nice vid, i gad one of these and got mine in late 1981. I remember my modfl you had to hold down the rewind and fastforward keys. Not as durrible as one would be lead to beleive. With mine the door broke off.
I have this one, and I can't get it to work. I can't even hear the motor when I press play. The battery compartment was corroded, is that the problem?
@TapGage Probably. It is probably preventing any electrical contact. You can try rubbing off as much corrosion as you can with a file or screwdriver, and also rubbing the contacts with a Q-tip soaked with WD-40. Also, CLR may work good for cleaning, but be careful as it is very poisonous.
I had a friend who carried two or three of these in a modified baby carriage....he walked around our town picking cans and looking for interesting things on the public passway. He often would turn the recorder on and pick up natural sounds around the village...he would go home and listen to the sounds of the day: bird sounds, people conversing, car sounds, and many surprises...he really loved his Fisher Price recorder...he is gone now, but watching these videos brings back great feelings
And speaking of Fisher-Price cassette recorder, I was at Goodwill three weeks ago, I found an interesting cassette recorder which was made for kids, and it was a My First Sony sing-a-long kiddie cassette recorder, and the model number is TCM-4500. This was made in 1991, I got it for $6 and it still works and runs on 4 "C" batteries, and it is DC bias. I'll make a vid of that soon.
I had one of these :-) The built in mic was rubbish if i remember, it would pick up all the noise of the mechanics of the machine... I used to record mix tapes on the Hi-Fi before playing them back on this! I'm sure it went to some charity shop!
I had one of these for Christmas when I was eight, one night though I recorded my little sister crying who was four at the time and thought it was funny. I woke up at about 4 the following morning and kept playing it waking everyone up and my late Dad burst into the bedroom and smacked my bottom and took it off me so everyone could have piece. haha I did get it back afew hours later though
I used to have one when I was about 5.. Yeh Xmas Day '85 I got mine! Buggered the 1st one up coz I kept recording things in slow motion by holding the record button half down.. I think?.. thought it sounded so funny at the time haha! ;)
I probably have HOURS of this slow-mo stuff. I really got off on it. I would scream into it & it would sound funny. I loved doing slow-mo burps into the recorder because it would sound REALLY CHUNKY!!
My friend and I spent hours & hours with one of these as kids making our own radio shows in his backyard. Unfortunately neither of us could bare to hear them anymore without cringing , so he erased them. Now I'd like to hear one again!! Great video!
I recently bought a SanDisk Sansa Shaker MP3 player, it's made for kids, I like it, but the audip quality isn't that good. Have you thought about buying one of the Fisher Price portable record players that runs on batteries?
Do you still have the origninal cassette? if so, could you please upload a video of side A? I never owned one of these, and I'd like to hear the demonstration tape.
I had one of these too (it was my brother's but we shared it). I think it's still somewhere, not sure if it still works as I haven't had C batteries in years. The battery cover broke on ours too.
I ordered a real nice professional desk top cassette tape recorder from Sears in Chicago the man on the phone said they were out then said they were in stock when the package came it was a unit similar to this only with a external mike instead of a built in one the unit was a bright burnt orange but was otherwise very similar to that unit. it worked so well I kept it but felt like a fool the way it looked ..
please if you see it anywhere--let me know if you get it. post the music, that would be awesome. maybe i will look for it at thrift stores too! thanks!
i do believe that i still have that tape somewhere... i sampled it once to the computer but the house is a mess right now so i don't know where that CD or the tape is ... i'll keep an eye out for it... plz remind me in a month or two if i forget about it : ) i'll upload it if i find it. the music was really nice : )
it would have been totally awesome if you would have taken that little piece of shit and slammed it into the brick patio thingy and beat the crap out of it with a baseball bat or a hammer or something
useful piece of vintage history! what? its a fucking baby toy from the pot smokin' days, what use is it now that we have compact digital recorders that record without tape.
of course, some people want that sound quality....you can use for avant garde experimental compositions-Matter of fact, some time ago, I got this small tape recorder that records terrible, but I still use it because i like the effect.
yeah i guess your right, that is totally wasteful to destroy a perfectly good thing like that, and if you have any little cousins, nieces, or nephews you could probably let them play with it to get them to shut the hell up if they're getting on your nerves, i'm sure little kids of this decade would probably have just as much fun with it as little kids from the 80's did
I'm after getting one of these. I've always wondered about the sound quality. I'm amazed how sensitive the mic is. The tape that came with them is yellow. What was the demo stuff on it?
