Browsing Radio Shack Retro Tech Catalogs 1979-1991
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- Опубліковано 11 вер 2024
- Taking a look at some vintage Radio Shack flyers from 1979 and 1991! Christmas is approaching and my technology nostalgia level is high, so let's dive into some old school retro tech ads for Tandy, Realistic, and beyond.
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Back in the 80's, they had fake car phones, too, so you could pretend you had a car phone even if you couldn't afford one. I was so poor, I couldn't afford the fake one either.
They also sold fake car phone antennas to stick on your car lol.
Yes, that was a thing, or replace the FM antenna with one that looked like a cellular antenna because it had the curly bit in the middle. Why would you advertiser that you had a cell phone in the car for thieves to go ahead and steal? All they had to do was look at all the antennas in a parking lot to make their mark. Doh!
LOL!! I love that story!
"I was so poor, I couldn't afford the fake one either." LOL!!! 😂😂😂😂😰😂
@@lolnjeoglondajmejejplejlis3365 I think it was meant as a "gag" thing - like Wayne's World, where they roll the car window down and ask the rich guy, "Excuse me, do you have any Grey Poupon?" It was the 80's, normal people enjoyed making fun of yuppies.
It’s kinda sad RadioShack wasn’t able to capitalize on the maker movement and make a comeback.
They tried, kind of. They sold Arduino-based kits and common shields and accessories in their stores for the last couple of years, but it was a small section at the end of an aisle with no real advertising, specials, etc. to back it. It was too little too late. Their selection was poor enough and their prices high enough that I would have bought everything at a competitor's Web site anyway. They were too busy trying to push cell phone plans to the customers instead at that point because it was the only thing that was really making them money.
Yeah, that's pretty much my experience. Sadly.
To be fair: "hacker" is also a stupid name.
I do, actually, and it's not exactly hard to find out about it in the times of google. It's still about as "stupid" as "maker".
Oh I'm not saying that it isn't. It's a stupid term. My point is that both terms are stupid and no one is better than the other.
Can we just talk about the fact that if someone got one of these computers brand new in '91, took it home, set it up, and wanted to play some games, they wouldn't be able to play Doom because it wouldn't come out for two more years? That kind of stuff blows my mind.
I don't know why looking through these as a kid was like looking through a christmas catalog every sunday. I miss it.
Yep, I'd wear out the magazine just going through it so much and dreaming about something I could not afford (like the boombox tv, and the better rc cars), and it wasn't even christmas!
I would watch a channel dedicated to this sort of thing.
Suebobchicvid here is a channel that looks through old EGMs and other magazines. ua-cam.com/users/CGQuarterly
There IS a channel dedicated to this sort of stuff, it's a RADIO SHACK CATALOGS channel with EVERY Radio Shack Catalog: ua-cam.com/channels/YVzIMQE2KQTl19ZgLYHXPA.htmlvideos?sort=da&view=0&flow=grid
LGR Blerbs
My university has hundreds, if not thousands, of these old computer articles bounded into books in our library. I love to look through them and see them all. It's free to the public too.
You know that catalog is a relic of the past when you see the thick clips binding the pages... you could build a whole house with all that metal.
take em off the magazine, staple the shingles down.
The 79 issue is more my time in terms of nostalgia. I was 14, and my friends and I went to Radio Shack all the time to buy components and things for various projects. Usually CB radio stuff, but often odd things. Around the time the original Battlestar Galactica came out, I got a plastic model of the ship. Suddenly and quite randomly, Radio Shack started selling these fiber-optic kits. Boom!! Fully lit up Battlestar model!! It was awesome, and I couldn't have done it without the odd and random components they sold. Sad to see it go downhill in recent years...
I miss RadioShack, that was the only place you could find electrical parts and components.
Sometimes you just needed an LED or a resistor or a spool of solder and you didn't want to pay for and wait for shipping.
When my grandma died i got her Yamaha stereo receiver and i still use it on my pc with 2 Kef speakers. Sounds amazing. Brushed aluminium. The remote shows the age but the receiver doesn't. Amazing sound.
Yeah dude, old receivers can still bang
Now As Seen On UA-cam.
9:12
The Bible in two electronic editions, $200 each.
