This Swiss CD player costs more than a used car. The front panel features an analog VU meter and gob-smackingly expensive controls.
At first glance, the $3499 Suzuki TU250 seems to have escaped from the 1970s. However, you're not going to discover mysterious old oil leaks or finicky carburetors on this modern little bike. Instead, Suzuki has wrapped 21st century engineering in an eye-catching vintage design.
It's powered by a 249cc four-stroke single cylinder air-cooled engine controlled by a digital CDI ignition system. Power is transmitted to the pavement through a 5-speed transmission and the gas tank holds just over 3 gallons of fuel - perfect for riding around town. If you're of the green persuasion, you'll be happy to see a catalytic converter on the exhaust to reduce emissions.
This bike is yet another attempt by manufacturers to encourage new riders to enter the sport. Until recently, the North American market relied on well-heeled Baby Boomers buying higher-end machines. Younger, poorer riders often found themselves having to settle for an ugly entry level bike, or none at all.
Things are changing rapidly, thanks to a decline in the Boomer segment and a challenging economy that encourages frugal vehicle purchases. A $15,000 bike is suddenly out of reach for many, especially when a much cheaper and more fuel efficient machine serves basically the same function. Besides, the sub-250cc displacement helps to reduce insurance costs and provides great fuel economy.
The TU250 is available only in red, a great way to reduce inventory costs.
Discover the 2009 Suzuki TU250 [thanks, Stephen!]
I think that they were taking design cues from Sony's WM-10 pictured here - a Walkman barely larger than a cassette case. Sony had the tech to pull off the daring miniaturization of their already tiny cassette player, but what about the brain trust who made the Super Mini?
Granted the player is two decades old, but I have a pretty good inkling that it probably never sounded too good. The Mini even claims to be CrO2 & Metal compatible, but do I even have to tell you that it lacks sensors to tell the difference? It scores points for its stab at compactness, but they should have taken another page from Sony's book and created something that sounded at least okay. Still, the Super Mini pointed out two things to me. One is a lesson that I learned in the 80's - to save up to get a real brand name Walkman (which I still have). The other is that you have to get a lot of things right to make a working portable cassette player.
My final goal is to replace the operating system. I've never been a fan of the way my iPod handles playlists and find the lack of alternative audio codecs somewhat disappointing. The solution is to swap the firmware for 
There are more live shows to come in the new year, but you can enjoy the lousy movies and the flinging of countless barbs per hour at home right now. Cinematic Titanic has DVDs that you can download and burn from their website. Perhaps the most infamous among them is "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" which you can download for ten bucks. This wrong-headed film was a classic experiment on the original MST3K, but in this release the CT crew re-visit and re-riff the flick with all new jokes.
The downloads include art you can print right onto the disc, so you can give something that looks a little classier than a back-alley DVD-R. So for a couple bucks you can give a gift you can be sure that few people on your list have already seen. Or burn a copy to bring along to watch with the family. Just make sure to put it in the DVD player as soon as possible - before you are unable to dislodge yourself from the couch after dinner. Laughter's got to be good for the digestion, right?
As I write this, I'm staring at my record collection. They're in a wall unit from Ikea, and if you've ever seen any of our Retro Thing TV videos, it's usually my background. I have records on shelves elsewhere, and I've got thick plastic dividers (obtained for next to nothing from some record store that was closing) between sections of LP's. Before the plastic, I carried on in the fine tradition of using cardboard to separate records. 
For £20, Suck UK will send you a set of 30 record dividers that are decorated and worn to look as if they'd come from a record store. Perhaps they're better than cardboard, and perhaps these are the most smug/ironic record dividers ever, but 20 pounds is a heavy penalty to pay to be tagged as a poseur. Isn't the whole point of collecting vinyl to experience authentic and personal sound? To live the analog experience? Why fake it with these dividers?
Suck UK has plenty of other fun things on their site that I could see really enjoying. Clever design does deserve a few extra bucks. It's the job of an artist to think up things that others haven't considered in an artistic sense, but come on... This is just an expensive penalty levied on record collectors who have some morbid fear of cutting up cardboard boxes and uncapping Sharpies.
