Browsing through the Philips staff magazines on http://www.pepnet.org.uk/ which I originally discovered looking for pictures of where I work (which was sold off by Philips years ago) I spotted I left the adjacent bit about apprentice awards in order to show that the prize for being a top apprentice would only get you 1/3rd of a Radio cassette recorder back then. To put things in context I was about to start earning £25 a week as an apprentice elsewhere; a big step up from £1 a week pocket money. At first I thought £44.96 didn't seem like much of a discount but I then found the same Philips model in the 1979 Argos catalogue for £60.
You might have discovered a new Crown Model. That was big money back then, we used to hate spending .25 cents for a video game (.25 x 4 = 1.00 USD), a few dollars was a lot back then. I wonder if part of the faux Walkman's appeal was the cost, you could get a knock-off for around $40 USD, boomboxes were still pretty expensive going into the early 80's and portable stereo was so popular, regardless if it was a box or portable. The first generation boomboxes were out of reach for most families that already had home audio, a "cheap" Hong Kong Walkman Clone Knockoff was a decent alternative.
The original reason I joined Stereo2Go was to point out how expensive things like boomboxes were back then. According to the Bank of England inflation calcultor we must multiply by 5.6 to get 2018 prices so that Crown would be £560. Of course plenty of people will spend that on a phone these days so not unbelievable. Another staff discount in the same Newspaper which I expect many people lusted after back then was My parents actually had a TV like that although they always rented, mainly due to the fear of suddenly getting an expensive repair bill. Modular Chassis for serviceability meant they expected it to go wrong every year or so. Nowadays, you could get a 32" Sony for less £s not even allowing for inflation. This is actually what most sixteen year olds would have preferred to either a boombox or a TV. Its actually a 1974 advert so a second hand one in 1978 would have been less than the TV Back to audio, in the 1976 Newletter was a full price list including cassettes and light bulbs So it appears that a Philips C90, my cassette of choice back then, was about six times the price of a light bulb. I left the Hobby Kits section at the bottom because back then I actually had the Philips X40 set. https://lushprojects.com/blog/2015/02/philips-radionics-x40/ At over £100 in todays money I have been left thinking what a generous present that was at the time. Also a lot more educational than TV tennis or similar.
I love those hobby kits! We had Radio Shack over here, the bigger the better but I never got the huge one, just the smaller sets but it was super educational for circuit design for a little kid. The Yamaha looks inexpensive but cars used to be around $2400 USD back then and the bike is about 1/6 that cost. Same today, a cheap bike around $4000 and a car is around $24000. http://www.rcgrabbag.com/radio-shack-100-in-1-electronic-project-kit/
In retrospect I think the Radio Shack / Tandy sets were better as it was easier to see how the schematic related to the actual circuit as you built it. Having tried all the 40 projects that the Philips X40 set could build I sold it a couple of years after getting it when I was moving on to more advanced projects. We had Tandy here in the UK from the mid 70s to 1999 so the Science Fair sets were popular here as well. I have one of the largest (200 in 1 ?) which I picked up at a car boot sale a few years ago. Some amusing photos of FS1E riders https://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/motoring/fizzy-days-new-film-stars-6246088 The L plates are the Learner plates I was saying about. Nowadays you have to have some training before you are allowed on the road on a motorbike. Until 1982 you could ride a 100MPH Yamaha RD250LC at 17 on L plates without any training. That was why Motorbikes were popular with teenagers but dangerous back then.
I don't think we had those over here? Anything under 50cc is considered a moped and you might just need to get a plate for a few dollars and your off and running. I had a "barn-find" Yamaha U7E Step-Through that I got back up and running. It was cool but didn't have the fairing which was a few hundred dollars for NOS. Mine was around 70cc and could do 52 MPH all day and high 40's with a back rider. There was something about mopeds being one rider only and no back pegs in the law, I can't remember but basically you had to get a motorcycle license, helmet and insurance if you went over 50cc.
