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Old 8th Dec 2011, 8:14 pm   #1
Red to black
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Default Argos 1976 catalogue online

Hi all,

I got sent this link from a friend, I thought some of the pages of the consumer electronics may be of interest to some on here.

http://www.retronaut.co/2010/12/argos-catalogue-1976/

Mods, if OT for this forum, my apologies in advance
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Old 9th Dec 2011, 12:30 am   #2
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Default Re: Argos 1976 catalogue online

Brilliant - hours of retro fun there

Ging
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Old 9th Dec 2011, 12:53 am   #3
Herald1360
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Default Re: Argos 1976 catalogue online

That's about £600 in today's money for a five function LCD wristwatch
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Old 9th Dec 2011, 1:52 am   #4
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Default Re: Argos 1976 catalogue online

I can see a Hoover Junior which I think is a model 1338 and it says "Save £13.38". I wonder if that figure is coincidence?
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Old 9th Dec 2011, 10:19 am   #5
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Default Re: Argos 1976 catalogue online

I only have 2 items from that catalogue. The 12" Ferguson TV and the Pye 2272 car cassette player. The TV is still going but the cassette player died many years ago however its amplifier is doing sterling service connected to my PC.

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Old 9th Dec 2011, 10:37 am   #6
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Default Re: Argos 1976 catalogue online

That is shocking, I too own quite a few bits in that catalogue. What is more shocking is that there are huge rafts of pages that contain items that seem to be from another planet!


Typewriters - Children nowadays must think cavemen invented them!

The sheer quantity of smoking paraphernalia!

The almost TOTAL lack of electronic games (video etc)

The bicycles – not one true ‘off-road’ bike, they all look terribly dated

In car hi-fi – well, it all looks mighty bland without all the LED/LCD displays

Music Centres!!!

Akai Reel to reel without a price :¬(

Film cameras – 3 pages of them, mostly redundant now



It is nice to see that some things never change. Although Continental Quits now are usually call “Duvets”, they look similar, as do the chairs and other household niceties.


Amazing - thanks for sharing the link.

SEAN
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Old 10th Dec 2011, 10:26 am   #7
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Default Re: Argos 1976 catalogue online

Wonderful!

Don't thing we have anything from there, but I remember buying my wife a set of heated rollers and out youngest son a Spirograph (after I'd tested it!).
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Old 10th Dec 2011, 3:49 pm   #8
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Default Re: Argos 1976 catalogue online

Distinctly an under-represented period here, at least at the budget end of things where most of the Argos audio section is - I'd not even known there ever was an Ajax radio-cassette! So all I've found to admit to are a Hoover Constellation (albeit the much earlier pink version) and one of those bizarre tubular orange Sheerlite floor lamps, which I've never been able to put a name to before

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Old 10th Dec 2011, 9:27 pm   #9
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Default Re: Argos 1976 catalogue online

The combined seat/table for a telephone - now that would bemuse todays children. The fact that you could only use the telephone in a specific room (or indeed that up to half of all homes didn't have one at all until the 1980s) would totally fox them!

Re typewriters, everytime we get a half decent one in the charity shop I help out in, it gets put out for between £4-10. They all sell, whether the buyers actually use them or just put them on a shelf to look at I don't know.
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Old 10th Dec 2011, 10:02 pm   #10
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Default Re: Argos 1976 catalogue online

What caused me to raise my eyebrows most was the fact that they sold guns! Very cheaply too.
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Old 15th Dec 2011, 12:15 am   #11
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Default Re: Argos 1976 catalogue online

Wow - I've had a browse through the old Argos catalogue and it brings back a lot of memories.
I even have some items from it, most notably the ALBA T1014 black and white television (page 44). This is a "clone" of the HMV model 2818 (Thorn 1591 chassis) discussed here.

The Alba version doesn't have the chrome trim at the sides, presumably to keep the cost down.
My set was made in 1976 and rescued from the council tip last year, in near mint condition but sadly the tube was faulty. Luckily, forum member Dazzlevision offered a brand new old stock A34-510W 14" mono CRT in the forum's Sets And Parts Offered section.

I obtained the new tube and fitted it. A small modification was required to replace the original Thorn TMT34-101 CRT - adding a 330k and 220k resistor. I also found out why the original tube failed. This was because the 220 ohm Set Volts preset had gone high in value, causing the CRT heater voltage to go too high. So I replaced the 220R preset and readjusted it. The end result was a TV that was like new! (see attached photo - details of the modification attached too). Perhaps this should have been posted in "Success Stories".

Another item I have is the Camping Gaz C200 lantern (page 34), again rescued from the tip several years ago. Comes in handy for power cuts, but hasn't been needed much.

My parents had quite a few items, including the Monogram electric blanket, Liefheit Rotaro carpet sweeper, Hoover Constellation and the Soda Stream.

The price of digital watches was interesting - I guess about 2 weeks' wages in 1976. It's amazing that only a few years later they cost practically nothing. In the early 1980s I got one from a petrol station and I think it was given away free with a gallon of oil!
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Old 15th Dec 2011, 12:50 pm   #12
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Default Re: Argos 1976 catalogue online

Wonderful!! What memories....

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Old 15th Dec 2011, 6:03 pm   #13
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Default Re: Argos 1976 catalogue online

Quote:
Originally Posted by hamid_1 View Post
Wow - I've had a browse through the old Argos catalogue and it brings back a lot of memories.
I even have some items from it, most notably the ALBA T1014 black and white television (page 44). This is a "clone" of the HMV model 2818 (Thorn 1591 chassis) discussed here.
My father also bought the HMV version as it could be run on 12 volts. We lived out in the sticks in those days and there were frequent power cuts, sometimes lasting several days. We had a camping stove, 12 volt lights, the HMV and a couple of car batteries for emergencies. I had the Polaroid FX70 fold up SLR camera but it never got much use as the film packs were so expensive. I was 16 in 1976 and my take home pay was about £12.50 a week.
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Old 17th Dec 2011, 12:46 am   #14
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Default Re: Argos 1976 catalogue online

Quote:
Originally Posted by fidobsa View Post
My father also bought the HMV version as it could be run on 12 volts.
Ah, what memories! I grew up with that HMV TV set, also the Hoover junior in a disgusting diarrhoea shade of brown ... Ironically, both met their demise in the late 80s, I think the HMV died whilst I was using it with my spectrum -I recall finding a blown fuse but had no idea back then on how to repair the set, so it got dumped. The hoover 'blew up ' one day, probably a short in the motor.

I use to own the waltham 104 cassette portable and philips radio cassette. What I remember about the waltham was that it has NO erase head, presumably they thought the bias current would be enough . The Philips was similarly ropey but compact, it didn't have the 'luxury' of locking fwd and rew keys (I think I eventually tossed it when the TU spool clutch got too stiff, as with many other philips of that era). I recall it living in my treehouse for a while...happy days!

Looking over the catalogue, I noticed the cameras looked especially prehistoric. Amazing to think how domestic video arrived 'properly' two years later and changed everything, just as digital photography did about a decade ago. Still, not even an N1500 made it into Argos, nice to see the 4000DB reel to reel though.
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