Radio Shack Tape Recorder Head Cleaner (Fluid)

A break from actual cassettes today. This bottle of Radio Shack (Tandy) Tape Recorder Head Cleaner fluid, from 1993, was actually part of a kit. In addition to this product, the kit contained a bottle of Head Lubricant of equal size, and ten long-reach swabs. In the year this was bought, the price of the kit was £2.69.

The Tandy range included quite a variety of maintenance products and accessories for audio cassette users in ’93. A Cassette Deck Demagnetizer and Cleaner, priced at £9.99, topped the range of maintenance artefacts. There was also a fluid plus cleaning tape kit at £1.99, cleaning fluid alone at 99p (different bottle from this one), a cleaning tape alone at 99p, a pack of swabs at 99p, and a replacement fluid pen at £1.99.

Among the more specialised products, was a Cassette Fast Winder (£3.49), with which you could rewind your tapes by hand whilst your cassette deck was still in use. There was also a Tape Splicing Kit (£3.99) which catered for both audio and video tape. The inevitable variety of storage solutions was also offered of course.

1993 That’s VX60 Audio Cassette

It’s been no secret on this blog that That’s tapes were among my very favourites. From the early 1990s, I used them more than any other brand, and I can’t remember a single instance in which they let me down in any serious way.

1993 PMD Magnetics Professional Audiocassette C15

Here’s a cracker from the 1990s – a PMD Magnetics Professional Audiocassette, which I think would probably have been manufactured in 1993 – the year I bought it. The ‘Professional’ designation hints at something fairly magnificent, so you’d expect at least a high bias Type 2 tape – if not a Type 4 metal job. However, this is in fact a normal bias Type 1, with a ferric formulation.