I used this as soon as it arrived-Aug 4. It has great power and did a fantastic job with my smoothie. I used a combination of fresh and frozen indgredients, as well as some leafy ingredients and it took care of the entire ingredients, smoothyl, so to speak. The blades are connected to the canister, the canister is plastic and has ample capacity to function as a 'regular' blender. This blender can handle more than smoothies!