After Show: Tandy Catalogue from 1988

Hey Dank - I'm in Adelaide and I have a similar Realistic branded Tandy cassette player for a car, but with a built in EQ I'll happily pass on for free

I'm only a couple years older than Dank, but I remember the first console I ever owned was a Sega Game Gear - 4 AA batteries lasted like two hours on that turd. Its cost to run could be measured in dollars per minute. Had 3 games, a baseball game that was boring and came with it, a Terminator game that was boring and easy, and Sonic 2, which I literally was never able to beat the second level on.

Colin Martin

"Wouldn't you love to do work on that?" I use my Tandy 102 for all kinds of things, its such a delightful garbage nugget and I love it lol

nowadays you can get 1 terry byte HDDs for like 60 freedom eagles

Ben Waffle

I would love to see you get into old computers

i had that mickey mouse radio, got it back in 89 on a family trip to disney land for christmas. it was built like crap and the head phones barely survived the road trip back home. ran off a 9 volt battery as i recall.

balls

I have those single ear buds lol

Hold up, I had that exact clock too

How international was Tandy? We certainly had it in the UK. Realistic was their own brand I think. I’m still using my Tandy calculator that was a Casio FX85 knock off.... nice. My dad used those intercoms you showed too. #childofthe80s

God back then for 5 grand you could've bought a new car, and not like a shitty little one, like a fullsize car

JokersJuicyAss

"nah there's nothing but water out here" 💀

I love how you watch Techmoan, LGR and Adam Savage, we basically watch the same stuff

Ol' mate DankPa sitting there like, "oh, my Inercells" while he's busting open some casette players.

Hmm. Smelly packaging, I can smell from my phone

Adam Savage, LGR, and Snake Discovery? No wonder you ended up in my recommended

My mom Has an old reel to reel player. The only tape i know she has for it a Christmas album where all the instruments and vocals are replaced with cat meows.

I still have my nitro cars and trucks. My wife hates them.

Realistic was a RadioShack brand, who owned Tandy at the time. They were just rebadged other brands for cheap.

i actually own that exact pocket TV you call "the size of a shoe box" but mine's silver and it's actually about the size of a nintendo DS lite!

A fellow LGR fan! Always fun to hear.

HoNkInG mOtHeRfUcKeR

Accounting for inflation, apparently 5k AUD would be nearly 12k today. You had to be rolling to get one of those babies.

Man, those where some expensive computers. $5000 for just a box and no monitor. Wow

@6:58 my dad had that exact battery charger. same batteries too lol

I was late seeing this one, and OH MY GAWD the childhood memories came rushing back. My Dad worked at a Radio shack when I was 4-9, and seeing all that brought it back. Our first computer (Which I still Have) is a Tandy 2000. I used to have a drawing tablet that connected to it, too. The pen had a wire coming out of the back that connected to the tablet, then to the computer. Nostalgia hits different yo.

Exactly! All this stuff was sold at Radio Shack back in the day, and their equipment was usually pretty good. Their Realistic and Optimus speakers were fantastic for the price. I had some Realistic speakers with a lifetime warranty on the parts. 10 years in, blew a tweeter, and Radio Shack just handed me a new tweeter to swap in. I miss that place.

Jackie's Fridge

FWIW - most of the Realistic gear wasn't a "knock off", it was re-badged original stuff from Sony, Koss,, Magnavox, etc. There were only a handfull of original products from them, like the Minus 7 and Minimus 11 bookshelf speakers. They were really mostly known for selling electronic components (transistors, resistors, drivers, etc.)

Oh wow

Nekro

Yesss I love seeing these old catalog videosss

Loonie Lummox

Wade, fan from Hershey PA over here in Murica. Got myself some Blue MoFi today would love to see a pair on the ears on a stick. Best I've ever had but that because my Beats that were a gift are, well Beats. (Have an old pair of Seni's that I use when I play.) My trusty dirty buds died. So naturally I replaced them with a $250 USD set of Blues. Don't worry I used my Dankside powers to convince the Mrs. that this was a perfectly normal progression. I have a feeling you might review them as shit. Keep it Dank!

Winaught

I had that 200 in 1 electronic project kit EONS ago, thank you for unlocking a hidden memory of mine

I have that EXACT Realistic receiver, it’s doing work at my dads auto body shop. Doesn’t feel cheap and weighs about half a ton

Aww that hard drive the price on that for that amount perfect not my money

Martino Bayley

I know I'm late to the party, just catching up on old after shows when I noticed the video processors at 5:45.. I own one of those! I use it for active noise reduction on a cassette deck. It actually works really well!

