Strangest thing seen in Christmas catalog, 2012

[Conan The Librarian]

I get Christmas catalogs from Cabelas and Bass Pro Shops. I never buy anything from them, but I do enjoy flipping through them.
 
I saw the most remarkable gadget in the Bass Pro catalog: Remote controlled thermal shoe insoles. The insoles look kind of like a Dr. Scholls insole, but have batteries in them. You use a remote control to control the temperature, like, high, low, and off. Seems like a novel idea for people with cold feet. They were pretty expensive.

[Sourdough]

Yea, I saw those too.  Also the Coat with the battery powered heater.  Actually saw someone wearing one of those this weekend.  Running around in this light weight coat when it's 25 below.  showing people the batteries, and how it works.  What's he going to do when the batteries die and he is not close to replacements.  it's called Freeze.

[Conan The Librarian]

It might be a good idea if you're driving and you just want warmth fast. I've been in cars with heated seats and it's a a nice feature on really cold days.
 
Haven't seen any gasoline powered margarita mixers this year, though. That was my previous strangest thing seen in a Christmas catalog.
 
Honorable mention this year is an oil-less turkey fryer. Not sure how it works, but it's supposed to effectively deep fry a whole turkey, but without using any oil. Seems like a good idea if it works. Frying a big wet bird in five gallons of hot oil seems like there'd be a lot of non-recreational fires connected with it.

[FPH]

I have a friend that "had" those type socks.  Something  went haywire on a hunt, and burned the heck out of one foot.  Battery may have shorted ( I don't know)  He tossed them.

[BUGEYE]

I have a friend that "had" those type socks.  Something  went haywire on a hunt, and burned the heck out of one foot.  Battery may have shorted ( I don't know)  He tossed them.

a few years ago my BIL bought some heated wader socks with a little pouch for four batteries.
so he thought a six volt lantern battery would last longer.  he proceeded to cut the pouch off and hooked it to the six volt, and between the yelling and jumping around before he could disconnect the battery both feet were blistered and the socks were ruined.

[Conan The Librarian]

Maybe he could have rigged something up with a turkey fryer and got better results. 
 
By the way, I did look to see if those oil-less turkey fryers actually work and they apparently do. I'm not in the market for one, but if I did like frying turkeys it would be worth checking out. Just the thought of buying five gallons of oil to do one turkey is not my idea of a good expense. I know it's a festive once or twice a year thing for those who like it, so I'm not against it. I just don't do it myself. It looks like they have oil-less fryers available for indoor cooking, like for making small batches of french fries. I didn't read any of those reviews.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Char-Broil-10101480-08101480-Oil-Less-Infrared/product-reviews/B001HBI7D8/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
 

[powderman]

   

Harbor Freight 1.jpg (201.46 KB, 628x800 - viewed 16 times.) Harbor Freight 2.jpg (184.94 KB, 617x800 - viewed 15 times.) Harbor Freight 3.jpg (114.62 KB, 609x800 - viewed 19 times.)

 
 
SHUCKS, red Xs. The cordless hammer was my favorite. POWDERMAN. 

[briarpatch]

no oil turkey fryer works great. That is how our turkey was fixed this year and it was just like done in oil. Paid 99 dollars at lowes.

[BUGEYE]

I'll take my turkey in the oven,  part of the holiday is the good smells coming from the kitchen.

[briarpatch]

The oven had two hams and a rib roast in it.