Goat Toy Day 14

blaineg posted some pics said
14

Anyone remember the Toot Sweet machine? It was a loose tie-in to the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, from 1968.

You could mash Tootsie Rolls into various shapes and faces, and even working whistles. Thus the Toot in the Sweet.

Well, it’s been revived, and by Mattel itself. The new one is called Sweet Shaper.

They’re packing Starbursts (or maybe it was a knockoff) with it this time around, instead of Tootsie Rolls, but any soft, squishable candy will work. The key word being SOFT. Both Tootsie Rolls & Starbursts need to be warmed up a little bit or you can break the machine if you put enough weight on it.

This is the voice of experience, my impatient little brothers & sisters broke mine twice, way back when. I wouldn’t have thought they’d had enough weight or strength to do it back then, but they did. The first time we repaired the handle with some metal plates & rivets. The second time we replaced most of the handle with a chunk of metal. That repair has survived to this day. I passed the Toot Sweet on to a niece & nephew a few years back and it still works. Also note that the old one had metal gears (a rack & pinion, really). Of course the modern one is all plastic.

We compared the molds betwen the two, and they are different but are interchangable. Here’s a closeup of one of the old molds. I guess skulls and mobsters are out of style now.

Back to warming up the candy. Just rolling it in your hands is usually enough to soften them up, you want a cylinder that will fit down the hole. But that leads to rule #2, Wash your hands! Grubby hands will make grubby candies. And you can generally roll the Tootise Rolls in the wrappers. You want the mini sized ones, or you can cut down the long ones.

The new Sweet Shaper has a nice addition. Look at the cylindrical holllow in the base, under the handle. There’s a matching hollow in the handle, and you can use them to make a nice candy cylinder.

The videos I’ve found show people cutting off what sticks out above the platform. Don’t bother with that, there’s no reason for it. What sticks up will get smooshed down when you secure the mold, and any excess helps lift the candy creation off the platform. Then just smooth, steady pressure will extrude the candy into the mold.

For the whistle, you make two halves, and then stick them together. Then you can decorate the whistle with the other molds.

Here’s an overly long video, but it does show every single mold get used. Again, it’s easier to get them out if you don’t cut them off flush.

$8 on Amazon is a steal, I paid $18-20 for mine.

https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Shaper-ABCs-Toy-Box/dp/B072MVFF4S

If it’s a big hit with your little ones (or big ones), here’s Tootsie Rolls in bulk:

Chocolate: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000DJ6NH
Flavors: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000DJ6NG