There is definitely a market for the resurgence of some of high quality old-timey products, especially those with some novelty. Sunbeam should literally do a Kickstarter to get the marketing going.
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A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today
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Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today
#12His whole channel (called Technology Connections) is probably my favorite one on YouTube, can’t recommend it enough! My favorites are his series on refrigeration and heat pumps, for example this one: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7J52mDjZzto Edit: to clarify, this article is based on an old Technology Connections video, and the creator of that video has lots more!
Seconded, I learned a ton about A/V systems from him. He has excellent technical content. Learning about how the old electromechanical juke boxes worked was fascinating.
I can also recommend Applied Science. He explains the concepts behind numerous concepts and applies them to a home project in his garage. Such project include: Home made electron microscope Chemical glass strengthening Robotic cookie maker Creating X-Rays Messing around with supercritical CO2
https://m.youtube.com/c/AppliedScience/videos
He does all sorts of random shit and it is absolutely wonderful
Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today
#13I have several of these and can confirm they're awesome and very satisfying to use (when they're working correctly).
Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today
#14There is definitely a market for the resurgence of some of high quality old-timey products, especially those with some novelty. Sunbeam should literally do a Kickstarter to get the marketing going.
> Sunbeam should literally do a Kickstarter to get the marketing going.
Sunbeam products are now Chinesium trash, the brand was sold off long ago.
At my last startup we learned this the hard way after buying a Sunbeam set of knives in a butcher block for the office kitchen. Every single knife was dull and serrated identically, despite presenting in the Amazon ad as a comprehensive set of knives.
Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today
#15My wife has one of these and she's crazy about it. I'm less enthusiastic, especially since it has no protection against the outside getting hot enough to melt or burn anything carelessly put next to it. Maybe an update addressing that and some of the other issues mentioned in OP would yield a toaster that would make both of us happy.
Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today
#16His whole channel (called Technology Connections) is probably my favorite one on YouTube, can’t recommend it enough! My favorites are his series on refrigeration and heat pumps, for example this one: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7J52mDjZzto Edit: to clarify, this article is based on an old Technology Connections video, and the creator of that video has lots more!
I watched a few videos from his channel and always amazed/wondered how can he has so many vintage items and deep knowledge of/around them. I really enjoy his presentation skill and sense of humour.
Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today
#17There is definitely a market for the resurgence of some of high quality old-timey products, especially those with some novelty. Sunbeam should literally do a Kickstarter to get the marketing going.
I've thought about this for a while. Imagine a line of "dumb" dishwashers, toasters, ovens, stoves, microwaves, etc., all well-designed and made with sturdy materials.
Unfortunately, I think they'd cost 6-10x going rate as modern "smart" appliances, and also the market for them would be restricted to HN commenters.
Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today
#18His whole channel (called Technology Connections) is probably my favorite one on YouTube, can’t recommend it enough! My favorites are his series on refrigeration and heat pumps, for example this one: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7J52mDjZzto Edit: to clarify, this article is based on an old Technology Connections video, and the creator of that video has lots more!
Love his channel! My favourite videos are the ones about dishwashers.
Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today
#19I wish I could still get a toaster that let me toast one slice at a time. If making toast, I usually just want one slice. It is wasteful to have to heat up both sides for one slice of toast.
I remember one model from a few decades ago where you could just put one slice in and push down one button to toast that. If you put in 2 slices, the other button would push both sides down to toast. I haven’t seen that feature in a long time.
Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today
#20There is definitely a market for the resurgence of some of high quality old-timey products, especially those with some novelty. Sunbeam should literally do a Kickstarter to get the marketing going.
Sunbeam is currently owned by Newell Brands (Carl Icahn) whose other brands include Coleman, Parker Pen, Calphalon, and First Alert.
They certainly don't need the money to kickstart a campaign, but it would be interesting to know if Kickstarter would entertain the idea of a subsidiary of Newell Brands running a marketing campaign on its platform.
Are there other large corporate brands that you know of that have launched marketing campaigns on KS?