apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I did buy one of those stick-up bulbs, and they don't give great light, and the bulb doesn't last very long. Actually, it's really not a proper bulb, it's the kind that's the size of those tiny little flashlight bulbs, and it's housed in a plastic thing that LOOKS like a regular incandescent bulb.

Anyway... the light is weak and the bulbs burn out quickly, and they're lame and it had to go away.

However... I do remember that back when I was in high school in the late-1970's, our family got a button-eer and my dad swore by it. I think we kind of did get tired of how plasticky those things were, though.

i am the reason they make these commercials. i got the miracle blade knife set (two times), the roll a garden (currently sprouting in my backyard), and darren's dance grooves. does that count? i figure it does because it was bought from an infomercial at 3AM.

oh. and, of course, the be-dazzler.

It's not an appliance per se, but I just got one of those over-the-door shoe racks that holds 30 pairs of shoes, and I gotta admit, it's pretty awesome. Terribly unsightly, but it hides in the closet and really solves the problem of my ghastly shoe addiction. Volume-wise, it's better than any other shoe rack situation I've tried.

my mom wanted one of those iron/steamers on HSN so I bought it for her but that was my first time!

Ok, I'll admit it. I own a Ronco Rotisserie. But I did buy it in a store as opposed to "CALLING NOW!" as if that made any difference.

It's gotten its share of bad reviews, but making rotisserie chicken in it is great, although I haven't used it very much recently.

I was smugly saying to myself, "Not I!" then I remembered I have that shoe thing too (courtesy of Bed, Bath & Beyond). Plus I made one of my friends get me the 70's Preservation Society double CD set for my birthday one year. The beat goes on, indeed!

....im to impatient to wait on goods i order. and there have been times i have been tempted...yes yes. but i can't.

especially since target , bed bath and beyond and kiosk at malls have " as seen on tv" stands. even still i cant grab anything from there.

no wait...I LIE...i got one of those pet hair thingys..comb whatevers. it works but Mr.Luca Brasi ( my dog) hates it. he growls and bites it when he sees it.

hmmm shame, it works wonders on his under coat. brat

Has anyone ever tried the Hercules hook?
http://www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/hercules_hook.html?gid=

I've bought a couple of things from those info commercials and I've been pretty happy with most of them. Bought a food dehydrator years ago that worked well. Lost it after 4 or 5 moves but I enjoyed it while I had it. I bought a facial toner as well. It works great but it takes some time to use. About 45 minutes three times a week. I got great results and loads of compliments but I got burned out on how much time it took. I've also bought The Firm workout tapes from television and I'm very happy with those as well.

I won't mention the one or two things I bought that turned out to be incredibly awful, lol. I don't see them advertised anymore anyway.

Years ago there was a store on 5th, somewhere around the main library/Lord & Taylor (but on the east side of the avenue), that had all the "As Seen On TV" products. I bought a Miracle Mop there - which has long since been retired.

I didn't buy it from TV but the George Foreman grill is one of the greatest little kitchen tools. It's great for grilled cheese sandwiches, one or two chicken breasts, a steak, toast, fish, asparagus....

And my dad has been cutting his hair with a Flo-bee ever since they started selling it. He's pretty frugal. It turns out pretty good too. (He's bald--just kidding) he actually has kind of a flowing pompadour type hairstyle which I thought would be tricky but he's apparently got the hang of it.

Oh, the sweet siren song of the Food Dehydrator & the promise of yogurt chips...

i hate those infomercials because i just can't help myself. the hunger usually strikes around 1am. purchases to-date include: high power steam cleaner (beyond disappointing), mini sewing machine (very cute, but broke right away), core secrets workout ball/dvd (hoped that brooke burk's toned abs would inspire me to start a real workout regime. it didn't)... oh the list goes on.

but more importantly, can anyone tell me what your experience has been with either the vidalia veggie chopper or the magic bullet blender? and also, that wet/dry mop? i have been trying to refrain from the late night shopping, but these items are very tempting.

Have you guys seen the carrot peeling guy downtown whos been there for years? he sits and peels carrots all day and sells the peelers for $5.

my friends just bought one and they were raving about the *amazing* abilities of this simple little device.

It goes to show, if it REALLY does work, it tends to stick around.. but then again that doesn't explain why those useless stick-up bulbs are still everywhere... hmmm....

Eileen7-

I bought a knockoff brand of the Hercules Hook, but haven't had a chance to try it out yet. As soon as I finish painting the living room, I plan to use them to hang my heavy mirror and clock. There was some blogging about it here on AT a few months ago, though, so you might want to search for it in previous threads.

I didn't but my father bought one of those pasta pots with the built-in drainer and he swears by it. And another friend bought a sort of exercise thing that's like a beach chair (canvas on a light metal frame) -- it's supposed to work your abs as you sit up and down. It looks to me as if it would break if you really gave it a serious workout.

I am regularly tempted by "Love Songs of the 50s" and "Everything the Rat Pack Ever Sang" and "80s Rock Classics" but so far I've yet to call and buy a collection.

This was a really fun question.

aya,
I forgot, I do have a magic bullet. I didn't buy it, it was given to me and it was not from TV but from Macy's and it was 2 for $50.

I have to say, it's worth it. I've been using it in a professional kitchen for at least 3 or 4 months and the little rubber gear that moves the blade is just starting to show some wear. These are usually the first to go on any blender. But I'm beating the crap out of this thing and it still keeps going.