That's $400 just to read The Bible on a dot matrix screen.
Adjust for inflation, that's about $725 in 2017. What the actual hell.
Pretty much all screens today are still dot matrix. Just that the dots are much closer together and have better contrast and the ability to display color etc. But yeah, the modern equivalent of those Bible devices would be the Kindles of today with a Bible ebook on them.
I remember buying my mom a Franklin Bible back around 1994 (she was a Sunday School teacher but by then wasn't really healthy enough to go out). I think I paid $109 for it at the time if I'm remembering it right.
She played around with it right up to her death in 1999.
Nikhil Dabas actually, the modern equivalent is this shitty looking 20 dollar thing where you type in a bible verse or book and it reads it
Consider that you can download the free Bible app, wow! Your Android phone reads it if you want.
I miss Radio Shack. I miss being able to just walk down the street and pickup a resistor, or a cap, or an odd connector. Now it's order online in bulk, pay shipping and wait 3-5 days.
The noises you make are what people sound like while looking through a playboy mag
A Radio Shack catalog IS porn for geeks.
For those who want to hear the answering machine tape (I think this was on Beware of the Blog originally) ua-cam.com/video/0MK3J45P5H4/v-deo.html
Oooooh yeah, time to settle in for some nice, relaxing viewing.
These videos are fantastic! Takes me back to my childhood, scouring catalogues for the coolest shit going that I would never be able to afford lol
In 1991 Memorex's consumer brand was still owned by Tandy (Radio Shack), so it was just another house brand.
And many of Radio Shack's house-brand products were actually just rebadged name-brand items. For example, their pocket LCD TVs and musical keyboards were made by Casio and the Tandy 1100 laptop was made by Panasonic.
Most of their speakers and stereo gear was made by Pioneer. That 8-track deck with Dolby definitely looks like a Pioneer.
My parents bought back in the days a memorex VHS at Wal-Mart, so di it changed later in the 90s?
Radio Shack only had the Memorex brand name for a few years in the early '90s. By 1994 or so they had already stopped using it.
I had a set of Yamaha speakers that I bought at Incredible Universe (owned by Tandy) that went bad under warranty. The Tandy service center issued me a Tandy store credit since they were no longer sold and I found an identical set of Optimus speakers at Radio Shack. The speakers were identical in every way except for the logo. So those at least were made by Yamaha or the same source as Yamaha.
You just gave me a huge rush of memories, man. My parents had huge ass wood grain speakers and a glass front case for their hifi setup. And the speakers looked even bigger to 5 year old me because they were set on wooden Molson crates full of cassettes. I'm in nostalgia overload here. Thanks, Clint.
In the UK 'RadioShack' was just called 'Tandy'
The TRS-80 sounded cheap until I looked up the price in an inflation calculator. It would have been $3,451.88 today. It is amazing how much computer costs have come down over the years.
My Note 8 that I'm typing this comment on probably has more processing power in it than the most powerful super computer on earth from 1979!
Don't forget to note How much memory you got back then. 16K!! Yes, 16 THOUSAND bytes. Not 16 gig not 16 Meg, 16 THOUSAND...and NO hard drive either. Ithink you need Donald Trump's money to get back then what is standard now.
You can thank NAFTA and free trade for jump starting the information age. While job losses were substantial in the manufacturing area, without free trade computer prices would still be sky high and out of reach for regular people.
@@MegaTechpc Your note 8 has about as much computing power as a x64/86 chip from 2004-2006. Which is insane.
@@malcolmdane8819 Its a Note 10 now lol.
RadioShack used to be my go-to for parts that I needed for immediate projects. The sad thing is now that you have to order parts ahead of time online for any project now.
As a kid RadioShack was my favorite store to go see at the mall! This is so nostalgic lol
Especially at Christmas time when they had the free flashlights.
