Metropol

Someone on flickr has created an amazing photostream of these vintage Argos catalogues.

1976

1985

1986

awesome. thanks for sharing. brings back memories. would love to see some catalogues from the 1990s too.

haha

who didn't have something on these pages:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38301877@N ... 081815831/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38301877@N ... 081815831/

don't make em like this anymore:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38301877@N ... 081815831/

when will these come back in fashion:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38301877@N ... 081815831/

and who could forget the tomy turnin' turbo dashboard:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38301877@N ... 081815831/

lights alive - i'd forgot about that:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38301877@N ... 081815831/

great memories.

Dr Lobster* wrote:and who could forget the tomy turnin' turbo dashboard:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38301877@N ... 081815831/

great memories.

WOW - that was probably my favourite toy when I was knee-high. I *LOVED* that thing.

I'm going to have to have words with Mumsy, and see what happened to it - it may be time to raid the garage...

Toys that I remember from my early childhood include the Acorn Green treehouse
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38301877@N ... 081815831/

the Tomy dog
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38301877@N ... 081815831/

and the yellow teapot
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38301877@N ... 081815831/

I had Lights Alive and the Tutor Play Computer when I was a kid - the latter is most likely to blame for me spending too much time online.

Love the unprominent references to Mario in the dinky hand-held games.

I got sent a CD-ROM with scans from back-issue Kays and Freemans catalogues from the 1970s and 1980s a few months ago, I must dig it out when I get back from NI after Christmas.

Somewhere I have an autumn/winter 1992 catalogue will have to try and find that one day!

when will these come back in fashion:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38301877@N ... 081815831/

Actually, a couple of those Casios are still in production now and you can still buy them from Argos for about the same price!

I must drag this one back up and highlight this page

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38301877@N ... 9081815831

The feature comparison chart is the particularly fab bit, note how most of them lack a rewind function. This baffled one of the kids at work who then stared gormlessly as several of us older types explained that, obviously, you would turn it over and fast forward if you wanted to go backwards

Pete wrote:I must drag this one back up and highlight this page

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38301877@N ... 9081815831

The feature comparison chart is the particularly fab bit, note how most of them lack a rewind function. This baffled one of the kids at work who then stared gormlessly as several of us older types explained that, obviously, you would turn it over and fast forward if you wanted to go backwards

Usually, the higher the item number, the more expensive it is, ja? How come then, item 15 has less features than item 14? Bet you're paying for the name there - 14's probably an Alba or a Sanyo, where 15's a Sony.

Alexia wrote:

Pete wrote:I must drag this one back up and highlight this page

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38301877@N ... 9081815831

The feature comparison chart is the particularly fab bit, note how most of them lack a rewind function. This baffled one of the kids at work who then stared gormlessly as several of us older types explained that, obviously, you would turn it over and fast forward if you wanted to go backwards

Usually, the higher the item number, the more expensive it is, ja? How come then, item 16 has less features than item 15? Bet you're paying for the name there - 15's probably an Alba or a Sanyo, where 16's a Sony.

Assuming you mean 14 and 15 then 14 I think is a Toshiba for £62.95 and 15 is a Sanyo for £49.99.

As someone who remembers tape players but not as far back as these is someone able to answer a question. Before auto-stop became a standard feature was it common for the actually cassette tape to snap?

Not sure if any snapped. Basically auto stop would pop the (mechanical) play button back out when the end of the tape was reached. Otherwise it would just keep trying to rotate but be unable to. Given the minimal effort required to turn the tape I doubt that snapping was an issue. Was probably more a power saving measure.

Also it helped give a signal for when you had to turn the tape over as you got a nice loud CLICK.