Mission Impossible's Tape Recorders (#3)

The final part of a three part series looking at the tape recorders used in the 60s/70s Mission Impossible TV series.
Part 1 Here: • Tape Recorders of Miss...
Part 2 Here: • Tape Recorders of Miss...
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VIDEO UPDATE/CORRECTION: I'd forgotten that in a number of episodes (especially the early ones) the photos in the folder were taken back to Jim's pad and used in the team briefing. Ironically this error means that my video self destructs at the end too.
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[@Techmoan]

VIDEO UPDATE/CORRECTION: I'd forgotten that in a number of episodes (especially the early ones) the photos in the folder were taken back to Jim's pad and used in the team briefing. Ironically this error means that my video self destructs at the end too.

[@krispysox]

My laptop exploded!!!! My lawyers will be in touch ;) x

[@Peron1-MC]

i went back and watched your old videos that i had somehow missed. you talked about there being a different grating infront of the tape recorder in the early shots of a photobooth when destroid off screen. and looking at this video that smoke shot must have been from this later shot of a different photobooth. the grating matches. :)

[@Wyowanderer]

Heh.

[@randynelson2265]

😆😅🤣😂

[@aligokkurt]

Thank you for all the great, entertaining videos that you have made Matt. We`re so lucky to have you![

[@ourinaaman4869]

Ah, we finally see this “Storage unit” you speak of…

[@EvenTheDogAgrees]

No spoilers! I still gotta watch the video! 😂

[@SmokeyEdits]

@@EvenTheDogAgreesit's literally the first thing you see

[@EvenTheDogAgrees]

@@SmokeyEdits whoosh

[@SmokeyEdits]

@@EvenTheDogAgreesthe joke would have landed if it were better

[@EvenTheDogAgrees]

@@SmokeyEdits oh boy, you're a ray of sunshine, aren't you? Please do fix whatever is wrong with your life. Nobody should be this miserable on a Saturday morning.

[@menhirmike]

I don't care how out of date it is: Reel to reel tape will ALWAYS look awesome on camera. It's hypnotic to watch.

[@pcno2832]

I remember how strange 8 track tapes seemed at that time. It was the only music format (except when playing the rare see-through cartridges) in which there was no spinning object visible while the music played. They just didn't seem natural.

[@richardhart9204]

" ... aged ten years in the last five" That part genuinely made me LOL!

[@MrTeijo]

We all have aged 10 years during the last 5 years. It's been a wild 5 years.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

Hey, the 2020s have been tough...😉

[@h8GW]

Having a beard generally adds 5 years and 25 pounds to a person.

[@EmeraldLavigne]

​@@MrTeijocame to the comments to say literally, exactly that

[@stephpicher]

Didn't we all? :)

[@twentyrothmans7308]

Holding up the Cryobank had me crying 🙂 Never stop being Mat.

[@-IE_it_yourself]

"we will freeze your assets"

[@caramelldansen2204]

Never go there for a deposit!

[@glennac]

Which has often made me wonder, what happens when a cryobank goes out of business? Whether it’s eggs, embryos, or bodies?

[@twentyrothmans7308]

@@caramelldansen2204 Don't trust banks - I keep mine under the mattress.

[@Dapstart]

@@glennacIt's none of those three, it's a bit... Gooey-er

[@rienpost3145]

I've been wanting to see that storage unit for years. What a treasure trove.

[@Sigma-INFJ.]

It has taken just over 5 years, but finally the trilogy is complete.

[@donwald3436]

It's only the start of another increasingly incorrectly named trilogy!

[@krispysox]

Yes but it will be a quadroligy like all the others.

[@jimdayton8837]

Ikr! Been waiting forever!

[@av_oid]

Just hope there are no sequels or spin off shows to ruin it all.

[@trevorbrown6654]

Well it's a year quicker than the original Star wars trilogy!😂

[@BENBOI_1]

That storage unit is all that I have dreamed of. Truly a wonder to behold

[@mileshigh1321]

Truly an embarrassment of riches!

[@nowster]

A lad in his cave.

[@Woffy.]

What a stash, I will spend the rest of the morning identifying all the kit, Mat's level of investigation is incredible especially recalling the sound clip from Snoopy and a brilliant intro.

