Greetings and welcome to an LGR thing and this is the thing that I haven't done in a while that is take a look at
some different catalogs
Advertisements Flyers circulars what-have-you for different retailers both dead and alive and this one is pretty much dead
Unfortunately, this is RadioShack. We're gonna be taking a look at two different catalogues here one from April of
1979 it's a bit before my time
But I'm intrigued by a lot of the stuff that is probably going to be in here
I say probably because I'm looking through these yet
and then also this one here that I'm much more nostalgic for cuz I remember it is the RadioShack Christmas catalog December of
1991 and let's go ahead and dive into this because I find this to be
insanely intriguing
For a couple of reasons one to get some sort of first-hand knowledge of what some of these items cost and how they were
Advertising them which oddly enough can be very much lost a time
Especially for these kind of circulars and ads and flyers and things that you would see
that were either sent directly to people in the mail box which I believe these were and
Also, they were just stuck into the middle like an insert inside of newspapers during Sundays
There's very few archives of them online so
Anytime that I find them like in a bundle on eBay or whatever?
I buy them, so let's look through them and hope to we find something interesting in here
RadioShack
kind of sad that they're gone the last one finally closed recently nearby and I've already missed them a little bit because
Sometimes you just needed a weird thing and they had it anyway
I'm sure we're gonna be seeing plenty of weird things in here
Let's get right to it starting with the Chairman's thoughts as is their largest sales flyer of the year. That's nice
And he's pushing this Memorex
It's almost a that way
It was a thousand dollars
And then as $8.99 for a pretty sleek looking video VHS camcorder the world's smallest and lightest full-size one apparently
sweet stuff that would have been awesome in 91 and of course a
Very fond memories of these clear phones
I had one of these seems like everyone did at one point or another there was just a lot of clear electronics and 90's period
Game boys and consoles and phones and just everything calculators, whatever
So we have some spectacular gifts from our video. Shaq a lot of Memorex gifts apparently Memorex Memorex memorized Memorex this one's awesome
400 bucks auto head cleaning Plus MTS stereo and broadcasts
And I've seen like these stacked up and Goodwill's fraud like a dollar
And yeah some realistic thingies in here too and mixed in between the Memorex realistic was their in-house brand in case you're not aware
So yea RadioShack had their cheaper alternatives like these here's a little pocket color TV
I never actually knew anyone that had one of those, but I would thought they were extremely cool
They were definitely a central place to go for audio programmable portable CD player
They're 420 bucks not bad was
$179 and what is what the as seen on TV here as seen on TV see on TV
What TV station was putting these? Yeah well?
Now here we go some high five stacks and
Assorted things that the while these aren't the greatest ones these are all realistic brand not anything that I would necessarily go for nowadays even
Though they look like aesthetically very pleasing. I got to love the woodgrain everything seems like everyone had one
I don't remember why
It was always there it was like a stack things and components
And he had some big friggin speakers that were too big for we never played music that loud we had giant speakers anyway
And you know glass on the front there which was sweet. I just like moving that glass door
RadioShack gifts for people on the go, yes RadioShack sold radios. They were a shack for radios. Yeah, we got CB radios
stereo cassettes walkie-talkies shortwave radios
Some other crap this one's ridiculously expensive. What is that 2 meter VHF FM ham transceiver?
Goodness, and we have a nice deal on pull out here. Oh
What oh it's an am/fm CD player?
I guess that goes and oh yeah dashboard CD player for 360 bucks. My dad ended up putting one in his Mitsubishi truck
Sometime in the mid 90s mid late 90s. I guess was late 90s. I don't know, but it was like oh, man
it was so cool and
I had no clue that Tammi did cell phones. What is this personal size cellphone goes anywhere?