Here in Canada, Radio Shack got bought out by The Source, and they are TERRIBLE! Severely overpriced accessory, and I don't mince my words here (HDMI cables for $20, when they can be bought for $3, generic power bricks for $40, etc), they never have what you're looking for(shit inventory and not nearly enough variety), and they got rid of electronic parts, which was one of the best things about Radio Shack! I legit hate that store, lol
i find the source often has the lowest price.. I always check them when buying stuff, typically their price sucks but once in a blue moon its significantly cheaper
The Source is essentially a cell phone store and a place to drop off old batteries for recycling. And most of them are in a mall next to an actual cell phone store. If you absolutely POSITIVELY need some overpriced blank CDs to make a "Boomer Mix" disc for your uncle to play in his Lexus ("I can't pair my god-damned phone with the car because the text on the screen is TOO SMALL and I won't wear my glasses they're for NERDS"), then this is the store for you.
"The Source" was the name the stores got when Circuit City bought InterTAN (Tandy Canada). Circuit City went under so Bell now owns control of the company. Mainly to sell phones.
I was able to get them to order a new belt and record needle for an old record player I used to have back in like 2010 - the only thing The Source has really been good for. That, getting an actually good headphone splitter for cheap, and Resi Evil Revelations for the 360 for $5.
@@MadMac5 Sounds like what Radio Shack had become by the mid 90s. That's what did them in. Too focused on cell phones.
When you said something about the car in the car radio add it came to my mind, the perfect car for you, a 1996 Buick Roadmaster Station Wagon. It's super cool, has Woodgrain panels and a Corvette Engine . I'd totally own it
I've owned several beefy Buicks with woodgrain, I really dig 'em
I wish I could own one especially the Roadmaster because they are so cool in a not cool way. But there aren't many here in Europe and Gas isn't exactly cheap
it's sad to see radioshacks closed, but they closed for reasons. The last time i tried to get something from radioshack, a 9V AC adapter, they wanted 30 dollars for it. online they had them for less than 5.
Not only that, but the salespeople knew nothing about the items they sold and would hound me about purchasing cell phones and other things I didn't want or need because they worked on (paltry) commission. I eventually learned to be aggressively dismissive because it was really the only option, other than shopping at competitors' Web sites, which they motivated me to do more of!
That was all my radio shack became was a cell phone store. They had a few toys and a very small components section. I'd rather things die than live on as a decaying husk of it's self.
Aaaand.. I´m procrastinating again.
I loved Radio Shack as a teen in the 1980s. It was a magical wonderland for a kid with an electronics hobby. Then I got a job at a Radio Shack around 1990-1991- I didn't like it. We were paid by commission and we were graded on things like selling extended warranties (Tandy Service Plan) and getting EVERYONES address to put them on our catalog list. Man I just wanted to play with the electronics, not hassle people! Still, I did have fun from time to time. First time I used a cell phone was in 91- one of those old brick phones. This is really bringing back some memories.
I still have one of those Tandy stack challenge handheld games. Still works, one of the best handheld Tetris games I've ever run across. I remember buying several back-in-the-day and giving them as Xmas presents.
you really splurged that year lol
I owned that Puppy Watch as a child! The watch readout popped out when you pushed a little button and then you could push it back down to put it away. And the entire watch piece could slide off the band, and I would pretend it was a little robot with a head that popped out like a turtle (ignoring the dog part I guess?). I loved that thing when I was like, very tiny.
These types of videos are great, I love it when you do these. Thanks!
Great way to start my Monday - thanks for sharing ^^
5:01 Your 90s Santa Clause kind of sounds like Hulk Hogan, brother! :D
Well.... i.pinimg.com/474x/d3/e2/bc/d3e2bcf4537dd6136c01b50d3ed493b2--hulk-hogan-merry-christmas.jpg
Oh the VHS Cam Corders that were HUGE. If people back then knew how small and diverse cell phones would be in just 10-15 years from then!
and I was always jealous of those clear phones, usually always on American TV Shows where teenagers had their own phone in their bedroom! Like 'Clarissa Explains it All' or other Nickelodeon shows of the time period!
More like 20-25 years on the smart phones, but yeah, blows my mind how we really are living in the future right now!
I'm glad that you pick up stuff like this, then present it to us with your enthusiasm. I dig it.
I wish I still had the giant Computer Shopper magazines from back in the early 90's. Those things were great.
Those things were awesome.
You mean those issues that competed with the phone to see which was thicker??? I remember those too. I don't know why, but the dead tree catalogs were funner to look at compared to today's digital ones.
