Panasonic’s Mr Thin range

Next on your bucket list of 1980s pocket-sized combination devices should be the Casio QL-10 calculator/alarm clock/cigarette lighter.

So, I do remember these. A friend of my dad’s (police CID), top bloke, called him uncle but was definitely not an uncle 😂 He always used to have all the latest gadgets of the time. He was the one that had one of those Sony professional Walkmans that you have. I remember it eventually finding itself hanging up in his shed in later years, but it never seemed to need a battery change, and I remember it being on all the time. Looking at it now… that is a sexy little thing. Great design. Loved it then, and now you’ve reminded me… I love it now. Im a Panasonic guy. Still have my original Panasonic personal cassette player (all 3 of them actually), TV, VCR-DVD recorder, my Technics HiFi, an old Panasonic video camera and my 4th Panasonic TV. 12 year old in fact. For me, all my Panasonic products have lasted and lasted, never had an issue with anything. Cheers Matt Lee

How good could that radio have been at illegally picking up police transmissions if they caught him anyways? Still, not as cool as the credit card radios!

The bit about the modern radio was a nice bonus. I'm usually curious about what similar gadgets are still being made after watching a video about the originals.

great video! amazing to me how much uglier these things got overtime: black and gold sure was a choice (as was that calculator add-on)

Flippin 'Eck! I got here too late to see the now-deleted Bond skit--oh well, "ya snooze, ya lose."😒 Otherwise, very cool gadgets, especially the RF015. But those prices were definitely way out of my range as a teenager back in the 70s (not really my primary interest then anyway). Probably aimed at single young professionals with money to spare after they'd bought their high-end component stereo, luxury condo, sports car, dirt bike, sailboat, etc.

Fantastic video! I had the 015 which I think I bought one summer in college - couldn't resist. It was a long time ago, but I'm pretty sure it didn't sound any better fresh from the package. But the style.... (Interesting just that last one opens from the left, like a Japanese book.) I was just thinking you might consider a series on the Sony SW-1, SW-100, SW-1000 tiny shortwave radios, but the Panasonic's are probably more relatable. Not sure my dreaming of being able to record a 3 AM show off Radio FarAway's shortwave shortwave service back in the 80's would resonate quite as well. :-) Great to hear you are on the mend! Thanks for videos like this - don't underestimate how much they are appreciated.

I guess, much like a modern flip style phone cover, these could be propped upright on a table? Useful for the ones with alarm clocks.

How wafer thin

I liked that one a lot, Mat - thanks. Finishing it by showing Panasonic's latest version was inspired - it really tied the room together.

Interesting subject and well put together video. Thanks for sharing. Regards

But if Bob Holness could play Bond, why not Techmoan?

• I'm very happy to see you feature the Mister Thin; I remember that I commented with you about it a couple years back. It's not a complex thing considering what we have today, but I still think the silver ones look really cool. The RF-033 looks antiquated compared to the RF-015. • You should perhaps consider (if you get burnt out) taking a break and recording some suspense & intrigue audiobooks. I can guarantee you they would be very popular. • Hmm, incidentally I want the Eveready Black Cat 9 logo back in use again. It's all but gone in my locale. • I can imagine you listening to that Ajax clock radio. Take care 🤍

It's just the stylishness that makes these kind of things desireable, not what they actually do... That type of calculator radio reminded me of a calculator my father used to have in my early childhood, it had no radio though, but still a clock and also a strange way of operation, especially for setting the clock...

Great video, Mat - I would have loved one of those radios back in the day. Some years later (around the turn of the century, I think) I had a Panasonic mini-DV camera made with a similar aesthetic (possibly NV-EX3 model) that I always thought was like something out of James Bond as it really would fit in a jacket pocket with the viewfinder and screen stowed flat.

Seeing this post makes me feel nostalgic and reminds me of a fond memory from 1986 – that was when my brother gave me a Toshiba RP-2046 radio as a gift. For me, it was just perfect: it couldn't have been any smaller, and the reception was amazingly good. I loved that radio because a Walkman was bigger, and you always had to listen to the same cassette or take several with you. Listening to the radio was just brilliant. Since 1983, Switzerland finally had stations that played exclusively pop music, and I could listen to the news every hour. I still remember well how, in January 1986, I heard the news of the Challenger disaster on this very radio while on the tram on my way to work – and in April of the same year, the news of the US air strike on Libya. These were memorable news stories that left you stunned – and perhaps that is precisely why they have remained so deeply etched in my memory. And all thanks to this little Toshiba. For me, it was the perfect device. Why I eventually stopped using it, I no longer know.

