I actually have a GE Badged Panasonic 4-Head Linear Stereo VCR from 1987 that came from my great-grandfather's house when they were cleaning it out to get ready to sell it and it also randomly developed a power supply issue one day (and it had been working perfectly up until the middle of last year and I got it around October of 2020 and then suddenly one day the VCR just died, (no front panel display or anything.)
When I opened it up, the fuse was blown and it was blown the same way as the OP's VCR's fuse was blown, which was pitch black glass like it had blown really hard from some sort of hard surge of some sort.
I had attempted to check capacitors and transistors on the power supply board and I only saw one capacitor that looked bulged and I replaced it and the VCR didn't come back to life, it still was blowing fuses.
