The Mighty Tiny
A look at ‘The worlds smallest record player’. But is it?
I held off from looking at this device for a long time because I was worried that there just wouldn’t be enough to talk about. Turns out I couldn’t have been more wrong and its ended up making a decent video.
As usual there may be the need for re-edits before the video goes live in a week, hopefully not. However I did end up completely changing the end of the chess video after I’d gathered together a few more thoughts about it, so you never know.
Hope you’re all doing well - take care and have a good week.
Comments (117)
I've been so curious about the Mighty Tiny since I saw that box artwork years ago. It sounds...as I thought it would, and resurrecting the non-functional machine was so satisfying to watch, Mat!
Rhythm; Al Gore needs to improve it. This deserves way more 1st day view counts.
It seems to be doing reasonably well compared to the way things have been going for a while.
The sounds coming out of the Mighty Tiny reminded me of this classic Simpsons moment. https://comb.io/RRtOEi
Absolutely loved this. As I wrote on YouTube, made me giggle loads in places. But so interesting, especially when you placed on a full sized turntable 😁 Cheers Matt.
This video was just over the top great :D Well done!
Looking at that image of Mr Poynter, surrounded by his "products", it occurs to me that when the alien archaeologists (trying to find out why humanity failed) are drilling into the barren earth in the not-so-distant future, they will encounter an entire strata of Mr Poynter's toys in every US landfill they explore.
Right beside the Playtape polystyrene, 'The Swing Era' Time Life Flexi-discs, the 'We Are Rewind' Portable cassette players, and V-Lite tapes.
Phew! Is that what it is? I thought it was from too much "Dark Side of the Moon" and those funny cigarettes my mates gave me when I was 15! 🤪
As a kid I had one of those "bag of laughs" - a small canvas bag containing the same sort of device as the "Mighty Tiny" except all it did was laugh! Of course I pulled it apart to see how it worked and this video took me back to my childhood! Thanks for that Mat! Keep up the great work!
I think any of us that had one of those can still hear that laugh in our head.
What.. No content matches?
Banjo Pete's been waiting for those royalties for years. Bamboozled. Or Tinytoozled. Banjostled.
My revisionist muse is still flowing - had to make another artwork: https://ibb.co/4N2FS91 😂
The curved hole for the stylus arrangement dimly reminds me of a talking doll a sister had when we were way smaller - complete with a tiny little record inside it. (This was the 1980s - it must have been a particularly old design, and I can't remember it ever working well, if at all. Only thing I do remember is opening it up to take a look inside the mechanism...)
(I suspect our parents conveniently 'forgot' to ever supply said doll with new batteries if it sounded anything like the device in the video!)
It's certainly tiny, but it ain't that mighty! The name reminds me of the Suzuki Mighty Boy 'utility' vehicle (which I believe you weren't 'fortunate' enough to get in the UK). Both are bold names indeed! 😆 https://www.teammightyboy.com/suzuki-mightyboy-history.html
I'm curious if this format is related to or compatible with (perhaps the inspiration for?) Bandai's "8ban" record system, more commonly known in the US for it's "discovery" by Jack White of White Stripes. They are 3" discs not sure what RPM/etc, but it would be interesting to see if they can play on each other's systems. i wouldn't test with a Bandai 8ban disc however they are rare and expensive compared to the new(ish) releases from the record store day people.
8ban was probably more directly inspired by Hip Pocket records, which Mat also did a video about a few years ago.
Absolutely no fear of a music content match for this video…
Excellent! I remember my dad bringing home a 'Bag-O-Laughs' one time. Inside was a little box, which upon disasembly, revealed a gramophone record, stylus, mylar speaker cone and a motor which started when you pressed a button and stopped when the stylus reached the centre of the record.. I seem to remember it was quite loud and clear, not bad for such a simple device..
I had one of those laughter-boxes too, and when I took it apart I learned that the record inside was two-sided. The other side contained a goofy carnival-type tune/jingle.
Wow! The quality of the recording was much better than the player.
Yes amazingly (well that might be overdoing it) … surprisingly (?) apparently Poynter took it all rather seriously by getting proper recordings made specifically for the records. As a result many of these tracks are exclusive to the Mighty Tiny.
Fascinating device, that something so tiny was able to make any noise at all was impressive. The record actually sounded pretty decent on your modern turntable.
Excellent as always. Mat. The ending rounded it out very nicely! :-) By the way, I don't know what others think, but your pieces to camera look quite a bit too dark on this one. Cheers, SB.
