Basic Fun Fisher Price Record Player

My parents still have my 30 year old music box record player and it still works great -so we were pleased when someone gave us this new "classic" version as a gift for our boys.It does have a similar look and feel, but if you really want the original be warned that this is not the same toy.Engineering analysis follows below.As a toy though, the kids love it and it is reasonably durable.They will need help operating it when younger but it does give them that sense of tactile control of the music that the original was renowned for.

I was perplexed as to why this needed batteries and why the discs looked different than I remembered though, so I took a closer look yesterday at it:

The original player had a real music box in the record player "head", and the bumps on the discs would strike the teeth of the music box, producing the notes, which echoed in the box chamber.The discs turned via manual wind-up.A brilliant re-imagining of the music box in a record player format, not unlike a real record player in how it worked, and a highly cherished toy.

Evidently someone realized that it was far less expensive to use a 25 cent memory chip and a speaker instead of all those mechanical parts (study though they were), so the new player works as follows:

The record head has four pressable buttons which line up with four ridge positions on the discs

Each disc no longer has "bumps" for notes, but instead simply has a combination of four continuous ridges

The memory chip identifies which disc is being played by the ridges depressing the buttons

The wind-up still turns the disc manually, but all it does is tell the speaker to play while turning.

So, if no ridge being present is 0, and a ridge is 1, then Humpty Dumpty might be 0-1-0-1 while London Bridge might be 1-1-1-0 and so on.Hence the appearance of the discs.

You don't really need the disc at alls just wind it up (so the chip knows the music is "on"), and press the buttons under the head with your fingers to activate different songs.

All of this is invisible to toddlers, of course, but adults may miss the faster and slower variations of the original and be annoyed at having to now use three batteries in what was once a battery-less toy.

I was so excited to see this record player reissued as I loved this toy while growing up.Ultimately, I purchased at at a brick and mortar store after waiting for it to become available through amazon.com.Beware, it is not of the same quality as the original, nor is it as durable.Gone are the music box tines from the original, replaced with most likely a memory chip (if you have the old records, you will be unable to use them with this player).The record player has also stopped in the middle of playing multiple times despite using fresh batteries, and the machine being properly wound.For a better sense of nostalgia, you would be better served finding a vintage one at a garage sale or elsewhere online.

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We bought this product for our daughter for her second birthday because both my wife and I had the original as kids.The new product is far inferior to the original and here's why:1) The new product is NOT a music box like the original.2) Because of #1, the new product requires batteries.3) My Aunt still has one of the original products and it has better sound!Yes, 40 years later and the music box sounds better than the cheap digital recording.4) You still have to "wind" the new toy (I won't call it a music box because its not) just to make the "record" spin even though all sound is electronic.5) The switch to start/stop the music has a cheap feel and sometimes doesn't work.Finally......this product costs $29.99 at Meijer so DON'T PAY $59.99 on line!!!!Bottom line, I am returning this product in favor of buying an original on e-bay.Thanks for a ruining another childhood favorite!

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This toy is just a cheap knock-off of the original--though the price is anything but cheap at $30.00.It doesn't even have a music box, but instead uses a digital speaker.The buttons under the "needle head"select the tune. Th mechanical portion of the toy is not reliable--it frequently sticks so that the tunes stop and start unpredictably.The new door for the "records" feels like it will break every time it is opened, and the yellow mechanical on-off switch doesn't switch reliably.In short, the build quality is cheap.The whole thing feels like a $3 chinese imitation, which, in the end, is what it is.The kids stopped playing playing with it after a few minutes because it was so unreliable.This was a sore disappointment, since grandma has a 30-year-old original version that works perfectly, and it is always the favored toy when we visit.Fisher Price advertises this as "The original 1971 Fisher Price Change-A-Record Music Box", which is not true.

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When I ordered the player for my 3 year old I was so excited to share something from my childhood with my son.But when we opened it on Christmas day I was extremely disappointed.The chime reader that my record player came with has now been replaced with something much less nostalgic.It's computerized inside but still needs to be wound up frequently!!! And the sound is very mechanical and not sweet sounding from the chimes like I remember.Do not buy this newly re released product is you are trying to connect your children with your childhood.You'll be very disappointed and empty pocketed!