It's been a long time since we've had a real blender. Our old one from probably the 70s broke many years ago and I've made do with one of those hand blenders for the longest time - I'm not sure what brand it is; you'd think I'd know it since I see it on the blender itself every time I use it, but I'll probably know it when I see it. I think it's one of those that was first advertised on TV back when hand blenders were kind of a new thing. It's been good for me for making smoothies, but really takes a long time to blend when anything is frozen. It just hasn't been a high priority to get a new one, so we never got another one until recently.
I actually haven't used the new one yet, but it's a Ninja Kitchen System Pulse (BL201) - so it's one of those multifunction devices that works as a food processor, blender, and apparently can also be used for making dough.
Like I said, I haven't used it yet. Someone else used it as a food processor, and I think it worked out pretty well for them. I'll most likely be using the single serve cups a lot! I probably won't be using the dough attachments that much, but it'd be interesting to give it a try to see how well it actually works. I'm definitely looking forward to making my next smoothie with this!