as Target Fun, and Star Ship was relabeled Outer Space.  The former also was bundled by Sears in place of Combat (which shipped with Atari's units) and Sears continued to make and sell the latter even after Atari had stopped doing so.

[Fedya]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' post=\'150232\' date=\'Apr 15 2007, 09:27 AM\']
[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'150224\' date=\'Apr 15 2007, 12:22 AM\']
For you young'uns out there, there was a time when Sears (along with Kenmore) had their brand name on everything they sold -- but back then most of those items were simply bought in bulk from their respective manufacturers and they plastered their Sears (or Sears-related brand name) over the original manufacturer's name and sold it as their own. The first-generation Atari games come to mind.
[/quote]
Yup.....The Atari VCS (later 2600) was called the "Sears Video Arcade"....They also had an Intellivision as the "Sears Super Video Arcade"...They even went so far as to slap different names on some of the games, although no examples come to mind at the current moment..
[/quote]
Didn't Sears sell a Pong machine before this?  We had one of those -- the speakers were located in the unit itself instead of using the TV speaker, so you couldn't control the volume on the %$#@%!@$# thing if you wanted to play early in the morning before your parents woke up.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Fedya\' post=\'150240\' date=\'Apr 15 2007, 12:39 PM\']
Didn't Sears sell a Pong machine before this?  
[/quote]
Several different ones, yeah.

[calliaume]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'150217\' date=\'Apr 14 2007, 09:12 PM\']
[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'150212\' date=\'Apr 14 2007, 05:53 PM\']
Speaking of Presto, my dad gave me a Presto hot-air popcorn popper for my 26th birthday waaaaay back in 1981. It was a nice gesture, but this was possibly the worst appliance ever created.
[/quote]
Ah yes. I think we had another brand with a deeper chute, so the kernels didn't fly out, but the hot-air trend was the beginning of the end for popcorn. Neither that nor any microwave brand holds a candle to a decent batch of oil-popped corn.
[/quote]
I had a hot-air popcorn popper in college myself around that time (in the dorms you weren't allowed a hot plate, and microwaves were neither commonplace nor would the circuit breakers have handled them).  No problems with popping it, but a) without putting butter on it (there was a little cup where the butter melted while the popcorn heated up) the salt you'd normally put on the popcorn wouldn't stick, making the stuff taste like styrofoam, and b) with butter on it there were few health benefits.  After a few months, it was off to the fraternity and popping corn in oil on the stove.

[mmb5]

Am I the only person in the world who prefers it air popped?


--Mike, who took down a floor of a dorm once with two air poppers on the same outlet

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'mmb5\' post=\'150277\' date=\'Apr 16 2007, 11:31 AM\']
Am I the only person in the world who prefers it air popped?


--Mike, who took down a floor of a dorm once with two air poppers on the same outlet
[/quote]


No, I used to eat air-popped popcorn quite a bit as well.  I've got an unopened popper somewhere at the old house, and I still prefer it over the regular microwave popcorn (however, the cheesecorn and carmelcorn microwave flavors rock!)

And way to go on blowing out the juice in the dorm!  I look at those types of college accomplishments as badges of honor!

[calliaume]

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'150303\' date=\'Apr 16 2007, 04:44 PM\']
And way to go on blowing out the juice in the dorm!  I look at those types of college accomplishments as badges of honor!
[/quote]
Not with the hot air popper.  Circa 1981, however, it was easier to do with a small refrigerator and a Radio Shack Trash-80 computer.

[Neumms]

[quote name=\'mmb5\' post=\'150277\' date=\'Apr 16 2007, 10:31 AM\']
--Mike, who took down a floor of a dorm once with two air poppers on the same outlet
[/quote]

I once took down a floor of a dorm with a large bowl of vodka and Tang. Boy, those were the days.

Alongside the hot dog roller on Walmart.com there was a chocolate fountain, which could have been a consolation prize on Match Game '06 if that existed. Has anyone ever seen one work? Do they?