[@Onteo1]

Looks to be a green screen

[@r0cketplumber]

He really needed to play the Get Smart theme as he worked through a dozen doors.

[@Sigma-INFJ.]

That's what I love about this channel. The videos are never boring. This might be the funniest video Mat has ever done. And we also get to see that mythical Storage Unit.

[@srwapo]

90 day warranty? "yes, hello, my tape recorder blew up."

[@RobCamp-rmc_0]

“…yes, all that remains of the city block where my storage unit once stood is a smoldering crater… uh, yeah, the city did press charges, I am being held in custody whilst awaiting trial…”

[@disgruntledfaerie]

Absolutely brilliant intro, 10/10. Some really nice cinematography and editing. And that groovy music? Excellent.

[@loadinglevelone]

Yeah I mistook that for the real thing!

[@pedrokatuniz8936]

I second that!

[@NeatNit]

I especially appreciate the way the tape self-destructed. So realistic, so much effort went into that!

[@loadinglevelone]

@@NeatNit Yeah, the cgi and special effecs were a true masterpiece!

[@larsmuldjord9907]

Oh man, I had hoped the tape would "explode" and we'd see Matt with soot all over his face and the hair blown backwards but maintaining the facial expression and he'd just leave the complex completely unfazed as if he was used to it. :D That's just my Acme upbringing nudging my brain. Love the intro, love the tidbits about the inconsistencies in the show and the demonstration. It's all very good.

[@smokeydapot]

That would’ve been perfect! It really suits Matt’s style of deadpan delivered British humor.

[@joedeshon]

So. Many. Memories! I owned one of these machines when I was a kid. It was a Christmas present from my parents. They ordered it from the JC Penney Christmas catalog, so it had JC Penney branding on it. Otherwise it was exactly the same machine. I remember watching Mission: Impossible, just to see if "MY" tape recorder was going to be used in that episode. I noticed that they unusually "played" the tape backwards in rewind mode. I often read newspaper articles into the machine, pretending I was on the radio. It served as my introduction to the recording industry. I am now an audio/video editor and voice talent. And it all started with THIS machine!

[@martsmiscmix]

Mat, one of your "hammiest" (but best) intro sequences, but I get the impression that when you were pointing out the "continuity errors" and such, apart from the nostalgia aspect, there is the appreciation from one who has learned single-handedly what it takes to put a film (i.e. what we call a video these days) together. Compelling viewing!

[@bountyjedi]

Actually, it's kind of the other way round. What we call a "film" many times these days is in fact most of the time video. With film referring to photographic film, that captures images photo-chemically giving you the classic sprocketed film strip, while video refers to capturing moving pictures electronically; originally analog video on e.g. magnetic tape but the term naturally expands into capturing it digitally and on solid state media. Many modern "cinema cameras" are basically really fancy digital video cameras, but with features that make it handle more like the film cinema cameras of yore. Most "films" you see in the theater today are captured digitally and projected digitally, so if you go to the theater today chances are you are actually (technically) watching a video projected by a video projector.

[@thesteelrodent1796]

@bountyjedi shooting feature film entirely on digital is a fairly new concept. They've only done it 100% digital for 10-15 years or so, but there are still the occasional movie that's shot on film. Star Wars ep. III from 2005 was incidentially the first movie to be shot entirely digitally, and no other movie was shot that way for a few years, which says a bit about how new that concept is. Anything shot on film was still scanned to be edited digitally and it's not uncommon that they still have to print the movie on film after editing, since there are a lot of old and small cinemas that can't afford to invest in digital projectors - after all the cinemas make basically no money from showing the movies

[@johnberkley6942]

What a blast from the past. My Grandma bought me one of those National Panasonic models, on the left at 13.51 in the video. It was a two speed machine with an ingenious capstan that you could unscrew for half-speed recording. The outer sleeve unscrewed to reveal a half-diameter capstan. I wish I still had some of the tapes. The reels were an awkward in-between size (5" I think) which weren't available in New Zealand, so I had to use the smaller sized reels that you could get. I recorded several episodes of "Not Only... But Also" (Peter Cook and Dudley Moore) off the telly, which the moronic BBC later wiped for re-use, along with a tranche of "Doctor Who" episodes. My home recording was sound-only, of course, but better than nothing. I was the bees knees with that tape recorder. Unfortunately it fell down the hole in the world a long time ago, along with the rest of my childhood.