I had this deck when I was a kid. I also had a rather strange, large red deck. It had buttons on it such as "A, B, C, 1, 2, 3".. It came with books and you would use the tape that corresponded to that book. They'd ask you questions and you had to hit A, B, C, etc, and they'd let you know if you got the question right. This was probably around 1984 or so.
lol, just copped one today for $2 bucks at a new thrift store round my way too! Haven't played it yet because it's late and there weren't any stores I could run in and grab four C batteries from.
This was my very first tape recorder when I was a little kid. I remember the Demo tape it came with, and some others as well. I think I have a tape of me singing from when I was 3 years old.
I think one of my friends had one of them. Where were they made? What size and how many batteries does it use? I always liked those portable tape recorders when I was young.
This uses 4 "C" size batteries. And all I know is the SPEAKER is made in Taiwan, but that doesn't always let you know for sure where the rest is from. So I am not totally sure of its orgin. Probably Taiwan.
I had one of those as a kid, and found one in an antique shop a year go. Brings back lots of memories. The one I have has a messed up volume control. How would one fix that?
Is the volume scratchy when turning it? If it is, then take the unit apart, and see if there is a small opening in the volume control part, and spray WD-40 in it. That should fix it.
I remember there was a demo tape that came with some of these fisher price recorders. one side contained pre-recorded audio, and the other side was blank (the removed the tab only one on eside) for recording. my cousin had the tape what came with the one I had. I did have a leter fisher price, which had a tape, I still got it somewhere
Thanks for the video. I've seen these on E-Bay and thought of trying one of them, now I don't have to, as your video clearly explained the machine and what it can and can't do! Interesting mechanism inside, and not too bad recording!
Wow! Seeing one of these really takes me back to my childhood. I remember me and a friend making tons of funny recordings on it. Sadly all those tapes are now gone.
thats funny cooldudeclem I have a lot of old tapes that i recorded random shit on, oh man all kinds of funny stuff you name it i probably have it on tape, i intend to digitize all those tapes to mp3s and put them on my computer, but for cassettemaster i will keep all the cassette tapes as I just would like to preserve whats on them.
My cousin had one of these back in the late 80s. Same controls and color scheme, except this one I believe had two detachable microphones that mounted on the sides. I think it had like a PA mode too.
HELL yes Ive owned a machine like this but in my younger days i took things apart, I wish i had one of these still b/c its tougher and more reliable than todays recorders and it doesnt even look like a toy, who is that in the background thats working on the laptop? 5:20 whats all that writing on the back? if I had one of these id probably play my ipod or PSP thru it using a cassette adaptor
ouch lol, so that writing was prob made by the previous owner of this recorder, do you know what it says? and if you want to remove it may I suggest using rubbing alcohol and a paper towel
Unfortunately an Electrical Engineering college degree requires a lot of math and science. After high school I picked that major because I thought it would best fit my interests and hobbies, but I just couldn't handle the academics, so I switched to Computer Information Systems. A vocational college or technical institute is also a viable option.
Later models had more "cartoonish" styling and a hand-held mike (with non-detachable cord). But I remember this model from the '80s. I like the simple, foolproof controls!
I had one of these when I was very young, and it got me interested in cassettes! when I was about 5 I was given a more newer model, which had a detachable microphone which was hard wired into the machine. I prefered the way the old fisher price recorded (allthough you can hear alot of motor noise and the classic DC Bias) excelent
Very cute machine! I have an off the wall brand recorder just like that, but I needs a new belt. It has the original box, Styrofoam, and instructions to it. The brand is Melody Box by Royal Condor. I got it the same time I got the 1977 Truetone record player.