I love how he's a LGR and Techmoan fan :D

LGR POGGG

Welp, looks like I have a new voicemail greeting.

I'm SUPER tempted to extract the answering machine audio and make it my voicemail message. Unfortunately, I don't need to scare off potential employers 😆

Dave Chin

We've gotten references to techmoan, LGR, and Ashens so far all channels I already followed

mychemicalbromance

anyone else just watch these for the 'ah my pkcell'

Dude, I NEED that rainbow casio watch!!

you should do this craig mp3 player and when you do it, put the pkcell battery in it i think its a good idea for your next yt vid or after show vid on another CRAIGGG. just search this on ebay or whereever you get your odd mp3's "CRAIG CMP1230F" thank you! Your are my favourite channel ^^ on patreon and yt ^^

Christopher Johnson

Oh my god, I have the 200-in-1 Electronic Lab Kit, the exact same model ! And I live in France, go figure ! I loved that equipment, I remember challenging my dad to create something that wasn't in the manual, and was quite impressed when he did (silly me). Actually the manual was pretty good, you just had the numbers where to plug your cables and you had to design the circuit by designing it in the manual. I need to find it again in the attic.

dankpods watches techmoan my life is complete

I would love a scanned copy of this catalogue. Brings back memories, my dad had a "laptop" that looked a lot like the Tandy one, except I think it was a Toshiba and had an orange monochrome screen. We had it well into the 2000s and it still worked, albeit you had to whack the hard drive with a screwdriver handle to make it boot after a while.

I had a pair of those infrared headphones ages ago. They weren't the WORST but that's about the best I can say of them.

Jerboppami

This one brought back so many memories... CD's, Cassette tapes, Film cameras, and most importantly... the beige. (So nostalgic) Thanks for this video, was a fun one. Have you ever listened to the Audio Technica MSR7B's?

we’ve still got old/retro landline phones if you want any for your collection

Guess ill let it ride this month too lol, you are STILL the only patron I support! lol. always love your vids man, feels like i got an aussie fren in the room w me @ work lol. love whatchu do man, never stop!

https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/index.htm#main_catalogs Ya if anyone wants more, someone made an archive of everything.

You....you built a time machine.....out of an iPod?

Professer Smith

4:27 The laughter I'm dead

“Get out of it, Kirkland!” 😂

Mark P

I spend many an hour looking at Nakamichi Dragons on eBay. Now I can afford one, it seems like the most indulgent purchase I can think of.

Mark P

Christmas 1980, my dad bought me the 150 in 1 electronic lab kit. I played with it until it crumbled to dust. Best Christmas present ever.

Mark P

I really need a cassette deck, not gonna lie. Not buying a Realistic one though, that’s for sure

Ilya Ryabtsev

I've got a message for future you from future video - be sure to swap pads before you finish your review of HD681. Some Beyer/AKG pads are compatible, I personally use thick fake leather pads from KQTFT (similar to these on OneOdios) - they boost lows a bit and tame this legendary "sparkly" treble a bit. Seriously, these OEM K240 fakes are fantastic on its own, but pad swapping makes them even better!

Yes! I need this in my life.

Okay I wheezed at the dude at 4:30 😂

I had a 5 disc player with speakers when I still lived in Vegas. I bought it in the early 90's and lasted quite a few years. It had really great sound and I blasted my film scores a lot with that thing. After it finally bit the dust my friends and I destroyed it with a sledge hammer.

Trent Bennett

Now i must dig through my horde of RadioShack (Tandy) stuff and send some of it lol

Chuck Slezak

lol yea nitro engines can be a lot of fun, I have a few nitro planes that are a blast to fly, I even have an extra engine im not using I might be able to send to you to you provided shipping from the US isn't too expensive

Yeah, I’m not surprised it only has Tandy and Realistic. RadioShack was well known for only carrying in house brands at the time.

Us software developers actually love those old school library-style terminal monitors! They can be a pain to hook up, but I know people who have them off to the side with a text printout of their email inbox. Talk about a conversation starter!

I still have a TRS-80 Model 100. Absolutely love that thing.

100percentjake

I have one of those Mono earphone style peices. Came with a Camcorder (I collect them) and Damned if i ever got it working! Horrible to wear though. Also i swear my Dad had one of those Metal detectors too. Sat in the attic for years. 25 odd years on and we both Detect with Deus and Macro detectors. Great hobby

Ekron Vulture

THEY ARE APARENTLY REDOING SHREK WITH ALL OF THE ORIGINAL VOICE ACTORS!!!!!! also.... Bingus

Haha great video, didn't have a good laugh like this in a while

I love all stuff like this! I hope you have a whole heap of them to go over!