It has a juicer attachment which is kind of cheap and the traditional blender attachment is pretty useless. It's the little bullet attachments which are great. There is a traditional blender blade and a flatter blade which can be used for whipping and grinding things like nuts and spices. Then, when you are finished blending you can take off the blade and screw on a lid. One of my desserts is a bittersweet chocolate cake baked to order and garnished with a quenelle of cocoa whipped cream. Right before service I pour heavy cream, powdered sugar and good cocoa powder into the bullet, put on the flat blade attachment, buzz it for less than a minute and have finished whipped cream just like that. I can take off the blade and screw on a cap and serve it right from the bullet (thanks Chef Tony-I think that's the infomercial guy).

I grind fresh toasted spices for couscous, make pesto for aioli, banana smoothies in the morning. It's the combination of small size and high rpms and storability for me. Kind of like the Paco Jet which is a very small and very expensive ice cream machine whose high rpms and storability (ability to turn out multiple containers of ice creams and sorbets and store them in their own freezer canisters) make it a good kitchen secret weapon.

I got my crafty grandma some battery-powered scissors. They work pretty well, and I got TWO for the price of ONE. A bargain!

I bought a product called Grease Bullet - it's a little tablet that you dissolve in hot water. You then soak your crusty pots and pans in the solution - claims it will remove the cooked on grease and grime from your cookware w/o scrubbing.

Not in this lifetime.

One thing in this life (and there are not many) that I am 100% immune to is infomercials and buying anything at all on tv. I firmly believe it's all a trashy ripoff and flip the channel asap to turn it off. My ex used to be immensely entertained and mesmerized by infomercials, which I never understood, since I detest them.

Someone just gave me the Vidalia vegetable slicer/chopper thing; it has been sitting unopened in my kitchen for weeks now. I already have a food processor and a lot of great knives, so I don't think this thing will do much beyond take up space, but who knows?

Re: Hercules hooks; the ones I remember being discussed here (a few years ago) were called Monkey Hooks and I always wondered about them also. If anyone has had any experience with them please tell!

first my aunt bought the magic bullet. i laughed till i rolled on the floor, because i figured - "as seen on TV" = junk.

she loved it, and my mom loved it, so my mom bought it. more laughter from me. until i lived with my parents for a few weeks, and man, that thing rocks.

so last christmas we got one as a present from my parents. it really IS awesome for what it is advertised. (minus chopping onions - makes no sense at all).
however, these things we have done many-many times:

making milkshakes - 30 seconds to a fantastic milkshake. we bought milk, yogurt and frozen fruit at bulk, and got fresh bananas. gorgeous!
making any kind of omelet - from light, to veggie filled, to sweet - rocks.
mixing any sort of baking thing - not bread dough, but more like pancakes.
making soups - the few times i've tried making pureed soups, it kicked ass. except, of course, i messed up my recipes. :)

that's all we regularly do, but honestly, if you're at all a milkshake or an omelet person, it is fantastic. worth every penny, especially and particularly for the size!

i laugh at it no more (except inside, at myself for actually using it :) ).

Does it count if someone else buys it for you?

My stepmother is always buying that "on TV" crap and giving it to us kids.

One time, I had the funniest "sold on TV" antenna for my little black and white TV - it was shaped like a little satellite dish. It never did much, but I was about 22 then and it entertained my friends very much.

P.S. - I forgot to include that I had to answer "other."

I saw a commercial for the ultravection toaster oven that can do frozen pizzas in 8 minutes (they never tell you you need to preheat it for 5), and later ordered it from amazon. It's something I still use to cook quesadillas and pizzas.

I received a Clapper as a gift in high school that I used for a while, until my bedside lamp started coming on in the middle of the night (?) and when my Mom turned on gas stove burner early in the morning (electric starter). I still have it in the basement someplace.

There was a really cheesy commercial for a Woodstock-y music compilation that was advertised in the late 80s. I seem to remember, "hey man, turn it up!" as a line the commercial. My friend ordered it for me, C.O.D., as a joke. My mom paid the delivery guy for it. 4 cassettes. It was actually pretty good - compared to the hair-band rock I was surrounded with at the time.

After Google search: It was called Freedom Rock.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKDk-mg1J9Q

Oh my gosh - I was reading about people buying "magic bullets" for their mothers and grandmothers and .... well, suffice to say that I didn't realize that it was a food chopper. Anyway. The only thing I have been so inclined to buy from a TV infomerical is paint remover -- some green goopy paint remover that totally worked exacly like they showed on TV. They sell it in stores now. That is how I feel -- if something really works, it will soon be sold in stores, or some corporation will buy the rights to it and it will be sold everywhere.

I'm guilty of the following "as seen on tv" purchases:

stick up bulb (purchased at CVS...great for closet)

flip fold for shirts (really does make them neater)

Ab Lounge (love the thing, flattens tummy, but when you keep eating hamburgers, defeats the purpose)

George Foreman grill (latest one)

Tae-Bo Tapes

Zoomba Exercise tapes

Time-Life R&B CD's (practically every one offered)

Midnight Special TV's (hey, pre-MTV, I used to live for that show)

I'm going to stop here because I am embarrassing myself...

in grad school I would be up late reading and studying and often I would flip on the tv for some mindless relief and at that last hour most likely I would be watching infomercials. It was then I was really introduced to As Seen On TV appliances and I was hooked. On the most part I have been happy- the ultimate scrubber, the hercules hooks...wait you won't believe what the mail man just buzzed in to deliver- The Magic Bullet Blender and Juicer (2 for1!) I'll let you know.

I swear by dryer balls. I have since stopped using fabric softener. It rocks.

I do love the space bags! bought at the container store, though, not on TV. but they are magical. I have acres of out-of-season clothes and blankets vacuum-packed under my bed.