Did the people from that store really buy that black R2D2 condom?!

And, as mentioned on the Fired Show, what was the hole for? LOL What a terrible product and with a hole so you can leak all the bits onto the floor. Genius.

Come back Pantsman, all is forgiven.

No product prices or margins were mentioned either unlike the girls.
Seems strange that the boys' win was based on total number of units ordered rather than the total value of the orders.

And the hole was never explained, well, not in a practical way. It was for leakage but that makes no sense because what bin has a hole to leak stuff out it? It makes no sense. Brilliantly comical but not practical. It's hard to believe any store would buy a bin/compostor with a hole in it. The idea was to put unused smelly food into the bin, it gets crushed and then the unused *smaller* smelly bits of food drop on the floor. That's hilarious.

As ideas go, it wasn't the finest was it? Why not cut out the middle-man and simply throw the food on the floor?

Still it was way and above their other idea. I think I was blinded a bit by the bin because I was so horrified at the ridiculous rubber glove come scrubber idea.

It was the most ridiculous idea ever, a composter kept in the kitchen, perhaps they could have grown some onions in there too I think the word they were looking for was compacter (sp?)


I think it would have meant too many variables to juggle trying to show. When the boardroom time now takes basically half the show it's too complicated a task to take into account what price to pitch at, genuine margins after costs etc, especially this early on with so many characters they need to show us some of. It's been less and less a serious business show for years imo. And now the focus is even simpler - show you can get a good idea and deliver it.


It was mentioned. You put in the food waste, which when you compact it is going to release liquid. Presumably you'd put the hole over the sink when the liquid stuff oozed out (let's face it, you'd be rather silly not to!) You'd need a stopper on it at all other times of course.

And yes it was still rubbish. Can't believe it beat the girls - the many newish parents I know or have known will buy almost anything they think will make life easier, whether it does or not.

No self respecting composter would put the liquid down the sink.

It was an awkward kind of hybrid article though, since the natural home for a compacter/ composter would be a utility room with a bowl underneath to catch the valuable liquid. And I'm not actually convinced that it would work. My peelings caddy needs constant washing or it goes slimy and foul; I don't mind because after all it is just a little bucket, but I wouldn't want to scrub out a whole multi-part bin to stop it stinking. And I don't even think stuff could compact all that much. How much would a cabbage stalk reduce down to?


Yes true, but they ignored the very important point from the mother and toddler group - it would actually make it harder to reach your child if they slipped or hurt themselves in any way. The tap cosy seemed to me quite a reasonable idea - the only good one out of the four.

That's 'cos they're (usually) given a price point for this kind of task. Don't know if I missed it at the start, but I certainly remember in series 5, they were asked to make a £49.99* fitness gadget, and in series 6 they were asked to invent a £19.99* product; the price-point for the smartphone app last year was fixed... the value and the number shifted is usually the same thing.

I'm not entirely sure what was going on with Jane's bulk discount, but I presume it's agreed with both teams beforehand.

They've stopped showing as much of this, but don't worry - the producers know what they're doing. I don't remember if they mentioned the price-point this time, might've been edited out to save the viewers from faffing about trying to calculate Jane's percentages, but I'm sure they won't have done away with it. They do generally make sure the wins are fair. To the point that Lord Sugar was quite vocally frustrated by one result in the Young Apprentice last year. Fear not.

*All numbers approximate, can't remember if I've got the precise figures correct but it was in that ballpark.

Couldn't you have something which is a hollow tube, with a thread inside. You then have sufficiently strong disks with turning handles both on top and underneath, and a little screw out airhole with a threaded plug.. You then screw one of these into the tube, right down to the end to make a bottom, and start putting food scraps in. After you've put enough food in, you screw in another disk with the airhole unplugged. Once you've screwed it down enough, so that the food scraps are being compressed, you then screw in the air plug, sealing that section. You then add food scraps on top of that disk. The disks should be tight enough to seal in the food and smells. Once you've put in enough, you screw down a new disk in the same way. You continue adding food scraps and disks until the unit is full. You then put in the last disk on top, and turn it over, and screw out the very first disk. This reveals your oldest compost, which you can remove. Perhaps you'd remove one or two disks, then continue putting food scraps in what used to be the bottom, but is now the top. Once that's full up again, you flip it over, and take out the two oldest sections. I'm now assuming space for four sections in total. The item would have to be invertible, and have a removable lid for the open end which could fit on either end. Perhaps an external screw thread, and the lid would pop open and shut. Perhaps there would be a screw on (same thread) base as well. So you can invert the unit by unscrewing the lid and base, and screwing them on the other ends.

It would take more research to see what would happen to the sealed food, i.e. would gas be produced resulting in an explosion risk? But otherwise, this could be used for composting in a small flat. Perhaps there could be open and closeable air vents on the side so that it could be put outside with the vent open to compost further.

I understood that the when used the food would be turned into a kind of sludge/liquid which could be extracted from the device (and presumably caught in a receptacle and then put on your garden etc). I'm pretty sure this was explained during the show by the inventor of it.

Of course, the force needed to liquify the food would be so much that I doubt it would work as designed, but, then in the task, it wasn't actually about inventing something that immediately worked, and as a concept I thought it was quite good (probably not at £19.95 rrp though).

I don't think kitchen compost bins have holes? I looked on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitchen-Craf...3014588&sr=8-1

Couldn't see a hole. If it does have a hole I hope it comes with another bin to put the stuff from the first bin's hole in the second bin.

And if the second bin has a hole too....!

...you get a lovely 'stinking waterfall' effect!

It's a talking point for any home.

According to the poster they were taking into the pitches the hole was a "Unique drainage system".

They obviously thought it was an important enough selling point to draw attention to it

The tap cosy was more appealing than the Splish Spash and could have been promoted as a safety feature when bathing two children together protecting whichever child was at the hot tap end of the bath. I liked the name but the Splish Splash wasn’t safety conscience as he focus group pointed out. Probably why the product looked so squat to allow it to be reached around if bathing younger children and may have been why the crayons were added turning it into a play centre for older children.

The boys idea wasn‘t any better. Why compost anything that oozes if you have no garden to throw the ooze up. Limiting sales to gardeners only and limiting it further to only those who want a land fill site at the back.

It's not really designed to remove physical labour. With a bin you open the lid and chuck the food inside, not much effort doing that, but with the food compost bin you have to force down the lever. If you had some hard food (er.. uncooked potatoes, perhaps) it's gonna be hard to crush.

An electronic compost bin would be better, the lever could be powered by electricity and generate greater downward force although I think they're called food mixers, already invented, and do the same task.

Why would anyone want compressed smelly veg in their kitchen? If you're into composting put your veg scraps into a small lidded container and empty it onto the compost heap without too much delay! Compost needs aerating not compressing and draining.

As I said on the weekly thread, I have got a waste disposal unit in my sink and have no trouble with smells etc. they are not expensive and quite easy to install

But the boys product was supposed to be a composter which is quite different from a waste disposal unit in a sink - it doesn't smell because it is disposed of, the 'composter' would give off smells every time the lid was lifted no to mention the odours from the drainage hole.

...and what would all these metro-sexuals living in their urban pads be doing with compost, anyway? Anyone seriously wanting compost does it properly, no in microscopic quantities for their window boxes!