For your enjoyment

glory days you havent lived until you had a waltham

nice pictures, when i see these catalogs makes me wish i could go back in time, lol

thanks for sharing.

I wonder what that bloke modelling the Disco machine is doing now?

  flogging his arse in didsbury toilets 

I used to spend hours looking through the catalogs when they came out - you know when you ring a item or star it in red pen and turn the coner of the page

probably collecting radios too, hehehe

i hope so!!!.

I wager he's probably selling sponge cut-to-order at Leeds outdoor market.  Either that or he's sniffing down the wrong end of a ten stretch for church roof theft

^lmao

nah i reckon hes the new face for `just for men` in the middle east

i thought he was doing deal or no deal!

    oh no i cant be ,  sally show us your box 

he was singing jet by wings in the argos picture,he was lead singer in a wings tribute band called `hot wings`

Sweet. I'll take that Akai open reel deck, please.

1976... & what's totally absent from these pages?

Stereo boomers!

I've just checked the 1976 Radio Shack catalog & there are none in there either. First appearance of a stereo boomer was in 1978 for Radio Shack (I think).

Panasonic had a couple out at the time as did Sony. Not quite up to what would be not too long after, but the stage had been set.

The first stereo Radio Shack box came out in '76, but it wasn't a cassette.

Indeed the very first stereo boomers were available around 1976.

As with lots of electronics, the first examples have a price premium & it's only some major manufacturers producing them (remember the £750+ VCRs in1978-9?). Not yet popular enough for the likes of Argos & Radio Shack/Tandy. The first Radio Shack stereo cassette/radio (in the 1978 catalog) is around the same price as a complete music centre.

...& yes, that Radio Shack 8-track radio is stereo, has a handle & also takes batteries, but it's not exactly Grandmaster Flash record cover material, is it?   

It's not going to win any prises in the looks department is it?

Not sure if it quaifies as a "box", but if it does I'd be willing to bet that it had the longest production run of any of them as they were in production from 1976 to 1984, though the ones from 1981 to 1984 were slightly diffrent.

I've had one for quite a long time now, and belive it or not the sound quilty is good, espeacally for it's size and small 4" speakers. Put a tape in and it will drain your batteries in a hurry though.

Y'know I feel bad poking fun at it now.

It looks a bit better in the photo - esp w. the cool ZZ Top 8-track in there.

8 D Cells though? My 3D7 takes that amount & I'll bet I know which one goes louder... 

Yes that's a long production run, for sure.

JVCs Kaboom may still hold that title, though. It's been available in it's many types from 2000 (may well be earlier than that) through to right now, with barely a break...