Avocado Memories: Photos of long-forgotten blank cassettes

Sadly, I only found pics of them on the internet. The Axias are available on eBay for $20-ish, though.

 

The Fuji tapes were great, and inexpensive. They became my go-to cassettes and VHS tapes right near the end of that era.

 

I can imagine how awful that Metal IV tape is. Memorex tapes were the WORST! They used a large head pad that had a foam backing instead of spring loading like EVERY OTHER CASSETTE TAPE EVER MANUFACTURED. The foam backing deteriorated in a matter of just a couple years redering the tapes virtually useless.

My brother Michael taught me how to resurrect Memorex tapes - the tape formulations themselves of the MRX2 and MRX3 oxide tapes weren't actually that bad, but the pad design made them unusable. He would buy a three pack of cheap "Certron" or whatever tapes at the drug store or Woolworth or Kmart - lots of examples here. But make sure that they had screws holding them together. Open up the cheapo cassette, break the Memorex shell (they were glued not screwed) and move the actual tape into the cheapo. Even the worst drugstore tapes had better mechanisms in them with an actual spring loaded head pad.

 

The Scotch BX series really were mediocre! They were made by Swire Magnetics from Hong Kong after 3M/Scotch got out of making audio cassettes and outsourced, Swire was best known for the Laser brand cassettes for their own brand. Terrible. The tape had nothing to do with 3M's other cassettes or tape made for other formats.

I can't remember who made the CX cassettes (I think SKM in Korea) and they were much better, but not great. Nippon Columbia/Denon in Japan made their XS series for a few years - just rebadged Denon tapes that were excellent. 3M/Scotch then outsourced to SKM in Korea for the XS line and not as good as the Denon tapes. 3M kept Denon as an OEM later for their 3M Blackwatch "professional" line 2020/4040 High and Metal tapes that were branded newer tech Denons (wide window) and were also excellent tapes.

I knew someone who used to work at 3M in the magnetic tape business before it was spun off as Imation. They said they simply could not compete on cost with the Japanese and Korean makers for raw materials, so they got out of audio cassettes and later VHS tape for the same reasons.

Apparently, 3M/Scotch also made tape in Japan for the local market and some export with their joint venture Sumitomo 3M with US technology, but some unique branding there, prior to outsourcing in the mid 80s.

 

Yes, those Memorex cassettes were just bad. I bought all of the formulations to try and it was clear the company just didn't get "it". The shells were bad, but would have been bad for the 1970s, but these were from in the late 1980s, and by then TDK, Maxell, Fuji, Sony, Denon, etc. were all making state of the art, high quality shells. The Metals were hard to find and that was good, because they were pretty bad! Also, the dark cassette boxes made the J-card harder to read.

These style shells swore me off of Memorex - too many problems, before even factoring sound quality. I never even bothered with their VHS tapes.

Made me really appreciate the favorites like the TDK SA & MA, Maxell XLII, various Denon and their 3M/Scotch variants I used a lot.

 

Nice photos posted!

Funny to see the odd brands like That's (Taiyo Yuden - the same one who made good Japanese CD-Rs), I had a few, but were branded Triad in the US for the first years.

Axia was a the other brand of Fujifilm in Japan. Didn't see those here in the US.

Around here That's, Fuji/Fujifilm, Denon were less common to find, but certain retailers sold the later two.

TDK, Maxell, Memorex, some Sony formulae, 3M/Scotch, BASF, and of course, Radio Shack/Supertape were pretty easy to find here. The first two were often easy to find including the less popular formulation/lengths. The other brands often sold the most popular formulations only but at many places.

Other more obscure brands of tape like Konica, JVC, 3M's Blackwatch and the less popular formulations/lengths of the commonly available brands listed above were often sold in small hi-fi or record stores only.

Some of the electronics' branded cassettes like Panasonic/Technics, Pioneer, Kenwood, Yamaha, Hitachi that were often rebranded tapes were very, very rare to see here. I did find some Panasonic tapes that were both made by them (they were a big producer of video cassettes, and a few high cassettes) once and a Pioneer tape (made by Fujifilm) once. Most of these tapes I have seen were traveling in Japan or Europe.