That's pretty neat, so I'm intrigued
I love Tandy stuff as you've probably seen if you saw my video a while back where I went into Radio Shack just before they
Shut down and bought some Tandy things
They brought back the brand right at the end car or carry you could put this one in the car or carry it around
It's the future
Ask Santa Claus for your own Tandy facts
Santa Claus give me a fax machine. I can just imagine 90 Santa getting orders for fax machines on his pager
And he's like oh, I just got a page about a fax machine better put it my Trapper Keeper
And he writes his notes in a Trapper Keeper right next to a like a folder of a Lamborghini Countach
Yeah, 90s Santa was the best
he's
comedy
outgoing message cassettes you give rich little volume one into comedy edition and Julie Dee's yeah
I remember that being a thing there was one of our family friends had an answering machine
They looked they were much older than this, but yeah they
Had some Australian actor sounding dude doing the answering thing and it was funny
I guess because it was like oh, they're not Australian huh, I don't know man
This is the kind of area of this catalogue that I was really wanting to get to because holy crap computers
by Tandy its Tandy 1000 rl/hd oh and
Then this one right here was this an 11-10 HD. Yep. Oh
I want them both I
Still do even though. I have this one
I want another one why not because it looks so new and fresh and clean then they're not yellowed at all. They look so nice
Mmm. I don't know what this is about what is this Good Housekeeping promises a limited warranty to consumers
replacement or refund if
Defective is like Good Housekeeping gonna come by and give me a new Tandy if it breaks like the magazine
What is that check this out though? Holy nuts?
40 megabyte hard drive for
$400 or
$349 as it's on sale during Christmas. That's a lot. That's more than I expected even. What are these oh?
Well, I guess these are smart dry so they're a little different
Maybe these I've never used before like these 11 10s
And the 1100 series kind of computers of it's a really cool form factor
and I like the fact that they have you know they run like a full ms-dos and
Tandy Deskmate and other things either using NEC v20
But it's cool. It's a little compact thing that runs Das and holy crap Oh
Baby, this is the this is the centerfold computer of the catalog literally the center?
In this very room. I'm proud of that. These are some of these are kind of hard to find
This is an interesting little computer though Tandy 1000 RLX HD. It's a
286
ten megahertz 1 Meg of RAM once again and a VGA
Okay, here we go special purchase sound blaster incredible PC card with 11 voice music MIDI interface in software
140 dollars and you know if you were to hear one of these brand-new in box today like an eBay that still be a pretty
Good deal
South guards are getting darn collectible
Gift problems solve them electronically yeah
it's still my go-to piece of advice for myself got pocket calculators a sweet-looking friggin dinner and watch a
Compact disc table clock which confuses me. I did not know that they sold those in stores
I've seen like a million iterations of this that people just make themselves
With like a clock kit and an old CD and put them together, but maybe at the time
It was more novel and worth $15. I don't know
Yeah, these little Franklin dealios. These are kind of neat actually I have a few of them like this one
You know the advanced spellchecker pretty much just a dictionary
Get some language translators a kid spell checker with built-in games
That would be pretty fun to look at dictionary thesaurus language trainer, so those are kind of neat
I pick those up sometimes when I find them in thrift stores and
Yeah, here we go here. Here's some of the cheaper junk that I really expected from RadioShack
And it always amuses me is like well. They're actually advertising some of this garbage like here's a $5
Flavor Radio yes these tasteful am radios for five bucks
including blackberry blueberry and strawberry
Yeah, I've got a blackberry
Am/fm bike radio with horn. That would have been amazing I woulda loved that as a kid. I was a weather radio, cube
I've run across one of these in a thrift store not too long ago
It's just like a little cube, and it's all clad in wood grain
And it's got a neat little button on the top
And it just picks up the weather or weather radio station up to 25 miles away. It's just a cube. It's like wood green
The colors of Christmas at a light display here
Little plasma ball, and that was on 90 staple definitely had one of those
Same with a strobe light we have this exact same one clad and woodgrain like that the same design and everything
I thought I think we got ours at Spencer's a
hundred caroling lights
Computerized lights when is this twenty one all-time favorite Christmas carols they dance in time with the music realistic keyboards now
That's something
I have never ever run across in a thrift store realistic is just not a brand that I see very often and as far as
keyboards
Rep like a pro this Christmas aha yeah with your $79
Realistic concert mate 800 wrap up your gift list
huh
With 25 tones 30 rhythms three drum pads dual sound scratch table and a mic
I'm using I'm not really sure how that works I'd kind of love to pick one of those up to be honest
and then I would send it to a bit keys because
That's just not my expertise area at all
Here we go though. These are awesome. I remember these little science kits is one of those things
It's like I wanted and then you get it. Just like I don't know what to do with this
I got chemistry set and I had one of those and I didn't know what to do with that
Oh here
We go LCD action games for all ages tabletop space alien table die baseball tabletop football
Executive consultant great for those difficult decisions. What was with these I?
