A Very Confusing Puzzle

I really like interactive candy. Interactive candy is something that you not only eat, but also provides you with some kind of other activity. In the case of this latest review, it could be a puzzle, but it can also be a game or a toy as well. The problem I find with many of these interactive candies is that they often don't have instructions on how to use them. While some are fairly obvious, when you're given a container filled with coloured puzzle pieces and nothing else, it's not so clear.

Check out my latest interactive candy review.

Making a Chocolate Dinosaur

If you're unfamiliar with Kracie Pop 'n' Kitchen, it's a series of do it yourself candy making kits from Japan. The theme of most of these kits is to make miniature candy/snack versions of popular Japanese meals. The process to make these kits is can be very complicated, but also a lot of fun. I recently came across a new kind of kit from Kracie, one that focuses on learning, as opposed to eating, and it's also a bit less labour intensive. I picked up one of these kits that teaches you something (?) about dinosaurs.

The aim of the kit is to have you make several chocolate dinosaur parts out of chocolate, then using the handy placemat that also happens to be the bag holding everything together, figure out which dinosaur(s) you got and learn something about them. I did not learn anything about my dinosaurs, but that's only because I can't read Japanese. Fortunately for me my focus is on making the chocolates.

The instructions on how to make your kit are half illustrations and half in Japanese. I might have been able to figure out most of this without Google translate, but I may have had a few challenges figuring out the timing for letting the chocolate melt and set.

Speaking of melting the chocolate, that was the first step towards making these chocolaty dino shapes. It was surprisingly easy, and I can only assume I did it right. All you have to do is take the two bags of chocolate chips and put them in a cup of boiling water for 5 minutes. This was the part that I had the most guess work as even the translated instructions didn't make much sense. Fortunately it seemed to work fairly well.

After the 5 minutes I tested to see if the chocolate had melted by squishing the bags. I was pretty amazed at how quickly and smoothly the chocolate had melted, but I probably shouldn't be as the folks at Kracie are masters of candy chemistry. After melting the chocolate I folded it as shown on the package and cut the tip off.

The next step is probably the one that requires the most patience and steady hand of this entire project. Having said that, compared to the other Kracie kits I've done (see video here), it's still pretty easy. I had to carefully squirt the chocolate into the mould. One of the tricks on the package suggests that you tap the mould after you've filled it in order to let the chocolate settle better.

Before the chocolate sets, you're supposed to add the cookie crumbs. I'm not really sure what this adds to the aesthetics of the dinosaur, but it did add a little crunch to the chocolate. After the cookies were added it was into the freezer for 10 minutes (apparently you can also use your refrigerator for 20 minutes instead).

The next part was really the moment of truth. This would be the moment when I discovered if I made any mistakes, or if the kit had any flaws. It was time to pop the set chocolate dinosaur parts onto my plate. Fortunately for me, neither Kracie nor myself had any problems.

It did take a little work to shake out the pieces, some of the shapes were more challenging than others. In general I was pretty happy with the results, and while I had a few small bubbles in a few places, I felt like I, and the team from Kracie, did a great job making these dinosaurs.

The next stage was to sort out my pieces and construct my dinosaurs.

I had two complete dinosaurs.

A footprint and a shell.

I looked up my dinosaurs on the placemat, and I did find them, however I didn't really learn anything due to the language barrier. I didn't mind though because I always have Google to look up information on dinosaurs, and while I'm doing that, I have some tasty dinosaurs to eat.

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Kitty Cat Ice Cream?

I'm not sure why they made a connection with these amazing looking cat toys and ice cream, but I don't always understand marketing.

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Bunny Game

The joy in this little boys face tells me all I need to know about this Easter game.

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Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Candy Chemistry

This combines my love of science and my love of candy, and best of all, you can eat the results.

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Amazing Candy/Junk Food Thing That You Should Buy - Car Waffle Maker

I can honestly say that I believe that this is the greatest waffle maker ever created. It's easily the best way to play with your breakfast food.

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Playing With Your Candy - Creatables

There are a certain group of candies out there that are designed to be played with. Some pull if off really well, like the Japanese Kracie kits, while others just don't really work, like these Creatables. Reviewing these made me think that I should pull together a list of best and worst candies you should play with. The list would rate the candies by nothing more than where they fun to play with, I would ignore taste and texture entirely. So while this candy didn't review very well, it at least inspired a fun idea.

Click here to find out why these Creatables weren't very much fun.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see us compile this list.

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Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Stay Puft Yo!

I keep forgetting that the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is a real classic candy icon. When I think about him now, all I think about is Ghostbusters. So I guess you can pick up this cool action figure to celebrate the treat or the movie.

