By Claire Cohen
The Sno-Baller in the hands of a youngster who has produced a perfectly round ball. And, below, the Sno-Block Maker which can be used to make an igloo or, in summer, a sand castle. (Posed by models)
For anyone in touch with their inner child, a fresh snowfall means just one thing - a snowball fight!
But in a game where enjoyment is everything, slush, ice and soggy gloves can all too easily hamper the fun.
Well, snowball devotees need fret no longer, for a solution is at hand - the Sno-Baller.
Surely proving once and for all that there are no limits to designers' ingenuity - or perhaps, to our laziness - this plastic contraption, which looks like a giant ice cream scoop, simply snaps together to compress a portion of snow.
Light, aerodynamic and geometrically perfect, these snowballs are designed to burst on contact, thus avoiding painful bruises.
What's more, the Sno-Baller, designed in the U.S. by a father-of-two in 1989, is highly efficient - making up to 60 perfect snowballs every minute.
Which means you can have a substantial pile of powdery ammunition ready by the time the kids come home from school.
You can choose from four colours, red, blue, green and pink. For those that want to make an igloo or 'snow fort' ahead their child's return from school there is also the Sno-Block Maker.
And for those for whom a spade and bucket is just not good enough it can also be used to make sand castles.
Other uses have also been found for Sno-Baller by fishermen, who use them to make carp bait balls.
It is also widely used in the U.S. by therapists who have re-named them Bilateral Scoopers – used by stroke patients during physiotherapy.
It has also been reportedly usedby soap makers for ‘bath bombs’ and ‘soap balls’.
The Sno-Baller costs £10, the Sno-Block Maker £12 and is available from snoballer.co.uk
source: dailymail