Reviewed one of these on odd where it was a little different form factor obviously
But these executive consultant devices are confusing just the toss-up
You might as well use a magic 8-ball, which I did in that video stress Eliminator sound off during stressful situations with zapper
Ratatat alien laser shot bombs away quick shot or blaster
Why if there was an executive with one of those on his desk? I would probably be questioning the executive decisions
Anyway, we have some exciting action toys all of these like remember laser pistol and space pistol and laser sword and electronic
rifle
is all look like just the most generic things and
Honestly, that's kind of why I find them so charming like what is this puppy watch
It's not any branded anything. There's nothing tying this to anything
futuristic galactic man
electronic pick-up sticks
Handheld rap mic. There's another one of those things great gift for pint-sized rap masters
Let them rap like a pro. This is 1991 all right pet a bull radios. It's a radio inside of a stuffed animal
That's amusing oh
Here we go
These are pretty cool. That was one thing
I always loved going into Radio Shack for the 90s was because of all the remote-control cars sometimes
They would have them like like actually set up, and you could play them and stuff that was pretty rad
Remote-controlled dinosaur, that's a two foot tall dinosaur. That's pretty awesome. I would still buy one of those
I don't know who they contracted to like make these and maybe they made them in-house. I don't know it was seen on TV though
Turbo Raceway see battle spell in math
It's like a Speak & Spell that like not all these weird little not quite licensed things check this out
Stack challenge game stack the bricks, and win yeah, we can't call it Tetris. You know his Tetris
we know his Tetris, but we're not gonna tell you because
Issues
That's radios Jack. It's
It's wonderful
well that was the 90s, but let's go back even further and take a look at the
1979 Spring Sale from Radio Shack here starting with the
compact 2-way hi-fi speaker system by realistic with a trumpet I
Guess I don't know I mean why why is that there just because it has a tweeter
Put an instrument on there and all them automatically that's better either way. That's some fantastic covering for the speaker there and the wood grain
I'm hoping there's gonna be a lot of I know there's gonna be a lot of wood grain in here, so
All sorts of 8-track stuff straight away. We got Porter blade tracks
car 8-track players oh
Yeah, 8-track cartridge cases blank tapes and lazy's isn't sweet
Like it costs 259 for an 80-minute blank 8-track and a dollar ninety-nine for a 40-minute. This is pretty sweet 8-track deck with Dolby
Asterisk who's the asterisk I'll Dobby noise
reduction well of course
I don't know why I'll say it could have meant
With Dolby like like a guy named Dolby it comes with him
What does this come with vu meters dual lighted glow red during record orange during playback?
Oh, that's a cool feature. I like that anyway
Yeah, we got CB radios because of course I gotta say I like this one telephone type mobile CB
Like like I having a car phone except not yeah, man people want a car phone so bad
telephone type C V console that thing is
Intense imagine just going down the road and seeing somebody with a full-size like handheld telephone receiver
Like whoa? What does that person from the future? What is this this is 1979?
More stereos and these I gotta say are a million times more appealing than the ones in the 90s these look good
I would happily take any of these if they were like brand-new conditions even though they're realistic and probably not the best
Manual stereo phone. I want a pedestal the heck is this look at that thing
That's wild. I want that limited-edition sound Odyssey direct to disc enjoy these big hits
What star wars team evergreen 2001 theme theme from Rocky the way we were or the way we were
Chef themed SWAT team Lady Sings the Blues all on one record for 417 are 497 holy nuts. That's a
weird selection at the Disco sweep clean your records with a sweep disco Tron 1979
Disco all the things
Peak of the action with a pocket Skinner
VHF marine VHF, whether police fire all sorts of cool little things variable squelch
Yeah more things today. Need variable squelch as a feature FM radio cassette player for your car. That's pretty awesome
Like seriously that thing looks awesome. I like that a little indicator right there for ya easy view dual F
M dials dual dials. It's just like this thing
That's neat and these these folks here with their your supercool car that car's not really super cool at all
But I would still own it
The best an auto sound new super radar detector 200 bucks
Modern styled in - quartz digital car clock
Elegant style blends with any interior, that's elegant style right there. It's a rectangle oh
And
The centerfold is quite appropriate in this one - just wood grain for miles
- sensational stereo receiver buys those are both some slick looking receivers
I gotta say it's interesting to see like a shiny black with woodgrain like that. You know. I don't really see this
Super often. I usually see like at least some more
Silvery metal trim around the black if that's the case, but this was just like on black on woodgrain
I kind of like that it's nice
Okay, so all this is like the Radio Shack II type of components now you notice that was really kind of missing from the 90s
