Realistic (Radio Shack) Flavoradios

Magic Slate

Let's face it. You loved these when you were a little kid. But only for a few hours. Because that was the average life of a Magic Slate.

Magic Slate peel back dry erase boards were ubiquitous at supermarkets. And sold for less than 98¢ each.

They came with a plastic stylus, with which you drew or wrote something on the Magic Slate. What most kids were NEVER told (or just plain ignored) was any kind of pressure you put on the stylus tip would create a permanent groove in the cardboard backing, rendering those spots ruined and unusable. 

Eventually, the whole board would be destroyed by the end of the day......

The McLean Deluxe

Corning Ware Cornflower Cookware

Is it just me or did EVERY family have a set of these in the '60s and '70s? They were EVERYWHERE. And STILL easy to find today on eBay and in most second hand stores. They sold nearly a billion sets. from 1953 to 1983 when they discontinued this iconic pattern.

RCA Colour Record Labels of The '70s

In 1968, RCA Records made some radical changes to the then 70 year old record label/electronics manufacturer.

His Master's Voice, the iconic dog and gramophone image that appeared on every RCA record and phonograph since 1900 was retired. In it's place were the letters "RCA" in modern block lettering.

This outraged many collectors. Nipper was being replaced by an ugly bland orange label! How could RCA do this?

Next to the even bigger howl from music fans when RCA's infamous Dynaflex vinyl was unveiled in 1971 (a super thin lightweight vinyl record which RCA claimed to be "the record of tomorrow"), RCA was constantly criticized for their corporate-heavy cheapness and questionable product.

To me, Dynaflex had it's good and bad. It WAS quieter. Even after 40 years, many of my old Dynaflex albums still have very little surface noise. But sonically, it was also quieter too, so you had to turn up the volume. And the ugly by-product of that; Because it was so thin, it tended to pick up any rumble from older turntable motors more acutely. Many automatic record changers some people used often dropped two Dynaflex records if they were played on them

But I consider this period to be RCA's most unique. RCA had established a series of sub-labels, all with different colours. I want to create a rainbow mosaic of all of them because they simply look cool when you put them all together.

Here's a small sample of these '70s colour labels from the US and from around the world.

The US:

Beginning in 1968, this label replaced the iconic black "Nipper" label. This was used for RCA's main rock/pop and country line

 

Silver: To my knowledge, this metallic silver label was only used for this album.

RCA Red Seal was their Classical/Opera label

RCA Camden was used mostly for non-rock back catalog releases. It was ended in 1974 when RCA briefly transferred it's Camden line for distribution through Pickwick Records briefly until 1977.

RCA Victrola was used for back catalog classical and opera reissues

RCA Pure Gold was another reissue label for special low budget compilations

RCA Quardradisc was used for special Quadraphonic albums

RCA Educational was used for schools and music education. It's actually one of the harder to find labels of this era

RCA Special Products was used for TV-offer albums and special releases

White RCA Promo labels were used for radio stations

Tan RCA Victor labels were used initially for their Special Products line, but in 1975-76 they were a "transitional" label they used before returning to a modernized black label with Nipper. Which they would use until 1988.

                             
From Around The World:

RCA Lineatre was used in Europe for special releases

RCA Lineatres: From Portugal

RCA Vik labels have been seen from many countries around the world, but none from the US. I've usually seen these labels on Mexican and Australian releases

RCA Italiana: Label for the Italian market. Mostly of Italian artists with a few international stars

This was a single label used for international releases in some countries

RCA Australia: For Australian recording artists

RCA Arc: Another Italian subsidiary

RCA International: European imprint, similar to Camden

German Black label

British RCA Gold Seal

I've seen other colours, including purple, maroon and dark brown (from Asia), but I can't find any either in my own collection or online to add here. But here's one more

I used to be curious about the Musicor's '70s label almost creepy similarity to the RCA label of the time. It reminded me of another little copycat label

But as it turned out, RCA DID manufacture Musicor during the '70s until 1977......