Ah, those were the days. Stacks of video cassettes with the programs recorded written on the side.
Wandering around Blockbuster for a film to watch that night....
I used to earn a nifty living repairing video recorders. 9 times out of 10 it was a jam or the spinning heads needed cleaning
The cheap video cassettes left all their poorly bonded oxide on them.
Still got around 300 VHS cassettes all boxed, in the garage - what am I to do with them? Certainly can't throw them away.
When I was working at the high school, one of the regular jobs was to remove part sandwiches, banana skins, sweet wrappers, pens, pencils etc. shoved it the slot by the little bastards, and leading on from that, repair the tapes that had been shredded by the foreign objects. I got quite dab had at splicing tapes back together and/or removing the damage sections - played havoc with the video/sound synch for a few seconds, but better than nothing.
When I bought one of the first VHS machines to enter the UK, it was an Akai and came with a 30 minute tape, which I still have and was good quality. The machine is long gone, but do have the unique embossed "AKAI" brown velvet mat you laid on the top to keep dust out of the machine.- can't find a picture of one, or a listing , so am wondering if that is quite rare.
Comet tapes were one of the cheap and nasty ones.
1947............... I wonder what Ripe Brown smelt like
God knows what the "Curlies" was made from.
For the shorter pipe, possibly?
The secret home remedy was a revolver.
Strychnine, apparently.
Small dosses., I guess.
Quote: Lazzard @ 19th August 2022, 8:53 PMI was more of a Bayko boy myself.
My dad bought some bloke's collection from a junk shop.
Bloody massive it was - despite a few missing pieces.
Never enough corner bricks, I seem to remember.
Ironically it was taken over by Meccano, but they stopped making it in the early 60's - so by the time I got my hands on the stuff, there were no spares to be had - apart from what you'd find knocking about in junk shops etc.
Never heard of this before either! Fascinating.
By the name I presume it would have been made of bakelite. Or Polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride to be exact. It was used by electricians as an insulating product but was later superceded by paxolin.
I can just about remember sparkles telling me bakelite was dodgy stuff.
Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ 25th August 2022, 5:48 PMBy the name I presume it would have been made of bakelite.
Thats right.
It was quite ingenious and took a bit of pre-planning because you had to build the 'bones' of the structure with steel rods inserted into a base.
Back in 2004 (when eBay was a relatively new concept) I bought a large wooden box of pre-war Bayko pieces from an antique shop in Wimborne for £80. Bloomin' heavy to carry back to my car it was too. I sold it on eBay for £339.21. 300% profit. Less tax of course. The buyer drove over 100 miles to my house to collect it, which saved me the worry of how to send it in those days when couriers weren't so easily accessible.
Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 21st August 2022, 12:32 AMI'm surprised Bill, as Bayko was very big in the post war/1950s period, but there's no way they would have been suitable for a train layout.
And I quote :-
Over its lifespan, both Plimpton and Meccano Bayko was exported across the world, and, besides being a toy, it attracted a modest adult following that still exists today. A healthy trade in original Bayko sets and parts also exists today, with some enthusiasts even casting their own Bayko pieces.
I was abroad, Germany, Egypt and Cyprus, most of the 50s. I don't think it was an available toy for Services children, and I don't recall Bayko from the nearly 2 years I lived in Blackpool, too interested in primitive electronics at the time.
Nowadays, a single teabag costs about the same as a full pound of tea in those days. I blame Brexit and Putin. Both have tea-related form, having been responsible for many a previous 'brew'-haha.