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Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Robot Pops

The only fun way to learn about the cold calculating hearts of a robot is with these silicon robot Popsicle molds. The other way to learn about the cold hearts of a robot is to fight a robot to the death, and when it's almost defeated you,beg for mercy. Both ways will show you how cold a robot can be, but these molds are much safer.

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5 Awesome Candy Themed Funko Pops - Honorable Mentions

Here's a bonus candy themed Funko Pop to add to our collection.

While all this week we've been looking at Funko Pops based on candies or candy mascots, this particular pop is certainly candy themed, but doesn't represent any particular candy. Instead it's a character from one of the best movies to feature candy, Wreck It Ralph. It's strange, you don't think about candy when you think of Wreck It Ralph, yet it plays a pretty important part of the movie.

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5 Awesome Candy Themed Funko Pops - Part 5 - Marshmallow Peeps

Make sure to look back, because all this week we've been looking at awesome candy themed Funko Pops.

Of all the Funko Pops that we've looked at this week, this is probably my least favourite. First of all I'm not a big marshmallow guy, so Peeps are generally out of my wheelhouse in the first place. Secondly I find it a little strange that Funko decided to go with the Peeps bunnies instead of the classic chicks. While I don't hate this toy, I'm not really sure if it's something I'd put on my shelf.

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5 Awesome Candy Themed Funko Pops - Part 4 - Twinkie The Kid

We still have a few more characters to look at in our series about candy themed Funko Pops.

Do people know who Twinkie the Kid is? Even when I was a kid Twinkie the Kid wasn't a huge deal for us. That could have been because I lived in Canada, or it could be my age. Later in life I found out more about this awesome cowboy and I gained a hearty respect for him. He was an amazing mascot for one of the most popular baked treats in the world. I wonder if they'll ever bring him back?

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5 Awesome Candy Themed Funko Pops - Part 3 - Bazooka Joe

We're halfway through our look at awesome candy themed Funko Pops.

Bazooka Joe is probably the least well known, yet very iconic candy themed character that Funko has ever turned into a Pop. It used to be that Bazooka Joe was one of the most published cartoon character in the world. Every kid knew about him and some even laughed at the cheesy jokes from his comic. I had a time in my life when I was obsessed with Bazooka Joe comics. Today I'm not even sure if Bazooka gum comes with comics anymore.

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5 Awesome Candy Themed Funko Pops - Part 1 - Otter Pops

Every day this week we're featuring a candy themed Funko Pop. For those not familiar with the Funko Pop trend there are plenty of websites and Youtube movies dedicated to the subject. All I can tell you is that they're very suited towards candy themed and candy licensed toys.

To start us off I thought I would look at one of their new lines, Otter Pops. Otter Pops are a very popular American frozen treat that's been copied in many other countries all over the world (In Canada we call them Freezees). They have different names in other places, but they're pretty much the same thing, a frozen tube of fruity sugar water.  Unfortunately the otters themselves probably won't appeal to anybody who doesn't know about the specific American cool treat. So these will likely be a US exclusive.

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Birthday Wish List Part 1 - Banana Surprise

I don't really know why the idea of a hollowed out banana filled with either cream or goo appeals to me, but it does.

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Birthday Wish List Part 5 - Jell-O Slime

I would trust this kind of product from a company like Jell-O. After all they pretty much invented the tasty treat with a weird texture industry.

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Birthday Wish List Part 6 - Oreo Music Box

This invention is pretty much the definition of playing with your food.



Check out this video sample too.

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A Cuddly Christmas Candy Thing

My favorite childhood toy was a stuffed dog named Snuggles, I think I got him around Christmas time, and he's never left my side since (still have him today). I wonder if there's any children out there with a candy cane as their childhood stuffed toy?

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A Bubble Gum Candy Pool Thing

You can inflate it with any extra oxygen you might have after blowing bubbles.

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A Cool Candy Thing

When I was a little kid, I used to have a tiny plastic pool in my front yard. One day my neighbor friend brought over a plastic ice cream cone, with a sponge like top on it (the same as the ones picture above).  On the cone was a button that would shoot the sponge ice cream top using a spring.  The sponge ice cream top was connected to the cone with a string, so it wouldn't fly very far away.  My friend decided that it would be really neat to dip the ice cream sponge in the pool and have it soak up the water.  He also decided to cut the string holding the cone to the sponge.  The hope was that we could have the ultimate water toy, the reality was that the water made the sponge too heave and it launched about 2 inches before falling to the ground.

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