Nostalgia Products is responsible for this cute little kitchen appliance. Standing at just under 16″ tall it definitely won’t take up too much of your counter space! Of course, it won’t pop a whole lot of popcorn at one time either, but cuteness has its price.

I’ve been looking for something like this to complete my Movie Theatre display and with a visit to Walmart tonight, I finally found the missing piece! I’ll end the post with a picture showing the popper in its new home.

This popper is designed to look like a street vending machine. It even has little wheels and a handle that would enable a vendor to push the cart around to find customers. The wheels on this facsimile are only decorative, however, and don’t actually turn.

Let’s have a look at a real Street Popcorn Vending Machine so that we can compare it to our little copy:

Pretty close and authentic! But I think the addition of the Coca-Cola branding on our version just makes it! For who wouldn’t want an ice cold Coke with their hot buttered popcorn?

The packaging caught my eye and it didn’t take long to make the decision to add it to my eclectic collection.

If you have one, and have lost the instructions, you can enlarge the set above and begin popping again!

As promised, below you can see where I have placed my popper, and you’ll notice that it isn’t anywhere near my kitchen:

Next to my entertainment center I have a vintage Disney Movie Display Stand. Above it I have an actual light fixture from Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort in Walt Disney World in the shape of a box of popcorn itself. And now I have the final piece to make this corner of my living room into my own Movie Theatre lobby. Am I happy? Yes, I am.

The Spruce Eats website gives this history of popcorn vending machines: “Although several methods of popping corn had been developed, the first commercial popcorn machine was invented in Chicago by Charles Cretors in 1885. The machine was mobile to allow it to roam the streets and had a gasoline burner. The popularity of these popcorn street vendors grew at approximately the same time that movies burst onto the scene. The roaming popcorn vendors could often be found near the crowds, especially outside of theaters. This gave birth to popcorn being sold as a classic movie snack.” To see the complete history of popcorn itself, you can click the link to their site.