My first cassette recorder was a Fisher Price. I think it was a early 90s model. I used it to play prerecorded cassettes, I never made a recording with this recorder.
I had one of these!! just one thing I got mine probably in the mind 90's, when I think am not that old!! yes my parents were cheap!!
haz939 10 months ago
I had one of these!!
haz939 10 months ago
man that would freak the shyt out of me it just picking up recordings hehe dang
melissa3289 11 months ago
nice vid, i gad one of these and got mine in late 1981. I remember my modfl you had to hold down the rewind and fastforward keys. Not as durrible as one would be lead to beleive. With mine the door broke off.
manyvideoinerests 11 months ago
I have this one, and I can't get it to work. I can't even hear the motor when I press play. The battery compartment was corroded, is that the problem?
TapGage 1 year ago
@TapGage Probably. It is probably preventing any electrical contact. You can try rubbing off as much corrosion as you can with a file or screwdriver, and also rubbing the contacts with a Q-tip soaked with WD-40. Also, CLR may work good for cleaning, but be careful as it is very poisonous.
CassetteMaster 1 year ago
Just great... i played with this for years
JaKeAFC09 1 year ago
Some neighbors had one of those things when I was a kid and they let me play with it. I loved it. That really brought back some memories--thanks.
I should probably try to find one...
uxwbill 1 year ago
they said that they won't break but i dropped mine about 3 feet n it broke all apart
billybass116 1 year ago
i have one of those!!!
themasterofmovies 1 year ago
I had a friend who carried two or three of these in a modified baby carriage....he walked around our town picking cans and looking for interesting things on the public passway. He often would turn the recorder on and pick up natural sounds around the village...he would go home and listen to the sounds of the day: bird sounds, people conversing, car sounds, and many surprises...he really loved his Fisher Price recorder...he is gone now, but watching these videos brings back great feelings
fmazzar 1 year ago
And speaking of Fisher-Price cassette recorder, I was at Goodwill three weeks ago, I found an interesting cassette recorder which was made for kids, and it was a My First Sony sing-a-long kiddie cassette recorder, and the model number is TCM-4500. This was made in 1991, I got it for $6 and it still works and runs on 4 "C" batteries, and it is DC bias. I'll make a vid of that soon.
BrooklynMouseReturns 1 year ago
I used to have one of these as a kid. I kind of used to take it to certain places where I'd go just to kind of keep myself entertained.
beauloftis1976 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
I've got one with the battery-door, it says:
826
c1980 fisher-price toys
division of the quaker oats co.
east aurora, n.y. 14052
assembled in china
patents pending
so i guess the model number is 826
(I haven't read all comments so may be you know already)
onessound 1 year ago
I used to use this thing to record voicemail messages from my telephone,
it picks up so well that they are very listenable.
Bought it in mint condition for I think the equivalent of 1 or 2 dollar, I remember them from toy store folders when I was about 4 years old.
Greetings from Amsterdam, Holland!
onessound 1 year ago
Comment removed
onessound 1 year ago
I had one of these :-) The built in mic was rubbish if i remember, it would pick up all the noise of the mechanics of the machine... I used to record mix tapes on the Hi-Fi before playing them back on this! I'm sure it went to some charity shop!
ianhawdon 2 years ago
I got it on Xmas 1986, I was 6 :c)
Great Recorder. I Lost it somehow,
but recently i bought a new one, the Red version,
and i just made some recordings with it today.
