3 ms·
The original Fisher-Price "Record Player" is really a kids version of a Polyphon [0] a type of record like music player that was popular in the late 1800's to e
by pmorici 5y ago
The original Fisher-Price "Record Player" is really a kids version of a Polyphon [0] a type of record like music player that was popular in the late 1800's to early 1900's. You can see some playing on YouTube [1]
I thought it would be interesting to 3D print additional records for the thing. Was super disappointed when I bought one for our daughter last year and found that they had changed it to a digital music player that only uses the records for song selection.
A lot of the modern day versions of the original Fisher-Price toys don't hold up to the originals. For example on the xylophone they replaced the Wood base with plastic and the thing sounds like crap.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphon
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk4zjQshq14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk4zjQshq14
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soQLAvqnTOQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soQLAvqnTOQ
- bink 5y agoIt sucks how cheaply kid's toys are made these days, but there are companies that stand out by making things that last. When my kid was little we bought a lot of Melissa & Doug toys because they were actually made of wood and would survive multiple children.
- bluGill 5y agoIf you want music toys for kids look to hohner http://hohnerkids.com/ http://hohnerkids.com/. They make a line that are real musical instruments. They tune their xylophone for example. They are still cheap plastic, but the quality is good enough for real music.
- agumonkey 5y agoThese large polyphons sounds superbly full to me. full metal not so compact disc :) I mean really.. ave maria is a little magical https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu4FWixsUM8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu4FWixsUM8 gosh
- chadcmulligan 5y agoFound a little talk and play by Wintergatan (the guy who built the musical marble machine) of a polyphon in a museum in The Netherlands https://youtu.be/LyXY4Bz3PLs https://youtu.be/LyXY4Bz3PLs
- pmorici 5y agoO yeah, his tours of that museum are really great. The original Fisher Price player worked exactly the same as the one they show in that video with a little gear that coupled the records to the comb.
- nebula8804 5y agoSometimes I feel as if there will be a trend to go back to these amazing mechanical devices as technology consumes more and more of the world. We are already seeing it with the rise of Vinyl and using dumb phones.