Tom Dickson knows blenders, and thanks to the cult-like popularity of his "Will It Blendfi" videos on the Internet in which he blends everything from marbles to cellular phones, lots of folks now know him.

Dickson, 60, is the founder and CEO of the Orem-based company Blendtec, which manufactures high-end, high-powered blenders for restaurants and home kitchens. Though his company has been around for some time, it wasn't until Internet-savvy technophobes began circulating his "extreme blending" videos earlier this month on popular video sharing Web sites like YouTube that Dickson went from appliance company guru to international online celebrity.

Though the "Will It Blend" videos had only 10 hits on Google on Nov. 2, in the past three weeks the wacky blender clips featuring Dickson have been viewed 11 million times on YouTube. He appeared on NBC's "Today" show the day before Thanksgiving, during which he blended garden rakes and golf balls.

"It's been major shockage for me," Dickson said.

Since online viewings of the "Will It Blendfi" videos skyrocketed, the company has seen "significant increases" in the blenders' sales, said George Wright, marketing manager for Blendtec.

And though it was initially his idea to make the videos, Wright said Dickson was the inspiration for the marketing concept.

Wright recalls walking into the demonstration room one day and noticing a pile of saw dust on the floor. Wondering where it came from he asked a staffer who told him Dickson had been testing a blender by sticking a two-by-four beam into it.

"I said 'You know, I would like to see it.' So we filmed it for everyone to see it," he said. "Extreme blending is not new to Tom Dickson."

Dickson said he gets thousands of blend suggestions every week since the explosive exposure of the videos on the Internet, including Barbie dolls, G.I. Joes, computer hard drives, game consoles, and Mentos and Coke.

"One idea was blending another blender," he said, adding that an upcoming "Will It Blendfi" would chronicle his demolition of an Apple iPod.

In some respects, the extreme blending may be allowing Dickson an outlet for his inner child. Though he has 11 children and 25 grandchildren, he also drives a Lotus sports car, owns a go-cart that goes from zero to 60 mph in three seconds, and routinely catches air in his Acura TLS.

"I've done dozens of jumps and sparks fly," he said.

As for extreme blending in his 13 amp, 3 peak horsepower Blendtec machines, which can be found in restaurants, hotels, coffee shops and smoothie bars in 66 countries and now in many homes, he said people have a natural instinct to see how things come apart.

"Even at 60, I haven't gotten it out of my blood," Dickson said.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.