I still have several actually, along with some smaller ones. In fact, I have a large PC mag collection from back in the early to mid-90's including most of CGW and PC Gamer's run during that time. It's been a royal PITA to move them the five times I've moved but it's still worth it I think.
It's so neat to see this. I own a pair of Realistic Nova 6 bookshelf speakers that my Uncle bought back in the early 1970's and they travelled with him all around the world as he was military. They are now my garage speakers and still hold their own! I also have a set of original 4024 (I see a set of 4024a in the 1979 catalog) Realistic Mach One 15" speakers, we have one of the radios seen in the 1979 flyer and I had a bunch of the early-mid 90's RadioShack RC stuff. We also have RadioShack intercoms still from the early 80's and later models from the early 2000's, still in use today.
My grandfather was a TV repairman in the 1950's/1960's so places like RadioShack were a go-to for repair parts. We are very lucky that both of our local RadioShack's rebranded in the early 2000's to another audio/video company which still stocks a lot of the obscure tech accessories that were lost when RadioShack disappeared. I know it's 4 years late, but LOVE videos like this!
The last page of the 90s ad, the yellow robot looking thing called Bank with Robbie. My brother and I had one, you put a coin in it’s hand and it would eat it. Completely forgot about that thing. Memories.
I always wanted one of those electronic chess sets as a kid.
(Yes, I was in the Chess Club when I was in grade school).
EDIT: Also, Futuristic Galactic Man looks like something Phelous would review in the Bootleg Zone (as a bootleg Robocop).
Alexander Case You sounds like Todd Howard lol “Yes, I was in the chess club”
I completely forgot about those 'Electronic Lab Kit' things that RS sold. I *loved* those when I was a kid.
I got a few spring shaped burns as a kid from shorting the terminals out, haha.
I had one or two of those growing up as well. The most practical thing you could make would probably be a radio, but it was still fun.
Wow, I completely forgot that I had one of those. I gotta find out if my parents still have that in their basement somewhere, now I wanna mess with it lol.
Most are still available for purchase under the Elenco brand on Amazon or other online retailers. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0035XSZDI/ref=s9_acsd_hps_bw_c_x_2_w/130-5728229-1326236
Radio Shack was everywhere in 1979... The listing on the back was for the newest stores (recently opened) yes, hard to believe there was a time like that... I grew up in the 70's, so was fun to go there.
I always loved Radio-Shack, I was a kid in the 90's and they just had all sorts of cool stuff for us. Most, if not all of my radio controlled toys came from there, as well as small electronics builders kits/tinker sets that were cool for a kid into electronics.
Now I'm older they always had some switches DPDT or Momentary switches for buttons on retro gaming machines, capacitors, resistors, you name it. Now where the hell am I going to get this crap now? I can order it but it takes a lot of the fun out of it, at least for me...
Back when Radio shack was fun and had some awesome computers! Those Tandy computers and camcorders is what we got from them.
"It's a radio inside a stuffed animal; that's amusing."
I think it'd be worth the risk to break causality and have this review appear on the box.
Clint, what I love about LGR for lack of a better way of putting it is you. Whether it's talking about the histories of tech giants to reviewing obscure bottom bin software no-one ever thought to buy, goin' thrifting, or even talking about retro cameras; at the end of the day it's your genuine enthusiasm for the stuff you cover that I personally have come to love. You, much like the retro tech you review, have acquired your own unique aesthetic. You convey so much personality through your voice, and as an aspiring voice actress I can tell you how important that is in fostering a community. I may go out on a limb here, but I think a lot of us just want you to make whatever makes you happy. Cuz' what ever makes you happy makes us happy.
That's my 2 cents on the issue. Stumbled upon your channel in the summer, and I've been hooked ever since.
This makes me want to track down a Sears or JC Penney catalog from about 1989. I used to circle just about every toy in the toy section and my Mom would buy me clothes, damn responsible parenting.
In the 80’s you could not exit Radio Shack with your stuff without them taking down all your contact info (every time you went there) before cashing you out so they could snail mail you their catalogs. They were hard core, you had no say in the matter. If you were lucky you’d also get a “battery of the month club” card forced on ya. But it sure was nice being a short bike ride away from that diode, potentiometer, 555 timer, toggle switch, project box, and L.E.D you needed RIGHT NOW! Now we have to wait at least a day for Amazon or worst case several days for an eBay delivery from China! Well at least we can 3d print our own project boxes now.
