Retro Toys - A fun little diversion.
When you were a child you might have played with toys depicting an earlier era, a model railway with steam locomotives or a Scalextric with classic racing cars.
Today’s kids can now pretend to be living in the distant retro past of the 1980s with this range of miniature consumer electronic gadgets.
It’s more than likely though that these are being aimed at the nostalgia market as a bit of silly fun, but I thought you’d enjoying seeing them.
I do have another full length video almost ‘in the can’ (complete with a new comedy outro). However I’ve jumped this video up the queue, because these toys only came out a few days ago in Japan, so I feel getting this one finished first might be more beneficial.
I aim to set this video live sometime tomorrow.
Hope you’re having a good week.
Comments (59)
I got my mini TV from Amazon.jp yesterday. Can't believe how quickly they shipped. I'm going to use it in a music video. I can't believe how quickly they ship!
Yes once you've discovered how quick and easy Amazon.jp are, if you're anything like me it's more than likely you'll use them again. I'll have to show some of the things I've bought in an upcoming video.
and my Mini boombox arrived yesterday.
I guess you used Amazon.jp too. They’re very quick.
Thx, I need these now, especially the boombox, Lolz I love tiny functional things
Thanks Mat. I enjoyed that.
After the faux tv, most of us would have forgotten about the first item, the mini boom box. "But not me!" shouts my alter ego with green skin and a leather jacket. For an 8 year old, that mini boom box is the equivalent of the Betty Crocker Easy Bake oven, the plastic box with a 60W light bulb inside, which my younger sister used to bake 'cakes' the size of large cookies.
Wow. A first I was only expecting these to just be plastic figures, and hear something about them being just like action figures, but that's actually pretty awesome. I think I'm most impressed with the boombox, and would actually consider getting one of those. If they sold a bundle with all three in Canada I'd probably pick it up for a reasonable price
This is a very meta "I'm on TV!" experience and I love it!
I really like the eye for detail in these toys, in the functionality. Thanks Mat, you put a big smile on my face :-D
Neat.. I'm on TV now!
Crowded House on the radio! Nice to have New Zealand represented in a Techmoan vid. :)
I think DJs tend to play it whenever it rains...so we get to hear that one a lot.
Delightful novelties - I laughed out loud when you had to bang the top of the tv to get the picture back - I so remember having to do that! Superbly presented as always too - have a great weekend, Mat!
That’s brilliant, I love the tv! Would definitely buy an iPad size of this one.
Great stuff as always Mat....and whatever week I'm having your vids only improve them :-)
Loved the video! Mat, I've always been curious... sometimes you order items for your channel to demo and they turn out to be rubbish. You then say "that's one for the tip" or something like that, implying you are going to throw them in the trash. Do you really just throw those items away??? I would assume you could get some percentage of your money back by reselling them..
I remember him saying that he tried selling off stuff at a point, but it was too much of a headache.
I like VWestlife, but this smartphone TV was way cooler than his. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNJK-4dRQQI" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNJK-4dRQQI</a>
Literal LOL!
For US buyers, I found nne of these on Amazon, but did locate the record player as a BIN on eBay: <a href="https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Takara-Tomy-A-R-T-S-Showa-Record-Speaker-The-Showa-Series-from-Japan-F-S/153380306380?hash=item23b62dbdcc:g:hsYAAOSwBG9cZ1Lx" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Takara-Tomy-A-R-T-S-Showa-Record-Speaker-The-Showa-Series-from-Japan-F-S/153380306380?hash=item23b62dbdcc:g:hsYAAOSwBG9cZ1Lx</a>
The record player and TV are genius, more than toys that's for sure. In the 1960s one could buy scaled-down kitchen appliances, and I recall a mini-electric range that (sort of) baked stuff in its oven using the heat from an incandescent bulb. Hope I can afford to import these into the US of A. Thanks, Matt - we'd never have learned of these if you hadn't posted this vid!
Easy Bake Ovens. I think they are still sold. Batteries not included.
Something so wonderfully bizarre about a miniature television set emulating what used to be huge, genuine frustrations with a full-size one. Every time you smacked the top of the TV, I had a huge grin on my face. Thanks for sharing these. :D
So, does each "channel" on the TV autoplay videos? Or just show the one? And when you change channel, does it remember where you were? All channels I'm subbed too, I notice!
