Take The Walkman 30th Birthday Quiz
How much do you know about the most celebrated personal stereo of all time, one that is today turning the big Three Oh? A lot? OK, hell, let’s see what you got:
1. What was the full product name of the first Walkman?
A) Super Karate Monkey Machine
B) WM-1
C) TPS-L2
D) Excalibur
2. What is the official, Sony-approved plural form of Walkman?
A) Walkmans
B) Walkmen
C) Walkmanidae
D) Walkman personal stereos
3. In the Walkman’s first 10 years, how many different designs did Sony release?
A) 25
B) 70
C) 130
D) 170
4. What is another name that the Walkman was to have gone by?
A) Soundabout
B) Freestyle
C) Stowaway
D) Super Karate Monkey Machine
5. What was the original desired name for the Walkman?
A) Stereo Buddy
B) Music Boy
C) Stereo Walky
D) Singman
6. What was the inspiration for the Walkman?
A) Sony founder Masaru Ibuka wanted to listen to opera tapes during his long trans-Atlantic flights
B) Sony president Akio Morita wanted to listen to music while he played tennis
C) In 1978, Sony’s cassette division had lost its radio-cassette business to the radio division, and needed to impress their bosses with something new
D) All of the above
7. How many Walkman units sold in the first 10 years?
A) 1 million
B) 10 million
C) 50 million
D) 100 million
8. And how many competing Walkman clones sold?
A) 10 million
B) 50 million
C) 100 million
D) 150 million
9. Complete this sentence from a 1981 UK Daily Mirror article: “The Walkman has become the _________ of electronics.”
A) Hairpiece
B) Skateboard
C) Lucky Strike
D) Hula Hoop
10. Which all-time great wrestler/movie star does the figure in the Walkman 10th-anniversary monument (at left) resemble?
A) “Macho Man” Randy Savage
B) Andre the Giant
C) Jesse “The Body” Ventura
D) Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
1. (C) TPS-L2 – We’re not entirely sure what happened to TPS-L1, but they quickly switched to the WM naming system. [Source]
2. (D) “Walkman personal stereos,” which is totally unfair for journalists with tight word counts. “Walkmen” is a band, however, if you like bands named after your personal electronics. [Source]
3. (D) 170 different models, so basically 17 per year on average, enough to suit every man woman and child. [Source; Image Source]
4. (A) in the US (B) in Sweden (C) in the UK, but alas never (D) [Source]
5. (C) “Stereo Walky” – but, fortunately, Walky was already trademarked by Toshiba [Source]
6. (D) All of the above, and probably a handful of other apocryphal tales, too. [Source, Source; Image Source]
7. (C) 50 million [Source]
8. (D) 150 million, proving you can’t patent a general concept, no matter how slick. [Source; Image Source]
9. (B) Skateboard [Source]
10. (B) Andre the Giant—seriously, doesn’t he? [Source]
ANSWER KEY [Image Source]
Special serious thanks to Don the Intern for kicking arse all over the research end of our little Walkman 30th-anniversary party. Don’t forget to check out our gallery of the craziest Walkman models, and of course, those brilliant Walkman ads from back in the 1980s. Hat tips to Pocket Calculator’s Walkman Museum and to Tim and Nick Jarman’s Walkman Central.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
@600Followers_GitEmSteveDave:
Such complex lines were not meant to be reproduced entirely from memory. I'd even guess that Stephen Root didn't memorize them, but simply read them from a page on the podium. Of course, Dave Foley probably _did_ memorize them, after a single read-through...but that's another story.
Purple Dave
@Pwnerjam3.0: May I direct your attention to this:
True story. I was working on building a portable stereo cassette player from a mono voice recorder. The stereo amp circuit was built and stereo head acquired......then Sony came out with the Walkman. Never finished the project
KendrickCalydon
I can't believe that those gay eraser top haircuts were even "cool"
Pwnerjam3.0
Didn't do so hot. I must've gotten audio-induced long-term memory loss from spending my teenage years blasting my ears with Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson, Megadeth, and Van Halen.
@Purple Dave: Sorry, was doing it purely from memory, and we all know how flawed memory is.
Yea I got 50%. I had a walkman right when the CD was starting to come out when I was 4 or 5. I don't think I still have it though :P
Galaxius
The BBC News website did a feature on this and had a 13 year old review the walkman. Quite a good read http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8117619.stm. Best quote from him is probably "It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape."
NaldoAgamedes
@600Followers_GitEmSteveDave:
"I had a small house of brokerage on Wall Street. Many days no business comes to my hut...my hut, but...Jimmy has fear? A thousand times no! I never doubted myself for a minute, for I knew that my monkey strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon, ribboned with fat and the opulance of buffalo (turns page) dung."
"...glorious sunset of my heart was fading. Soon, the...super karate monkey death car would...park in my space. But Jimmy has fancy plans! And pants to match. Monkey clown horrible karate, round and yummy, like a cute small baby chick, would beat the donkey."
If you're going to quote what is possibly the awesomest bit of monologue in the history of TV, please get it right.
Purple Dave
@Signore Pinko-Panko!:
#10 is the walkman statue at the danube island in vienna, AUSTRIA.
Leonhard Gisser
@GenericWhiteGuy: Well, you see.....I meant the FCC.
Just bad that Sony did not invent the Walkman (;
[www.retrothing.com]
testha
I was pretty sure it was hula hoop. Maybe I've seen The Hudsucker Proxy one too many times.
dingus
@Signore Pinko-Panko!: Anybody want a peanut?
dingus
The first one is the G1 version of Decepticon Soundwave.
You're welcome.
@600Followers_GitEmSteveDave: What did you mean when you wrote, "Donkey donkey donkey donkey donkey"?
signed,
Macho Business Donkey Wrestler
My first "personal stereo" was a Toshiba with a cassette that was actually an fm radio tuner and I thought I was the shit!
maven2k
I had one of these when they first came out. i think it was around 4250 which was alot on a Marine's pay.
LloydKnujunkle
I got 50% right, but then again the walkman is almost twice as old as me.
I bought a WM-1 for almost $200 of my own hard-earned after-school-job money and only got 4 questions right.
Something's wrong.
tzed
@MrHaroHaro: Nope, not just you.
Is it me or was the first Walkman the best looking one?
Number 10 looks kinda like Ahnuld, too....
God i remember buying my $130 walk-man cd player, those were the days.
I did fairly well, only missed 2
KingPsyz here for HappyFunKingPsyz©
whenever there is an "all of the above" answer, its usually correct....
Soon the Super Karate Monkey Death car would park in my space. But was Jimmy scared? A thousand times no. Jimmy had fancy plans, and pants to match. Donkey Donkey Donkey Donkey.