Ipso

Ipso was an Irish made breath mint that was popular in the UK in the 1970s and '80s and was briefly sold in the US. They came in Peppermint, Orange, Lime and Raspberry flavours. Spearmint and Cinnamon replaced Lime and Raspberry in the US.

They were most famous for their Lego-like boxes, which you could collect and stack. However, they had a very special use for drug users, who used them as stash boxes, leading to many American schools banning them. But overall, they never sold well in America and disappeared from US shelves by 1981. They lasted until the late 1980s in the UK.

They never had a large advertising presence in the US, but in the UK, they were noted for this classic TV ad.

How To Blow Your Mind And Have A Freak Out Party

I remember encountering this record at a vintage record shop I worked in back in the '80s. How To Blow Your Mind And Have A Freak Out Party (in that order?) is one of the very first records that I suspect was deliberately targeted towards the "chemically altered". And as you would expect, the stereo left/right panning is used codependently. And to extremes.

Nothing else is known about The Unfolding and it's not clear if they were an actual group or a one-off assembling of studio musicians.

But without the psychoactive drugs, this record doesn't induce much more than a headache. But if you got 'em (or just curious), you can hear it here.

Oneophile Records

If you're a beer guzzler, this probably isn't for you. So go back to your Motley Crue albums. I'll have something for you later on this week.

This one's for the classy people....

If you love wine, fine cuisine and the good life, you'll be happy to know through the miracle of the vinyl LP record, selecting and serving wine has never been easier.

In the late 1960s, a couple albums were released targeting the oneophile or wine connoisseur.  The first is On Wine by Peter Sichel (Columbia Special Products, 1966).

(This is Side One of this album. Side Two, which isn't included had light classical and jazz music. Presumably the stuff that goes good with wine.)

 

Basically, if you're confused on what wine to serve with what food, these records will set you straight. I for one am not a huge wine drinker (more of a beer or bourbon type.) 

 

Tho other is The Joy Of Wine by Alex Lichine (MGM Records, 1967)

 

 

 You can hear the complete double album here. (Thanks to WFMU's Beware of The Blog.)

The Phono-Sonic Fireplace/Liquor Cabinet Stereo

 

It looked like a gorgeous (artificial) fireplace.....

.....that turns into an awesome stereo/liquor cabinet.

The Phono-Sonic Liquor Cabinet/Stereo w/ artificial fireplace is one of the coolest designs ever for a console stereo. Surprisingly, it was also made and imported from communist East Germany for the American market. Like the Soundesign Trendsetter, they are extremely rare in good condition.

They originally came with 3 speed turntables (33/45/78 RPM) AM/FM Stereo receivers and 8-Track tape decks, but cassette decks were added in the late '70s. The speakers were enclosed behind the red velvet and latticework on either side of the fireplace. The cheese points are off the scale with this one!

 

The ChannelScan Remote Control

 

Sometime in the mid-1970s, somebody had a great idea.

Almost.

You see, while the very first TV remote controls came out in the early 1950s, they were seen mostly on the most expensive and highest end models.

The Zenith "Lazy Bones" Remote Control (1950)

And went wireless by 1956.

The worst thing about photocell remotes is when the sun reflected across the TV screen, the channel would suddenly change too.

They were featured throughout the 1960s, but it wasn't until addition of volume and finer tuning controls in the 1970s that they became a mandatory item to have.

And it was probably soul crushing to watch your neighbour brag about his/her new TV with a remote control while you're still getting up every half hour to walk seven feet or so to change the channel.

But even if they could afford a Zenith Space Command console with the full featured remote, they often also had to put up with a remoteless cable box like this every month too. Which seriously negated any real benefit from remote control TVs until full cable frequency tuning remote TVs came out in the '80s.

But thanks to our never ending source of modern miracles, the As Seen On TV commercial, now you can turn that clicky-chunky channel knob into a sleek remote control.

This beast operated by attaching onto the VHF channel selector knob, using an AC powered motor to physically tune the VHF channel knob. It also controlled power, but it did not tune the UHF selector knob, fine tune or control volume or picture adjustments. There was no on-screen menu. The remote used a switch button to move the selector up and around the VHF TV dial and to power off.

But unfortunately, it had one 25 foot drawback, it wasn't wireless. This presented countless hazard problems with the elderly, running kids and pets in the living room and accidents happened. Painful ones. (Zenith went to wireless for a reason, I guess.)

I remember seeing the TV commercials for this thing. I'm not sure how long this was available, but I imagine it was pretty much DOA.

Also see: Controla-Tone (1955)

Super Cool Psychedelic Vinyl Record

Plastic Infinite from Sculpture on Vimeo.

The Return of Generic Products

Photo from Reddit

Apparently, generic products are making a return at Walmart....

The Wurlitzer C-110

The Wurlitzer C-110 (1972) was an unusual jukebox. Instead of playing 45 RPM records, it played cassette tapes.