I only went to Radio Shack for individual components back when it was open. All the way up to when it closed I would buy components there.
Can't buy a resistor at walmart.
Google "Hobby Town." Apparently, they are an authorized Radio Shack dealer and you can find resistors, circuit board blanks, etc. I found out by accident when my daughter wanted to find Mech models.
Was looking for this comment. easiest and fastest way, to fix electronics was just to go there and buy a capacitor or resistor. Just for pennies, could be more expensive than that. Cant remember the prices lol.
@@genxrants mech models, like mechwarrior/mech assault?
I just love these catalog videos. Clint, you make my Mondays bearable. Thank You!
Perhaps Maplin could buy up what's left, they do pretty much what Radio Shack used to do.
Funnily enough, Radio Shack used to be in the UK under the Tandy name, I actually had a Micronta alarm clock for years. It had a red LED display... and woodgrain.
"As seen on TV" was the new, cool thing. What RS meant in this context was this was the super cool thing on the commercial you saw last week.
the realistic/ optimus music keyboards were absolutely insane and i WISH i could find the old huge optimus i had in the 90s now online.
awesome fn keyboards.
They had a synthesizer that came uot in the late 80s/early 90s. That thing was SOOOOOO fricking fun to play around with. It had like a gazillion sounds. If only I can find one on sale on Ebay.
I miss Radio Shack. Heck, I miss 1979. Back in the 70’s RS was almost totally do-it-yourself kits and components for people who wanted to build their own electronics. They had a lot of parts like capacitors, wires, inductors, etc.
Thanks for the video!
I miss Radio Shack.
As a young Marine fresh out of basic training, I bought that same TRS-80 Model I from a store in South Bend, IN for $998, plus a few programs...they had to send my computer to Chicago to put the extra memory and keypad in...you learn real patience typing in a thousand lines of code...I really loved that computer...
COMPUTERS! 20:13
Milena Smith lol really a cam bot here xD
You would have liked the Radio Shack binary counter kit from 1972
The gasp was so funny!!!
6:00 lol I love how he caresses the pictures like I would a woman XD
Gonna make me cry...yeah. A piece of my life, dreaming over this stuff, and lo! the wonders we have today!
Still they were fueled and engendered by these...these wondrous items.
Thank you, sir.
13:12 It's Robert Cop!
Generic Green Squid i was gonna say that, but you beat me to it lol.
Somebody might have to get Phelous on this and find one of those Radio Shack knock-offs. It would be so worth it.
17:52 what a reaction. When other guys had centerfold posters of girls on their wall, LGR stuck this on his. I kid.
"... and I would send it to 8 bit keys..."
ROFLMAO
+1 like
I remember buying/getting a lot of that stuff back in the day. I even got my parents to get me a casio pocket t.v. which burned through batteries very quickly! Watching the wonder years & Saturday morning cartoons.... Even the scanners to listen in on stuff. The CD players that didn't have antishock/skip protection & would skip with the slightest bump! The stereo system with large speakers we had was realistic brand as well. Now that I think about it, we bought most everything electric/electronic at Radio Shack. Those flyers bring back memories! Thank you for sharing them LGR
COMPUTERSSSS!!!! 20:09
Computergasm lol
Hey LGR, I wanted to start out by saying your voice had become iconic to me. Your videos are amazing and even ones I thought I wouldn't enjoy I ended up watching in pure amusement. You're the review wizard by far. I'm sure you have plenty of video ideas but I figured I'd share some of mine with you. There's a very unique game that I think you'd enjoy called Proteus. I'd make for a wonderful quick review I feel. Also might I suggest the Command and Conquer franchise for a long review? I feel like you'd do both justice with your superior in-depth review process. Thanks for your time! Keep up the amazing work!
I don't know how or why I ended up watching this but holy fuck I'm intrigued
Wow, thanks for posting this video! Sooooo many memories.
I spent hours poring over these catalogs, even back to the one from 1979. Back then, the Rat Shack catalog was one of the main sources of technology information available to the average kid.
