In the early to mid 80s I owned a portable cassette player, probably Aiwa brand, which had a really unusual design: the fast-forward and rewind buttons were circular rubber buttons mounted in the lid, which pressed down on the spindles in the center of the supply reel or take-up reel directly. Pressing one would push the spindle down into the motor mechanism about a millimeter, at which point it would begin to spin (I don't think the spindle would stay pushed down, but would rebound back up into place on a spring). Likewise, pressing the other button would cause it to move the tape in the opposite direction. I remember this because it's so unusual, but I can't remember what make and model of player it was, nor can I seem to find it with searching on Google or browsing walkman-archive dot com. The years it was sold would be somewhere in the range of 1982-1990, probably closer to 1986, and I'm pretty sure I bought it at a local department store chain in the U.S., so it wouldn't be anything particularly rare. I also am pretty sure it had auto-reverse and CrO2 features because I valued auto-reverse highly. I think the price I paid was about USD $85 at the time. Does anybody else remember this?
Toshiba also made them like that https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/toshiba_stereo_radio_cassette_player_kt_4047.html That was just the first photo I found. I'm sure there were many others.
Wow, no wonder I couldn't remember it! I wasn't looking at Toshiba at all. Boodokhan and Longman thanks! That KT-V530 looks close but not quite right. I'm 99% sure it was a Toshiba KT-4035. The pictures, and even that part number, are really ringing a bell. Attached is a pic of a KT-4035 from a current eBay auction. Thanks for your help!
