Future Shock

OK folks, we don't mean to build your expectations up unfairly with this abnormal spate of productivity, but this will be our last post for the next few weeks—consequently, we figured we'd pack a real humdinger to keep y'all satisfied for a while. It shouldn't surprise most of you that space age electronics are one of the many things we enjoy stockpiling, so here we have a nice sampling of the (mostly) portable pieces that are currently gathering dust on our shelves.

Here are two JVC Videospheres. As far as we're concerned, these guys represent the pinnacle of space age television design. These were issued in three colors—red, white and black—with black being the toughest of the three to track down. We're hopeful that we'll get a white example, which is the most common, sometime soon! The Bulova clock has been included elsewhere, but we liked how it looked in the spread, so we threw it in anyway.

Panasonic was responsible for creating a ton of swinging mod designs in the late 60s and early 70s, and here are some notables. You may notice that the black cube radio in the middle is slightly different from its peers—that's because its face design varied by region, and it's a Canadian version. The Rolling Tone portable radios in the foreground were produced in several different colors—we're in desperate need of an orange one, and we'd gladly swap our spare red one for it, if anyone's up for it. We're also missing a few of the 8-track players located in the rear. Help?

I vividly remember having a Panasonic Panapet that my aunt gave me when I was a little kid. No idea where that one ended up, sadly. Obviously, the Panapets, Rolling Tones and cube radios came in a variety of vibrant colors (including a rare, albeit unflattering lavender we're not too fond of). The TNT 8-track players located in the background were released in five different colors—we've only seen the white and clear smoked versions a few times ...and we're hoping to get them somewhere down the road. The blue 8-track player manufactured by Emerson was a cool, previously unknown score we made recently.

These are the two Sony portable television sets we just turned up in Pittsburgh, alongside our lonely Planetron 8-track player.

Yet another entry that's received a little attention on the blog already. The Orbitel was Panasonic's response to the race for space age design, despite its being a little more 50s inspired than the other examples showcased here. This set is pretty scarce and finding one without chipping around its visor remains a fairly tall order. The Weltron 8-track player next to it mimics an astronaut's helmet and complements our Videospheres quite nicely. Again, the Weltron was issued in yellow and orange and we're hoping to get those someday, too.

The serpentine Toot a Loop proves itself a fearsome adversary. We're still on the hunt for orange and lime green specimens of this particular model ...available only to those good folks down under. Dearest Aussie pals: please include them with our free Chosen Few and Young Identities EPs. Thanks in advance! A few more portable Panasonic cassette players wouldn't hurt either.

Lastly, we've got a portable record player (by Columbia) which isn't technically a vintage piece per se, but it's capable of playing records while dangling precariously on a wall, so that's just gotta suffice. A Panasonic radio alarm clock and AM/FM headphones manufactured by a Japanese company called Soundlite round out the stash.

We'll eventually get around to photographing the rest of our vintage electronics collection but, until then, dig in!