Clint... Would I be right to assume that you track all your UA-cam finances in Lotus 1*2*3 on a 286? I also challenge you to do a video where you make dot matrix iron on transfers.
Even better, use "Worksheet", the spreadsheet program included in Tandy's "Deskmate".
OMG. Clint, please confirm what you use for your accounting needs!!! We. Need. To. Know!
This was a really nice vid. Never had a Radio Shack in my country, but the nostalgia sweeping over me seeing similar products to the ones i grew up with was immense. So many memories.
I used to have a Cassio pocket TV, just like the one on the left 2:30 :-)
2-Meter VHF Transceiver... my first HAM Radio from back in the day. A Radio Shack rebranded Kenwood. VERY good radio. Every function under the sun, still works to this day. Gotta love it. RIP my beloved Radio Shack :)
Retro Nut Shack Catalog Nostalgia
Actually that Realistic 2M Ham Radio is a beast. They were a good value back then and people STILL use them! They are practically indestructible and hold up better then just about any other 2M portable with a digital tuner. I still have mine 26 years later and it has never broken. Of course I have moved on to bigger and better equipment, but if I was on a deserted island, the HTX-202 is the one I would bring!
i bet microsoft bob would run real great on those machines
I miss the Radio Shack of my youth. I miss those ad inserts but I really miss the catalog you used to be able to get from them every year. At one point they were a couple of hundred pages long. Thanks for the memories.
I had one of those keyboards, in the UK it was the Casio Rapman though www.synthmania.com/rapman.htm i assume radioshack just rebranded.
It's got some seriously cool sounds in it!
Awesome video Clint! I remember flipping through these as a kid and pining over old Tech and Computers too. So much nostalgia...
every think of scanning that and putting it online?
There are folks doing so already! Although my particular catalogs aren't on there yet.
www.radioshackcatalogs.com/extra_stuff.html
way to pass over over the robbie the robot bank at the end of the 90s ad, the coolest thing radio shack ever sold!
C:\>THAT
WOOD-GRAIN
LIFE
Awesomeness Clint!
I truly miss Radio Shack! In about 1975/76, I became a proud, card-carrying member of the "Battery of the Month" Club! Yes! You could receive one crappy Tandy battery of your choice, absolutely free!
I usually went for the 9v.
Keep it up! I love your videos!
Prodigy > AOL
I came into the online service world a little late, when AOL was already around, and there were a lot of things about AOL that were technically superior. As a community, though, the service catered to novices and was filled with obnoxious and disrespectful users, and it didn't take me long to realize that the serious and dedicated users were all on Prodigy and CompuServe. Good times. R.I.P.
Good times. Good times. Online wonders in glorious 16 colors.
I have to admit I really enjoyed watching Prodigy gradually draw its vector lines on the screen every time it loaded a page. You can't get much more immersive with images than having the entire service represented as one big geometry project. It was like viewing the world though a giant, color graphing calculator.
I wonder why that seems so much more miraculous than things like streaming HD video? LOL
CompuServe > All
Old publications may be one of my favorite sort of collectable. I remember drooling over the Sharper Image catalog as a kid. I loved those old wired/clear phones, too! PS: Look at those big_brick transceiver radios! Radios at Radioshack, who'd of thunk?! This is great LGR! PS: Did you see that huge rechargeable square/rectangular flashlight! LOL! Holy crap telephone-type receiver! I've never seen those before. Now, that Multiband Portable Radio - I've seen that exact model and it still works like a charm! Intercoms in a word: Necessary.
Adafruit bought the rights to the RadioShack brand. Dunno what they’ll do with it though.
No they didn't. Limor Fried bought a set of old framed Radio Shack stock papers at the Radio Shack auction over the summer, which anyone could do since they had tons of memorabilia for sale to the public. I was bidding on the same items myself. Here's where she bought them: web.archive.org/web/20170627174212/ubidestates.hibid.com/catalog/103245/radioshack-auction--1/
The original auction page is down now, but there were tons of articles about it when it was up: consumerist.com/2017/06/02/18-fascinating-items-from-radioshacks-corporate-memorabilia-auction/
Aha. Then we all misunderstood the Tweet they send out about it I think. It really looked like a deed to the rights of the name. Shame they didn’t actually buy the rights. If one company can do the RadioShack brand justice it’s Adafruit.
