In a world where computers, music players, game systems, and automobiles come and go, we manage to become attached to our toasters. This simple appliance makes our bread warm enough to melt butter and crisp enough to hold honey or jam. An oven or even a stovetop will do the same thing, but you’ll rarely find a kitchen that doesn’t have a toaster.
Your Childhood Friend
The Brave Little Toaster is the hero of the book and movie (and their sequels) about a group of appliances that are not merely machines, they are old friends. The way Toaster and his owner feel about each other gives us a clue about our fondness for toasters: for many people, using a toaster is our first childhood cooking experience. And there’s nothing like eating bread you toasted yourself when you’re four years old.
Toast Imprinting
Mom used to imprint faces on soft bread with a spoon or knife, which would show up on toast and make kids eager to eat breakfast. Now there are specialty toasters that will brand your bread with all kinds of symbolism. The Hello Kitty Toaster is one example. You might prefer to have your toast embossed with a pirate’s skull and crossbones, with the Totenkopf Toaster SKULL-Toast.
Toaster Casemod
Like building a better mousetrap, we tend to tinker with even the most perfect machines. the toaster is no exception. Adam Bertram made a computer casemod with a vintage toaster. The result: smiles for everyone who sees it.
Computer Toaster
A few years ago, the NetBSD Project combined a working computer with a working toaster! The heat didn’t affect the computer and the toast is just what you need while coding or surfing the ‘net.
The Toast Cannon
Besides the ability to cook by ourselves, as children we were impressed by the pop-up action of our toasters. Freddie Yauner took that fascination to the limit with the Moaster CO2 gas-powered toaster. This is the world’s highest-popping toaster, certified last month by the Guiness Book of World Records when the machine launched toast 8.5 feet (2.6 meters) high.
Transparent Toaster
The Inventables Concept Studio proposed making a more beautiful toaster by giving it transparent walls. A lovely idea, but years later, it’s still a concept.
Roller Toaster
Designer Jaren Goh developed the Roller Toaster, the smallest toaster ever, since it doesn’t have to hold the bread. Push your bread in on one side and it “rolls” through while the hot element toasts it from side to side. I can’t find it for sale anywhere.
The Toaster as Art
Our beloved toaster can be an art medium. North Carolina artist Joel Haas made this Toaster Mutt from an old toaster and other kitchen implements. It’s still a functioning toaster!
Toasters are also art subjects. Kevin O’Callaghan of the Manhattan School of Visual Arts recycled 39 old Yugos into an art project, part of which is the Yugo Toaster.
Toaster Museum
The Toaster Museum Foundation has been so popular online that the management is looking for a permanent space to display toaster and toaster history in the real world. You can read about the history of the toaster at the Cyber Toaster Museum and see pictures of thousands of different toaster styles from the past 100 years. You’ll probably find a picture of the toaster you remember using when you were a kid, or maybe even the toaster you use now!
Now excuse me, I think my breakfast is ready.
Comments (22)
Comment
- subscribe /
- give a gift /
- terms of service /
- about /
- contact us /
- write for us /
- ad info /
- subscriber services /
- press /
- privacy policy /
- rss /
© 2012 Mental Floss Inc. All Rights Reserved. Mental Floss is a registered trademark owned by Felix Dennis. mentalfloss.com is a trademark owned by Felix Dennis.
Disclaimer: All submissions made to mental_floss become the property of Mental Floss Inc and may be used without further permission by the submitter and without compensation to the submitter. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not submit anything to mental_floss.
I love the idea of the clear toaster but feel like it would be messy and you’d always see the crumbs inside!
posted by Brittany on 7-29-2008 at 8:53 am
Wow, I love toast.
Whoever thought of heating bread until it darkened was pure genius. Best thing since the wheel… or sliced bread.
posted by Reese on 7-29-2008 at 9:00 am
There’s one huge flaw with the Roller Toaster, though (or at the very least, there appears to be). You can’t use it for anything other than plain bread–for instance, Pop-Tarts.
posted by Delia on 7-29-2008 at 9:27 am
Toast is the one food we can not buy at the grocery store.
The best they have is a do-it-yourself kit: Bread!
Don’t let them fool you with that melba toast. That is a cracker.
posted by EMStoveken on 7-29-2008 at 9:34 am
I still use my grandmother’s toaster (sparingly). At more than 50 years old, it makes great toast and is an great conversation piece. It’s in a place of honor in my kitchen. No appliance shed for it!
posted by Lindsey on 7-29-2008 at 9:56 am
Not a real one, but Foamy’s haunted toaster cartoon is hilarious. Click on my name for the link, then find the one labeled “Amityville Toaster” down on the 2nd to bottom row.