Bobby

My Family will really enjoy the "I'm not here" song everytime they're trying to call me from now on. Thanks mate!

6:20 YOOO you watch adam savage too!! he's awesome! i was a fan of him through mythbusters but i've been watching his youtube channel recently too. Can't wait to see the end result of his velociraptor project.

Salamence Robot

i recently got an ad for the Between Pro earbuds on indiegogo and the ad claimed they had better battery life than airpod pros and 3 drivers per earbud. i think you could get an interesting video out of them

Honestly I forget how much of this stuff existed early on - I saw a guy wearing headphones in an old Betwitched TV episode and was like “THEY HAD THOSE BACK THEN!?”

Yo I bought a brand new, old style Casio digital watch a few weeks ago. I absolutely love the thing

The joysticks look like a willy

The Nitro RC cars and those blue and white rechargeable batteries. Wow that threw me back to when I was about 6, which.. yeah 88/89 that'd be about right

José Jacob

I have a funny feeling we share a lot of the same YT subscriptions...

Mitchell Denham

Can you take my $1 and buy a frozen coke with it please

Aren't all the devices Realistic because Tandy is a Radio Shack brand? So isn't this Radio Shack flexing in a catalog?

Iris Baez

We had those EXACT intercom things at my parent's house when I was younger.

Hi DankPods. Will you reviwe some of Anker Soundcore TWS?)

3:47 I have a pair of infrared headphones from the late 80's . They're no dirty buy but they do sound surprisingly good for being just mono. The infrared connection is pretty spotty though

Ellie Sky

I get a kick out of you saying "oh my pkcell" every time haha, also those hard drive prices, yeesh

ReaperOfBurgers

Ah man those vintage Tandy computers mmmm mmmm. I'd love to see you do some Commodore 64 and Amiga stuff.

I did the math on what that 5k computer would cost and base model was around 11k AUD and fully upgraded was 20k AUD

FroggyBoyKermit

Never used patreon but I just had to for more vids :D

I honestly believe you could make a video about reading the back label on a can of paint thinner and it'd still be entertaining.

I had one of those build you're own radio kits when I was a kid. I cant say for sure but it seems like it may have been the same one in the catalogue. I remember it being over my 8 year old head, my grandpa had to put it together for me. Also switching from AM to FM was an endeavor of basically rewiring the thing. It was cool though.

NUGGET MAN!!!! I demand (politely request) that you review the syllable g18 headphones!!! I believe they are the best bang for the buck in terms of cheap but good Bluetooth headphones. https://www.amazon.com/SYLLABLE-G18-001-OVER-EAR-NOISE/dp/B00LV91PPS/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=syllable+g18&qid=1614915582&sr=8-1

Michael Defoe

For your information my dankpodian friends, the reason why there are SO MANY Realistic products is because, Tandy’s catalog is linked with Radio Shack. And at the time, Radio Shack wanted ZERO other brands than their own in their stores, so they just rebranded and sold products under the name Realistic and other weird crap.

That catalogue is only 12 years older than Shrek.

I see Dank is a man of culture. Techmoan, LGR, and Adam Savage vids all mentioned. Would love to see a Techmoan or LGR crossover.

Oh man I thought a bunch of the stuff was expensive back then like amps, music players and some other stuff. THEN IT GOT TO THE COMPUTERS. $1500 for a 20MB hard drive the size of my current computer is just hilarious. My Nintendo Switch has 6,400 of those in its SD card. You can get those 128gb ones for like 20 bucks now. $9.6 million in storage in the 1980s for a twenty just shows how much computers have changed.

Shaggy_One

THE CHONK.

I have and still use that exact same alarm clock also I came across someone selling a Craig Car tape deck

Good Vid! I recall hearing you say you would like to do car stuff, i fyou make a new channel for that make shure you let us know!!!

Felix Pellerin

You may mock it now...but back in the day (I was in HS when that catalog came out) the Realistic stuff was great. I actually still have a single disc CD player, turntable, and 4 channel mixer that are still going strong 30+ years later!

You should definitely buy a whole bunch of speakers, and make your own speaker box for sure, that would be cool to watch

Damn, I think I still have my Electronic Lab Kit. It came with a book that tells you what every component does and how they're used, and it even teaches you how to read circuit boards. It was so cool!

