40 Pounds of Joy

A bit of Googling led me to this great YouTube video of someone showing off their $5 swap meet find:

They have the VDT-600 model, which actually may be the one we owned. I remember using those little levers to set the clock, and he's right - it was an idiot-proof process to replace a blinking 12:00 with the correct time.

I'd forgotten about the outer rings on the channel tuners that you had to click to receive the various VHF and UHF bands. And there was something very satisfying about inserting a tape and pressing it down with a clunk.

Here is how RCA sold a slightly different model, the 400, complete with a warning about copyright infringement:

And here is a great ad which sweetens the pot by throwing in four blank tapes, a $100 value! Yes, blank VHS tapes cost over $20 apiece in 1980. I think we must have gotten a similar deal, as the first four tapes in our library were identical to those in the commercial, three T-120s and one T-60 (with blue lettering):