Warning: Not for those easily offended.
posted by nutmeag on 7-29-2008 at 10:53 am
Well, this particular episode of Foamy is not that offending . . . but just beware if you watch some of the others.
posted by nutmeag on 7-29-2008 at 10:57 am
I don’t own a toaster- I just hold a piece of bread over the stove burner with a pair of tongs.
posted by Zach on 7-29-2008 at 11:00 am
I don’t know why, but EMStoveken’s comment cracked me up. Gotta watch out with that tricky Melba Toast. Wannabe.
posted by kate on 7-29-2008 at 11:40 am
I think I’m going to have a toasted cheese sandwich for lunch. And maybe find and hook up the old VCR and watch The Brave Little Toaster (if my mother didn’t throw it away at some point; she always HATED that movie for some reason and didn’t even let me watch the second and third sequels because she thought the concept of talking appliances was so stupid.) I love the brave little Toaster.
posted by S on 7-29-2008 at 11:52 am
i don’t have a toaster, but i do have a toaster oven. and i am similarly attached to my toaster oven as other people are to their toasters. i do agree that it’s because it’s one of the first appliances children get to use. thus making it cooler than microwaves and conventional ovens.
posted by Claire on 7-29-2008 at 12:22 pm
My Cinderella fetish led me to buy a dirt cheap Cinderella toaster at Ross as a future present for my elder daughter. Her godmother’s comments:
“Oh yeah, that’s GREAT, she’ll pick up some hot guy, and when it’s time for breakfast, he’ll catch sight of that toaster and he’ll be RUNNIN’! You’ve doomed your child to a life of singledom.”
Yeah – it toasts Cinderella’s slipper into the bread, AND it plays the Cinderella waltz when the toast pops up… yummy! I got the waffle iron too…
posted by Marion on 7-29-2008 at 1:36 pm
What, no BSG jokes?
posted by bedhead on 7-29-2008 at 1:56 pm
BSG? Is that Battlestar Galactica? Sorry for the lack of jokes, but I’ve never seen the new series, and barely remember the old one. Is there a toaster joke in there?
posted by Miss Cellania on 7-29-2008 at 5:44 pm
I love toast! In fact, since I was a little girl, I refuse to eat a sandwich that is not on toasted bread. My poor brother (who was often my babysitter) has flashbacks whenever I’m over at his house for breakfast and ask for toast!
Also – like Claire, I’m a big fan of the toaster oven. They are incredibly cost-prohibitive in NZ, though, so I had to buy a regular toaster. :-P
posted by Dawn on 7-30-2008 at 5:14 am
These are nice! There’s also the Brookstone toaster that can forecast the weather.
And the Onion sells a gift box that purports to contain a USB-powered toaster.
(I wanted to include the links but your blog comments program won’t allow it.)
posted by Marilyn Terrell on 7-30-2008 at 8:04 am
Miss Cellania, the new Cylons in “Battlestar Galactica” are referred to as “toasters” by the humans (because the old ones looked like…toasters? I don’t know). It’s considered a racist term by the Cyclons/Cylon sympathizers. And that’s me coming off more nerdy than I like to admit.
posted by bedhead on 7-30-2008 at 1:07 pm
I introduced my son to Star Wars last year (he is six) and he loves it, especially Darth Vader.
So when I got an email that the Star Wars Shop has a Darth Vader toaster, complete with a Darth Vader mask imprint, of course I got it for him! He loves Eggo’s, has them at least 3-4 times a week for breakfast so it was really a no-brainer.
It’s on it way… should be here any day!
tinyurl.com/6xmnyf
posted by Sarah on 1-20-2009 at 2:56 pm
Also… LOVE the Brave Little Toaster. They made a couple more but the best one is still the first one.
posted by Sarah on 1-20-2009 at 2:58 pm
my mom actually has a clear toaster – i think it’s an oster brand toaster
posted by Jen on 6-2-2011 at 11:37 am
When I bought my toaster for my new place I made sure it was that shiny silver, just like the Brave Little Toaster.
Childhood friend indeed.
posted by JP on 6-2-2011 at 3:40 pm
This made me start singing the Heywood
Banks toast song in my head
posted by Tom on 6-2-2011 at 5:32 pm