Is it me or do the 80s had superior aesthetics than any other decade? Like, I'm an early zoomer, but I just really like the way things look built out of metal sheets, bronze and real wood accents, right angles and utilitarian design.

Lambda

Thank you for the birthday video! I was 27 when this catalog came out. Got married for the first time that year. I used to pour over the Radio Shack catalog as a kid. I even had a battery of the month card, you could get one battery of your choice for free! I even have the exact same clock in my living room right now.

Smartphones are a miracle. Even the ones going for less than $70 of today's money... even the "free" ones that they give you for getting a MetroPCS plan.

Lambda

I love the catalog videos. Please do them more often.

Sad we didn’t see a c64 or a zx spectrum

Oh mate, in a wierd way this made me wish i was 30 years older.

Radioshack only sold tandy stuff, kinda like an Aldi for electronics

I know this is a joke but if you are genuinely wondering there are phones that just greatly amplify the sound, think like a loud conference call speakerphone but right in your ear. These days you can even get phones with displays that live caption the other side so the person can read what's being said.

No lie, my Opa (grandpa) had like 90% of that stuff! Sadly its all gone now, but man...that took me back. Btw I also have that clock and it still works.

I’d love to see you cover old tech similar to what LGR does. Grant it, I never have any idea whats going on, but I always enjoy watching them none the less

he explains that in the previous frank videos, you can just scroll down

I love that old stuff. It looks so amazing. This is really a time capsule.

Love the vid! I wanted to ask what type of snake Frank is?

Those Tandy 1000s are SUPER hard to find now

Joe Conti

A blast from the past

Watches adam savage and techmoan oh man! The world is small when it comes to youtubers hahah, I learn soo much just from youtube!

Malifor2210

Lovin the vids! when we gettin dat car content??? Gonna watch this shit out of that. (Also you better do something with MCM sometime)

Ozpossum_Man lol

FYI: Realistic is Tandy/RadioShack's own brand, that's why there's so much Realistic stuff in there :-)

Eric Siegel

A Tandy Mag is only gonna show off the Radioshack brands unfortunately.

You aren't wrong. I have always worn a Casio F91 since primary school.

I was born in 1988...

Eric Siegel

There is a game store near me that still fixes scratched CDs :-)

Eric Siegel

Man, these vids are sooo worth a dollarydo

He watches Tested!!! Man I love Dankpods so much, likes all the same stuff I like

Copper foil tape also works as speaker wire if you need to run under carpet without making it lumpy, so I've been told. I've only seen it used for inductive audio transmission personally.

Thursdays have become my favorite days.

You're an LGR fan, eh? DankPods-LGR collab when? :D

Ah Thursdays my favorite. Glad I joined in so I can get not one, but two helpings of some dankpods

VWestlife would like to know your location

OzRetrocomp

Maybe Techmoan?

Man i love those casio watches. I actually started collecting them. Best watches money can buy to this day

LGR/Dankpods collab 2021 - we gotta make this happen somehow

I really just love the vibe of the aftershow

"Ahh, my Enercell". :D

I don't know why but you talking about Techmoan and LGR in this made me extremely happy because I love watching them too.

Have a look at the 8 Bit Keys video on the Casio MT-500 MT-520/205 for more on those 'sound sticks'.

Do people with hearing disabilities go get someone who can hear the phone when they see the light then?

A comment section destined for Americans shocked that Tandy stood as a brand on its own outside America.

Karen Sykora

Wanted to tell you, as a smartfridge viewer, I truly appreciate the shoutout. Also, I would literally just watch you post about anything. You're Australian Ashens, but not as a knockoff, more like a completely separate flavor!

Alison & Alex

I'd really like to see more about your Mercedes.

That CD cleaner is no joke! I bought a used Age of Mythology game and disk 2 was trashed. Cleaned it daily for about a week and it worked! Good times. Anyone remember when game stores could "fix" scratched up CDs?

My dad had IR headphones. If you walked between him and the tv he'd get nothing but static

Andi Kettu

For the most part, Realistic wasn't offbrand, but relabeled. Like a lot of the Realistic hifi equipment was made by Technics

Vynncent Murphy

the reason that most of the stuff shown was from Realistic is because it's a Tandy catalogue and Realistic is a subsidiarity part of Tandy Electronics

Theallknowingsause

I think Realistic was like Tandy's in-house brand so that's why so much of the electronics are their stuff

Millie

my dad has a sure sm58

That headstrap... lol

LGR fan? That's just bonus points right there.

Hehe

Let’s goooo

Yippee

That’s cool 😂

That’s janky