Recorded Sound is not crystal clear, but nicely
warm and as you showed, you can even hear
far away voices
zatzen 2 years ago
I had one of these for Christmas when I was eight, one night though I recorded my little sister crying who was four at the time and thought it was funny. I woke up at about 4 the following morning and kept playing it waking everyone up and my late Dad burst into the bedroom and smacked my bottom and took it off me so everyone could have piece. haha I did get it back afew hours later though
fulcilover 2 years ago
I used to have one when I was about 5.. Yeh Xmas Day '85 I got mine! Buggered the 1st one up coz I kept recording things in slow motion by holding the record button half down.. I think?.. thought it sounded so funny at the time haha! ;)
ChrissyboyH44 2 years ago
I probably have HOURS of this slow-mo stuff. I really got off on it. I would scream into it & it would sound funny. I loved doing slow-mo burps into the recorder because it would sound REALLY CHUNKY!!
n8riffmessiah 2 years ago
me and my sister we did the same thing with
another recorder :c) funny voices
zatzen 2 years ago
My friend and I spent hours & hours with one of these as kids making our own radio shows in his backyard. Unfortunately neither of us could bare to hear them anymore without cringing , so he erased them. Now I'd like to hear one again!! Great video!
spear913 2 years ago
Ive uploaded a video with my red version of this recorder- check it out!
skatt757 2 years ago
I recently bought a SanDisk Sansa Shaker MP3 player, it's made for kids, I like it, but the audip quality isn't that good. Have you thought about buying one of the Fisher Price portable record players that runs on batteries?
Lachlant1984 2 years ago
Cool! I have one of these
I got a red one when I was a kid and still have it! I picked up a brown one in a junk sale
Cant find any red ones on ebay though? Anybody else remember the red one??
skatt757 2 years ago
I had one of these when I was a kid, and I still have one, too! It was my first tape recorder.
The original tape that came with it was a yellow one, "Discover A World Of Sounds." On the reverse side, it was, "Record Your World Of Sounds."
Great video!
Ecm51 2 years ago
Do you still have the origninal cassette? if so, could you please upload a video of side A? I never owned one of these, and I'd like to hear the demonstration tape.
Lachlant1984 2 years ago
I had one of these too (it was my brother's but we shared it). I think it's still somewhere, not sure if it still works as I haven't had C batteries in years. The battery cover broke on ours too.
I have the yellow tape that came with it - says "© 1984 Fisher-Price Division of the Quaker Oats Co" on it. I think ours was purchased around 1986-87. I'll put up the music from the tape here soon...
ZilogJones 2 years ago
Are you still planning on uploading the music from the tape? I recall loving it as a child, so I'd love to hear it again. :)
cursesfoiled 2 years ago
Me too!
t3st1c 2 years ago
I remember those.........a friend had one & I think my cousin did also &..........if it has no model number , probably worn off...or taken off...
TEMPmichaelhansen 2 years ago
I got one of these! well mine is a different model, it has brightly coloured buttons and a red tape door.
I think the mic has recording issues though with a loose connection with the circuit. meh.
JoshSwannack 2 years ago
I have one those that I take fishing.
matkovicha 2 years ago
i remember the 1990 model of this cassette recorder. some how i got a radio station on it. witch was really weird.
maestermatt 2 years ago
I ordered a real nice professional desk top cassette tape recorder from Sears in Chicago the man on the phone said they were out then said they were in stock when the package came it was a unit similar to this only with a external mike instead of a built in one the unit was a bright burnt orange but was otherwise very similar to that unit. it worked so well I kept it but felt like a fool the way it looked ..
Mastercorder 2 years ago
i still have mine! yes, it works! do you have the tape that came with it??? the tape was awesome!
missdjj 3 years ago
I seen the tape at thrift stores, but didn't get it. Just got the machine. If I see its tape again I'll probably get it.
CassetteMaster 3 years ago
please if you see it anywhere--let me know if you get it. post the music, that would be awesome. maybe i will look for it at thrift stores too! thanks!
missdjj 2 years ago
i do believe that i still have that tape somewhere... i sampled it once to the computer but the house is a mess right now so i don't know where that CD or the tape is ... i'll keep an eye out for it... plz remind me in a month or two if i forget about it : ) i'll upload it if i find it. the music was really nice : )
jdean9 2 years ago
it would have been totally awesome if you would have taken that little piece of shit and slammed it into the brick patio thingy and beat the crap out of it with a baseball bat or a hammer or something
numanumaaddict 3 years ago
Uhh, no! That's destroying a useful piece of vintage history! That's wasteful and stupid!