[@misterwhipple2870]

My brother had a 1967 RCA with the unscrewable capstan too. I still have it but it does not run, I think the belt is broken.

[@KarlAdamsAudio]

I recall my family had a National RQ-503S when I was a child - exactly the same speed change method. It used a neon lamp as a level indicator (of sorts) and had optional automatic gain control on recording, somewhat confusingly labelled as "non error sw.".

[@BlackieBloomberg]

Mat finally gets smart.

[@7000fps]

just needs to bring in 99

[@michaellundsrensen2292]

You must look at the larger capacitors in the player, if they have a symbol of a triangle with arrows in the 3 tips, then it is a National player. It is the brand of the Matsushita group and the components were not sold in bulk. Fun to see your electronics stock!

[@SarahRWilson]

You might also see the Matsushita triangle logo on the copper of the board.

[@olivier2553]

I love your analysis of the different blunders in the original series.

[@drakefallentine8351]

Especially because the top notch MI Team members were always on time right to the second, life or death hanging in the delicate balance, and "pulled it off" just at the end of every show.

[@Sigma-INFJ.]

Mission Impossible was truly ahead of it's time. I didn't know that you could like and subscribe to a TV show back then.

[@TheGreatAtario]

Sure! Lots of people liked all kinds of things back then: foods, activities, books, etc.

[@choo_choo_]

@@TheGreatAtario Guess they had to mail the likes in back in the day. Boy the internet really has revolutionized things.

[@clarewillison9379]

The likes and comments came in sacks of “fan mail”. We could subscribe to fan clubs and no one ever clicked anything (not a biro, tongue, nor fingers) to unsubscribe from the newsletter. Jumpers for goalposts etc. Happy days.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@clarewillison9379indeed, you instead had to write in and ask them to stop mailing you! Usually at least 2 or 3 times in my experience… though that was the 90s, not the 60s.

[@portland-182]

In the early episodes there is an extended choosing the team scene, once the team is chosen, they meet and look at the 'target' folder, before planning the mission.

[@Techmoan]

You’re absolutely right - that’s my error. 🤦🏼‍♂️

[@Mute_Nostril_Agony]

Yes - Jim listens to the assignment then goes to an office and selects his team from a set of files. I remember that the team all had cool day jobs like magician singer and weight lifter

[@kensmith5694]

@@Mute_Nostril_Agony Sometimes the team selection seemed to happen in his home. There were usually a couple he would bypass.

[@wofwof007]

​@@kensmith5694Fun fact: one of the people pictured a few times but never chosen: Mission: Impossible creator Bruce Geller in a black turtle neck and glasses.

[@smokeydapot]

@@Mute_Nostril_Agony Besides having to re-enlist, how do I make weight lifting gainful employment…? 🧐

[@Ciborium]

"You've aged ten years in the last five." Brutal!

[@alphabeets]

To have a functional tape recorder in that tiny size back then was a HUGELY cool thing. This was pretty high tech for the time especially at a common consumer level product.

[@nohrtillman8734]

I’m most impressed that anyone actually has all the original MI episodes on hand which to do such detailed comparisons!

[@seanpenson3725]

I absolutely love the opening bits: funky looking fella, cool music, & we finally see the storage unit!

[@alphabeets]

“Perhaps it’s just a TV series and not real life”. 😂

[@AlexanderFort]

I’m to the point where if I see Techmoan posts a vid I just watch it even if it sounds boring. He’s earned that from me.

[@TheDogSix]

I love the artistic effort that went into making this.

[@scottfirman]

As a kid back in the late 70's , I would find these at flea markets and buy them for a few dollars. They were fun to play with. The cassette player had replaced the reel to reel unit, so these sold cheap enough a kid like me could buy one and eventually disassemble it.

[@gfabasic32]

I used to watch this show as a kid. That intro theme music ! And the often used facial disguise !

