Every now and then I encounter something that genuinely makes me take a moment and reflect on just how damn clever human beings can be. Usually when I get this sort of feeling it’s in response to something pretty simple as opposed to some colossal engineering project. Something like how old air-cooled Volkswagens powered their windshield washers with air pressure from the spare tire. That’s clever and unexpected! Just like how this ’70s to ’80s French Toyota brochure I want to show you is clever and unexpected, because the thing turns into a damn working phonograph!
I was sent a video of this thing (by Joshua, so thank you for that) being unfolded and working, and I’ve been obsessed ever since. The problem is I just can’t seem to find more information about it anywhere! I’m not even entirely sure what year it may be from, but I have a guess, which we’ll get into soon.
First, though, you need to see what the hell I’m talking about, so, please, watch:
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Putain de merde, right? This is one of the coolest assemblages of paper, wire, and plastic I think I’ve ever seen. I know now it would be possible to have a little digital audio chip with flash memory and a small battery and speaker that could likely reproduce much better audio, but there’s something downright magical about being able to play back recorded sounds with zero electronics, just using your finger, a needle, some groves pressed into a disc, and a bit of cardboard.
Let’s look at this thing. Folded up, it’s quite flat, with some one-color (reddish) printing on gray cardstock, and that record disk peeking through, with the suggestion to “lift gently” at the corner, promising instructions on the back.
It’s also telling us that the new Carina and Celica are beautiful, and we should come see them and that Toyota is worth trying! When we open it, the instructions tell us how to place the needle on the record to make the magic happen, magic which I’ll break down here, though I’m about certain all of you know how this works:
I mean, the whole process of phonography is so clever and straightforward it makes me dizzy. A small needle follows specially-placed grooves in a vinyl record, creating physical vibrations that become sound waves. I love it. And this is such a fabulous use of this phenomenon, as that voice tells us how great the Celica and Carina are.
This sort of thing wasn’t unheard of, of course; cereal boxes had cardboard records on them for years, though, unlike this Toyota brochure, they had no means to play the record, relying on the cereal/music-enjoyer to have a record player of their own (a chimp was nice to have, too, but not strictly necessary):
So, when was this thing likely made? I think we have a clue based on the drawings of the cars, which look to be second-generation Celicas and Carinas. The Carina, by the way, was not something we ever got in America; it was essentially the sedan version of the Celica.
Anyway, the second generation of these cars was introduced in 1977, and since the copy on the brochure refers to the cars as “les nouvelles” I take that to mean they were new then, so my guess for this thing is around 1977.
Those do seem to be the cars shown in the illustrations. I’m pretty sure we’re looking at something from 1977, perhaps 1978 here. But I’m not certain.
I’m reaching out to Toyota as well to try and get some more information; if anyone in the vast Autopian Brain Trust knows anything, I’d love to hear it, too.
Phonographic recording in the automotive world had a sort of mild renaissance in the late 1970s and early 1980s for Japanese brands; aside from this charming brochure, we had Nissan’s phonograph-operated voice alert system:
Amazing stuff.
I really hope I can find out more about this; was this the only one? Did other manufacturers use similar setups for their brochures? How many of these were made? Was this a French-market only thing? I want to know.
Top Image: Toyota/JP_dolv (Instagram)
Reminds me of when we made our own record players at science camp (yes, I went to science camp, no, I don’t have any “this one time at science camp” stories). You stuck a pin through various pieces of paper cups, plates, bowls, and such, and then held the pin on the record. We cheated and used a power turntable to spin the record, but it was very cool.
The most clever option (which sadly I can’t claim to have come up with) was tearing up one of the plates and dropping the pieces in a bowl. It wasn’t the loudest, but it was the only one with any kind of bass.
Ironically, you just told the “this one time at science camp” story you didn’t have.
That was a reference to the American Pie “this one time at band camp” story, which was significantly more lewd than anything that happened at my summer camps. 🙂
That is totally wild. A simple gimmick that was as impressive then as it is now.