 

Axia Cassettes

Sorry for the lapse in posting cassette porn, work sometimes gets in the way of life. At any rate, needed to finish up some loose ends, like the remaining Axia cassettes I have. I already posted PS-IIs 50 and PS-IIx 54 in the Big Wheels post. Here's others:

HD-Master 90
Axia HD-Master 90

GT-IIx 90, both this and the type I GT were available in either black or white. I chose black for type II and white for type I.
Axia GT-IIx 90

GT-Ix 46
Axia GT-Ix 46

PS-IIs 70, came in a slim case, not that you couldn't tell by looking at the shell.
Axia PS-IIs 70

 

3M Cassettes

3M came a long way from their Passport cassette of decades earlier (also posted earlier in this thread).

4040 74
3M 4040 74

 

Here's an ad for one of the first portable cassette players for the consumer market, by Norelco.
This ad ran in the Aug. 31, 1968, issue of Billboard magazine. (Note the pre-recorded cassette of "A Hard Day's Night.")

 

Man, I wonder how many cases of these I bought in my youth???

 

Well, the ad shows Hard Day's Night, but the free ("for just $2.95") cassette offer is for King Richard's Fluegel Knights, rather than the Beatles:

https://www.discogs.com/King-Richards-Fluegel-Knights-Something-Super/master/384349

Craig.

 

Another industry ad from Norelco, fall 1968. (This one shows pre-recorded cassettes for the soundtracks to "Gone With The Wind" and "A Hard Day's Night.")

 

Another ad from 1968, this one likening cassettes to prostitutes! (Pre-packaged goods designed to hang on pegboard hooks in retail stores were sometimes called "hookers" by retailers and wholesalers.)

Hook this beauty to your rack ... This little money maker can wear your label ... Put her on display and watch the action ... We'll see that you're services promptly."

 

These are all total ripoffs of the Fuji tape line in the 90s.

 

Last two mixtapes I've made have been on TDK super avilyns (NOS). Liked them then, and still do now

 

Here's a tape I found recently for fifty cents while browsing some used cassette tapes. BASF Checkpoint Cleaning Cassette, made in England. It came with an accordion-style foldout booklet with lots of info tape care, whether pre-recorded or blanks. Sections included: Your Recorder, Your Cassettes, Splicing Materials, Splicing & Editing, Salvage Cassettes, Testing, Checkpoint Accessories.

 

Wtf is that, a multi-play unit?

 

Yep. Played up to six cassettes, one after the other and would shut off automatically after the last tape ended. I suspect it was used almost exclusively by retailers that played a mix of music and promo/sales messages over the store's public-address system.

 

What'll they think of next?!?

 

Plays like some horrific scene out of Mad Men.

Wow. Just, wow.

 

Those are Fujifilm tapes! AXIA was another brand Fujifilm used that primarily big in Japan. kinda like Chevrolet and Pontiac, same company and really same product, different branding. Was not sold in the USA, just Fujifilm.

 

I have a few of these tapes and the 2020 high bias. Made by Denon in Japan for 3M, same as Denon HDM. the 2020 high bias were Denon HD7 if I am correect.

Really great tapes. Very rare to see back in the day around here. Bought a few as curiosity knowing they were Denon made and had great success with the prior generations of Scotch XSII and XSMIV also made by Denon.

 

Funny to see ads for Norelco branded cassette recorders, as they were long gone as a kid, despite the cassette box being called a 'Norelco box' in the USA. I knew Norelco was Philips' made brand (until Magnavox in the 80s) in the USA and they invented the cassette, but Philips were nowhere to be found in the USA until the mid-80s when I stumbled upon some PDM blank cassettes made the joint venture of Philips & DuPont, who also was famous for the PDO pressed CDs that were so ubiquitous from 1985-1990 from major record labels.

For non-Americans, Norelco was the US consumer electornics brand for Philips due to trademark issues with Philco-Ford, until they acquired the US rights in the 80s. Philips was somewhat known in the US for light bulbs and industrial electrics (and a record label) at the time, but largely unknown in the US vs. the household name it had in the rest of the world including Canada. The Philips brand for consumer electronics then became heavily used, after attempting to use 'Magnavox' on Philips products after acquiring the formerly American company. Norelco is most associated with electric shavers in the US and not any other consumer electronics. Magnavox has all but disappeared in the US, after being co-marketed with Philips. As Philips became a mainstream electronics brand in the US, it was co-branded sometimes as Philips Magnavox or Philips Norelco.

 

MA-XG were great.

 

They were consumer players. I've talked to a few people that owned them.