Er, don't you simply press the rewind button on the VCR?
The device manufactures (not the VCR manufacturers!) said that rewinding tapes would put too much strain on VCRs mechanism, so you needed one of those to prevent failures (as I said earlier, my VHS lasted until 2000s... and it played many, many tapes).
I guess they were popular on video rental stores, where they rewinded many tapes and buying a 20€ device would save them buying a full video recorder (mine costed about 500€ in 1985, the last VCRs I've seen were sold at 100€).
They were so amazingly useless that years later we could buy DVD rewinders!
I was trying to think what they could be used for, and all I could think was when taking tapes back to video rental shops - if you had forgotten to rewind them, it might come in handy if they were battery powered. But as you say they probably had them in the video rental stores.
But that's another thing, people under 40 might not recognise - video rental stores?
They were so amazingly useless that years later we could buy DVD rewinders!
DVD rewinders were a waste of money, I just stick my finger through the hole in the centre and turn it anti-clockwise. But I don't use them much as I find lining up the first track with the laser when I put them in the player is tricky. :-?
I remember some VCR's later on had a long play option so you could record double the normal content. It was annoying if my parent's recorded it this way and i watched it on my VCR which didn't have that option and everything was speeded up :))
I remember some VCR's later on had a long play option so you could record double the normal content. It was annoying if my parent's recorded it this way and i watched it on my VCR which didn't have that option and everything was speeded up :))
Its the other way around, now everyone does not tuck their T-shirts into their jeans.
I think it was in the grunge era that it became unfashionable to tuck T-Shirts into jeans and for what ever reason it stayed that way. Now even my dad would laugh at me if I did tuck my T-Shirts into my heans.
Does anyone remember a toy from the mid to late 80s. It was brightly colored plastic pieces with rounded corners, some were like a 3 dimensional 8, and the others were 3 dimensional H that the 8's could slot into on either side. The 8's had holes on the end and the top and sides so you could put eyes on them, or pipes. I think there were bigger pieces too like rounded X that could slot into 4 Hs and a rounded L that could slot into two.
That intro was well ahead of the game with those graphics. The music brings back memories. " Boring. Time to turn off." :))
That video had another thing in it for this discussion. Continuity presenters you could see. The fact the introduction was done by someone on camera sitting in a chair. You never see that anymore.
Yeah. That was also back when they would let the full credits for a show play out before announcing what was coming next, rather than immediately shrinking the credits to show what's on next and have the continuity announcement read out over the end music.
It's amazing, isn't it, that there are some toys that can remain unchanged - unmolested by those who would seek to meddle ("if it ain't broke, fix it anyway purely for the sake of fixing") - for an entire generation.
I thought my one-and-a-half-year-old nephew (at the time) might like Stickle Bricks for The Christmas That Never Was, and I found they were still made - exactly as I remember them from almost 40 years before, except that the colours had changed, to what you see above. So I went on eBay looking for some in the "proper" (i.e. 1980s) colours, and found a big box of 160 of them - a fair mix of all sorts of bricks, and less than ten that might be considered in any way "girly". There was even the near-mythical convex and concave triangles, that I'd only ever seen in the toybox at the local doctor's surgery - and this box had four of each!
Somehow, I doubt that there are going to be too many toys invented in 2000-and-something that will remain unchanged 20-30 years in the future.
I like that point, my kids have some Lego that's from the 60s and it fits in perfectly with lego I began collecting in the late 00's in preparation for having kids . I used to buy it from the Lego store in Cardiff, you could buy a large plastic cup full for 10 pounds.
What I do hate about modern lego sets, even the classic ones, it will say on the box 484 pieces which sounds impressive. But when you look at what they put in their boxes now they scrimp on the 2xn bricks; that is, of the 484 pieces only 3 are 2x3, 6 of them are 2x4, one is 1x10. They are like the best bits for building with. In old Lego sets you'd get at least 20 to 30 of the 2x4 and 3x2 bricks. Now they want you to build everything one brick thick.
This thread made me remember "Tente" which was a bit of a Lego knockoff. We used to mock them because they were not as good as Lego, often pieces wouldn't stick together.
Comments
Yes - the famous (famously annoying) privatisation of British Gas adverts - who was Sid anyway?
I was trying to think what they could be used for, and all I could think was when taking tapes back to video rental shops - if you had forgotten to rewind them, it might come in handy if they were battery powered. But as you say they probably had them in the video rental stores.
But that's another thing, people under 40 might not recognise - video rental stores?
DVD rewinders were a waste of money, I just stick my finger through the hole in the centre and turn it anti-clockwise. But I don't use them much as I find lining up the first track with the laser when I put them in the player is tricky. :-?
I suspect the rewind button was often the first button to go on a VCR.
sometimes that way was more fun.
@luny@mstdn.games
https://www.luny.co.uk
And a special award for the short skirts ;)
I agree, a brilliant scene, some excellent skills their. Almost defying gravity.
@luny@mstdn.games
https://www.luny.co.uk
I think it was in the grunge era that it became unfashionable to tuck T-Shirts into jeans and for what ever reason it stayed that way. Now even my dad would laugh at me if I did tuck my T-Shirts into my heans.
Personally, my Favorite TW theme was the 1987 one.
@luny@mstdn.games
https://www.luny.co.uk
I used to think at the start it was flying through the troughs in a bar of dairy milk.
That intro was well ahead of the game with those graphics. The music brings back memories. " Boring. Time to turn off." :))
That video had another thing in it for this discussion. Continuity presenters you could see. The fact the introduction was done by someone on camera sitting in a chair. You never see that anymore.
@luny@mstdn.games
https://www.luny.co.uk
It's amazing, isn't it, that there are some toys that can remain unchanged - unmolested by those who would seek to meddle ("if it ain't broke, fix it anyway purely for the sake of fixing") - for an entire generation.
I thought my one-and-a-half-year-old nephew (at the time) might like Stickle Bricks for The Christmas That Never Was, and I found they were still made - exactly as I remember them from almost 40 years before, except that the colours had changed, to what you see above. So I went on eBay looking for some in the "proper" (i.e. 1980s) colours, and found a big box of 160 of them - a fair mix of all sorts of bricks, and less than ten that might be considered in any way "girly". There was even the near-mythical convex and concave triangles, that I'd only ever seen in the toybox at the local doctor's surgery - and this box had four of each!
Somehow, I doubt that there are going to be too many toys invented in 2000-and-something that will remain unchanged 20-30 years in the future.
What I do hate about modern lego sets, even the classic ones, it will say on the box 484 pieces which sounds impressive. But when you look at what they put in their boxes now they scrimp on the 2xn bricks; that is, of the 484 pieces only 3 are 2x3, 6 of them are 2x4, one is 1x10. They are like the best bits for building with. In old Lego sets you'd get at least 20 to 30 of the 2x4 and 3x2 bricks. Now they want you to build everything one brick thick.