Yes they definitely are…it’s always a bit hit and miss dialling this in - this time it was a miss.
That reminds me of when we'd play my dad's records with a needle pushed through a polystyrene cup! Seemed so cool when I was 7, never understood why he'd get so mad. Sound quality was probably better than these though!
Because the needle would damage the record! Still a cool thing to do, I did the same (and got in trouble too!).
I remember my Auntie had a picture of Jesus Christ on her kitchen wall when I was about 6 years old and it used to scare the living daylights out of me! I've seen the same picture recently at age 66 and I don't understand why I was so terrified? That girl on the box reminds me of my Auntie's kitchen, it's just missing the stigmata and crown of thorns!
"Today's episode of 'Techmoan' brought to you by 'Banjo Pete's Olde Fashioned Contact Cleaner'."
When I first started catching your videos, I kept thinking it was called "Technomoan", like Carl Cox is having a bad day or something. Maybe someone made fun of his name for the 100th time this week.
There needs to be a knock-off rip-off of Baby Driver utilizing this technology. I suspect Kevin Spacey is available to reprise the role.
A) The gender of the child on the box is somewhat indeterminate B) Hair-helmet. C) Weird, nun-like religious-cult like frock. What's up with that collar? A bit reminiscent of what Veruca Salt wore in Willy Wonka D) Is it excitement, or is it medication? Only her mother knows for sure. E) A beloved pet hamster (Herman the..., I reckon) is being held off camera by the director with a Mighty Tiny pistol to its head
I now want a T-shirt that says "Banjo Pete is God"
The ending did not disappoint...
We had a popular board game in the US in the 1970s, "Talking Football" that included 78 mm disks containing audio commentary for various actions and plays during a (gridiron, not FA) football game. The playback device looked a bit like a small transistor radio and hand a rather satisfying eject switch at the top. The playback was somewhat better than Tiny MIghty. Had a bit of a "AM radio heard through a telephone" aspect. This may seem like a random thing to say, but I remember distinctly dialing into a particular phone number on our rotary circa 1976 and being able to listen an AM station. I'm not sure what service it was but it certainly felt like we were doing some spy stuff at the time!" https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15945/talking-football
This reminds me of the Batman alarm clock from the 70s which had a mini record player in it. I found a video where someone briefly shows it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAP87Is8AiQ
Loved this! My favorite videos are where you introduce me to yet another commercial music format that I've never heard of. What a surprise to learn at the end that the selection of discs went beyond public-domain kiddie music. I imagined that this was exclusively marketed for kids...a cheap distraction to keep your six-year-old from screwing up your expensive and delicate hi-fi.
That little girl looks like a nasty kid who suffered _such_ a horrifying fate during the factory tour that Wonka immediately confiscated all of the footage shot by the documentary crew, and the Oompa-Loompas working in PR went right into crisis mode to scrub all knowledge of "the sixth Golden Ticket finder" from the media.
so strange... I also made a reference to the Willy Wonka movie! The dress she wears looks like Veruca Salt's!
another lovely video, great work.
On an unrelated note, I saw a box of CEDs at an antique store this weekend
I hope you left them there.
I bought one of those half-inch records from Lavender Sweep, but it's obviously not intended to be played. My Rega aside, I suppose I *could* try it on the Sound Burger, but one side does have a manufacturing fault on it.
There’s a reason I only tried this on a record player I really don’t care about. I had two Soundburgers in the house but made the 45min round trip to get the record player I used instead.
This was the true-to-life reaction: https://ibb.co/4jBZHhF
Also, oh the humanity: https://ibb.co/bmLjrZp
Needing to give it a tap at the end there to get it to play you out was a fantastic end-cap on this video. :D God it's like a tiny demo of why flywheels exist.
I realize that the "Turkey in the Straw" is the same recording that came out as one of the discs included with the "Miniature Victrola" toy sold by Poynter Products in the 1980s: here is Databits' video demonstrating that toy with the record - even though it is played a bit fast on his video, one can easily recognize that it is an identical recording. https://youtu.be/RyQA7wlBsvg
I had one of those when I was a kid! I think I still have the records, though the Victrola fell apart ages ago. I will never forget that scratchy, terrible recording of Dixie! The records look very similar too, although there are some differences.
Thanks for this great repair! These old music formats are so interesting. I was afraid to get half of the video muted for content match reasons, but I was relieved as soon as the first excerpt !