Not to be a cynic, but I’ve seen direct drive turntables before. Seriously, that’s awesome!
That Celica reminds me of a young lady who had one… we spent a couple of hours making out on a blanket in the sunshine among the trees. I was much, much younger then. Unfortunately, she moved away not long after that.
Is it bad to say that this feels like something that Citroën should’ve come up with?
The cardboard gramophone is really clever.
Someone get one of these to Techmoan, STAT.
This is the sort of thing that deserves a revival.
As a Vinyl Member I can’t wait to get my hand-cranked Autopian disc in the mail.
It’s a recording of me saying various insults.
I think I would pay for that a reasonable low amount of money
Yes. You should probably should save your money for when you’re released.
It’s C’est Lica. C’est Lica!
I remember that Carinas were sold in the U.S. for two years, 1972-1973.
Only as a 2-door, at that. There was a gap in Toyota’s US product line for a 2-door post sedan (not a hardtop coupe, there was a Corona hardtop and the Celica) bigger than a Corolla. Or at least that’s what they probably thought looking at how many 2-door 510s Datsun was selling. For 1974 the redesigned Corona lineup included a 2-door sedan, for just that one generation which wasn’t popular because what those buyers really wanted was a slightly bigger Corolla which arrived for ’75.
Yes. I owned two of the two door Carinas at the same time. Great cars.
Considering that generation of Celica and Carina started production in Aug 1977, and was first available in Europe in Dec 1977 – That brochure would have been for 1978 models.
I remember those Post cereal box records! As for the Toyota record-card thing, this is really no different than an old Victrola record player from the late 19th century. They had no electronics at all – just a needle attached to a big voice cone and a windup spring to spin the disc.
“some groves pressed into a disc, and a bit of cardboard.”
Um, I think the groves were eventually made into the cardboard, unless the disc was also made of a wood product.
Groves that grew hundreds of millions of years ago, got buried, turned into fossil fuels and eventually vinyl.
As a kid, I remember learning that you could play records with a sewing needle, piece of paper/tape, and a pencil (tape needle to paper and form cone around it; pencil jammed in record hole becomes a spindle, enjoy).
This is the same principle, but executed so much more elegantly. I wonder how much one of these would go for on ebay or the like. Wouldn’t mind adding it to my record collection.
if you spin it backwards you hear “Paul’s Camry is dead now, miss it, miss it.”
on a more serious note, I hope we can find more info about this thing or if there were more!
“Here’s another clue for you all. The Taurus is Paul’s”
Meanwhile there’s a Toyota Echo off to the side with license plates reading 28 IF.
Now I’m curious about that 80s Nissan/Datsun “record player.” The video shows the stylus dropping down in approximately the same spot, but with different messages. The stylus moves pretty quickly towards the center, leading me to believe that there are multiple parallel grooves, each with a different message. So the stylus drop-down location has to be calibrated to the message required? Amazing.
Reminds me of the Monty Python “3-sided record” from the 70s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multisided_record?wprov=sfti1
Yes I must know more about this.
I was going to start figuring this out too, but I was too quickly distracted by her somewhat seductive “door is open” tones…
ya know there is something about the way she’s speaking that feels a little inviting.
Yes, there are multiple spiral grooves; one for each clip. It works a lot like the old “See ‘n Say” or “The Farmer Says” toys which have a similar record mechanism, just spring-wound instead of electrically powered.
You have no idea how mind-breaking it was to buy Matching Tie and Handkerchief, play it through, and then the second time you play it IT’s A DIFFERENT RECORD WHAT THE HOW WHAT
I think I remember Mad Magazine releasing a similar record called “Super Spectacular Day” which was one of 6-8 different variations depending on where you dropped the needle.
Absolutely bonkers, LOVE THIS!! That’s some junk mail I would get behind.
thats got to be the coolest paper ad of all time