catalog
But this is what a lot of Radio Shack was known for especially in the 70s and 80s
Was just all of these little components like check it out. You can get a red LED here for a dollar twenty nine a tri-state
LED
Breadboards test clips cable kits toggle switches man. Just a toggle switch
Wood Green
Aluminum cabinet. I need that I don't even know what I would use it for I just need it
This is TV RF interface project board miniature TV transmitter except black and white or color video signal perfect for use
with micro computers and TV typewriters
and this these are some things that it can be kind of hard to get information on as far as pricing and
Like really nailed down specifics from a very specific time period one reason I love these catalogues oh
Oh, yeah, here we go
1979
the
trs-80 level - 16 K
Don't be surprised when it surprises you yes the wonderful trash 80 here for a thousand bucks as features
You don't expect from a computer costing under a grand now features like automatic line numbering sixteen digit accuracy and formatted print
New numeric keypad oh my god comes with a numpad. That's really cool
I was hoping that it had some computer ads in here and there is one
We're in a whole lot of computers to choose from and this is pretty much
the only one radio jack was selling at the time, so
Trs-80 quick printer now this is something. I've actually never seen what is that 150 lines per minute 20 40 or 80 characters per line?
learned program basic
statistical analysis double precision subroutines
Computers
And I you know not a game listed
Not a single piece of like interesting software as far as like what I would go for but that's okay
That's just great though equipped with accessories below it can fill many needs for the educator scientist program or even large business owner
You can tell who they were going for here educators scientists programmers and business owners
Got some little weather radios digital clocks a compact am/fm stereo system I see those from time to time at thrift stores. Those are
They're kind of appealing because they're just like a little small like electronic wood grain box that does the radio and it's about it
New
This is pretty interesting now 32 call automatic memory dialer makes calling push-button easy no more time wasted
To dialing numbers eliminates repeatedly looking up the same number ah what?
They programmed office mom married church jonbi babysitter pharmacy dentist service station bank broker weather
And of course you got your emergency stuff in there. It's an amusing list that they chose
It even dials area codes tells you the time elapsed as digital
Clock is the future guys and then these are just fun like old intercoms you ever find a good pair of
If all the intercoms a-- i'd recommend grabbing them and trying it out and here we go is more some more
Sciency things I get some science fair kits solid-state power supply with remote sensing. That's pretty sweet
photo relay detection system
Silent round-the-clock century works as an alarm against intruders put a beam of light to work for you. I
Love it
Custom design your own soldering iron. This is the kind of crap you
Just don't see anywhere anymore as far as like an actual store go on a Radio Shack and design your own soldering iron, man
This makes all the nerdiness just float up to the top you know, and I just want to
you know make a make a kits of electronics and
Just put it together, and it does nothing but make a sound
But I would be satisfied don't become a statistic smoke can kill you fire authorities studies show that most victims Redden's
Dire before the flames even reach them all man. Where is as is sale does that mean?
Deep price cuts on everything eyes close out stuff
So is the junk you really want to get rid of so here?
It is some really cheap like record players and am/fm things a mini pocket recorder a mini
micro mini set
micro mini set pocket recorder
Rechargeable drill that's cool didn't know that those were around at that point but sure
and they last little bit here than one plug on walkie-talkie because why not RadioShack and
We're close by come in and get your neighborhood store
Get acquainted all these states
There was not one in North Carolina where I am so I mean, maybe they were but it's not listed here
That's interesting. I thought that would have been more, but maybe this is just a small selection of
particular radio shacks
Well anyway that is really it for this particular episode of LG are just want to do it taking a look back add some Radio
Shack because it's fun and the companies
Well, and they're not doing well. I don't know what if they're gonna come back or not
But probably not and who knows so with Radio Shack. There's like a zombie of
electronic stores I
Kind of hope they do or at least somebody picks them up and does something with them, and they start selling those cool components again
Because it'd be nice just because it'd be nice to have a local alternative
But I hope that you enjoyed this episode and maybe it brought back some nostalgia for certain things
Devices software hardware all that kind of stuff, and if you did like this then perhaps
You'd like to see some of my other videos
Or we take a look at all sorts of things new and old because that's what I do and as always
Thank you very much for watching LGR