The cassette tape was still a very new invention in the early '70s and it would be another decade before they rivaled the vinyl LP. This could play ten cassettes, individual sides or whole cassettes. 

This video shows the mechanics of this jukebox and while it claims there were cassette singles for this machine, the cassette single was a product of the '80s. More likely, it played entire albums on cassette, as 20 songs is a pretty pathetic selection for any jukebox. 

The Star Wars Question & Answer Book About Computers (1983)

"Internet Radio"

And a little white "earbud" too!

 Don't expect to connect this to your wi-fi and hear your favourite podcast.

This radio was made in the late 1960s. And it's a standard AM transistor radio. That's all. Radios like this were the iPods of their day and your 20 song playlist came courtesy of your favourite local Top 40 radio station (almost all of them on AM radio in those days.)

And at the time, what we would later call the internet was then called "ARPANET" And strictly for military and government use only. Computers in the 1960s were extremely huge (often taking up an entire large room and hopelessly limited and underpowered - by 1981 standards!) and were rarely seen outside a laboratory. The very few civilian computers never connected to anything.

The Honeywell 316 was the world's first consumer marketed computer (1969). It was essentially a $10,600 recipe box and pencil. Exactly the thing you want to give someone who allegedly can't cook very well. It had no online connectivity.

 That's not to say people weren't dreaming. Note the "flat screen monitors".

While it's almost spooky to consider someone could use a word that would be so ubiquitous 30 years before it's general use, I think "Internet" just sounded like a fancy hi-tech name for a cheap UK electronics brand at the time this radio was made. (I'd have a hard time with the "time traveler" theory.)

More on the discovery of this radio with a very futuristic name here:

http://www.markhillpublishing.com/the-internet-transistor-radio/

Christmas Tinner

 If you just can't put down the game controller of the PS4 or X-Box One Santa (may) bring you for Christmas, I have GREAT news.

Layer one – Scrambled egg and bacon
Layer two – Two mince pies
Layer three – Turkey and potatoes
Layer four – Gravy
Layer five – Bread sauce
Layer six – Cranberry sauce
Layer seven – Brussel sprouts with stuffing – or broccoli with stuffing
Layer eight – Roast carrots and parsnips
Layer nine – Christmas pudding

No need to break out the "good" dishes, just eat it right out of the can! (But then again, when your idea of interior decorating include fake bookshelf wallpaper, who needs formality?)

 Sadly for the rest of us, it's only available in the UK.... And completely SOLD OUT this year.....

http://www.game.co.uk/en/game-christmas-tinner-181968?pageSize=20&categoryIdentifier=10210

The Strange and Mysterious History of the Ouija Board

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Strange-and-Mysterious-History-of-the-Ouija-Board-229532101.html

Toilet Paper Dispenser Radio

A basic AM transistor radio.....Perfect for listening to average AM radio stations these days......And in the RIGHT place.

Vision Dieter Glasses

In the early '80s. a new diet fad swept Japan and America. The Vision-Dieter glasses.

The glasses had blue tinted lens. The idea was they made food look unappetizing (after all, outside of candy, blue is not a very appetizing colour for food.....at least for most adults.)

The reality was they just made the world around you a pretty shade of blue. Nothing more.
  

OK Soda

Pringles Can Speaker

Thighmaster

One of the most memorable infomercials of the '90s, starring babe-o-rama Suzanne Somers and her new gadget, the Thighmaster.

You can see she was having a great time with this thing. And so does her doctor. Hmmm......

During the height of this infomercial's popularity, Alice In Chains released their classic Dirt album. In the opening lyrics of the first single "Would?", everyone thought they said......

"Help me/I've broken my Thighmaster....."

Vibra-Finger

Ewww.......

World War II Mickey Mouse Gas Masks

On December 7th, 1941, Japanese pilots dropped a bomb on the Pearl Harbor military base, which is one of the main reasons that drove the United States into World War II. After this incident, many Americans feared that the Axis would attack their soil.

To protect its population, the government distributed gas masks to the state of Hawaii. Unfortunately, there were only adult-sized masks. Children had trouble wearing the large gas masks and many were terrified of the safety device’s look.

As a solution, gas masks were created and issued shaped as Mickey Mouse. The masks were designed in mind so that children would wear them at all times and carry them as a game.

That was the intention anyway. Personally these things look scarier than the regular gas masks.

Fortunately, the 1000 Mickey masks that were made never had to be used.

It Seemed Like A Good Idea - Part 2

Now here was a disaster waiting to happen: The packaging was nice, a prepackaged gourmet meal (utterly the biggest oxymoron) and a little bottle of wine. There was just one problem. The wine wasn't for drinking, it was for preparing the meal with....

Yes...THIS existed in the '70s too.......

An actual food product of the '70s.....Gerber Singles.....for ADULTS.....