Any Mattel Instant Replay Fans Out There?

[Exhibitman]

When I was six or seven I got this neat disk player with picture disks of players that looked like little records. The sound quality was atrocious but the disks were way cool. Years later I rediscovered them and started collecting.

The Mattel IR player was a handheld playback device with a tinny sounding speaker that would play small records with snippets of sports moments on them. The player was sold in a boxed set with some disks. Other disks were issued in four-disk blister packs on a sport by sport basis, and in sport-specific eight-disk portfolios with booklets describing the content as well.

The first and by far most common issue were baseball, football and basketball disks, which are black disks with a paper applique sticker that has the artwork and information. The artwork is very '1970s' and appeals to any child of the era, like me.



A secondary issue exists as well, consisting of two-sided picture disks with the imagery in the plastic itself.



These are tougher to find. Hockey disks are found in this series.

Some of the 2 siders have a sports Challenge question logo with generic images on one side and answer-specific artwork on the other.



They are the toughest of the disks, in my experience; I guess they were not popular. I do not recall having any of them. Interestingly, the sports challenge format is the same logo as a later full sized illustrated 33 1/3 rpm record series by Scarab Productions. Both were associated with the syndicated game show/CBS tv show of the era since the logo is the same and Dick Enberg actually talked up the Mattel product on the show in 1973. I guess they were not content to let a crappy idea die so they made their own full-sized disks. Here is a full sized disk:

[tribefan]

I like these, they are different than most issues.
I'll try to dig up some of mine to share.

[Jayworld]

The Mattel Instant Replay discs are very cool. I remember them, but do not have any, but I do have my Mattel Talking Football game from 1972 which used the same small record technology; my player, called a broadcaster, still works great, and the game still plays fine with all the records. The 1972 Talking Baseball is the rarer of the two. Please share more photos/info of the Instant Replay discs....

[ALR-bishop]

Had not seen these before. Neat items

[Exhibitman]

[sox1903wschamp]

I loved these when I was a kid. I think I have about 40 Disc's someplace.
Here is the machine to play the disc's that I still have from childhood.

[familytoad]

Yep, I had all the sports stars, I played those silly records all the time!
I wish I had kept them, like I had just about everything else from my collection as a youngster, but those little discs didn't make it.
I heard about Havlicek stealing the ball a few too many times though, so I might have chucked them

[whiteymet]

Hey Adam:

I am too old to have been a kid when these came out, but just recently I have started to pick up some of these. I think I have 20 some in all sports except hockey.

They sort of go along with the other "record" issues like the Auravison, Columbia Baseball Series and the CMC Talking Baseball sets that I have.

I have been looking for a checklist of all those issued including the double sided. Do you have a checklist or can you supply a link that has one?

Same for the Sports Challenge Records. Is the set complete at 12? Any variations in either set? I think I have noticed different info on the lids of the boxes that the "record player" came in.

Appreciate any info you can supply.

[laughlinfan]

These are right in my childhood wheelhouse! As a kid, they were technologically cool - OK, it was the early 70s and I was like 8! - colorful, and featured many of my favorite players. I also recall that when you ejected the discs, they popped out fast, and they could be used as projectiles should the need arise!

Leave it to Fred to try to test my memory (again!) - I bought the player and it had four records in it - Willie Mays, Bart Starr, Lew Alcindor, and a Racing Car disc of some sort. I still have my player with the box, as well as a sealed unopened player I remember buying on close out a year later. Interestingly, they were sealed to allow you to open the box and read the info, but the player and the discs were sealed with plastic in the bottom half of the box. On the inside of the box top, I think it listed the players available in the set. I think the baseball players were listed as "coming soon" maybe. I do know that I found the football, basketball, and racing car discs in the stores in my area, but those promised baseball discs never showed up for me. All of the discs I saw as a kid were the single sided black edged discs. They were available in blister packs of 4, or in packs of 8 in a plastic folder that held the 8 discs and a small booklet that had information on the players.

Many years later, I did pick up the baseball discs that I never saw as a kid, again in the black backed version. I don't know much about the Sports Challenge discs - I have seen them but haven't really pursued them that much. The hockey are pretty tough - I am guessing very limited distribution in Northern US and/or Canada.

From what I recall that I have seen, here is what I think may have been produced.

Football - two sets of 8, with one set being harder to come by, and a Bart Starr that exists as a one-sided black disc or a two sided disc.

Basketball - one set of 8, plus Alcindor, who became Jabbar on the two sided disc. The basketball discs were also produced as two sided discs.

Baseball - One set of 8, plus Mays, all available as two sided discs as well.

Hockey - One set of 8, all produced (only) as two sided discs.

Racing - Not sure if it was one set of 8 or two sets of 8, plus the one that came with the player. Never been a racing fan! All one sided discs, except for the one racing disc that was sold with the player, which probably exists as two sided as well.

If someone has seen something different for these, please feel free to correct me! I can post pictures of some of these, but they are still hiding out at my parents' house - somewhere! As I recall, I think I have a bunch of the 4 and 8 disc packs for football, basketball, and maybe the race cars. I think I have a few singles kicking around here somewhere.

Happy collecting!