Ever wanted to play your record collection on the go but wanted to save yourself the embarrassment of being this guy?

Well, you can now leave all that bulky high-end audio equipment at home and just head out the door with just a handful of records and the world’s smallest portable vinyl player; Introducing, the Soundwagon.

We thought this was too cute not to share…

As you can see above, the Soundwagon is a toy VW bus with a plastic record stylus underneath its plastic chassis and a small set of speakers on top – all driven by a 9V battery. Originally made in Japan, where they were popular during the 70s and 80s as a novelty gift between business associates, the Soundwagon actually has another popular name: the Vinyl Killer – for reasons that should be obvious to any LP aficionado.

Despite its wince-inducing effect on beloved records, vintage Soundwagons have become quite the collectors item and can fetch a fair price on the likes of eBay, while their popularity was enough to inspire a large wave of cheap knock-offs and imitations. 

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No doubt capitalising on the current vinyl boom, Japanese manufacturers Stokyo have begun producing a new licensed version of the Soundwagon once more and made “drastic measures to improve the quality and build” enough to refute the ‘Vinyl Killer’ tag. Selling its quality enough for “checking out the stash at your local garage sale or listening to your old man’s disco record” – complete with the boutique price tag of US$ 99.

So if you wanna be the life of the party next time you and your friends get together for a vinyl listening session. This is obviously the gimmick to do it.

Maybe just ask before you let that little thing rip on someone’s ultra-rare Led Zeppelin bootleg, yeah?


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