Like many of the other poor suckers who purchased this toaster, I bought it for three main reasons: its reported ability to make toast, its cool looking design, and because it was made by Oster, what I used to think was a trustworthy brandname.

I mean, how risky should it be to purchase a toaster, right? They're just some common heating elements, a timer, and some springs, aren't they? The last one we owned was a no-frills hand-me-down that lasted our families for some 30 odd years, so while perusing the aisles of Target's kitchen appliances, we were looking for just a regular toaster, nothing fancy. But, when we saw this model in all of its modern-day kitchen glory, blue neon backlight and all, we drooled. The 7 toast settings seemed perfect, as did its extra-wide slots for bagels, which we often had trouble cramming into the jaws of the old one. And, the fact that it advertised three extra-special customized toasting buttons, one for toast, another for bagels, and another for frozen stuff, seemed too good to be true. And favorite feature to us, it had a very easily removable crumb tray. It was (in theory) exactly what we were looking for and more. We happily selected the black and silver model, and took it home where I must say it looked pretty slick sitting there on our countertop, a perfect match to our black appliances. A real beaut, Clark!

The toaster itself is very lightweight, feels a little flimsy after thinking about it, and is filled with plastic parts. Take it as a bad omen.

When you plug this model in, the neon blue backlight immediately spreads its bright blue glow behind whichever special button you have selected, and there's also a sort of backglow that emanates from the slots. Cool! But, after a few days of leaving it plugged in, and staring at that blue light, I started to wish there was a way to just turn the light off. But there's not. I know it's not "green," but we leave the kitchen appliances we use on a daily basis plugged in, so that they're there and ready for speedy use. At night this baby lights up your whole countertop, it's that bright. So it was a little strange, sitting there in our cozy kitchen at nighttime, because this thing looked like it was ready to go to a rave.

But we could forgive the smurf glow for the meantime, because at least it made toast, right? And we got so many compliments on how cool it looked, it made us feel darn spiffy.

But alas, beauty really is only skin deep.

The first thing we noticed when we began using it, was that those special customizing toasting buttons didn't mean a thing. You could select any of the three and it didn't make a bit of difference in the outcome of your bagel, toast, or frozen pastry. They're totally useless. The 7 settings were useful, to an extent, but you still had to watch it carefully, because this toaster is so multitalented, it's actually prone to over AND under-toasting. Mind boggling!

But still we kept it, we needed it, and didn't want to eat the money we'd spent on it, since we'd foolishly thrown out the box right away. I mean, it's a toaster!

About 3 weeks after buying it, I was making breakfast and pushed the lever down to let the toasting begin. But the lever didn't stay down. And my toast came springing right back up. I pressed it again. Same thing. I pressed it again and again and again, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not get the lever to stick in the 'toasting' position, and so there was no heat coming on. My husband, sensing that I was about to lose it, came over and tried his darndest to get the toasting lever pressed down. No luck for him either. In frustration, he banged it on the counter and tried it one more time. It worked!

I'd love to tell you that that was just a fluke, but, it's currently our daily routine. To get this toaster to work, you have to slam it on the counter a few times and/or wildly shake it about, and then press the lever about 20x to get the toast to stay down and the heating elements to begin. The really bad days (about 50% of the time) are the days when it refuses to work at all, despite all your hard work.

Sure, it's cardiovascular exercise, but that's not really what I'm looking for at 5 am when I'm running late getting ready for work. This thing must have been made in some underground factory operated by recycled robots. It's not rocket science, this toaster-making thing. But apparently for Oster, it's out of their league.

Any redeeming qualities for this waste of space, plastic and metal? Like I mentioned it's design is great, maybe minus the blue neon. And the slots in it are extra wide, which do accommodate pretty much anything you can throw in it. And I have to say, this crumb tray is something they should have come up with 30 years ago - it's located at the base of the toaster and you just slide it out, empty, and slide it back in. But the whole not-toasting thing kind of takes away from its good qualities. Just my humble opinion.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 20