Thanks to Dwayne Colon for providing a whole bunch of pictures to the museum. Here’s his first, a Sharp GF-535. Nicknamed “The Searcher” (for its music search system?) this system has a nice splash of color and some unusual slide controls for volume along the left of the tape deck.

Our buddy Dean from Boston visited a friend in New York and was floored to see his apartment peppered with systems like this Toshiba “Bom Beat” WX-1. Says Dean, “This is the ADRES model (Automatic Dynamic Range Expansion System) with insane mixing and EDITING capabilities, phono preamp, some unusual detachable speaker setup, double cassette, SW1&2, Toshiba “Passive Radiator” speakers, and more than a few offbeat controls like “Beat”. Owner is a paint collector, check out the cans on the side for sizing.” By the way, Dean is a spray paint can collector; check out his site rustmagic, an effort to preserve classic aerosol and spray paint cans.

Minty Sharp GF-666, eh? Jimmy from Montreal suspects this was the first boombox equipped with twin cassettes: he estimates the date of manufacture at around 1981. Notice the cassette controls designed specifically for Sharp’s APLD music locator system. Very cool…definitely a tape bootlegger’s dream machine.

Mia Sparko (Marco Matias) is a vintage Hip Hop Colture collector of many styles. Obviously, stereos come with the territory, and he’s been avid collector since 1989. Here’s one of his pieces, the street-wise Rising.

This gorgeous system is branded under the National name, which suggests its sale in Asia or Europe. It’d have the Panasonic brand if sold in North or South America. This is the RX-5700 and it is quite gorgeous, but I can’t help but feel in belongs in someone’s library (like mine), and not on a street corner.

Javier in Florida shows off a sweet Sharp GF-9595. One of the first “PLL synthesizer” tuners offered on boombox, for sure. This must have been a costly feature at the time, as systems continued to ship with analog tuning well into the early ’90s. Sharp was indeed an innovator in the boombox market.

Jens has contributed so much to this site, and we sure appreciate it. Here’s his latest find, a National RX-5300. This system has all the typical good stuff plus TV sound!

Micha from Weimar Germany wakes to this monster Sharp VZ-2500 every morning. Says Micha, “I found it on a “flohmarkt” for 15€. then i invested 60€ more for new stylus and (riemen). I think i`ll try to get a new lp-window and some buttons are old and scratchy.”

Another Trident golden ghettoblaster. Marco copped this at the local Swap Meet, $12.00. If you see him at the Swap Meet RUN! Just hope he doesn’t catch you on that classic Raleigh chopper.

The boombox fan, heck, any gadget fan who ever spent any time in a big city was drawn to the electronics shops like a moth to the fire. Ed, from Brooklyn immortalizes one of his fondest memories in the photos below. He recalls a day 1984 when he purchased a giant Conion ghettoblaster, a stereo as loud and glitzy as the shops that sold them. Refusing to let one of his fondest childhood memories fade into obscurity, he documents his trip on film.

We were obviously drooling at the merchandise displayed on these store shelves. Sure, we’ve got eBay now, but there’s something special about spotting gear like this in its “natural” state. Until someone builds a time machine, we’re hoping our boombox museum will suffice for the good ol’ days. Thanks, Ed for taking us back to a happier, more exciting time in electronics history.