You have acquired a trove of the most distinctive and disturbing ringtones ever assembled!Congratulations.
Great "little" video! I especially loved your "love tap" at the end to get the disc spinning again. I wonder what the wow and flutter is on this? Sounds like 10% or more!
Nice ending! I'll be waiting for a review of tiny novelty wax cylinders next.
The very last candle has already been expended, methinks.
Wonderful! Well done indeed for getting it working. It sounds terrible compared to the high quality audio we've become accustomed to, but I imagine that when the belt, records and stylus were new, put up against a crackly, distorted 1960's AM radio the difference maybe wasn't quite so extreme.....
Another Absolutely Excellent Video, Good Sir! As someone else already mentioned, your expressions at the end say it all....
Boiling the elastic belt to make it tighter??? 🤔🤔🤔 Not the high school molecular chemistry that I recall.
You wouldn’t believe how many people mention it every time - I only included it to demonstrate that it seems to be a silly and ineffective idea.
Your expression on that outro said it all :-). Interesting nugget on Don Poynter.
The sinister look on the girl's face isn't the only aspect that makes that image so creepy. There's also that shiny, black hair helmet and that red & white dress gives off some "Junior Miss Handmaid's Tale" vibes. Yikes! All in all, another educational and super fun video, with a successful repair segment to boot. Mat has definitely made a silk purse out of a clown's handbag!😀
Is it coffin shaped because it's where music goes to die?
That was delightful! The video, not the music. 😬 Thank you for trying to play one of those discs on a normal record player, I wondered what it’d sound like since you first held it up during the intro. If you hadn’t done it, you’d probably get a few thousand comments asking about it.
That ad, while terrifying, also looks like a proto- Youtube thumbnail
Is the motor spinning the whole time when the lid is closed, even without a record in it or is it the thickness of the record that activates the switch? I loved the video, it is as always very well made. Beginning and end (your face imitating the child on the box and the final listening) makes it not only professional but also funny!
It only spins when there's a record in place - and it auto-stops at the end as well...somehow. Despite the shortcomings, it's a pretty neatly designed device.
I had one of these in the early 70s. I figured out how it worked because (cough cough) I took mine apart. Nobody knows how long I've waited to hear Oh Suzzana! and Turkey in the Straw again.
I enjoyed that one. Nice mechanical design on that to get the price as low as possible and still make “reasonable” sound for a kid’s toy. From the record you hacked up to play, the mastering of the records was decent but the playback system was the compromise they made.
Reasonable sound? 🤔 Only if you want every record to sound like a kazoo! 😂
Words can't describe how thrilled I am to finally see a video from you of this item. Speechless is an understatement - I'll forego my typical bullet-point hit-points and just say "bravo, amato uomo... bellissimo!" I loved every second of this; from the horror of the packaging to the coffin to the dreadful ear-abusive sounds. Even Headphone HeadBoy is scarred and broken from the experience - he put the wrong spectacles on this morning. Your reactions and expressions in this are priceless. You should get views out of the ball park for this. Next task to the World: make a hi-fidelity tiniest record player with Trimicron technology. Take care 🤍
Amazing to think that we got from this to tiny NT tapes in about 25 years.
Great "little" video ! First listen to the record immediately made me make that face with the front teeth sticking out like on the package, that must have been their inspiration ;-) Cheers !
Yes I didn’t realise it was a grimace.
I feel like I should make a parody video where I spray contact cleaner at all the things I find that don't work. Spray it on my back gate lock that seized, spray it on my old laptop when it's doing Windows updates, spray it on my kids when they won't tidy up. It seems to work for everything in this video.
Go for it.
I nailed the year, well I guessed 1966, because my first thought on seeing the player was “That looks like a Star Trek communicator.”
Yes! I thought the same...then I thought "There's close to a 100% chance that one of these appears in some sci-fi show as a futuristic gadget, under a new coat of paint."
Cracking video this, but I’m not sure if it’s that face or that audio which will haunt my dreams for the longest…
After hearing the audio - I now understand the face.