CassetteMaster 3 years ago
useful piece of vintage history! what? its a fucking baby toy from the pot smokin' days, what use is it now that we have compact digital recorders that record without tape.
numanumaaddict 2 years ago
I'm a fan of the vintage machines, and they must be preserved, as not to get "endangered" and then "extinct".
CassetteMaster 2 years ago
of course, some people want that sound quality....you can use for avant garde experimental compositions-Matter of fact, some time ago, I got this small tape recorder that records terrible, but I still use it because i like the effect.
TEMPmichaelhansen 2 years ago
Who cares if that stupid bullshit goes extinct it sucks big giant ass dick!
numanumaaddict 2 years ago
people can use it for avant garde compositions and such....
TEMPmichaelhansen 2 years ago
yeah i guess your right, that is totally wasteful to destroy a perfectly good thing like that, and if you have any little cousins, nieces, or nephews you could probably let them play with it to get them to shut the hell up if they're getting on your nerves, i'm sure little kids of this decade would probably have just as much fun with it as little kids from the 80's did
numanumaaddict 2 years ago
I had this at my little (4 or 5 year old) cousin's and he loved recording and playing on it.
CassetteMaster 2 years ago
I'm after getting one of these. I've always wondered about the sound quality. I'm amazed how sensitive the mic is. The tape that came with them is yellow. What was the demo stuff on it?
wisteela 3 years ago
man, the mic on mine is broken man......
BIGDO13 3 years ago
I had this deck when I was a kid. I also had a rather strange, large red deck. It had buttons on it such as "A, B, C, 1, 2, 3".. It came with books and you would use the tape that corresponded to that book. They'd ask you questions and you had to hit A, B, C, etc, and they'd let you know if you got the question right. This was probably around 1984 or so.
PJDooWop 3 years ago
You're not talking about the 2XL robot are you? What you're talking about sounds simillar, but maybe not.
Lachlant1984 2 years ago
lol, just copped one today for $2 bucks at a new thrift store round my way too! Haven't played it yet because it's late and there weren't any stores I could run in and grab four C batteries from.
BIGDO13 3 years ago
thanks for the post! there is no model # but this is what's written on the battery cover:
826
copyright 1980 fisher-price toys
division of the Quaker Oats co.
east aurora ny 14052
assembled in hong kong
patents pending
that's it
lakeofstew 3 years ago
dude, i used to have 2 of them and i loved them. ridiculous.
drumfreakruss3 3 years ago
This was my very first tape recorder when I was a little kid. I remember the Demo tape it came with, and some others as well. I think I have a tape of me singing from when I was 3 years old.
NEUDude 3 years ago
Do you still have the original tape that came with it?
djchestfire 3 years ago
No.
CassetteMaster 3 years ago
I think one of my friends had one of them. Where were they made? What size and how many batteries does it use? I always liked those portable tape recorders when I was young.
Lachlant1984 3 years ago
This uses 4 "C" size batteries. And all I know is the SPEAKER is made in Taiwan, but that doesn't always let you know for sure where the rest is from. So I am not totally sure of its orgin. Probably Taiwan.
CassetteMaster 3 years ago
I had one of those as a kid, and found one in an antique shop a year go. Brings back lots of memories. The one I have has a messed up volume control. How would one fix that?
Interests2009 3 years ago
Is the volume scratchy when turning it? If it is, then take the unit apart, and see if there is a small opening in the volume control part, and spray WD-40 in it. That should fix it.
CassetteMaster 3 years ago
Gotcha. I'll try that. It looks like something pretty simple. Other than that, mine works like a charm. Thanks.
