Remember these Mini Records?

Yep, I worked out how this operates before you did - about 55 years before. My dad had the 'bag-o-laughs' and I disassembled it to see how it worked. Just in case you're not aware, the best strategy for bending one of those leaf-switch arms is to remove it and bend it at its fulcrum - bending it from the contact end never seems to work. If you can't remove the arm (they are often heat-staked in place), applying a sharp bend as close to the anchor point as possible with needle-nosed pliers often does the job..

I've got one of those in my ALF plush toy from 1986. 'I'm a people alien!' 'Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!' ...

“There he is!”

...just a sidenote...the second "record player" is an East German product...you can identify it by the label reading "EVP" prior to the price of 27.00 M...M stands for "Mark"....would it be West German, it would say DM for "Deutsche Mark". and there would be no "EVP" ......and that song on the record is some kind of Christmas song....something like "Let it snow"....

I've been ill, I'm starting at mum's for a few weeks during this time and I've had a few days where I've not had enough energy to be fully awake but I've not wanted to sleep either. She has sat through all sorts of Techmoan videos because of me because that's all that I've been able to handle. I've just laid there on her sofa watching hours of Techmoan. I've picked topics aged have an interest in but i think she's glad I'm a bit better and can cope with something more stimulating. We watched this video when it was uploaded and she was quite engaged with the process and mechanics. Thank you for being you, literally no other form of media has made me feel better. I'd tried reading, having the TV off (she has a Roku and a Youview box, she's quite technical really) and watching normal TV, only Techmoan worked to keep me relaxed enough not to feel ill but engaged enough to keep me conscious. I assure you this is a good thing. Anyway, keep being you and doing what you do.

Mine is labeled "Qen", the diameter of the grill protecting the diaphragm is just under 6.5cm. So glad to see how these work- maybe I'll crack it open and flip the disc. And I'll be Googling "Qen doll" for the next half hour...

Holy cow, I have one! Bought it as a young adult in the 90's among a bunch of random knick-knacks. Same fleshy-peach color, uses one "C" battery, and it makes a very disturbing warped baby doll sound. I had always thought the sound was stored on something magnetic...Fascinating!

Immediately before watching this, I was viewing "Sapphire and Steel" with my 13 year-old nephew - he's a nut for 1970s British genre stuff. Then I see the Juniorfon - it's genuinely creepy, especially given my personal context.

I'd forgotten I'd ever had one of those action man "radios" - as you say, a complete unexpected flashback!

As a very young lad I got Talking K9 for Christmas, and this was how he worked. I didn’t know that of course, naturally I thought he was actually K9. Having played with him all day, I was astounded on Boxing Day to learn he could say a whole list of new things - and had seemingly forgotten everything else he’d said previously. It wasn’t for years that I realised my parents must have flipped his record over that night. The question of why they never mentioned that they’d done that though remains on the table.

I’ve definitely seen one of these for sure, but never had one. My favourite toy was the Action Man with the buzz cut and talking torso! 😁

There was another type here in the US in the early 70s, similar size but without a hole in the middle, just a dimple, and were slipped into the unit via a slot. They played straight through for maybe 20-30 seconds and were double-sided. I had two sets as a kid, one of them involved the Winnie the Pooh characters and the other was a play telephone with a set of records covering the letters of the alphabet, the latter piped the audio through a plastic tube into the handset. The records were compatible with each toy, identical in size and playing speed. This is possibly the exact model: https://www.ebay.com/itm/392926172989

The German songs are truly the stuff of nightmares! I recognized one as O Tannenbaum, (Oh Christmas Tree) but I've no idea what the other is.

I took one of my wife's old dolls apart and replaced the record based voicebox with a board from Adafruit. Now it says over a dozen rude expressions

Quite sure Mat is sick of my harping on it, but for the sake of relevancy.... Americans birthed in the 1970s might remember "Talking Football", a board came that used very similar technology wherein various gridiron-football (aka "the football that does't really make use of the foot so much. I believe it is also called "hand-egg" or "who are you calling a tight end?") plays are sequenced onto small plastic discs. I believe there would be a 8 different outcomes per disk and there were quite a few disks with the set. Was there also one for "Clue/Cludo" wherein the screams of murder agony were played out on red plastic records? Gagging for the rope... "ouch!" for the lead pipe... perhaps I'm misremembering.

Whatever you do, boys and girls, DO NOT listen to the mini-record playback whilst thinking about an overly regimented military type engaged in bedroom maneuvers. "Action" man indeed!

