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Technical Details
- Pink popper cooks up to 3 qts. of corn in Hello Kitty style- Motorized stirring rod gets everything moving and the nonstick surface makes cleanup easy
- Features a built-in butter well for quick melting
- After all the kernels have popped, just flip over the machine and use the pink dome lid as a serving bowl
- 8.5Hx9.5" dia.
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By Helen Clark (PA, USA)
My boyfriend purchased this for me 3 years ago when we were first going out after I fell in love with it but refused to buy it. I couldn't justify the expense and had a perfectly good pan I could pop the popcorn in on my stove, after all.
I love this thing. Every time we have scary movies my now-fiance turns to me and asks if I'm going to break out the Hello Kitty popcorn popper, which we do!
To be honest I expected it to break after 6 months, but it's still chugging along as strong as ever. I have never had real issues with burning, arms not turning properly, or any other mechanical issues.
I could tell upon inspection of the image on the box that this was not a hot-air popper and would require oil to pop in, and since popcorn is only a sometimes-treat at my house we were okay with that distinction. As it is the popcorn comes out just as light and fluffy as with an air popper
What the biggest problem for me is the amount of moisture that builds up in the dome as popcorn is popping. Even with the pink lid off the top, the vent isn't sufficient for all the moisture that collects so that when you flip it over after the popcorn's done, the outermost layer immediately picks up all that moisture that's accumulated on the lid. I've learned to live with it, but it can be irritating if you're only making a small batch of the stuff and a good part of it ends up chewy. I've remedied this by having another bowl ready to move it to as soon as it's ready so that it doesn't continue to soak that up as it sits. I only run in to the occasional squishy piece now. Also, a larger batch gives the "chewy" pieces time to warm back up afterward. I love popcorn, so making a huge batch is definitely a desirable part of the solution.
While it isn't perfect, it IS adorable, it IS very pink, and it is Hello Kitty. It makes popcorn. If you're vigilant and don't let it sit to long or try to use it after the arm has stopped stirring then you can expect it to do a great job popping it up.
By Foaming at the mouth
The 3 star reviewer gave a pretty good review. Which is why I am surprised he gave it 3 stars. I have used it 3 times now, and burnt the popcorn 3 times now...
First off, the "butter well" as stated is not a well at all. Picture an upside down bowl with holes drilled in the top (no, not a colander, well, yes!) and you i guess put the butter on the top for it to "shower" down on the popcorn... (which it also says do not use butter or marg inside the popper because it will smoke)... then are supposed to put a lid on the hole (i had to pry off lid with a knife)... and flip it and not drip any butter, okay right...
Second, the biggest problem is the rotating rod stops rotating and then the popcorn starts burning, this happens when it gets full obviously, but for me is happening halfway even, and the popcorn isn't done, so you either burn it, or flip it and have half a bowl of kernels...
Had I understood this was not an air popper, had I felt like reading it and not buying it because it was on clearance, I would not have bought it. I won't take it back because it really wouldn't be worth the trip...
And finally, the popcorn isn't very good. I don't know much about popcorn. But it seems like you are supposed to keep the kernels moving. This popcorn sits still until it pops, and you have a glorious half-sided popcorn kernel that will break your teeth. I mean, I know ocassionally you have those hard kernelly pieces, but there is mostly hard kernely pieces here.
But it is fun for kids.... which is why I give 2 stars, not 1.
By "eeya" (Winston-Salem, NC USA)
but I read the box before I purchased it, so I knew what I was getting. And I read the directions before attempting to use it. My popcorn turned out brillantly. The directions were simple enough that my neice (who is 6) read them and was able to stop me before I made a mess. For kids (and an aunty) who are accustomed to only seeing popcorn come out of a bag or a metal box at the movie theatre, we love our Hello Kitty Popcorn Maker! It's great fun with little clean up.
By M. Sanges (Gloversville, NY United States)
I bought this as a gift for my girlfriend and right out of the box there were problems. Ignoring the instruction manual (for the moment) since we knew it would all be in Engrish--that's broken-English, if you didn't know--and it was, make no mistake, we began looking over the new popper.
First thing we noticed is despite the appearance, this is NOT an air popper; maybe it was just us, and our Amazon recommendations, but we had been under the impression that this was a healthy alternative to popping popcorn in a kettle. We were wrong.
Second thing we saw was the "built-in butter well" is what they're calling the top of the popper dome which also becomes the bottom of the popcorn bowl. Usually with products like this a butter well is a removable cup that sits along the side (or top) for EASE OF USE and melts the butter via heat. These fine folks decided that's not "user-friendly" enough and decided that you'd rather have to deal with a buttery mess if you decide to use butter at all and then want to use the dome as a bowl--as intended.
Next up was how, as another customer mentioned that there's a whole flipping-the-dome-to-make-it-a-bowl step when using this popper. If you don't want a quarter of your kernels burnt then the timing of this really is tricky and if you time it right, then presto! You get a handful of unpopped kernels floating around in your bowl. Not a big deal, right? Well, except for the fact that you can't portion your popcorn in the first place to compensate for this. The instructions even mention that you shouldn't use any more or less than the required 1/2 cup of kernels each and everytime you use it (which appropriately fills the bowl, atleast). Wonderful?
Last but not least was actually the very first step of use: cleaning. Sure you've got your oil residue, which granted, most of which gets sopped up by your non-healthy popped popcorn, but also there's the "stir rod". Which, in design, the stir rod is literally just that: a piece of metal that sits underneath an unscrewable fastner in the center of the popcorn base. After wiping out the bowl with "hot sudsy water" and then the stir rod, it took quite a while to figure out just eactly how the rod sits back under the fastner--which, again, I'm being literal, it just sits there while you screw a big piece of flat plastic down on top of it. Needless to say I managed to break small piece of the stir rod's base off, which oddly enough, was apparently just there for fun since it didn't have any purpose or weaken the "stirring function" once the popping was underway.
All in all, it's another mediocre Hello Kitty product. We own the wafflemaker, which is ridiculous to try and clean unless you think meticulous tasks are a pastime. My girlfriend's had two HK computer mouses, each of which ceased to function within a matter of weeks. The list goes on. In the end, I leave you by saying that, if you've dealt with HK merchandise before... then you know exactly what you're getting here.
By D. Barratt
This product is great. It really makes great popcorn in 2 minutes flat. The only tricky thing is to flip it over and turn it off as soon as the popping has reduced to 1-2 seconds between pops, otherwise you'll burn it! Very easy to use and extremely child friendly, great value!
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