I do remember those record players! I didn't have one, I'm just a tad older than the targeted market... only by a couple of years. But I also fondly remember Don Poynter's assortment of gadgets. This was before Spencer's gifts in malls. We used to have these little Oasis gas stations/food stores located along the different highway routes. The most popular ones in the Midwest were called "Stuckey's." They always had a section of little gadget items that parents could buy their kids to keep them occupied while traveling down the road, {i.e. Auto Bingo). They would include Poynter products, like the crossword toilet paper. I could just imagine one of these Tiny Mighty's on a shelf display. Can you imagine the parents driving on their vacation, having to listen to that music(?) playing over and over while they were desperately trying to get to their destination? Wife to husband: "Are we there yet?" By the way, Matt, when you make it to Canada, if you want to drop by Bryan, Ohio on your visit, I'd be happy to show you the Ohio Art Factory. I drive past it every time I visit my wife's family. I'm going there this afternoon, (great nephew's birthday). You've given me something to speak to the missus about on the way. Great video.
Bryan, Ohio is in my neck of the woods. I live in Defiance, which is about 25 miles from Bryan.
With those points on the discs you could throw them and be a real DJ Ninja.
I had a 1980s toy telephone which contained a device that looked very like this. When you picked up the receiver the recording would say something like “hello who is there?”. It may have had concentric groves to give a variety of messages. Not sure, but I think the phone may have been made by Tomy so it may have been another application of this system.
That phone rings a bell. Unintentional pun.
I really enjoyed the video. It’s by far the worst sound quality of any device you’ve ever demonstrated. It sounded fine on the Numark.
'Fine?' Oh, I get it... Fᵣₑₐₖₑd ₒᵤₜ Iₙₛₑ꜀ᵤᵣₑ Nₑᵤᵣₒₜᵢ꜀ Eₘₒₜᵢₒₙₐₗ
This video had me gripped. Very interesting. Classic Techmoan!
Loved your video as always! Slightly related to the subject: https://www.windytan.com/2017/07/gramophone-audio-from-photograph.html
Hey that's very cool. Thanks for sharing that article. I'm glad someone is doing weird stuff like that.
Haha great Video Mat, it made me smile and chuckle several times, especially the ending. It's great to see the simple way that these sorts of things were constructed when they had to be mechanical and how they 'ingeniously' tackled things.
Hi I found a pic of it on a friends timeline lol, she’s a dj
Love the new glasses!
That must have been the most hellish device for the backseat goblins to use on a long drive to visit relatives…
The 'Backseat Goblins' term is perfection personified.
I've never heard a record player that sounds so much like a kazoo.
It seems like the sound reproduction is almost identical to a kazoo
I have the successor to this, Poynter’s miniature Victrola-style gramophone from 1987. It sounds no better than the Mighty Tiny, but it is slightly smaller in overall size. Still bigger than Queen Mary’s though.
The ending was priceless, whatever you do don't change it!
That was a fun video for a stressful Sunday morning. Actually surprised that devices like this existed back in the 60s. I’m just going through the whole buy a “physical media” audio device for my daughter, (I went with a Yoto player despite your excellent review of the Tonies). But I assumed these existed because modern digital systems are too complicated for kids, whereas my Fisher Price cassette player in the 80s just used normal tapes. Maybe records were deemed too complicated, but compact cassettes were just the perfect medium accessible to all.
I think the Yoto player is a great choice. The only reason I haven't made a video about it is that I feared it would cover too much of the same ground as the Tonie. But with the passage of time I'm sure that video has bene forgotten now, so perhaps I should pick one up.
Can I plug my YouTube video on “the world’s smallest gadgets”: https://youtu.be/ReZLJc1hkN4 and I wrote a blog post on the same subject, which mentions the Mighty Tiny: https://blog.matthewhunt.com/2022/05/the-worlds-smallest.html
Yes of course you can.
That was some well timed comedy at the end there!
Careful you don't get content matched lol
Brilliant 😊 A belly laugh on a Sunday morning 😁
Cute indeed, another format I'd never had known that it existed without Techmoan... I'd wonder if replacing the belt still makes it more or less "listenable".
Wonderful! Thanks for cheering up my Sunday morning
This would make a great prop for the right horror flick.
Really cheered me up 🤣👍🏻
"Are you ready to be blown away by the sound of the Mighty Tiny?" *even worse than expected cacophonous din comes out* It made me laugh quite a lot. Not sure how you still mananged to over sell the sound quality even with that much sarcasm.
Is it just me or does this thing with the golden grill look just a bit like a Star trek communicator....just a bit?
I thought the same - it's a product of its time.
I can not find the right emoji to describe yours and their faces... 😬😬😬
I think you've risen the dead with that coffin record player!
cute
He is, isn't he. Oh, you mean the record player!