[Salvaged] 1987 Toshiba V-1200C VCR

[Beachboy]

Did Toshiba always build their VCR's, or were they outsourced in later years? I have a new-in-box Toshiba W-612 hi-fi VCR I purchased more than 10 years ago as a spare, but never used. I was just curious if it is worthy of keeping or if it's an outsourced Funai or Orion junker.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Beachboy

Did Toshiba always build their VCR's, or were they outsourced in later years? I have a new-in-box Toshiba W-612 hi-fi VCR I purchased more than 10 years ago as a spare, but never used. I was just curious if it is worthy of keeping or if it's an outsourced Funai or Orion junker.

Funai, not so great, Orion, doesn't appear to be too bad.
I've had good success with Orion-built Toshiba products. They seem to be a lot better, than the last of the Panasonic VCR's. I won't touch one of them. From a firm, that built one of the best VCR's, to the poorest excuses of a VCR.

[Beachboy]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Funai, not so great, Orion, doesn't appear to be too bad.
I've had good success with Orion-built Toshiba products. They seem to be a lot better, than the last of the Panasonic VCR's. I won't touch one of them. From a firm, that built one of the best VCR's, to the poorest excuses of a VCR.

Thanks for the info! I have three of the later-model Orion-built Toshiba TV's and have good luck with them. Good to know that the Orion-built VCR's are decent too. I didn't realize that the last generation of Panasonic VCR's were poor quality. Except for that lone Toshiba VCR, every other VCR I own is Panasonic, since I always believed they were at the top for quality. Hopefully mine were built before the quality took a dive.

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by Beachboy

Did Toshiba always build their VCR's, or were they outsourced in later years? I have a new-in-box Toshiba W-612 hi-fi VCR I purchased more than 10 years ago as a spare, but never used. I was just curious if it is worthy of keeping or if it's an outsourced Funai or Orion junker.

That VCR was made by Samsung.

[waltchan]

On the older Toshibas, the most common problem was a failed loading motor. If it did fail, you would hear a big crunchy noise or no movement at all due to broken bearings inside the motor.

But despite that, Consumer Reports rated Toshiba as the second most-reliable VCR brand after Panasonic. Toshiba was considered a "Honda" like brand back in 1980s with Panasonic closer to "Toyota".

[Beachboy]

Thanks for the info, waltchan! Appreciate your help!