Fashion is cyclical and it seems like cassettes may just be making their comeback. Audio manufacturer Fiio just debuted their latest retro CP13 cassette player at CES this year, and it shouldn’t be long before people are making mixtapes again. Just to prime us for that retro-resurgence, LEGO builder Srta.JirafaEnfadada designed a to-scale Sony Walkman made entirely out of LEGO bricks… and the best part, it actually fits LEGO cassettes in!
Designer: Srta.JirafaEnfadada
Before MP3 players and iPods pretty much changed the game, cassettes were the gold standard in music playback. Cars had cassette players, people owned boomboxes, and for a brief while, the Sony Walkman was one of the coolest products you could own. Designed to play cassettes on-the-go, the Walkman walked so the iPod could run. You could make your mixtape, pop it in, and listen to music either on the Walkman’s built-in speaker (if it had one), or on a pair of headphones or earphones for a private music experience.
This entry into the LEGO Ideas forum is based on the WM-22 Walkman, available in the iconic red colorway. It features the classic opening flap on the front that lets you put cassettes in and take them out between plays, with a transparent window that even lets you peer into the walkman’s insides to see which cassette’s loaded. Around the periphery are its play-pause and rewind/fast-forward buttons, and a simple rotary dial to adjust volume. The WM-22 didn’t sport a record button, which most costlier models had, allowing you to even capture audio directly to the cassette. However, it did have a 3.5mm jack, which can be found on this LEGO version too (right above the volume button), allowing you to hook a pair of headphones in. You’ve also got 4 different LEGO cassettes to choose from with the build, adding variety to your music library!
The Sony Walkman was submitted to the LEGO Ideas forum, an online dashboard where LEGO enthusiasts can share their own LEGO-based creations. The forum allows the LEGO community to vote for their favorite designs, with the top-voted ones getting turned into box-sets for us regular-folk to buy. The Sony Walkman sits at 2,068 votes as of writing this article, and if it hits the coveted 10,000 mark, it could potentially be made into a retail set! You can vote for the Sony Walkman or any of your other favorite designs on the LEGO Ideas website.
