I’ve spoken previously about my love for Slush Puppie, the fruity flavoured crushed ice drink, so it will come as no surprise that as a child I desperately wanted a Mr. Frosty machine all of my own. Sadly I never did get one, although now I’m older and wiser I can see this was probably a good thing. I’ll explain why in a moment, but first, let me explain what Mr. Frosty was.
Mr. Frosty was a snowman shaped piece of plastic whose sole purpose was to take ice cubes and crunch them up to make slushy ice. The ice cubes were placed into his head, and his hat acted as a plunger to keep the cubes firmly pushed against the ice grating surface inside. Turning a handle on the back of the toy produced the slush, which you could then scoop out of a hole in Mr. Frosty’s stomach.
The set came with some little cup like bowls, some ice lolly moulds, and a little penguin shaped plastic bottle (Percy Penguin, as the TV ad dubbed him) which you put fruit juice into and could then squeeze onto the crushed ice.
So why was this not a Good Thing? It sounds perfect for a Slush Puppie fan, but the catch is it didn’t actually work all that well. Of course, on the TV advert a few ice cubes made enough slush to fill two cups for the kids playing with the toy, but in reality crushing the ice was nearly impossible, even for an adult.
Mr. Frosty is still available today, manufactured by Hasbro, although it seems like he has had a couple of face lifts over the years, as whilst searching for an image to accompany this post I came across at least two alternative designs for the toy. I also came across an alternative branded with Snoopy and Charlie Brown but this seems to share the same ice crushing problem it would appear.
Warning: Declaration of Social_Walker_Comment::start_lvl(&$output, $depth, $args) should be compatible with Walker_Comment::start_lvl(&$output, $depth = 0, $args = Array) in /homepages/40/d211339488/htdocs/childofthe1980s/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/social/lib/social/walker/comment.php on line 18
Warning: Declaration of Social_Walker_Comment::end_lvl(&$output, $depth, $args) should be compatible with Walker_Comment::end_lvl(&$output, $depth = 0, $args = Array) in /homepages/40/d211339488/htdocs/childofthe1980s/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/social/lib/social/walker/comment.php on line 42
I never got onne either
I had one when i was about 6 or 7 and i absolutely loved it xmas day but it soon became more hassle than fun because it took so much effort to crush the ice i just couldnt be bothered.
I had one and loved it but my wife is very upset cos she never had one and i can’t find one from the 80’s to buy
i had one and want another as it did work these new models dont… i bought my son a new model he doesnt believe that the old version could be better…..
It seems the newest model works well. I had one and it was effortless to crush the ice. I worked until ….. my mum threw it out.