The Funai NO690 VCR remote control

Boring and filthy. Cheap. Monochrome. Not even a red standby button. But it is at least contoured to fit the hand.



"Some photos of a remote control we have at work - it belongs to a Funai VCR which I have also attached photos of as an added bonus. The remote in question has 'Golden Power' batteries in it (pictured) but I'm afraid that's as exciting as it gets. I can imagine Stalin endorsing this remote and making sure that every impoverished household had one. Indeed, it's probably still pretty cutting edge in the Ukraine. This remote is so insipid that it makes the grey table it is on appear picturesque."



"It makes me mourn the passing of VHS and the splendid remotes that followed, what with their jog-dial functionality, SP, LP (and sometimes SLP/XLP!) and things like that. What's remarkable is that this remote is only about 2 years old - It was the only Video we could get from Currys at the time you see. To make things exciting, I tried to picture the remote as if it was the monolith from 2001 but it didn't really work - it only highlighted the amount of dust that has accumulated on its surface. I suppose I could have removed the dust but I thought it mirrored the growing irrelevance of VHS nicely."



"I also enclose 2 pictures of the video player - the first shows an acceptable 'chav-chic' appearance - natty silver finish and the right width to fit nicely under a 14' Alba TV. It also has a genuine spillage on it which I'm saying is yoghurt."



"The back is incredibly austere, and made out of the sort of beige plastic that I thought had died out in the 80's. Sorry that the 2 video pictures are out of focus - I had to take the pictures quickly so no-one saw me, lest I had to explain why I was taking pictures of an Eastern-Bloc video recorder. The resolution of the images is 2048 x 1536, taken on a Sony Ericsson blah blah with a broken joystick. Bye! - Alex."