Interests2009 3 years ago
I remember there was a demo tape that came with some of these fisher price recorders. one side contained pre-recorded audio, and the other side was blank (the removed the tab only one on eside) for recording. my cousin had the tape what came with the one I had. I did have a leter fisher price, which had a tape, I still got it somewhere
m134mr 3 years ago
Thanks for the video. I've seen these on E-Bay and thought of trying one of them, now I don't have to, as your video clearly explained the machine and what it can and can't do! Interesting mechanism inside, and not too bad recording!
clydesight 3 years ago
Wow! Seeing one of these really takes me back to my childhood. I remember me and a friend making tons of funny recordings on it. Sadly all those tapes are now gone.
CoolDudeClem 3 years ago
thats funny cooldudeclem I have a lot of old tapes that i recorded random shit on, oh man all kinds of funny stuff you name it i probably have it on tape, i intend to digitize all those tapes to mp3s and put them on my computer, but for cassettemaster i will keep all the cassette tapes as I just would like to preserve whats on them.
coondogtheman1234 3 years ago
I had one of those growing up
digidude86 3 years ago
My cousin had one of these back in the late 80s. Same controls and color scheme, except this one I believe had two detachable microphones that mounted on the sides. I think it had like a PA mode too.
spatsbear2 3 years ago
WOW, so you found a toy tape recorder!
Kittyslasher69 3 years ago
HELL yes Ive owned a machine like this but in my younger days i took things apart, I wish i had one of these still b/c its tougher and more reliable than todays recorders and it doesnt even look like a toy, who is that in the background thats working on the laptop? 5:20 whats all that writing on the back? if I had one of these id probably play my ipod or PSP thru it using a cassette adaptor
coondogtheman1234 3 years ago
The man on the laptop is my brother, the one who whipped me with a belt, and the writing was a kid's name.
CassetteMaster 3 years ago
ouch lol, so that writing was prob made by the previous owner of this recorder, do you know what it says? and if you want to remove it may I suggest using rubbing alcohol and a paper towel
coondogtheman1234 3 years ago
You sound like you have your future already ahead of you. Do you plan to work as an engineer when you grow up?
UncleRabbit1 3 years ago
I might, I don't like math, though. But I do like electronics.
CassetteMaster 3 years ago
Unfortunately an Electrical Engineering college degree requires a lot of math and science. After high school I picked that major because I thought it would best fit my interests and hobbies, but I just couldn't handle the academics, so I switched to Computer Information Systems. A vocational college or technical institute is also a viable option.
vwestlife 3 years ago
I just saw one of these at a Goodwill store the other day. Not a lot of them around.
kirbykallen 3 years ago
What do you mean by the sound will "overdrive"?
IAmNotAFunguy 3 years ago
It clips when too loud sound it put to the mic.
CassetteMaster 3 years ago
Later models had more "cartoonish" styling and a hand-held mike (with non-detachable cord). But I remember this model from the '80s. I like the simple, foolproof controls!
vwestlife 3 years ago
I had one of these when I was very young, and it got me interested in cassettes! when I was about 5 I was given a more newer model, which had a detachable microphone which was hard wired into the machine. I prefered the way the old fisher price recorded (allthough you can hear alot of motor noise and the classic DC Bias) excelent
m134mr 3 years ago
Nice looking machine and it is very cute, I would love to get them someday.
BrooklynMouseReturns 3 years ago
Very cute machine! I have an off the wall brand recorder just like that, but I needs a new belt. It has the original box, Styrofoam, and instructions to it. The brand is Melody Box by Royal Condor. I got it the same time I got the 1977 Truetone record player.
damusician 3 years ago
Very nice demonstration, I know we had one of these when I was a kid but do not know what happened to it.
Albuquerque is a great place, I visited it several years ago.
retrochad 3 years ago
My first cassette recorder was a Fisher Price. I think it was a early 90s model. I used it to play prerecorded cassettes, I never made a recording with this recorder.
DrCassette 3 years ago
The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads >:D
That is awesome I wish I had a NEW WAVE UNCLE
pdmillar 3 years ago
I think I had a fisher price cassette recorder when I was really little! I believe it was a '91 model.
Trance88 3 years ago