Hasta La Gadget!

Do you remember your first Walkman? I do, although it was a personal stereo, not a real Walkman, and it came from Lloytron. Fast forward only, no rewind, but awesome all the same. I remember it as being tiny, but it was probably huge.

Over at Oobject, there is a gallery of 12 early Sony Walkmen (Walkmans?) A kid in our school had the one above, the TPS-12, way back in 1979 or shortly after. The orange button killed the music and activated a microphone, piping the sound into the headphones. This let you hold a conversation without taking of your ‘phones. That this was in Sony’s first Walkman shows some interesting considerations of the player’s social aspect, although it turned out to be a pointless gimmick.

I also had the yellow “waterproof” model when I got older. I dunked it in the sea and it worked fine. Go take a look at the gallery. You might spot an old friend, too.

12 Vintage Walkmans [Oobject via BBG]