[@rhodaborrocks1654]

My first tape recorder as a kid was a Seavox, same kind of thing, rim drive, but made much more cheaply than the one you featured, bought from Headquarters and General Supplies Ltd in Romford, (remember them?). I remember it needed a PP3 9v battery for the amplifier and one or two C cells to power the motor.

[@jub8891]

its amazing it still functions pretty well today.. Japan's reputation for quality is truly well deserved

[@jimdayton8837]

Very true. I own lots of 60's tape machines that were made in Japan, and all of them still work very well.

[@NanoBurger]

I'd like to see another series on the tape recorders from Kolchak: The Night Stalker. A sort of precursor to the X-Files, a reporter uncovers supernatural stories. He often dictates reporting notes on some sort of portable tape recorder and documents his discoveries with a Rollei 16 camera.

[@NetworkXIII]

Great idea, excellent. The little camera and recorder were as much a part of the Kolchak characterization as his hat and suit.

[@havardstle3788]

Geze! Has it been five years! Life is short.. Thanks for always bringing us interesting and entertaining videos. Loved the intro!

[@teekay_1]

Just a few months ago, I watched the entire MI series, and I wondered about those tape recorders....

[@jhmusichouse]

Hi Mr. Techmoan, just wanted to say I really enjoy your videos. Cheers!

[@nhand42]

That storage unit must be the Matt Cave. Secret headquarters of the Dark Moan.

[@69waveydavey]

"Talking letters" I have two from my Grandad to my Grandma, He emigrated to the US after the TSR2 disaster (Preston) and my Grandma followed a year later. Now I know why the reels are small and what they were probably made on, My Grandad was slightly bonkers as my Grandma never heard them cos the family had nothing to play them back on.

[@pcno2832]

My best friend in school during that time had a father in the Air Force, so during one year when his father was in Vietnam, he would get talking letters every couple of weeks. It was great for someone his age who was still just barely able to read.

[@dlloyd6300]

Personally I love the extra effort you make to do the silly intros and puppets etc. noted and appreciated! its certainly so much easier to do the basic content but this is what separates the great from the good.

[@GWServices]

For some it’s just a storage unit, for us, a cave of dreams.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

No flying carpet provided, but Mat brought his own flying rug with him.

[@Raven_Nightwind]

For Mat it's KZbin content for the rest of his life, even if he somehow lives to be 150 years old

[@GWServices]

@@Raven_Nightwind He’ll be letting us all down very badly if he doesn’t.

[@Squonk06]

That storage unit is well stocked. Mat has years worth of channel content in there.

[@RaccoonHenry]

at 10:00, not only is it a different tape player, but it seems to be playing in the opposite direction (counterclockwise in the wide shot, clockwise in the close-up)

[@marcusdamberger]

Maybe they reversed the footage, sometimes you see that in water features, water running backwards. It's so short the average viewer won't notice. Usually used to reverse the shots direction.

[@pomonabill220]

I got a REAL BIG LAUGH out of the storage unit intro, the hair and the pictures!!! WELL DONE! Funny !!! Even the "self destruct" of the ENTIRE storage facility!! A LITTLE much don't ya think???

[@FromSagansStardust]

My granddad gave me this for Christmas 1966. Incidently, at 13:25 the TV in the upper right corner of the ad is, in fact, a Panasonic that we had. We lugged that thing on vacation every year, and it normally resided in my room or the kitchen. It worked well into the 2000s.

[@theseob]

Always a good time when a new techmoan video drops.

[@staberas]

im waiting for part 4 for the 1990 series device... Also im pretty sure the guy just keeps the folder with the pictures

[@tubular618]

Watched that show as a kid. The un-maskings at the end were my favorite part.

[@kobolila-yt]

I had this machine given to me as a boy back in the 70's. My sister and I still laugh all these years later about how we would record our voices in the slowest speed and listen to it sped up.

[@jimdayton8837]

Been waiting for part 3! Awesome! The Concord F-20 was always my favorite of the tape recorders they used on the show. I own one now, and a cool feature not many people know, is the volume knob acts as a level control when you're recording. Also, the microphone jack can be used to plug into a phone or computer so you can record audio off one of those devices. This comes in handy if you want to record the Mission Impossible messages onto your F-20 lol.