Yeah, Adafruit really set the rumor mills churning with that tweet and by registering the "RadioFruit" trademark (which they are using for their radio-comms modules.)
The silver faced 1979 Realistic STA-240 receiver was manufactured by Matsushita and branded as Realistic for Radio Shack. It is essentially a modified Technics SA-500.
You're only a couple of years younger than me BUT everything you talked about brought back memories...I also grew up right down the road from you so I get a lot of your references. There were 2 Radio Shack's in Gastonia NC from mid 70's until early 90's.
Oh..and I had a Tandy bag phone in the early 90's on the AllTell network.
What I REALLY enjoyed was getting the annual catalog that came out in August, then salivating at what was new. God, I miss those days!!!
These catalog videos, thrift videos and tech tales are just the best. Love them. Thanks Clint!
I started working at Radio Shack in November of 1991. That ad is pure nostalgia. I remember selling pretty much all of that stuff. Also, on the cover of the 1979 ad, I have a set of those speakers stored in a closet here. They actually sound pretty decent, considering they're 38 years old.
Oh my! I had one of those Realistic wrapped like a pro keyboards! Loved that thing as a kid! Thanks for helping me travel back in time.
One of my favorite videos ever, and you've had many. Nick Cannon invested into Radio Shack, I think it was a bad investment. I loved Radio Shack as a kid, I was born in 1967, I can tell you I remember always we would go into Radio Shacks and I can tell you, everything in those magazines well that's exactly what you would see. You had to be there, but they had every single nerdy thing you could ever imagine. I remember getting robots and I swear this is a true story. I got a 8 track robot, and I used to listen to Kenny Rogers the gambler for hours, and the Monkeys, believe me you couldn't make this stuff up, it was real. LOL
Very enjoyable coverage delivered with a calming tone. Dat's LGR!
I had some of these items, from the toys to the electronics. So much nostalgia. Love these "Let's Read" catalog and flyer videos.
What's interesting was the one in the Bronx, NY in the 1979 catalog that "just opened" at that time closed in 2015 and actually stayed at that location the entire time. I remember buying capacitors and wires for a physics project in high school to learn about electric currents back like over 10 years ago. It's sad to see them go. Great find LGR!
Dad used to drag me into the local Radio Shack on weekends to get his electronics fix. He bought me one of those 50 in 1 Electronics Projects kits and I was hooked. It's a shame these stores are no longer around. Just recently, I had to wait a month to get a handful of capacitors from China to restore my computer's 5.1 speakers so I could hear your voice without distortion. I used to be able to drive right around the corner. I miss Radio Shack.
Man, I used to while away hours in Radio Shack when I was a kid! I even remember that store on Roswell Rd (from the 1979 circular)! Thanks for these, Clint!
“If you ever find a good pair... I recommend grabbing them” - love your subtle humour ;)
Love when you do these videos. I myself am very intrigued by older catalogs and sales flyers as well. Keep them coming!!
Oh man, so many memories in the 1991 catalog! Those radio kits? Had one! Archer walkie talkies? Had them! (So did Doc Brown and Marty!) Robie the piggie bank robot!? Seriously the most awesome thing of all time!!!! My little brother still has one!
Please keep doing these as often as you find them. They're great windows into the past.
Wow, that was really neat! First, the twelve year difference between the two. You never realize how much tech changed over that time. Second, It was also cool seeing that April 1979. The very month I was born ^_^ neat to see! Third, on that last page of the 1991 flyer ... was that "Banking with Robie"? That guy was so cool, he ate your coins! Even if ya didn't talk about it, still cool to see.
Just like this video! Not only was it cool old stuff to see, you had that generation gap to show just how different twelve years of electronics did. Thanks this was awesome!
Shared! Thanks, Clint. I really enjoyed this! Please find more catalogs! I will totally watch.
Worked for Radio Shack when that Christmas catalog was new. CD clocks, Franklin bibles, plasma balls... couldn't keep enough of them in stock. They sold like crazy, if you can believe it.