How many of you are old enough to know what these are for?

[Raduque]

The same record player was used for Alf's voice here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DICd9AwMfBw

Only phrase missing in this video is "Let's go check out the fridge!"

Yeah I had one too. (1990) :$

I loved Alf as a kid.
I had the version of this that moved it's mouth and eyes. My parents tell me I was so freaked out by it, I ripped it's lower jaw off.

 

[Rubycon]

:^D

That technology lasted a pretty long time. My daughter had a toy phone as a baby, and it had a record inside that played the sounds. I was kind of amazed when I opened it up. This was some time after 1998. I would have thought they'd be using something a little more modern. I guess if it works, it works eh?

Yes it's been around for a while. A steel needle (about as precise as a carpet tack! hehe) attached to a thin plastic diaphragm. The dolls with the pull strings used a similar albeit battery-less (the pulling of the string wound up a spring) record player.

I loved Alf as a kid.
I had the version of this that moved it's mouth and eyes. My parents tell me I was so freaked out by it, I ripped it's lower jaw off.

Wow that is freaky.

 

[SooperDave]

Somewhere out in the garage I have a 45 year old Garrard turntable that I used those type adapters with in the time before the time before

 

[lxskllr]

I'm running out of nifty old gadgets... Here was my favorite cereal back in the day. I'd love to see this released again :^)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be77gKd55q4

 

[sdifox]

anyone remember the name of those suitecase stereos? You unpack it and the top part of the suitecase is 2 speakers and the bottom part ihas a tape deck, radio and a record player.

 

[dawp]

my brother had this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlPu6PXw394

any one remember these?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxbW_BY4X80&NR=1

 

[Rubycon]

anyone remember the name of those suitecase stereos? You unpack it and the top part of the suitecase is 2 speakers and the bottom part ihas a tape deck, radio and a record player.

We had one of those at the library although it was just a record player. It had a pair of 6x9 speakers with about 10 feet of wire each.

HAH! GI joe was the boy's Barbie! I never understood the purpose in either. Erector sets and 150 in 1s were much more fun!

Anyone remember a wacky thing called Stretch Armstrong? It was a rubber stretch doll that looked like a weight lifter that could be stretched, squeezed, etc. It was filled with a very viscous red liquid IIRC.

 

[dawp]

yup, had a stretch armstrong as well as a 6 million dollar man with the bionic vision in the house.

had a blast with Lincoln logs and Tinker Toys

 

[Quasmo]

I still have a Texas Instruments TI-99/4a home computer. It plays cartridges like the Atari.

 

[Modelworks]

I had a stereo that was a turntable in the center and speakers on each side . The turntable folded up so it lined up with the speakers and you could latch it in place and tote it around . Something like this:

My friends dad had the first VCR I had ever seen. I still remember the very first movie I watched that was a rental on it, creepshow.

I loved erector sets. I'm trying to get some off ebay to use for making robots at home. The way erector bolts together makes it perfect for things like that.

 

[Modelworks]

I still have a Texas Instruments TI-99/4a home computer. It plays cartridges like the Atari.

Box it up and store it some place safe. They are starting to become valuable. I have seen old Atari2600 systems with games go for $200

 

[IronWing]

We had the Fiddler on the Roof disk too!



This is the player my dad bought:

 

[Rubycon]

I had a stereo that was a turntable in the center and speakers on each side . The turntable folded up so it lined up with the speakers and you could latch it in place and tote it around . Something like this:

My friends dad had the first VCR I had ever seen. I still remember the very first movie I watched that was a rental on it, creepshow.

I loved erector sets. I'm trying to get some off ebay to use for making robots at home. The way erector bolts together makes it perfect for things like that.

LOL at LP ghetto blaster!

Top loading VTRs were the best!

Speaking of erector sets anyone remember the Riviton? It used plastic "rivets" that would stretch with a gun and snap into place after inserted through holes in mating pieces. Boy that's got a kinky ring to it!

They were supposedly recalled because the pieces were a choking hazard.

 

[dawp]

that riveton sounds like the lionel construction set described in the lionel wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Corporation#The_Post-War_Era

 

[sdifox]

We had a Sony Beta VTR. Top loader of course. The tuner was the good old analogue vr type.

 

[Rubycon]

that riveton sounds like the lionel construction set described in the lionel wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Corporation#The_Post-War_Era

Riveton was made by Parker Brothers and it used a "gun" type tool to install the "rivets".

Anything electromechanical is always interesting to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Xp5j1HgDA

 

[Perknose]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQwKDijLqyg

Many thanks, Perk, for this link.:thumbsup:

My pleasure, dennil! I never quite understood why Melanie didn't have greater commercial success than she did. Her voice was soulful and strong, and at her best her writing was, imho, nearly as good at it gets.

