Dave’s Cool Toys Blog

Archive for February, 2011

Banana Twinkies from WalMart

I bought a box of Twinkies yesterday.

I know, "big deal". But I never buy or eat Twinkies. And these weren’t just any Twinkies. When I saw them I had to buy them.

They were Banana Twinkies.

A bit of Twinkie history for those who don’t know why Banana Twinkies are special: Twinkies were first created when a baker noticed that their baking pans for strawberry shortcake were going unused when strawberries were out of season (back when you couldn’t get fruit all year long). So he came up with a banana-filled shortcake to make in the off-season, and Twinkies were born. But during World War II bananas were rationed. So they had to switch to vanilla flavored filling. In the end, the vanilla Twinkies sold far better than the banana ones. So they never went back.

Until now.

Unlike the original Twinkies, these are artificially flavored, which is a shame. So they aren’t true throwback Twinkies. But they are pretty good.

It looks like they’ve done the banana version at least once before, for a promotion with the movie King Kong. And it seems like these have been around for a bit, although they aren’t mentioned on the Hostess website.

Banana isn’t your favorite flavor? You’re in luck. Hostess will let you vote for the next Twinkie flavor. So put in your vote now! If you can’t wait for Hostess to create your flavor, you can always make your own with the Hostess Twinkies Bake Set. It’s a bit expensive at $99.00, but there’s also a generic version from Norpro that I’m sure will work just as well for around $20.00.

	Twinkie Sushi. Yum.

For the true Twinkie fan, Hostess has a Twinkie cookbook. Some recipes include: Twinkie Sushi, Twinkie Burrito, Pigs in a Twinkie, and Pumpkin Twinkie Bread Pudding. I may need to try that last one.

I’ve got to squash some Twinkie urban legends:

Legend 1…Twinkies will last forever. They have a shelf life of 26 days. Twinkies only last that long because their recipe does not include milk or eggs.

Legend 2…Twinkies aren’t baked, they are "created" through chemical reactions that cause them to foam up and harden. Twinkies are baked like any other cake from standard ingredients, not a batch of chemicals. They are then injected with their filling through three holes. They do contain the usual chemicals that you’d find in most processed foods. To learn more about what’s in a Twinkie checkout Twinkie, Deconstructed, by Steve Etlinger. It will tell everything you ever wanted to know about how Twinkies are made.

Legend 3… Twinkies will survive Global Thermonuclear War. If Nuclear war occurs, don’t go searching for the Twinkie factory. Check out The T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. Project and click on the Radiation Test to see how Twinkies fared when exposed to microwave radiation. We don’t suggest you try this at home. It didn’t go well.

Always a favorite, the Levitron at Toy Fair now has a nice wooden finish. Really cool toy, it uses magnets to keep the top perpetually spinning.

Like Futurama? Here’s the “Fabled” lost invention of Leonardo Da Vinci. In actuality, the outer shell is the design for Da Vinci’s armored car.

Alex is making his own shaped rubber band bracelet (ala Silly Bandz) with Shapelets. Just put the pegs onto the board around the blank rubber band, bake for five minutes, and the band holds the shape!

(Watch for these at Dave’s Cool Toys in the near future!)

Alex tries out lassoing at Toy Fair

I just shook Thing’s hand from the Adams Family movies. It was attached to Christopher Hart, the actor who played him!

Im not sure what this robot does that we saw at toy fair. I think he plays ping pong. He sure was cool.

Found out that he does indeed play ping-pong, but they were having trouble with the video that apparently controls him, so he wasn’t working today. Bummer.

Lego Jack Sparrow at the Lego booth at toy fair!

Made with 325,000 Lego bricks, this model of Lighting McQueen weighs 3 tons. It took Lego master builders 2,000 hours to complete. On our way through Toy Fair, the first thing we see is this massive rendition of Lighting McQueen done out of Lego!