[@boardsort]

I'll admit, before we owned a VCR I once dubbed overtop of an Olivia Newton John music cassette with audio from the broadcast the first space shuttle launch in 1981. My sister was not happy. Haha.

[@MCW1955]

That head of hair made me fall off the couch laughing. My hair also aged 10 years, in the last 5😅😅

[@takavar2]

Nice intro, funny stuff. Thats a big storage unit! Gonna watch the rest now. Hope your health allows you to make videos for many years to come.😊

[@StevieZala]

At last, the third episode of the Mission:Impossible tape player's series. It was brilliant, well worth the wait Mr Phelps. It was, great getting a sneak peak at your storage locker too.

[@RickJames374]

The start of this series is what brought me to your channel. The third instalment is a nostalgic surprise and a great way to wake up in my part of the world!

[@caddelworth]

I'm wondering if the duct tape over the controls was because the smoke effect was blowing too much out of the front and thus obscuring the "money shot" of smoke rising out of the machine? Cue the on-set gaffer: "No problem: we can fix that!" 😆 I also noticed in the later shows that there is some duct tape on the play/rewind slider, presumably for the same reason, to force the smoke UP out of the machine, and not forwards.

[@caramelldansen2204]

I love the little pastiches you do! They're so charming :)

[@matthewbarker9134]

I used to own the same tape recorder as used in Diamonds Are Forever - blew my mind when I saw it.

[@jamespassas9441]

Thanks for finally including the last video in the trilogy! Thanks for mentioning the Concord F-20 Sound Camera, which I didn't see mentioned in your previous videos, despite it being an important tape recorder in the series.

[@chrismayer3919]

I love the ‘skits’ you occasionally show.

[@frankowalker4662]

Loved the intro. I keep my F-20 in a small backpack with 2 lots of batteries, headphones and about 50 tapes. I use it as a walkman if I have to go on a long bus journey. Great machine. It is a National, I had one in the 80's. The one I have now is Concord. The reels are too rare, so I buy 8mm projector reels and cut them down to size. LOL.

[@jimdayton8837]

That's cool but these weren't meant for music. Mine sounds terrible recording any music.

[@frankowalker4662]

@@jimdayton8837 I use high quality tripple play tape to get about 12 minutes per side at slow speed and I made a line input lead so I don't have to use a mic. That improves the sound.

[@drakefallentine8351]

Yes, the original reels supplied with the F-20 and the F-85 had that cool Concord insignia, whereas the Concord blank tape reels were horribly cheap in appearance, with no insignia!

[@jimdayton8837]

@@drakefallentine8351 The purple tint the Concord reels have are cool too.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@jimdayton8837looks like they were literally soaked in indigo dye, same as used for jeans and blueprints! It’s a very pretty hue.

[@davida1hiwaaynet]

Very cool! I was just beginning to watch TV when the reruns of this series were fading out. This video of yours appeared, and when I opened it, I saw your links to parts 1 and 2 in the description. Opened part 1 and watched all three parts. Loved these! Thanks for taking the time to do this series. It was very enjoyable.

[@rinardman]

I have to say, the self-destructing tape recorder was a lot more violent than I remember from watching the show back then! 🤔

[@jamesm90]

Brilliant bit of acting at the beginning. The ones with the skits are the best! I really loved the open ended interview video so funny.😅

[@miknord5493]

I got to know the cassette technology a few years ago and for a few months now I have been recording cassette via a cassette alarm clock! I really enjoy it! Ich lernte die Kassettentechnik vor paar Jahren kennen und seit paar Monaten nehme ich Kassette über einen Kassettenwecker auf! Es macht mir sehr viel Spaß!

[@mediocrefunkybeat]

I'm reminded of the concept of 'L-Space' from the Discworld novels with that storage unit. Ook.

[@TheLtData]

Filming everything in your storage locker within the next five years seems like the real mission impossible... What a treasure chest that is!

[@John_Dolomite]

One day later and the prices on Ebay have already doubled! The Techmoan effect is alive and well! Big thumbs up on the contents of the storage unit, Mat. Damn I'm jealous!

[@unclesporkums]

Loved your little return to comedy sketches at the beginning, Mat. Hilarious!

