Mini Verse vs Mini Brands
I’ve received more requests to make a video on these than anything else in recent memory. I’ve been aware of them for some time but have been less than enthused to buy any as I was pretty sure I knew exactly what these were, because I’ve been here before.
A few years ago I started to make a video about something very similar, but I abandoned that video when I realised there just wasn’t enough meat on the bones to make it worth anybody’s time.
However due to popular demand, and the promise of a massive payday due to all that pent up video demand, just like Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again, I’ll swallow my pride, stick on a wig and do this one more time. Although there’s no wig…and very likely no money either.
Enjoy(?)
N.B. If there’s anything you feel should be added/changed/deleted in this video, it can't happen this time as I need to move on due to time constraints. Hopefully it’s OK though, I couldn’t find any massive earth shattering issues.
Anyway got to get back to things here, so enjoy the rest of your week and take care.
UPDATE 2/9/26 - Found time to add in an extra bit about NFCs (just before the wrap up) which some appeared to want included.
Comments (51)
Your viewership on this one turned out very well. 👍🏼
Unfortunately the view counts on recent YouTube videos can’t be trusted. They started counting views from people who just watched one second of a video. Previously I think it had to be 30 seconds to show as a view. Around 50% usually click away from the video in the first fifteen seconds. I think if I divide every view count by half it’s comparable to the views the older system counted.
Just saw this video on YouTube. Always interesting to see how modern tech is used with the visuals of vintage gear. I my self have developing software (https://github.com/ns96/cassetteflowJava https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvrnPoVNLMM) to turn my collection of vintage decks into glorified "token" players for some years now. Keeps the decks mechanically working without me having to worry about them sounding good.
I feel the main attraction of these is for a lover of their dolls house. They look brilliant and the realism of the covers just like mum and dad's is perfect. The fact that they also play music is a bonus just like when dad installed working lights.
Who are these aimed at? As you said- only a very young kid would love a 30 second song clip. But it's designed to look like a retro hi-fi which kids could not care less about- and it's small and VERY fiddly looking. The Pocket Rockers came out at the right time and where designed for the age they were aimed at. This... I see landfill.
Aimed at Grandparents looking for a toy for their Grandchildren ? As an added bonus they can tell them about when Britney Spears was the latest Pop Act, how one of her tracks was played at the Millennium Dome, and how Darius tried to cover it on Pop Idol. Realising that was 27 years ago makes me realise how old I am.
i really liked them as decoration, sadly they cost a fortune right here (Brazil)
My daughter has really enjoyed her yoto player, and with custom cards you can buy your own music and load it onto the player. The closest modern equivalent to my tape player and tapes collection growing up.
One of the phrases the makes me roll my eyes “it comes with an app” 😩 Even so it’s interesting to see something I have never heard of before. Might take a trip smyths to see what more goodies they have to offer. I wondered if it would recognise the second one if you connect USB to a computer.
I would defintely read the disc with a NFC app on my phone, try to generate other codes and end up listening to the whole 4 1/2 hour Parsifal in 256 kbps that hides in the thing.
Shame they only play for such a short time. I'm curious about the bitrate, I'm tempted to get one and wire in a 3.5mm socket just out of curiosity. It could be decent as storage is/was so cheap now.
You could get a 64GB micro SD for £20. I doubt these players would even need 64MB. If they use MP3s they’ll be at the lowest bitrate they can get away with.
Is that for the people that still believe that you can compress any song lossless to < 1kb? :-P I got a couple of miniatures as well now: the A500 mini and a mini Macintosh Plus alarm clock, but they look a bit better... Toys for adults, not for kids :-P.
Plastic that doesn't do anything, blind bags (balls) and an app required for one.. we are doomed as a species. I know, I'm a freakin ray of sunshine lol
I don’t see it as my different from hit-clips. Or they’re just toys and furniture to go in a dolls house.
Happened to be watching this with my son who works for a certain large retailer here in the US. He said they are hugely popular and he's constantly restocking the display shelves. So, they've found a way to make money of of kids wanting to collect them. Honestly if I was a little kid I'd be interested too but ultimately bitterly disappointed by how short the tracks are.
I did exactly as you suggest with my daughter - old cheap CD player, a few CDs she liked. A few years later, she has an impressive (and growing) CD collection - mostly from charity shops. My older son also a physical media collector - I had to help him record off a cassette last weekend. I loved it!
Mat, please, please, please start saying 'oh hello!' at the start of the video like the 70's 80''s TV programs. It was so funny. I do it now when my wife answers the door when I come home from work (she knows I got it from you lol)
I’ll try to remember when I’m next recording an intro although the upcoming one is already recorded.
The choice of tracks available does seem rather odd for something aimed at children especially with the mini brands. There are some good tracks (well 30 seconds of them 😄) and artists just not may I would expect kids today would be interested in. I'm guessing it comes down to them being cheap to licence. Great video as always 🙂
If you want to get kids cheap CDs, get them in the numerous Charity Shops that every High Street in the UK has. You could likely get 10 of them for the price of one of these plastic lucky dip balls!