Fantastic video, Mat. It always amazes me how clever, yet simple these inexpensive mechanical playback toys could be. I love how the low tolerances for the needle drop was actually used as a feature to enable random track playback! Great explanation with the spiral drawing, BTW.

biggest flashback / traumatic memory was seeing the batteries called "HP7" and "HP2" :)

Rain and snow Precip: 80% Humidity: 95% Wind: 21 mph 34° Feels like 23° A fairly legitimate blizzard, I'd say. 😳

Wonderful, Mat - the perfect video featuring old audio playback devices and successful repairs. Doesn't get any better than that! That last record reminds me of my childhood when we used to gather around the Christmas Tree and sing the Internationale whilst we mixed Molatov cocktails....

I vaguely remember having the toy robot 'Dickie 2002' (a localised version of Newbright's 'Magic Mike') about 40 years ago. It could move around on the table, emit smoke and of course make noises. The fact that I can remember it four decades later shows that it must have made quite an impression on me. A Google image search confirms that it used such a mini record mechanism. We also had the infamous 'Lachsack' . Thanks for the trip down memory lane 🙂

Monty Python used the same trick with double grooves on their three-sided record Matching "Tie and Handkerchief", on one side, you would get quasi-randomly whatever groove is nearest to the stylus. I guess the player will never be HiFi, but maybe a drop of oil in that rumbling motor's bearings will at least make it sound less eerie...

There was a doll with a similar mechanism featured in "The Repair Shop" and Steve had to fix it. It seemed to be very much smaller though. It may be available to view on iPlayer.

I shouldn't have watched that before I went to bed. I'll be attacked in my dreams by a German record player singing "O Tannenbaum".

That voice is every British Army officer holding a long pointer and delivering a briefing with a huge map behind him, in every WW2 movie. "Our goal is to ensnare Jerry in a pincers movement here (whap), here (whap), and HERE (whap)."

• Your voice sounded really good on this video. • I forsee there will be music artists who will want to incorporate these audio clips into their compositions. • The U.S.S. Reliant and drunken spiral had me rolling. I think I missed the context of your other joke(s), but I really enjoy your comedic deliveries. • So you're saying there's a kinderplattenspieler other than the Juniorfon? Looking forward to it. • The songs from the Juniorfon are really eerie. I'm reminded of the first known audio recording of the human voice 'Au Clair de la Lune.' 😧 https://youtu.be/znKNQXo58pE • Miniature things always intrigue me. You have to give the manufacturers props for creating audio playback in these toys; especially considering the flimsy construction components. • Lastly, I must know: did you properly clean those records before you played them? Imagine the fingerprints! (lame joke 😋) This video had it all. Double repairs and blasts from the past. Take care 🤍 and please drive safely 🤍.

A raging lightning storm. The rain lashed down. The house had long been deserted, but every now and again the lights, disconnected for decades, flashed on and off. Twenty year old newspaper pages blew down the corridor, and in the distance echoed an eerie squeaky distorted voice. Amongst the thunder and the wind, "O Tannenbaum" emanated from a child's bedroom. Sleep well.

all of these outdated/obscure formats one after the other!? you're spoiling us! :)

Matt, do you have any idea when the Juniorfon was sold? The clothing of the child seemed to look from the 60s. I think there's a social commentary in there someplace: The English toy glorifies combat and war, while the kleiner Junge tries to sing O Tannenbaum.

Is the JuniorFon made by the same people who made the Tefifon? Or is it just that the 'fon' part of the name is similar to 'phongraph'?

Just as a constructive criticism: you begin your videos with the expression "Over the years.." a bit too often maybe :)

I had a talking Dalek. You couldn't change the record but I did open it once and I think it was very similar. I do remember it often getting stuck on the same phrase.

These two Christmas Songs came directly from hell. Sung in good quality in a church when I was young they actually were quite nice.

I was expecting you to do a video on these tiny record players for children. My younger sisters had dolls that had these in their bellies. They never understood these just had to be dissected to find out how precisely the mechanism worked. Maybe they forgave me some time ago. Let’s ask. Great video. You are tenacious.

You take care yourself. Drive safely and be safe. I had the talking action man too once ..,

I had a talking action man back in the day. I guess that would have used a similar mechanism, although it didn't use batteries. It had a string which could to be pulled out to different marks to play the various tracks. I do remember it didn't work properly again after Red Devil action man's chute failed to open when he was thrown out of my bedroom window.

The songs on the nightmare device are "Leise rieselt der Schnee" ("Quietly falls the snow") and "Oh Tannenbaum" ("Oh Fir Tree"). Had a big smile when you said it's the Reliant. A lovely ship ^_^

Yes, as long as you're prepared for snow or are excited for snow, it won't snow.