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Name an obscure product from a famous company.

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Originally posted by: Perknose
Originally posted by: Black88GTA
Harley-Davidson...mopeds :Q
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OMFG, my very first motorcycle was what is called here a an m50-s, made by Aermacchi. The only difference between mine and the one in that photo is the mine, iirc, had HUGE "Harley-Davidson: in bold, black block letters on the gas tank, laughingly much larger than in that photo.
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Almost forgot my second motorcycle was a 175cc made by Bridgestone, the Japanese tire maker.

Yes, Bridgestone used to make motorcycles.

Hands down fastest and most advanced in its class when it came out, it beat 'em all at Daytona and everywhere else and held the NHRA world record in the quarter mile. I could dust Honda 350's on the street w/o breaking a sweat. Good times.

No one really knows why Bridgestone pulled out of the motorcycle making business, but this explanation makes sense:

Bridgestone was the most successful marquee on Japanese racetracks in small displacement categories during the mid-sixties, eliciting considerable attention by American riders.

[...]

Many of the cutting-edge engineering features found on Bridgestones were not exclusive, but nowhere else could so many advanced features be found in one place. So why did production cease? Many reasons are cited. The advanced engineering and quality came at a price.

[...]

Unconfirmed rumors spread that other Japanese motorcycle manufacturers made it clear to Bridgestone that if they pursued their competitive behavior in motorcycles they would find themselves with no OEM market for their tires. Both tire and motorcycle production took place in adjoining sections of the same crowded factory. Expansion of one would be at the expense of the other, unless heavy investment was made in a new factory.
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Westinghouse ATC systems (automatic train control computers). PSID (programstop/ID), rear ID x-mit, track signal antennas. And propulsion/friction brake logic systems all made by Westinghouse.
 
I have a general electric drill. My grandfather was working on some electrical tractor back in the 50s and it had this plug in electric tool attachment. The electric tool was basically the back half of a drill. You could attach many front ends to it, one being a drill.
 
Crystal Pepsi.

Peanut butter M&Ms.

I had a "portable" Commodore SX-64. It was a C64 with a built in 5-inch screen.
 
Originally posted by: IGBT
Westinghouse ATC systems (automatic train control computers). PSID (programstop/ID), rear ID x-mit, track signal antennas. And propulsion/friction brake logic systems all made by Westinghouse.
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Do0d, none of that is any surprise to me, nor should it be to anyone.

George Westinghouse, the founder of Westinghouse Electric Company, got his start designing train stuff, specifically the very first air brake!

Westinghouse began his series of companies by starting the Westinghouse AirBrake Company in 1869. The idea for this came to George when he noticed the problems of the manual brakes that were used to stop trains. He then developed a system of using compressed air to stop trains that was much more reliable than previous methods. As rail traffic increased, he saw an need for improved signaling devices and switches. By combining compressed air and electricity, George started the Union Switch and Signal company in 1881.
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Originally posted by: Hyperlite
Originally posted by: shortylickens
Well, a lot of folks have tried making cell phones and PDA's but decided against further products. ASUS had a PDA for a while.
But maybe you meant more obscure than that.

I suspect most modern gamers know nothing of Philips CDi.
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they didn't give up completely. 🙂

http://i.gizmodo.com/5152095/g...-screenshots-and-specs
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Wow.
I have to admit, even though I'm not a fiend for the cell phones, I kinda like this toy.


-EDIT-
Carrying on the soda theme: Mountain Dew has several flavors we know about, but the best is Baja Blast. For some strange reason its only available at Taco Bell and not in bottles.
Shame because they've been selling it for years and still havent sent it anywhere else.
 
Originally posted by: XMan
Crystal Pepsi.

Peanut butter M&Ms.

I had a "portable" Commodore SX-64. It was a C64 with a built in 5-inch screen.
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what happend to peanut butter m&m's? I thought those were pretty common?
 
Originally posted by: alkemyst
Coleco Adam.
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Lol, I "fixed" one of those for a lady friend way back in the day.

She was impressed.

. . .

Profit. 😉
 
Nintendo Ultra-Hand designed by Gunpei Yokoi

Originally posted by: geno
Originally posted by: shortylickensI suspect most modern gamers know nothing of Philips CDi.
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I remember seeing infomercials for that system and thinking it was pretty damn lame. Sure, it was CD-ROM based and had some good horsepower, but the game selection was pretty lame. I hugged my SNES after seeing that infomercial and started socking money away for a Playstation 😛

And who remembers the Virtual Boy? I mention it as obscure because Nintendo could no wait for the public to forget about that one.
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Whatever. My Virtual Boy gets passed around and played all the time. Nintendo was sorry it didn't catch on but Gunpei left because he staked his reputation on its success, not because it "embarrassed" the company. Also, the CD-i did not have "horsepower." Though it had high-color modes and a large storage medium, it could not even do smooth scrolling like the NES and SNES (slide show). I own the two released Zelda titles for it and they have to shift about 20 pixels at a time, so they wait until you reach the edge of the screen and do a stuttery "pseudo scroll." It's well suited to encyclopedias and edutainment titles, perhaps, but it just wasn't well suited for games. I haven't tried even a fraction of the titles I own for it, but I had to watch a "Silence of the Lambs" CD-i movie on a DVD player because the CD-i can't do MPEG without an upgrade. That's right, it wasn't even suitable for MPEG FMV.

You want something else obscure from Nintendo? How about the Nintendo Love Motel (a prostitution/trist hourly hotel)?
 
Originally posted by: Perknose
Originally posted by: IGBT
Westinghouse ATC systems (automatic train control computers). PSID (programstop/ID), rear ID x-mit, track signal antennas. And propulsion/friction brake logic systems all made by Westinghouse.
Click to expand...

Do0d, none of that is any surprise to me, nor should it be to anyone.

George Westinghouse, the founder of Westinghouse Electric Company, got his start designing train stuff, specifically the very first air brake!

Westinghouse began his series of companies by starting the Westinghouse AirBrake Company in 1869. The idea for this came to George when he noticed the problems of the manual brakes that were used to stop trains. He then developed a system of using compressed air to stop trains that was much more reliable than previous methods. As rail traffic increased, he saw an need for improved signaling devices and switches. By combining compressed air and electricity, George started the Union Switch and Signal company in 1881.
Click to expand...
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..but only a select few get to work with Westinghouse, applied train control technology. 😉

 
Originally posted by: nutxo
Originally posted by: tm37
I had some chocolate twinkees A while ago (like 7 years) I bought at a truck stop some where between MN and Cal.

Had not seen them and still have not seen them

ANd they were pretty yummy.
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mmm, chocodiles Text
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Chocodiles and chocolate twinkies are two different things. A chocodile is a regular twinkie that is coated in chocolate. A chocolate twinkie was chocolate cake with cream filling. They made them for a while but stopped in the late 70's, I think.
 
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