Originally published at: Watch this 1983 TV commercial for a craptastic Soviet Walkman knock-off | Boing Boing
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That smile at 25 secs. /shudder
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Trabants were hardly bulky.
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Doesn’t look all that bulky. The first walkman was pretty big too, and it has to hold a cassette so it can’t be the size of an iPod.
Probably exploded with typical USSR regularity though.
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It was smaller than the reel-to-reel ones.
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I think you are misremembering how big early Walkmans were. They we were huge by modern standards. Most people remember the later models like the Sport which were cooler and much smaller. The first ones? Less so. At the time, it was a miracle to be able to listen to music in that personal and portable way at all.
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For reference, this is the original Walkman.
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Still have my South American [Panama] walkman knock-off for a whopping $5 US, it’s called Señor Walkie, that dang thing went everywhere on the planet with me, still works too, eats batteries like no tomorrow, sound is passable.
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It’s dimensions were
150 x 90 x 35 mm
https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/sony_soundabout_orig_walkman_t.html
If the clone featured in the ad was the Electronics P-401C, the dimensions were 154х90х38mm. Not much bigger, but it probably didn’t sound anywhere near as good as the sony, and the three hour runtime on 4AA batteries sounds worrisome
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Listen, I’m not going to lie to you. Those are all superior machines. But if you like to watch your TV, and I mean really watch it, you want the Carnivale’. It features two-pronged wall plug, pre-molded hand grip well, durable outer casing to prevent fallapart.
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It’s 40 years old, and it still works, so you’re on to something there.
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Perfect for listening to “Tro-lo-lo” on the go. Assuming you’re a Party member with some blat, of course.
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I know, RIGHT! I brought back about a dozen or so and gifted them to friends/family. Hope they hung on to them…
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Dual headphone ports are pretty boss, honestly.
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When I was about 13 I wanted a Walkman so bad. The legit Sony Walkmans were pricey, out of the range of newspaper delivery boy income, so of course I got a knockoff from Caldor not much smaller than this Soviet one. It came with “cassettes” that had radio components inside, so when you wanted to listen to the radio you put in the FM or AM “cassette” and tuned in a station. It worked reasonably well for a few years, and when it crapped out I bought another cheap knockoff, a Toshiba I think. And so it went for many years, never owning an actual good quality Sony Walkman.
For a long time I had an FM radio walkman-esque thing from JC Penny that was no bigger than a cassette tape, I thought that was a marvel at the time. Pretty good sound quality to my teenage ears too.
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I want one.
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In Soviet Russia cassette plays you.
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