By Jillian Ryan on May 1, 2011 in
The picture that we posted along with our "What are these blue things?" Mystery Gadget blog from a few weeks ago resembled dumbell weights. A few of you fell for our trick and submitted that answer (evil laugh). Rather than little plastic dumbells, our gadget is the Dripstick, a plastic device made to stop kids from getting sticky ice cream mess all over them. The manufacturer, Price Products, describes it as a two-in-one deal: "One end holds frozen treats on a stick. Flip the Dripstik over and the other end holds ice cream cones in almost any size and variety."
Our reader Joshua Raymond was the first to guess correctly - although there were a ton of you who did get it right - and we will be sending him a Dripstik to test out this summer. When informed he would receive his own, Joshua told us, "I look forward to trying them out with my three young kids."
It's a pretty cool idea when you think of how hot the summer is and how potentially bedraggled a child can be when consuming a treat. But does the Dripstik really work?
We found 16 reviews for the product on Amazon.com averaging four out of five stars. Most of the reviews were positive and they confirm that the Dripstik prevents a mess, is durable and easy to clean. However, the downside to the product that we saw was its size; many parents say that while functional, the Dripstik is not suited for younger children because it is just too big to hold. Another problem was the depth of the popsicle hole; not deep enough to accommodate some juice-ice pops.
While we got a few correct answers we also got some interesting ones. Going along with the holiday theme of last weekend, we got one submission that the blue things were a bar stool for the Easter Bunny to gather with some friends. We also got a hardy laugh out of "Paul Bunyan's earplugs" and "Vuvuzela mufflers." But our winner for most inspired guess goes to Aaron Gong who said that the blue things were, "Novelty replica Stanley Cups for Smurfs." Aaron will also get his own Dripstik in the mail.
Thanks to everyone who participated. If you have any fun mystery gadgets that you think would stump our users (or even our editors), post them to our Facebook Page.