You should have called me. I would have told you.

I had the one where the slicer sat on top of a plastic container that would catch the food, so I didn't have to do the impossible bowl balancing trick.

But yeah, it sucked.

I try to keep an eye out for the local news guy who tests the As Seen On TV Products to determine the worthiness. He's cheaper than finding out for myself. And involves fewer injuries.

We got a slicer thing off TV because it was free... one of those call those numbers and get a free slicer. It sucked. It would cut your hand off before it cut your perfect tomato or onion slices.

What did you get sucked into along with the free slicer ... a lot of those "free" products get you involved in some sort of hairbrained marketing club scheme or whatnot ... with membership fees automatically charged to the credit card you gave for the S&H ...

Fine Print's a lot harder to read off the TV screen.

i have absolutely no use for it, but i want that new Cold Heat miniature soldering iron. they show it go from the guys finger, touch metal, hit 800 degrees, and then he puts it right back on his finger with no burning. i want to buy just to see how it works.

in Phoenix we have As Seen On TV stores so you can go to the mall and just pick all that stuff up. It's pretty fun to just browse the store and play with the things then watch some guy slip away from his family to buy the latest girls gone wild installment. they always turn beat red when the 16 year old girl behind the counter starts shuffling the videos and asking if they have this one or that one already.

I was wierded out this past weekend, when I was soldering some LEDs for another lighted tape ball, and suddenly that infomercial came on. I mean, who advertises soldering irons? And when I'm actually soldering!

I may have to get it some time just for that...

And also to figure out exactly what it does.

It's a mini arc welder, and reports from those who've bought say it sucks royally.

There are apparently irons that do this which actually work, but the Cold Heat is not one of them.

well thanks for crushing my hopes UT. i was thinking about walking away from my career to search for possible uses of this Cold Heat device. now i have nothing left to dream about.

My father, who is normally very rational and cynical about these sorts of things, was for some reason completely taken awhile back with this thing that would supposedly thaw meat incredibly fast. It didn't actually heat up, but it was somehow very conductive of the warmth in the air. I remember they had all these time-lapse shots in the infomercial showing how the thawing on their special metal platter happened so much faster than just thawing on the countertop.

He expressed on several occasions how incredible the thing was, and then never brought it up again. I always suspected he went ahead and ordered it, and discovered it really did suck after all but was too ashamed to admit it to me.

My dad got that meat thawing plate. Basically it's a sheet of aluminum with a (teflon?) covering. He swore up and down that it worked like a champ until I made him prove it in a controlled environment. 2 similar steaks, one on the "amazing hunk of metal", one on a ceramic dish. They thawed at almost the exact same rate. I will say it was *slightly* faster, but it was a matter of minutes, really.

'Course, he's really a sucker for this "as seen on TV" stuff. I've gotten the gift of a reversible griddle (flat on one side, ridged on the other for hot dog "grill marks"), with the added bonus of the "quick thaw" feature. This monstrosity came with this goofy spatula that "transformed" into a pair of tongs with the flick of a switch. As you can imagine, it performed neither function very well. The griddle gets occasional use when I make french dip sandwiches, but other than that, it's worthless.

i've got that. my wife and father were very impressed with the commercial and ordered a couple of them. there may have been a lot of beer involved in the decision making process.

i want to buy just to see how it works

Is there any other reason to purchase the cold soldering iron? What about just using a normal one?

The Cold Heat soldering tool doesn't work? Shit. I really wanted one of those, too.

As for Ginsu knives, my ex and I got one for Xmas many years ago. The very first thing I did (because I was schnockered) was to cut a can in half with it. It did that very nicely, but it tore the hell out of the knife. However, I returned it using the lifetime warranty and got a new one for the cost of postage. I wore that out, and bought a whole set a few years back. I still use them every day.

They're great for people who intensely dislike caring for fine cutlery.

I really, really tried to find a use for it, even after the switch broke and it was permanently in "tongs" mode. It did an okay job scrambling eggs, though I have a whisk that performs the job perfectly. The last straw was when the spring popped out, preventing it even more spectacularly from functioning as a pair of tongs. It's sole purpose in my kitchen now is to serve as a reminder that there's a reason some utensils are only good at one thing.

that is the point, i have absolutely no use for such a thing. i think that speaks to the power of the infommercial. relatively intelligent people, who know better are buying stuff they have no use for, just because it looked cool on tv.

I just asked the person who purchased the free slicer if there was something that we got suckered into in addition to that piece of junk. He didn't think we did... I think we had to pay shipping and then got a lot of annoying calls about buying magazines - don't know if they are related or not.

Ronco calls us every once in awhile to see how our rotisserie is doing and to see if we would be interested in any other accessories.