My weekend is good, Techmoan issued a new video! And I will gladly be and stay a patreon for content like this.

Great video. TIL that Poland used/uses different FM frequencies!

Well done for such a good video under medical duress. Glad to have seen Mat does Daniel Craig😁. Surprised at how expensive they were.

Great video. Love the Bond / Q bit. The magazine copy for those really reads like they're selling cologne or fancy watches for / to men. Really does have a sort of last gasp of the fancy cigarette case look, too. I can't believe I noticed / guessed right, but the two women in the last ad are a Japanese band called "Pink Lady," who incidentally covered some western songs including "Rock & Roll Love Letter" by the Bay City Rollers. They even had an exceptionally short lived variety show in the states in 1980. As celebs do, they did a lot of ads in the late 70's, including multiple ones for Panasonic.

Amazing how expensive they were in the 1970s, I was too busy being a newborn baby in 1978 to notice of course!

Brilliant video again, i also love that the costume / skit dept is back too lo. These are really nice devices too.

Thanks for the video, Matt. It’s always neat when you show a product that I owned when it first came out. But when you showed the first one, I thought, “Didn’t it have an LCD display?” You then showed the alarm clock version, bingo! That was the model I owned. I was in college at the time, and justified the price by saying I could use the alarm clock anywhere with the batteries. It sure seems as a stupid thing to buy now, but you were right about the attraction to gadgety things… and I had no control on what I spent my money on. I bought the latest electronics I could, and then lived on soup and crackers for a whole month.

Ow. Broke one of my molars a few weeks back. Luckily it didn't come with any pain. Get well soon, Mat. :)

Excellent video. I don't listen to the radio, but I still want one of the early silver ones. Bond's jacket is very nice!

The early two are beautiful. They look like you are getting what you pay for. But those black and gold numbers... woof! Awful. For a 30 minute video it zips by. AND always appreciate when you include some costume work. Quite funny. A very fun video with some interesting history. Wonderful to hear your tooth is better.

NICE! I see a Wheelie Yellow plushie in the background! I can't believe how much those videos make me laugh. Dry line delivery and a REALLY fast rc van. Hope he continues them- been a while since the last upload.

Great video -- thanks. I kept looking at the time track on the bottom thinking: well, he just finished talking about this one, what else can there be with 2/3 of the video left...? What was left was icing on top of icing. A 30 min. video that felt like 5 min.

Oh, one more thing: have we seen that brown leather-looking desk topper before, or did you just get that for this video? If so, kudos for the commitment to the aesthetic - I, too, thought the radio looked like a pocket calculator (I remember my Dad having one), because they all seemed to come in those faux-leather, brown plastic cases back then, like it was some sort of law, so having that as the background was perfect. And if we have seen it before, then just ignore me.

National was a well known American radio manufacturer (who supplied radios to the likes of Bletchley Park during WWII and continued doing that sort of thing until 1991) so Masushita couldn't use the National or National Panasonic name in the U.S.A. It was even deemed that Philips was too close to the name of the American company Philco so they had to market their consumer electronics as Norelco.

These are cool! Not sure the antenna screw on the modern device is for attaching an external antenna though? Isn't it just to facilitate removal/replacement of the built in one when it inevitably gets snapped or bent?

Very much enjoyed that Mat, thanks - the spy tangent was especially interesting and unexpected. I knew pocket calculators used to be where it was in terms of the cutting edge (and cutting throats), but I never really thought much about radios of the same time. Disappointing in a way, though, size-wise, that things went from this in the 70s, to (albeit without a speaker) those incredibly thin mid-80s credit card radios you previously featured, to this contemporary radio that looks frankly gargantuan in comparison. Glad to hear you're feeling better. Cheers.

Trick or treat? Here is a radio video! Thanks, these little things were a dream

Really excellent. Thanks Matt.

Just Another Excellent Video, good sir. Fascinating subject.

Very interesting and enjoyable video.

Saw it for sale in Tottenham Court Road back in the 70’s, and I really wanted to get one. Lasky’s (the shop) said they were ‘very popular’ but I couldn’t get my Access card to be accepted! 😁

It is our pleasure to help you Mat. Ever since I started watching your videos in 2021, you always managed to create interesting content. As a fellow techie myself, you are doing a great service to show and preserve this for future generations to come. It is my pleasure to support your channel along with fellow viewers like me. Thank you.

Watching it at the O2 arena waiting for mcfly Vs busted to start. Things we do when we married (wife the fan)

Best of luck Mat! Hope you get that toothache under control proper

Glad to hear you’re starting to feel better Mat. Looking forward to watching this later after the trick or treaters leave

This will be more entertaining than Trick or Treater’s at my door!!