Toy Review - LEGO® Star Wars V-19 Torrent 7674

The following is a special review by toy tester, Caleb, age 12:

The Lego V-19 Torrent is a cool set with cool features. It comes with a clone minifigure and a ship. The ship has foldable winds and automatic landing gear. The cockpit can open up and hold a minifigure. The minifigure is a clone pilot. He looks like a normal clone with yellow markings on his helmet. I think that this is a really cool set for kids my age.

Marshmallow Shooters are a Fan Favorite!

I remember when the concept of marshmallow weapons first made an appearance around these parts. The first one I ran into was fabricated from pvc pipes and made to resemble a machine gun of sorts, with two handles. The barrel had an elbow at the back end that stuck up, a bit like a periscope. What you were supposed to do, was load a little marshmallow in the back and blow, thereby launching the confection projectile across the room or yard. Of course all I could think about was a kid running around the yard while trying to blow on this monstrosity, only to trip and crack a tooth on the pvc pipe. Needless to say, the mechanism did not get a lot of play.

Well, the Marshmallow Shooter, by Marshmallow Fun, found the solution to that problem. By adding a pump action air compressor to the design, little mouths are kept away from the hard plastic. And, the Shooters come with magazines, so you don't have to load the marshmallows one by one. Marshmallow Fun also has little, marshmallow sized, foam pellets that you can use if you don't want to cast sugar all over your house. Save the real marshmallows for when you are outside for the bugs to eat or the rain to melt away.

By the way, there is a Marshmallow Blaster for shooting large marshmallows or mixed shots; somewhat of a marshmallow blunderbuss. That is what is pictured above.

We also found that if you let the marshmallows get a little stale, they shoot a bit better. Fresh and sticky marshmallows tend to hug the barrel and not go as far.

As a side note: my nephew likes to dress up as various super heroes and action figures. He often is a clone trooper from Star Wars. His weapon of choice, even though we are out of marshmallows, is the Camo Series Marshmallow Shooter. Cute.

By the way, I chased a proverbial rabbit earlier and found out a bit more about marshmallows on Wikipedia. Did you know that there is a Marshmallow plant? Sounds like something from Willy Wonka! Read for yourself.