Every time you change channel it re-starts the video you've selected for that position - you can turn the dial all the way to the left and it will play the first channel and all the way to the right will play the last channel - the others are somewhere in between those positions. - Hope that answers - but any more questions, please ask away and I'll answer them in the morning - off to bed now.
So now I'm curious how the TV app works. I mean it knows where that channel selector is on the screen so it kind of has a sense of where the "screen" should go in relation to that... But hmm :P I dunno if iPhone SE people like me need apply with a 4" screen. Makes me wonder the dimensions of the regular size TV and how much it would have cost with inflation :P
Sounds great. I watch them all as soon as I get the YouTube notification. Nice to have an early peak!
Another great video. New patron here. Love the channel and the content.
Glad you're here - normally the videos get a bit more advance showing here on Patreon - but I'll need to get this one out while it's fresh. The next video should be here a few days early.
What lovely little novelties. I collect miniatures and am especially fond of tiny electronics, but very few of them do anything halfway useful like this, heh. Nice to know these exist! That fourth channel on the TV does too many Sims videos though.
It definitely had the flashiest intro though - better than looking like something that had been nicked off a pre-production VHD demo. ;-)
Fun!
I had a blast watching this video. Brilliant little things. Thanks for sourcing these and showing them to us. One thing I was wondering though: why is it a good thing to render videos for 4k on youtube? Is the demand for that so high?
My pleasure - glad you enjoyed them too.
That's brilliant, like you, I love the TV. It will go with the mini arcade machine I bought after you reviewed it. :-)
I believe there’s some more arcade machines in that range now, but I think I’ve got enough.
Oh noes... now I have to release my albums in nano cassettes too... ! *snickers* :D
Loved this one. The TV made me chuckle - great job as always!
Well, those were fun. The whole "tape" process of the boombox is interesting. The TV is really quite cool.
I seemed to go through the same sequence - I thought the TV would be the least interesting but then after being underwhelmed by the first two, the TV was kind of neat! When I was a kid our TV had both colo(u)rs, too, black AND white and the set was old enough by the time I hit double digits to need a "bonk" on the top fairly often. The Japanese are crazy - I love them!
Excellent find, they're really cool! Love how they went into so much effort to creatively make actual functional stuff off of their prominent features, and it actually works well! BTW loved the "links are in the video description box _if you can find it_"... so accurate :D
That was terrific fun, Mat... We gadget fans would be itching to find out what those look like and what they could do... Thanks for scratching that itch for us. They seem like the kind of toys that would be great fun to pull out for friends and at parties just for the "oh, wow!" factor. Or, I could see a salesperson using them as an icebreaker. As always, thanks for sharing.
One of my favourite things about doing this is that I have an excuse to buy silly things like this “it’s not for me, it’s for my job”
I like that Takara Tomy A.R.T.S Showa Smaat Television retro TV, but boy do they want a lot for it on line. From $56 - $70 on ebay. Great stuff, Mat. Love the channel.
Did you try the Amazon.jp links I posted. It’s only £21.99 in Japan (plus postage) - you can change the language to English at the top right of the page.
Wow! That TV, especially, was so much fun. I also loved the turntable and clever integration of phone app and physical toy. Great finds. Thanks for sharing.
Mat, you find the goofiest things. Now I need that 'television.'
Oh my god, this devices are not only cute, they are also very cool. Thanks for showing, and i´m gone now. I have to buy me some toys :-)
Dang, smackin' that TV like its 1969. I'd be afraid to break that little plastic thing.
Fantastic video. I, too, was enamoured by the small TV and its little gimmicks. Got a good laugh at the solution for "fixing" the picture.
The people behind this have a good sense of humour.
Hi Mat, loved this video. Really appealed to my love of retro tech and miniature things. Might be tempted to get one...
There’s just something irresistible about smaller versions of things.
Love it! Glad you are there to show us these things (which I kind of want to buy - but will resist). The channels you feature - yep, you know we all subscribe to those!
I also realized that I'm supporting all of them on Patreon as well 😄
ha! Love it. that tv is really kool. I almost want one to stick in my lil'ones room hehehe
I only glanced at the thumbnail, and thus mistook the record player for a Tefifon!
That would be an obscure toy.