[@HenryLoenwind]

Mission Impossible had quite a lot of those insert shots with a black background. So many in fact, that I quite clearly remember it having them, even though I haven't watched an episode in decades but can't remember any other show having one.

[@daveubermensch]

Well, here we are a couple of months on into the series, and I'm glad to see part 3.

[@wickedlikethreesixes5167]

I thorougly enjoyed the first 2 parts and rewatched them several times over the years. To get an unexpected part 3 is just great!

[@bobby666666]

Brilliant. Those first two Mission Impossible Recorder videos are my fave Techmoan videos. Mainly due to The Tape Sequence being fascinating to me as a child. Thank you Techmoan.

[@user-ic8cx9qq9c]

Your attention to detail is unmatched. It borders on the pathological 😂

[@drrattenkaiser5275]

4:38 A 90 day warranty makes sense for a device, that destroys itself in 5 seconds, after the first tape was played.

[@nickwallette6201]

As a kid, I always thought that was strang: First off: Wasteful. Why not just erase the tape? And also, what is happening? There's a bunch of smoke, but no flames. It doesn't even self-destruct appreciably before we move on to the next scene. I call shenanigans!

[@rustkitty]

Not a big Mission Impossible knower here (only seen a few reruns as a kid), so maybe I'm way off base. But one thing always bothered me is that every parody shows an explosion and you mentioned (at 4:25) the tape recorder being destroyed. I get hyperbole, but every clip I've seen only shows the tape mildly smoking out. If it's laced with some chemical that's triggered electrically by the autostop, then only the tape and maybe the takeup reel would be damaged. So the rest could be retrieved intact, which is good opsec anyway.

[@Rutherford_Inchworm_III]

The actual effect on the show was a just a little tube that they blew theatrical smoke through. Obviously they didn't want to destroy the studio's props. Mat seems surprised at how knackered they look in closeups, but I suspect that's the inevitable wear and tear from heavily using a cheap device, not anything caused by the prop smoke. Also, leaving the recorder intact to be recovered and reused is bad OPSEC, not good. Operational security means not betraying information to the enemy, even if that requires you to destroy your own useful equipment. Even if the tape is burnt up, the device could be disassembled and analyzed for secondary clues (fingerprints, serial numbers, etc). Tiny areas of the tape will also likely be recoverable. The CIA does this kind of thing on the microscopic level if it's worth their time. Correct OPSEC is to totally destroy the whole device by burning it to ash or throwing it into the ocean in a weighted bag.

[@rustkitty]

@@Rutherford_Inchworm_III I meant that leaving it intact (with data destroyed of course) is good opsec if cleanup is part of your procedure anyway. You can retrieve the whole thing as a single item, whereas exploding it would leave potentially identifiable debris behind. Reusability is not a concern here, although it would be an incidental benefit. Of course, if you are going to just leave it behind, then exploding the whole thing is better than not exploding it, but either would leave too much evidence behind.

[@Rutherford_Inchworm_III]

@@rustkitty good points all

[@kelvington4182]

I was always under the impression that the "tapes" self-destructed and not the recorders.

[@sferg9582]

LOL. I had one of those Sound Cameras when I was a kid. Loved playing around with that thing.

[@rediband]

I had one of these when I was young. I recall the motor sounded 'cool', sort of like an engine revving.

[@FatNorthernBigot]

The stock explosion footage was brutal. Talk about high production values. 😂

[@mrfrosty3]

It looked like it was from Threads.

[@FatNorthernBigot]

@@mrfrosty3 that's an obscure reference 👍

[@PhannyObsession]

Wife says ‘You are not keeping all this crap in this house!!’ Mat says ‘No problem. Back in a minute. I’m off to Big Yellow!!’ 😂😂😂

[@ed.puckett]

Thank you for your intro skit, I always enjoy when you add these! And I'm always happy to see a new episode. I was fascinated how inconsistent and full of discontinuities the shows were, I certainly didn't notice when I watched as a kid.

[@1djbecker]

Even when I was a kid watching them for the first time I thought that they were kid-level entertainment. I wondered how adults could handle the obvious plot holes and continuity errors. Of course I didn't have the perspective that it was really all brand new. TV shows were only a few years removed from radio serials, made with cartoonish levels of sound effects to convey the background scenes with just sound. Carefully constructed scripts, scenery and acting was the domain of movies, not throw-away TV episodes.

