Per Walter Herbst who designed the Pocket Fisherman for Popeil, The Pocket Fisherman was never designed to be bought and used. It was designed to be bought and given as a gift. Any functionality was purely coincidental.
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He drove around in a Popeilmobile.
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“Professional entertainers use Mr. Microphone for rehearsing.”
Yeah. I didn’t buy that claim when I was a kid and I’m still not buying it.
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OT, but whenever I’m not wearing glasses and glimpse your avatar I see Londo Mollari. 
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You’re not alone.
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And the assassins got him anyway.
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yup. bought my grandfather one for xmas. years later, after he died, i found it on the basement stairs, still in the unopened box. learned a couple things about life that day. thanks ron popeil
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was the egg thing the one where you skewered the egg onto a thin metal spike and that was what blended the egg inside the egg? if so we had one and there is a reason you don’t see them around anymore. it sucked.
i also had the pasta maker, and the pasta it made wasn’t that great, and cleaning it was a nightmare.
i always got excited by the promise most his gadgets had of making or doing whatever better, but they always fell out of use quickly due one reason or another. like infomercial grade exercise crap, none of it was ever very good, but the pitches were fantastic.
the idea of them was better than the reality of them.
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That’s a shame; the pasta maker looks great.
I just wish I could stop dying a little inside every time I hear the American pronunciation of pasta.
Parsta. /shivers/
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For years I just assumed he bought the ideas off other inventors, maybe he did, but a quick internet search doesn’t bring up anything about that.
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RonCo, culling Pasta Shapes, a dozen at a time!
Having lived in Ohio, California, New York, and Boston, I can safely say I’ve never heard anybody say parsta.
Must be a southern/backwoods thing. They probably say it that way in Maine.
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I was in my 20’s then. I’d prefer to be in my 20’s now. More gadgets!
It sure does seem amazing. if you want hand made pasta you’d be better off learing to hand cut noodles or buying one of the metal hand cranked machines.
Clarification: the Smokeless Ashtray was based on an Al Jaffee cartoon in Mad Magazine. Popeil received his permission and credited him on the patent application.
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My kids learned how to fish with the Popeil Pocket Fisherman. They were great for small hands and learning. Kinda wish I still had one, they were an easy way to waste some time fooling around the ponds.
I suspect it overlaps with Warshington, which still blows my mind every time I hear it.
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Set it and forget it:
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