Awesome Retro

Casio presents a new digital watch inspired by the vintage 1970s 52QS-14B. The A1100 series features a stainless steel case, a metal link band, a retro-style LCD screen, and four front-mounted buttons for setting, changing modes, and turning on its light. It’s available in stainless, goldtone, and a black finish with a green LCD.

Get your groove on in the kitchen while you scrub pots and pans with Fred’s playful cassette tape dish sponges. The set includes four 3″ x 4.5″ sponges packaged in a cardboard boombox. Crank up your favorite retro playlist while doing your dishes with these.

Game controller makers 8bitdo are now making keyboards in the style of 8-bit game consoles. Their 87-key mechanical keyboards are inspired by the NES and its Japanese counterpart, the Famicom, and come with a programmable dual “Super Button.” Compatible with Windows and Android devices via Bluetooth, 2.4G wireless, or wired connections.

The Ford Bronco Sport goes retro with its 1970s-inspired Free Wheeling special edition. Like those classic Free Wheeling trucks, vans, and Broncos, the compact SUV is decorated with red, orange, and yellow body stripes. It’s also got unique 17″ black and red rims, a silver painted grille, and its interior has colorful seat inserts with ombre stitching and red trim accents.

Watchmaker AVI-8 teamed up with Capcom to create a limited-edition wristwatch based on the top-down shooter, 1942. The aviation-themed watch features pixelated planes from the game, skeletonized hands, a bitmapped date indicator, and a “12” marker in the game’s logo font. Each watch includes custom prints by artist Nache Ramos. Drops 7.28.2023.

Pianist and arranger Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox specializes in unique cover versions of popular songs. This time, Scott and drummer Roger Ross teamed up with vocalist and upright bass player Wild Bill for a wild interpretation of The Bee Gees’ disco classic Stayin’ Alive. They call it “Ragtime Rockabilly,” but we also get a Wild West saloon vibe.

This series of 1″ enameled metal pins from DKNG pays tribute to classic arcade gaming, with four tiny machines to wear on your jacket or backpack. The Fly, Fight, Build, and Race machines incorporate sweet retro colors and graphics and a sparkly glitter-filled screen. The set is $10 off the regular price for a limited time.

Martin Miller and his bandmates take us on a journey back in time with a mini-concert of classic rock, disco, prog rock, and adult contemporary songs from the 1970s. The medley includes memorable tracks from Kiss, The Bee Gees, Gerry Rafferty, Toto, Earth, Wind & Fire, Pink Floyd, and John Miles. We’ve always been suckers for the sax in Baker Street.

NASS took archival footage from Los Angeles and used digital restoration tech to sharpen, brighten, remove noise, increase frame rate, and add faux colorization. It’s a wonderful time capsule of life in a different era, from how people dressed to the cars they drove to how retailers marketed their wares. The footage comes from the Prelinger Archives.

Timex rewound their time machine more than 50 years to bring us a pair of 1972 reissue watches, including this bold model with a large 43x39mm goldtone body, a burgundy dial, wide gold markers, and a date window. It has a stainless steel case, a quick-release leather strap and is water resistant to 50 meters.

It’s hard to top the original Sonic the Hedgehog games for their sheer sense of speed, excitement, and iconic level design. Sonic Superstars aims to freshen up the 2D platform action with modern graphics, all-new zones, new Chaos Emerald powers, and the ability to play side-by-side with friends as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy Rose. Drops fall 2023.

If you owned audio equipment, a car, or a clock radio made in the 1980s or 1990s, you’ve probably owned a vacuum fluorescent display (VFD). After illuminating us to the wonders of segmented displays, Posy is back to school us on VFDs, why they’re so cool, and how their colors can be manipulated with filters.

While you could buy a playable Pac-Man game for less money, the official LEGO version gives you the joy of assembling one yourself. The 2651-piece kit features a mechanical playfield and scoreboard, spinning Pac-Man and ghost characters on its top, and a light-up coin slot.

Do you need a break from your regular music playlists? Then open up this video, hit play, and drop it into a background tab. Jorf assembled this epic 10-hour and 53-minute mix of 227 tracks programmed by various chiptune musicians and played with the classic 8-bit sounds of the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Created by Jason Scott and a team of dedicated tech archivists, Discmaster provides online access to more than 91 million files from CD-ROMs and floppy disks collected by the Internet Archive. The retro-style search interface lets you directly view images and play video and audio files from the disks.

Tactile Turn’s limited-run Spring 2023 pen features a design inspired by classic 8-bit game consoles, specifically the NES. The titanium pen has a two-tone Cerakote finish in grey and black with a textured orange pocket clip and a red “Reset” button to retract its ink cartridge. Available in Standard (5.8″), Short (5.3″), and Mini (4.6″).

Isn’t this so adorable? This 9-key macro keypad looks like a tiny retro telephone. Steboards ships this USB macropad fully assembled with Gateron Red, Blue, or Brown mechanical switches. The keys come mapped to functions 13 to 21 but can be reprogrammed on request or using the included code and the Arduino IDE.

The Commodore Amiga was one of the most graphically-capable PCs of the 1980s. Stuart Brown of Ahoy dives deep into one of the greatest pieces of digital art from the era – a gloriously colorful cheeseburger designed by Commodore’s Art Director Jack Haeger. Sadly, the original file wasn’t saved, so Ahoy reproduced it from scratch.

’80s and ’90s kids spent countless hours wandering the aisles of video stores in search of the perfect movie. Celebrate the “Be Kind, Rewind” era with this 3D-printed lightbox based on the Blockbuster logo. Signageman makes these signs from acrylic and vinyl with LED backlighting. Choose from 13″, 18″, or 21″ sizes.

The latest version of Timex’s retro T80 wristwatch features a gradient resin strap that coordinates perfectly with its face. It features a compact 36mm stainless steel case, and its LCD screen offers a stopwatch, alarm, and Indiglo backlight. Choose from Gold/Pink, Blue/Green, or Purple/Blue colorways.

Musician Hainbach got his hands on a 1930s recording device called a Kosmograph. This vintage dictation machine translates spoken vibrations through a tube directly onto a spinning celluloid disc. Its scratchy, low-fidelity recordings add an ethereal texture to music.

Dust off your CD collection and enjoy the early days of digital music once more. NINM Lab’s portable CD player can transmit audio to modern headsets and speakers via Bluetooth. Its clear cover lets you watch discs spin, while the snap-on cover adds a pair of speakers. It’s also got a magnetic back for sticking it to metal surfaces.

Muppets fans will recognize these Super7 action figures as the members of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. The Muppets ReAction Wave 1 set includes 3.75″ Kenner-style figures of the band’s leader, Janice, Floyd, Zoot, Animal, and road manager, Scooter. They’re also available individually, but why would you break up the band?