Bryan, from Bristol, Connecticut found this unusual Lloyd’s. It’s clearly and ’80s model with the bright green and orange graphics but look closely in the lower left corner–that’s an 8-track! Sure, Lloyd’s was popular with budget-concerned consumers, but they sold plenty of innovative products.

Jimmy in Montreal found this Hitachi TRK-8290 for a bargain. Look, the decal is still intact on the cassette door! Sadly, this system required an audio repairperson’s expertise to get it performing like new. These are rare folks these days, most prefer to focus on the more lucrative task of home audio repair. If any audio technicians out there wish to publicize your services on the portable gems, post your ad here!

Mike Harker of Toronto purchased this nice big GE in the Canada chain Consumers Distributing. It looks an awful like the Panasonic RX-5250 from the same period. This particular model was from GE’s “Silver Signature” Collection. It has 5 inch woofers, Dolby NR and weighs 12 lbs.

I found this Victoria at a giant flea market in south Florida (Sunrise Flea Market outside of Miami) for $5. I was amused with the blatant ripoff of the Victor brand name (known as JVC here). Here again we see a cheezy graph displaying frequency response. I wonder if they just made up the chart out of the blue or there was actually a team of white labcoat scientists all huddled around this POS with their clipboards measuring performance. This system was manufactured by Topp Electronics of Hong Kong.

The RC-M80’s little brother, the RC-M70 seems to receive all the attention these days and perhaps it’s unjust. Dezzy found this on eBay for a fraction of what one would pay for the lower model. Check out all of those slide controls and the tiny logic controls for the cassette. This model was hi-tech in its day, mainly due to the unusual receiver. This model has a synthesized tuner allowing the user to scan the band for frequencies. The readout is diplayed with an array of LEDs. If you’re in an area with no radio coverage, you’ll get the Battlestar Galactica Cylon effect, as Craig calls it. Craig, the King of LEDs also owns this model and provided a nice closeup of the tuner section. Check out his LED Museum, too!

Javier in Tampa found a rare Quasar, Panasonic’s alternate brand. It’s strange that Panasonic did this with many consumer electronics. This particular model is the GX-3652, and is identical to the Panasonic RX-5250 except for the color scheme.

This is the cover of one of Sharp’s portable stereo catalogs. I just realized there’s a boombox in this photo.

Audiophile Jimmy up in Montreal provides a nice photo of his Aiwa TPR-990, a behemoth of a stereo which may very well have been Aiwa’s largest.

Gousanis in Greece found this classic Conion CRC-H58F at his local flea market in Monastiraki. We’re curious what the graph above the LED meter is supposed to represent.