Other models
Additional models, store brands and more
Here are additional models, unusual variants, store brands and late-period products not covered in the preceding sections. These brought TDK’s roughly forty-year cassette history to a close…
ROKU
A new model from the final period of TDK cassettes
A Normal cassette released in 2002. Playing times of 10, 60, 80, 90 and 120 minutes were offered, with shell color depending on duration. Its slogan was If you record, choose ROKU; everything on ROKU.
B
BRILLIANT CASSETTE, close to AE
A new Normal model released in 1999 as BRILLIANT CASSETTE. The back of the packaging says Recommended for recording music and voice. It appears, however, to have largely duplicated AE…
Audio cassette
The endpoint of TDK cassettes…
A High Position cassette released under the TDK Life on Record brand by Imation, which had purchased the business. Tape production also moved from Japan to Korea, and the model was not even given a name…
Sanrio
Kitty cassettes for women and children
Cassettes developed with Sanrio appeared in 1985, when fashion was becoming a talking point in the cassette industry too. Popular characters, including HELLO KITTY, were intended to attract young women.
Some cassette labels from private collections have handwriting on them.
BASARA
A collaboration with a popular girls’ manga!
A cassette created in collaboration with BASARA, a girls’ manga published in Shogakukan’s Bessatsu Shojo Comic and adapted for the screen in 1988. The cassette itself was CDing-II.
ENDLESS CASSETTE
Updated and sold into the later period
An endless-loop cassette allowed a recording to be heard repeatedly without rewinding. It was useful for shop announcements, language study, karaoke practice and other tasks. Such cassettes appear to have been sold as early as the 1970s.
PLAY TIME 8
For singing and music practice!? Four minutes per side
Released in 1983, this model recorded just eight minutes and can be considered an ancestor of Single CDing. This Normal cassette apparently targeted tasks such as singing and instrumental practice, making personal recordings and more.
TDK CASSETTE HEAD CLEANER
A cassette for cleaning deck heads
A cassette-shaped cleaner for the heads, pinch rollers and other parts of a deck’s tape transport. The dry version cleaned heads simply by being played like an ordinary tape.
Store brands
CV-2
A convenience-store version of the standard High Position SR
A High Position cassette sold exclusively in convenience stores. It used SR tape, with a precise SPR mechanism and Aeroline shell sections. It appears to have had three generations.
Daiso
TDK cassettes sold in 100-yen shops
In the final period, as the cassette market gradually disappeared, TDK cassettes could be purchased at Daiso’s 100-yen shops. Fashionable transparent-shell High Position cassettes also appear to have been sold there.
Best Denki
OEM store-brand cassettes for an electronics retailer
Best Denki electronics stores apparently sold cassettes similar to Daiso’s. Older karaoke enthusiasts still wanted ten-minute cassettes, and this product was probably aimed at them.
NANA
High Position sold in convenience stores
A High Position cassette reportedly sold at Seven-Eleven. Three colors were available: red, yellow and green. The playing-time range was conventional: 46, 54, 60, 74, 90 and 120 minutes. Assembly apparently took place in Thailand.
Déla
Decorative styling for a female audience!
One of the additional models introduced in 1989. Besides the blue and red versions shown, a green version apparently existed too. It can be regarded as being in the same class as the AE of that period.