Yet another woman, even FAR more talented than Melanie (no disrespect to Ms. Safka), who didn't achieve the commercial success she should have imho, was Laura Nyro.

Damn! That woman could sing and write and compose.

Several GROUPS had huge commercial successes with her songs, and the most telling parts are that they hardly messed with here original arrangements at all AND that it took entire singing groups to even come close to matching Ms. Nyro's vocal range and power . . . and they still came up short.

 

[lxskllr]

Yet another woman, even FAR more talented than Melanie (no disrespect to Ms. Safka), who didn't achieve the commercial success she should have imho, was Laura Nyro.

Damn! That woman could sing and write and compose.

Several GROUPS had huge commercial successes with her songs, and the most telling parts are that they hardly messed with here original arrangements at all AND that it took entire singing groups to even come close to matching Ms. Nyro's vocal range and power . . . and they still came up short.

Examples? I'm not familiar with her.

 

[Rubycon]

My pleasure, dennil! I never quite understood why Melanie didn't have greater commercial success than she did. Her voice was soulful and strong, and at her best her writing was, imho, nearly as good at it gets.

Yet another woman, even FAR more talented than Melanie (no disrespect to Ms. Safka), who didn't achieve the commercial success she should have imho, was Laura Nyro.

Damn! That woman could sing and write and compose.

Several GROUPS had huge commercial successes with her songs, and the most telling parts are that they hardly messed with here original arrangements at all AND that it took entire singing groups to even come close to matching Ms. Nyro's vocal range and power . . . and they still came up short.

Will power and/or the political overtones of the record industry. I'm willing to be the latter has much more influence.

 

[marvdmartian]

My sisters had a cheap record player when we were small. It had a built-in 45 adapter that lifted up and turned slightly to hold it in place, and played 45's or 33-1/3 records. Used to listen to "The Chipmunks sing the Beatles hits!" on it.

Later on, using our parent's record player (a Zenith model), we got to listen to 78's, 45's, 33-1/3's and it had the slowest speed (16-1/2) on it too.....though there was nothing that played at that speed. It was good, however, to listen to other records at REALLY SLOW SPEEEEEEEEEED......at least, until my Mom would hear it, and tell us to stop screwing around with the record player!!

My Dad, for a while, had a jukebox that played 78rpm singles. Now THAT was cool!!

 

[Perknose]

Examples? I'm not familiar with her.

With my extreme pleasure!

"Poverty Train" @ the Monterey Pop Festival: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqWVOSSmPpc&feature=related -- stay with it 'till they zoom in and this song comes on @ 1:15 or so if you're the ADD type

"Save the Country" on a vid so bad, it looks like Kinescope, but no matter, she SHINES right on through: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjdowef1oKE

"Stoned Soul Picnic" (Yeah, she wrote it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwSNbC9zK-w&feature=related

"Eli's Coming": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuOxSmqn44I&feature=related

Not only could she write and compose her own damn songs at a world class (imho) level, she could flat out SING!

Around 1971 or so, she got together with Patti LaBelle's (Philly represent) backup band LaBelle to record a whole gaggle of classic "Motown" rocking soul songs, in sweet, loving and tender homage to an influence she obviously grew up with.

So did I, THIS album, which I possess to this very day on vinyl, is just one of the gosh darned (no sarcasm) loveliest records ever . . . again, imho.

Some cuts:

"The Bells": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC_Z56rtdRw

Medley of "Monkey Time", "Dancing in the Street" and "Spanish Harlem" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxRUOYMwG0A&feature=related

"I Met Him On a Sunday" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nkZfrFxQhc

The original of "I Met Him On a Sunday" by the Shirelles, for reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWHcROtzeks&feature=related

Lol, I didn't know Laura Nyro from nuttin', but my freshman college roommate had her albums from his older sister and the first really good stereo I'd actually "lived" with!

Naturally, I went out and bought all her albums and the next year my friend John so loved them that he borrowed them ALL for the entire school year and then returned them me utterly ruined by the blunt pressure of the crappy needle/arm assembly on the low-fi on which he'd played them every day, all year long -- shakes palsied fist in the air in abject futility -- I forgave him. ()

 

[lxskllr]

With my extreme pleasure!...

Thanks for the links. Soulful, and cute too. I'm going through them all now :^)

Edit:
I like this video...

"I Met Him On a Sunday" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nkZfrFxQhc

:^)

 

[Rubycon]

Oh my goodness!

Common in the '70s but something sounds wrong today, eh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBkVuT5pw1g

:awe:

 

[lxskllr]

Oh my goodness!

Common in the '70s but something sounds wrong today, eh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBkVuT5pw1g

:awe:

ROFL!!

Use only as directed... :^D

 

[Gillbot]

where are all the Commodore 64's?