[@Pheorize]

Thank you Mat! I've waited for the third part since the two original videos! And I really loved to finally get a look at your storage unit! It was quite a bit larger than I'd imagined. I don't know why I'm surprised though. :D

[@Therealguymins]

I just found one of these in a thrift store with the box and original receipt a few months ago. I have the replacement caps for it but haven't actually done it yet. I just looked at some Mission Impossible stuff out of curiosity as I haven't watched the show in a while and never finished it, and had a very satisfying realization that the first reel to reel recorder I bought myself was used in the original MI TV series :-)

[@dukeofthebump]

I was hoping this series would return! Sad that this is the last one, but it makes sense, there's no reason for them to have used dozens of different models of tape recorders. Glad to see it wrapped up!

[@REXXSEVEN_II]

WOW. Excellent opening sir!

[@kaitlyn__L]

Wow, was that really five years ago? It seems like just one or two. Nice to see this back. Also a tantalising glimpse at the storage unit! Lots of good tape mechs in there.

[@BongbongA99]

It looks like they also selected rewind - to the left (instead of play - to the right) on more than one occasion. Great stuff!

[@BongbongA99]

Ah, I spoke too soon - you covered it later. Jolly good. Many thanks for #3! Keep up the good work.

[@FPSNecromancerBob]

I'm always surprised how fortunate we are that batteries remained the same for so long. It would be such a pain getting a weird 1960s battery that we abandoned years ago.

[@take5th]

Well, that was an interesting throw back. i recall watching that show when i was a kid, obviously, and thinking how cool those recordersplayers were, and how much they could cost, mostly because they were so small and appeared to be constructed of metal. lol. Reel to reel was the high end medium of the day. My dad has large one, he was a musician. But those tiny ones were cool.

[@Neufutur]

As always, you make something I normally couldn't care less about into a must-listen.

[@peteshulver9221]

Brought back fond memories from my childhood days and playing around with reel to reel tape recorders and playing spies and secret missions 🤔😀🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@vacantplanet]

The intro deserves a BAFTA

[@perrybarton]

Ooh! Ooh! I've been waiting for this ever since you posted Part 2! 🤓 And I actually got a Craig 212 ("Two-Twelve," as it was known here in the States) for Christmas in 1970.

[@dmjune1]

Now we finally know the simple mechanism to cause the tape self-destruction....they were using it laying flat instead of vertically! Love the hair.

[@dashcamandy2242]

0:46 - Mat, I really enjoy when you fully embrace the theatrical side of video production. Now that I've seen your storage unit, I want to go "shopping" there... 😁

[@SammyM00782]

Amazing, it's 5:30AM here in the States and you already have 4.4k views after just 28 minutes lol. Good to see

[@randomnickify]

Because its morning in Europe and everyone is having saturday morning coffe while watching Techmoan?

[@andypyne]

​​@@randomnickifywhat is this "Europe" you talk of? Sounds made up by the American Government to trick gullible citizens into thinking other countries exist 🤔 Surely the more plausible answer is that American citizen Matt posts videos at 5am, just in time for his band of early-riser American followers to get up and watch the video

[@christopherbyrne1617]

Great video Mat! Takes me back to my youth. I had several Concord reel to reel recorders including an F90 with the am radio built in. I actually found another F 90 on Ebay a few years ago for $18.00 U S. It is in great condition and after a belt replacement works fine! Thanks!

[@McRocket]

Nicely done opening. Great job of showing the TV show portions. ☮

[@compu85]

I've been looking forward to the conclusion to this series. The episode didn't disappoint!

[@AbdulRahmanNoor]

I'm a 90s kid and watched the original Mission Impossible TV series growing up - in the 2000s when it was relaunched featuring Tom Cruise, no one I knew had even heard of the series and were talking about MI as if it were a brand new concept, to the point where I started to doubt my memory itself (this was before KZbin). Finally some 20 yrs later, I have closure. Thank you!

[@cruzcontrol1504]

After years of enjoying your presentations you are covering something I own !!! I have one of these "sound cameras" and it functions but needs caps