DAK offered this in 1986–a Unitech with unusual cassette placement and 5 band eq. We won’t say anything about the fire, you can make your own assessment.
DAK Mail Order Unitech
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Author Archives: pocketcalculatorshow
Sears Budget Stereo
Single cassette boombox (a rebranded Sanyo) available at Sears in ’85 and ’86. Yawn..
Citizen LCD TV Stereo Casssette
This portable’s unusual for a variety of reasons: it’s manufactured by Citizen (a very obscure name in ghettoblasters) and it features an black and white LCD television. To the casual viewer, this left square appears to be a second cassette deck but it’s a TV! Spotted in an NYC flea market.
1985 Sharp Ad
A 1985 Sharp ad displaying their latest and greatest boomboxes–a far cry from the hefty models sold two years earlier. Obviously, their goal was to make available a boombox for each and every walk of life.
Helix HX-4631
This giant Helix was grabbed at a New York City flea market–you wouldn’t believe the attention it drew! Surely an indication that the beasts have reached mainstream acceptance. We’re not sure where Helix is today, but their effort to outdo the big audio names back in the ’80s by building ’em larger and louder did not go unmissed.
1980s Technicolor Compact Video Cassette Recorder
Our friend Jeff in Akron, OH emailed us with this brag–a very rare Technicolor 212 compact video cassette recorder. Manufactured in the early ’80s Technicolor presented this unusual video format, utilizing a cassette only slightly larger than an audio cassette. Sadly, this compact format failed –perhaps if it were released ten years earlier, who knows? Jeff owns two of these machines, one is working as well as documentation and cassettes.
UPDATE: Several folks have emailed asking for someone with a working unit. They have home videos they want transferred. Can someone help?
1970s Panasonic RF-2200 Portable Multi-Band Radio
Long-revered holy grail to many shortwave enthusiasts, the RF-2200 was sold between 1977-1982. If you’ve been seeking one of these, you’ll be happy to know they can still be found out “in the wild.” This one, for example was found in midtown Manhattan for $30–can you believe it? This is a very desirable radio for many reasons–probably because it was such a popular radio when originally sold. The tape tuning dial was the mark of a good quality radio–the switches are solid, typical of a nice Panasonic.
1981 Handheld Football Game By Bambino
Grabbed for $5 at an open-air flea market in New York City, this handheld VFD football game is one of the few deals to be found in this high-priced city. This baby is in great working order, and has two speaker areas for a stereo-like effect. The vacuum-fluorescent display is a bright green, but sadly, the gameplay falls just short of a Sunday NFL game. This handheld was sold around 1981. Love the unusual case design on this one.
Panasonic RX-5080
Another Pansonic model with the Ambient Sound feature, the RX-5080. This one also features a two-color LED meter. Grabbed at the Chelsea Flea Market, NYC (the original one on 6th Ave).
Sanyo Walkman Models
M-6060
1984. Sanyo is one of those unusual brands that’s known to sell some real gems, and some real crap. The M-6060 is no doubt a gem simply due to its unique tape-loading mechanism. Cassettes are inserted into a slot much like a auto’s in-dash tape deck. Separate left and right channel volume controls, the blue on white graphics and the nice, big chrome eject button are the coolest features. Here’s a pictureof the complete package. A little white carrying case was included. Very nice touch!
R-100P
1982. Sanyo was one of many radio-watch manufacturers in the 80s. This particular model had some nice features as far as watches go, including alarm, time date and day indicator. The radio, however was not so great. That tiny knob with the red lettering on the right was for tuning, and the listener had to resort to guesswork in determining where in the AM band he happened to be. But for 1982, anyone spotted wearing a headphones connected to a watch was instantly deemed as cool…in a nerdy sorta way.
M-G34DT
1983. Another portable with the radio cassette module. This one is unique however, in that it uses a knob for tuning rather than a flat dial. It also tunes the AM and FM band. The box is labelled “Sportster” but somehow, we have a feeling this ain’t waterproof or shockproof! Very nice, unusual unit.
M-5550
1981. Arguably, the feature-packed portable stereo cassette player of presented during the initial walkman “boom.” The M-5550 featured dual headphone jacks, a “Talk Line” muting feature as well as a “mix” feature that allows the listener to sing along with the music via a small microphone. Additionally, the M-5550 included a hi-lo tone switch and a pitch control knob to control tape speeed. The AMSS stands for Automatic Music Search System. That’s right, this portable even had the ability to automatically advance to the next song by detecting blank space on the tape. The battery door was spring activated, and the jet-black all-metal chassis is is small even by today’s standards. All this in a matching white leather carrying case pouch.