Here's one of the best retro sites, hands down. Unfortunately there hasn't been posting for a couple of years but he loves film and equipment and used to update with the new retro technologies. https://www.retrothing.com/
Cool site! Thanks for the link, funny our main TV's are still old Sony Wega CRTs. The one up stairs in the master bedroom I just discovered has an HDMI connector which was kind of rare for a 29" CRT. This all came about when I picked up a 'dead' PVR, turned out it required a power supply (new version uses a dongle) and a new hard drive. Got the power supply for free and the hard drive brand new for $51. Got tossed because nobody trouble shot it and discovered the easy fix, er well that and a set of securitorx bits.... When I was hooking it up to that tv I discovered that all this time it had an HDMI connector along with a copious amount of RCA jacks for component/composite/S-video and even video and audio out so will try that with an old DVD player/burner from Toshiba that was the DVD equivalent of an old school VCR. Currently watching TV on a small 19" LCD TV rescued from the e-waste bin that was trashed because the built in DVD player wouldn't work. Lens required a cleaning which required a major strip down but now it works. I can see why it got tossed as the labour charge to do the repair would have been a couple of shop hours. Still what the heck it does the trick in the kitchen. Weirdest thing in my collection is a Blue Kenwood AM/FM radio toaster. I actually had a red one come through the other day, only two I have ever seen. Not sure how much toast I would run through it since it could eventually melt the radio's electronics.
Everyone needs an am/fm toaster, it's so practical. Careful on the Retrothing Site, there's days worth of reading on it and it sounds like you like his type of stuff. If you haven't seen my tv on the radio thread, I just powered up my little tv collection using a Zealous Sender off of ebay. It works fine if your in the same room but I've ordered a more robust Blonder Tongue Unit that should reach throughout the house.
A site which does keep getting updated is the similar and similarly named Retromash http://retromash.com/ Check out the recently added feature "When modems were sexy" especially the link someone else added https://twitter.com/toorsdenote/status/1039207179901751297?s=19 One of the main features on the Retromash site are the scanned Argos catalogues. http://retromash.com/argos/ Very relevant to this site as you can trace the evolution of the boombox etc Argos is still a very big retailer in the UK with hundreds of stores. As they have very little on display (allowing them to use much smaller shops than a comparable department store) they produce a Bi-annual catalogue which, before the days of the internet, people would browse through working out what to spend next months wages on, or what they wanted for Christmas.
In Canada we don't have any shops that still come out with catalogs so I get the B&H Photo Video one out of NYC. I agree they are an excellent source of historical information on tech. Granted I used to covet my collection of Radio Shack catalogs which I still own.
Argos still do their catalogue, but annoyingly they have made the pages and text smaller just as my eyes are getting older. They are also online. They still have Sony Walkman's and cassette players, but not combined together. https://www.argos.co.uk/search/mp3/category:33012879/ The once famous Bush and Alba radio brands are now owned by them and they stick them on everything from cheap radios to cheap washing machines. In your display I spy a Toshiba Libretto. The netbook that pre-dated netbooks by at least five years. I bought one new when we visited New York in about 1999. I actually used to use it once or twice a week for years running Quicken (home accounts software). In fact I liked it so much I bought another as a spare.
You have good eyes, that is indeed a Toshiba Libretto with the port expander. I picked it up because I thought it was pretty cool at the time. And thanks for the link to the Argos Walkmans. I was in a Value Village today, they are sort like Goodwills but with a bit more upscale inventory. They had an Phillips cassette player in it's original faux leatherette case but it was missing it's hinged door. I have one hiding somewhere with the AC adaptor and microphone and I'm pretty sure it was the first generation of these devices though doing a google search it looks like they had several variations on the door. The one I have had a black plastic door with a small clear window that allowed you to view the tape. Everything else about it is identical to the photos of the originals though my mic was a bit different as well. http://www.walkman-archive.com/wa/2016/08/philips-el-3302-the-very-first-cassette-player/
I love the tip of the iceberg, cool stuff, I'm currently trying to display some of mine in my home office. Now if you pull out a Flash Gordon Pinball, I'll be really impressed, I'm still looking for one locally....
Oh I'd love a pinball but never had the space! We had a couple of places up here that used to sell games that were retired from arcades. I used to spend a pile of quarters on The Black Knight, the synthesized voice was cool.
