I think those “earbuds” are war crimes under the Geneva Convention.
$20 says the buttons and D-pad are non-functional as well.
That’s the thing that annoys me the most about kitsch stuff: the fake buttons and knobs.
Of course they’re non-functional. It’s a cheap transistor radio. It’s got a wheel switch for on/off/volume and a wheel for tuning. What would the buttons and d-pad even do?
That’s what I’m saying! You can clearly see the real controls off to the side of the device. No effort was put into this thing. It was literally slapped together using off the shelf parts and a simple mold.
Would it have killed them to have used a basic digital tuner, and made the D-Pad function as tuning and volume at the very least? At least then they could have misleadingly marketed it has having an LCD display. But they couldn’t even bother to do that.
- Digital was expensive.
They had cheap digital radios in the 90s. I was there. I remember them.
They are supposed to have soft foam.
But they wre so low quality by then, that they are ruined
Doesn’t fit even more.
That’s true for all earbuds, as far as I’m concerned.
I’ll take most disappointing gift to unwrap for $1000 Alex.
Next worse was a Lifesavers Candy Puzzle. The box was the size to plausibly hold 8-10 rolls of Lifesavers and covered in a glossy image of the candy. Such a let down.
(I never got a game boy at the time and I’m a little bit salty about it, but now as a parent, I understand my parents’ choice not to).
Most disappointing gift goes to Bart Simpson who wanted Bonestorm but instead got this.
My parents got me a gameboy but the only games I had for it was Babe Pig in the City and a copy of Ducktales that was lost in the attic before they gave it to me and wasn’t found until last year.
Wow. My in laws used to find Xmas presents the following year (or 3) when my wife was a kid.
As someone who grew up in the early 80s, I would have been gitty for this. While I enjoyed video games, my heart was listening to music. I much rather have a portable radio than a game boy at that time.
I woulda been in jr high when this came out and everyone wanted either the Sony sport (waterproof) or a discman if you had rich parents (I did not).
We got a used NES and pile of used games because a cousin worked for a rental store and they started dropping NES stock when the Super NES came out. Somehow later on someone gave us a Genesis, but that and an Apple 2e were all we had for most of the late 80s- 90s.
Oh yeah, and in 92 little kids were still all about those crappy voice recorders from home alone. My little brother was all about those for a year or so.
I had a walkman sport. It was huge and even with the headphones plugged in, you could take a shower with it haha.
I eventually got a Genesis too. Then a Dreamcast.
I’m in my mid 40s now and I miss that feeling that when my dad came home with an walkman for me. Now I dedicate my life to constantly giving my son that same feeling! Because once he becomes an adult, it’s all downhill from there.
I’m about the same age. I remember playing with the simplest dumb things. Like the roller bearings left over from some failed engineering project. Or my dad’s old calculator with the vacuum fluorescent display. It’s tricky to instill that kind of make-do entertainment in my son when the iPad can play anything you want any moment.
Actually the trickiest thing has been teaching him to ride a bike. Our street is crazy busy and short, with no sidewalks. So we have to drive to a park or quiet neighborhood to practice. He’s almost 7 and it still hasn’t clicked. He did start really swimming (and diving) this summer though. Which has been awesome.
If radio wasn’t absolute shit 'round here (nothing but commercials, Christian talk, and bad country), I would actually rock one of these if they became available again.
Step 1: make a low power FM station Step 2: use this to listen Step 3: profit!
Heh. Carry around 3 devices:
An MP3 player or my phone for Spotify, one of those portable FM transceiver things, and this GameBoy radio. Use the transceiver to get my music from the MP3 player/phone to blast over the air on an empty band, and tune the radio to that channel.
Couldn’t be simpler!
Forget FCC licenses! Let’s do pirate radio.
Change those earbuds at some point.
All the good music has moved over to HD Radio. There are very few stations in most markets, but the ones that do exist almost always play stuff you won’t hear on the FM dial.
There’s a radio station in Ohio called The Summit and it’s only been around for a few years but they are locally owned. They play new music, local stuff, old singles most people have never heard and more. On saturdays they turn it over to older people for polkas, spanish music etc. On sundays they play Americana and a Canadian music history show
It’s been a real game changer for our radio scene. I’ve discovered a bunch of good songs thanks to them, here’s a link to listen if anyone is interested
You’re not missing much now sadly. It’s all iHeartRadio now. Every single goddamn station.
It’s from 1992 but it have CassetteFuturism Vibe.
Cassette pastism.
Thanks, I need one now.