Theory .. they made a zillion of these in Japan 20 years ago. Had half a zillion left and bombarded UK etc toy shops? Imagine putting ‘Pretty Fly’ by the Offspring on these .. and hearing just the first 30 seconds 👀
no minidisc? 🥺
Your UK Smyths web store looks exactly like US Walmart.com.
those balls remind me of the Lol Surprise balls craze from 2016 that's because its the same company
The same idea as the $16.95 "Teeny Tiny Turntable" I reviewed back in 2020, except playing recognizable recordings instead of generic royalty-free music. This time, it just feels like ensh**tification. Real vinyl records are too expensive? OK, we'll gave you fake ones that play <30 seconds of MP3 files!
That’s the one I bought but decided not to feature.
I felt your disappointment when it became clear it was yet another token player! I'm baffled by the existence and market for these things. They are not cheap, clever or particularly effective. Yet they persist... No shade to those who may find joy in them; I just don't get it.
Always get ads for these on Instagram glad someone took the punt and bought one lol
Annoying trash.
But enough about me, what do you think of the toys?
Disappointed you're not a fan of Sting and the Police 😂 Although the tiny album covers by themselves have peaked my interest. Thoroughly enjoyed that 😃 many thanks my good man
I like the Police. Sting post Police on the other hand can be as exciting as listening to an accountant reading a phone book.
Just Another Excellent Video, good sir.
I think I get it, from a business point of view. You sell these kits to children, they experience music new to them and they go on Spotify, Apple Music or whatever and listen to the whole song. The record companies get royalties from both sales, they get to promote a selection of music from their back catalogue that isn't selling as well as it was and they can promote similar artists on their labels too.
Yep agree
did you ever look into the Crosley’s RSD3 Mini Turntable? feels like that's probably the real-world version of this toy. for whatever reason I have three unopened 3" vinyls - more than happy to donate them.
I’ve got a BNIB set somewhere, the one that looks like an SL1200
My guess is that a small child would likely grow tired of these gadgets in short order. The Mini Verse stereo rack is cute and is about the size of a tiny Panasonic/National AM/FM radio I got from eBay a few years ago which looks like a mini console stereo from the 60s. It uses AA batteries with a hinged top over a shallow tray beneath to hold coins or keys etc. Now that's not only cute, but also useful. Your suggestion of getting an older kid a used CD player is a sound idea (No pun intended).
The covers are cool and they do look cute, but why only 30 seconds? If they at least played a whole song it would be a tiny bit better. Great video as ever :)
I like the look of the first one purely as a object d'art on the shelf. If you think of it as a diorama that actually plays music, it's not so bad :D
does it say what scale they are? while they’re junk, the first one might go in the wife’s dolls house furniture which I think is 1:16 scale. I really don’t understand the 30 second thing. If you’re paying £10 for four ‘records’ thats £2.50 per song - surely more than enough to pay for the rights for a full single plus the few pence the plastic would be?
It could be something to do with them wanting to cheap out on storage costs. But it’s anyone’s guess. As to the size, I really don’t know. There might be something on either manufacturer’s website, but I doubt it.
Imagine how frustrating it would be to have Rebel Without a Pause cut out at 30 seconds with every listen. :)
The device is not very good but it seems like something fun to add to my little six inch action figure display.
Did you try scanning the NFC tags on your phone to see if there was something interesting on them? - it wouldn't be surprising if they could just be scanned and then replayed at this price point.
The music isn’t on the record, it’s a code identified by the player - e.g code X6V@ (made up) means play track 6 - Elton John. NFC transfers data at 424 kilobits per second as a maximum, insufficient to transfer 30 seconds of digital music in an instant.
I was able to watch almost 10 minutes; I'll complete it at my lunchtime. The appeal of these for me is the miniaturization. It's very charming and makes me want to go out and get a dollhouse kit or be a copycat of the Miniature Killer on CSI (jk) but I digress. It's just pure cuteness and I'd never play the music. I do like your comment about plastic waste, they could have easily put them in tiny cardboard boxes that look like normal sized ones. Oh well. Take care 🤍
I was surprised to find a whole aisle of Mini versions of things at the toy shop, seems like small is big at the moment.
With relation to your point at the end - CD's seem to be really odd on the second hand market at the moment - some have shot up in price some are super cheap. As an example - whilst I do have an Apple Music subscription I do still like to get the physical CD of an album if it's something I like (As I've said before, I've a 300 disc Sony CD Jukebox and a Technics late 80's top end-ish CD player in my Hifi). Granted I have thousands of old CD's I've collected over the years stored in multiple boxes - they used to be on show but when I moved house they got boxed up into plastic boxes and pretty much stayed there apart from those that are in the CD jukebox. I've found sites like Music Magpie to be really useful if you want to get 2nd hand discs - for example - I was listening to Elton John's 'Too Low for Zero' and 'Sleeping in the past' albums over the weekend and idly looked at Music Magpie to see how much the CD's were - I got both albums for less than £5 total delivered!
So... I'm working my job as church secretary when this video drops. I don't know why, but I was intrigued enough to watch ~13 minutes before my wife came in. I haven't gotten to the climax when you compare the Mini Verse to the Mini Brand, (Oh! How will it end? Who will win?) Matt, I think you nailed its purpose: $20 & $10 for this little collection that for some will be played as much as people buying their Crosby players and shelling out whatever it costs for vinyl... This thing actually makes sense, sort of. You keep the little thing on a shelf and if someone notices it you can play 40 seconds of a song to demonstrate. It is marketed as a kid's toy, because of course it is. Not that I'm going to run out to the store and pick this thing up. Over the years, you've tempted me more than once to run out and purchase things you showcase. Not this time.