SWEET AS CANDY........ (General Creations Candy Floss Machine)

Member Name: broksababe

Product:	General Creations Candy Floss Machine
Date:	08/01/02 (966 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Makse real candy floss, Rechargable battery included, Safe and Easy

Disadvantages: Makes a Very Small Amount, Takes Longer Than 30 Seconds

The first of this years novelty must have toy opinions is the 30 second candy floss maker.....

 The Candy Floss Maker


This machine comes in a choice of 2 colours blue or pink and both have a twisty yellow pattern on them.

The actual machine is around 12 inches in height and consists of a thick handle, which holds the rechargeable battery, and a large round bowl type top with a clear removable lid.

I guess the first plus point here is that it is a rechargeable battery and it does come complete with an adapter, so no costly battery changes needed here.
You simply remove the battery from the base of the handle and plug in.

Please note here however that before its initial first run, your machine requires its battery to be charged for 8 hours, so if it is for a present you may want to get it out and do this before hand.


 Candy Floss Time


Once fully charged your ready to go, on close inspection of the bowl, you will see it has a sugar loading head in the centre, and even closer inspection reveals its secret.
It actually looks like a mini blender; a small blade rotates at a high speed to create the candy floss. Rest assured however the blade is completely covered to protect small fingers, plus the machine will not operate anyway without the lid on.

With the small funnel provided you simply pour in 1tsp of fine household sugar into the the head( I presumed this meant caster sugar).

You then screw the clear lid into place and this must be correctly slotted in as it has to touch 2 copper contacts or it will fail to operate.

Now were cooking! Press the start button and hold it in all the time with your thumb, you can either have the machine hand held or on its own stand for ease of use.

It is automatically set to operate at 30 second intervals, with a 10 second pause in-between, so you can press it as many times as needed, the lo
nger the more candy floss you will be rewarded with of course.


 The End product


This is the part where you are all waiting for me to tell you how wonderful and how delicious the candy floss was…well…The good new is, it does work, you actually do get real candy floss and it does taste as good as the candy floss you had at the sea-side.

But, and isn’t there always a but??…. I found that 30 seconds was a joke, after this time you got a few wispy strands stuck to the inside of the bowl, hardly worth eating.
It actually took around 4 or 5 30 second bursts to get even a small handful of candy floss.

Also 1tsp of sugar was not really enough and the machine made more with being slightly overfilled!.

 The Boring Bits



During operation you sometimes get smoke coming from the sugar head, this is normal as it is only caramelised sugar, and merely means you need more sugar adding.


 Cleaning:


The actual bowl will need cleaning from time to time as it gets clogged with sticky sugar, this must be done carefully and by standing it upside down in a small bowl of warm water to dissolve any residue.


 The Verdict



Well the verdict is that this machine does what it states, only I was rather disappointed at the actual amount it made, as usual the picture on the box depicted a bowl full of candy floss, not a few strands stuck to the edge of the bowl.

Operating is simple, it does however state that it is only suitable for children over 8 and then adult supervision is recommended, but it is completely safe, as I stated earlier, no risk of any contact with the blades.
Children will however need assistance putting the lid on and removing it as I found it tough after it had been on and had sugar inside the lid.

So overall it is not a bad toy for young and old alike! It
does what it states, well of sorts, it just needs more time, its well designed, attractive and also completely portable.
This is available to buy at Woolworth’s, Argos and Index, plus various other large stores at £29.99.

Happy munching..oh and don’t forget to brush your teeth after eating your end product as sugar causes tooth decay..hehehe.

© Ana 2002

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