Here’s a rather unusual dot-matrix wrist watch from my own collection.

The watch was made in 1980 by Seiko, and is apparently rather rare - in fact I haven’t been able to find much background information about this watch - neither on previous eBay sales or collector sites.

The very slick and thin design reminds me of a 1980’s robocop / wallstreet-yuppie clone! The watch only have 2 functions; watch and date + light. Pressing the date button shows the date, and scrolls in the time from right to left - extremely nice, but very battery consuming.

Mine is not for sale.

Here’s a classic example of the brilliant and timeless design of Jacob Jensen for B&O - the now more than 40 year old BeoVox 2500 cube speakers!

Made of 6 different tweeters pointing in all directions, metal foot and wooden cabinet, the BeoVox 2500 was ahead of it’s time, and received the IF award in 1967 for outstanding and user-friendly design.

Mine was recently sold.

Seems like my old picture of the classic orange Donkey Kong is the all time most popular image of my website!

In September 2008 the image was downloaded almost 3000 times both directly from the website, but primarily from Google images and referring sites.

Try google Nintendo Game & Watch Donkey Kong, and the image show among the first 10 hits! Also a lot of other sites have copied the image, which means the same image is shown several times from different sites! Neat!

Now the old picture was absolutely no beauty - actually it’s way to dark and fuzzy, so I finally took the 30 seconds to shoot a new and better picture, and overwrite the old.

This time making sure the image is also large enough to fit a 1280×1024 desktop - feel free to use it, if you wish.

Words should be unnecessary! This is without doubt a legendary piece of retro equipment, which deserves an absolute front row in my personal electronic collection! Never the less - I plan on selling my TB303 on eBay in near future!

The 303 synthesizer was introduced in the early 1980’s and production was stopped after just 18 months - allowing only 10.000 units to leave the Roland factories in Japan!

Don’t know how a TB-303 sounds? Check out “Phuture’s Acid Trax” from 1987 - one of the first (if not the first) acid house tracks to use the charecteristic 303 bass line.

Update: My 303 has now been sold! Before it was shipped to a collector in the UK, I created a “memorial” desktop image of the 303 together with a pair of late 1970’s Hosiden headphones - download the 1280×1024 pixel desktop image here

I proudly present my collection of original Danish movie posters!

The collection consists of more than 100 different - all original, full size - colorful Danish movie posters from the period of 1950 to 1954.

All posters are the official Danish text versions of French, Spanish, Danish - but most of all popular American cinema titles like Tarzan, Raw Deal, Hong Kong, Come back, little Sheba - and many more!

A large amount of the posters have been drawn by the famous Danish Poster designer Aage Lundvald.

See all posters here: www.retrolution.dk/movieposters/1950-1954/

Here’s another vintage treasure on display - the Beolit 39 designed by B&O in the late 1938.

Molded and build in bakelite, which at the time was a radical improvement compared to the existing wooden cabinets. The shape of the Beolit 39 is expressing speed and elegance in an art deco fashion, as the American radios from Detroit already did.

The ivory-white buttons, dashboard panel and loudspeaker is creating a great contrast to the dark bakelite. The speaker grill is heavily inspired by the big streamlined American cars designed by Harley Earls.

Mine is not for sale, but if you know where I can buy the missing button, I’d love to hear from you at kenneth@retrolution.dk

I had to write this document; it was a sort of mental recovery, as I cannot recall how many blinking NES machines I have discarded over the past years.

For a long time, I thought there were no cure for the well known blinking illness of the old beloved Nintendo Entertainment System machines - I’ve now learned different.

My document is inspired by other guides on the same subject - but I wanted to add something extra, the visual part of large images documenting every step of the process - from taking the machine apart, to fixing it and reassembling the pieces again.

So here it is - feel free to download my guide here (4.1mb PDF)

Set of original 1970’s Pioneer headphones model ‘Monitor 10′! Absolutely cool design, details and constructed with great materials - e.g. leather frame and metal screws.

My set was bought at the local garage sale - is in very good condition and works too! I like the design so much I decided to reuse the picture below, as my computer desktop - feel free to download it here.

Here’s an interesting and rather different piece of 1980’s ‘Danish design’!

Terminator - The ultimate Joystick, as the box claim! Shaped as a hand grenade, build in hard and heavy plastic with real metal handle, grip and split! Pretty politically incorrect now a days, but this item was designed in the mid 80’s for the Commodore 64 era

MINT in original box - part of my own collection.

‘The amazing car with a memory you control!’ - Designed by Mettoy in 1970.

Box contains the cool metal sports car controlled by punch card-like cardboard key inserted into the rear - furthermore a bunch of traffic refuges, the car can drive between. Must have been a rather different toy for it’s time - apparently very common in US, but I’ve never seen it before in Denmark.

Mine is in near MINT condition - not for sale.

Here’s another gem from my personal collection of “objects worth of preservation” - the rare and very old Zathura robot, probably from the 1940/50’s.

Actually I haven’t been able to find any information or matching images on the net, so if you hold knowledge I’d love to hear from you. Please get in contact via kenneth@retrolution.dk

Mine is in extremely “well preserved” condition, complete with original box!

Rare spaceship shaped money bank, souvenir for Danish bank Sparekassen Fyn - heavily inspired by the infamous Tintin rocket, but IMHO much to phallus to be seen in any playroom!

Rather cool construction; robust metal body with a firing ramp shooting your coin into the rocket!

Simon was originally launched in late 1978 by Milton Bradley, and was the must-have toy for Christmas that year. Super Simon was released 2 years later in 1980, and as something completely new introduced electronic interactive multiplay!

The various version of Simon were extremely popular and sold in millions - in fact they were so popular that they even showed up in early 1980’s movies! Super Simon have e.g. been spotted in “Lampoon’s Vacation” and “E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial”

Mine is MINT, in original box - I picked it up at the local scout flea market for $1!

Classic Danish design - the Beolit 607 FM portable radio from the early 1960’s.

Even back then Bang & Olufsen were pioneers in the field of ‘Danish Modern’ and vision. This portable radio was produced in a variety of colors, from light green, light blue and red to black. It must have been B&O’s first attempt at early pop-art, and to break out of the traditional color scheme.

Admitted - this is a bit geekish! But never the less, I really like these original Atari badges from the early 80’s. I’m pretty sure they were handed out as souvenirs, to go along an Atari 2600 marketing campaign. Not for sale.

Interesting Star Trek collectors item - the limited edition 3 x VHS box set with a nice 3D embossed chrome face of Data.

Here’s a nice 8mm Beetle Bailey home movie from Americom. The reel is a traditional silent movie, but with the “Free Sound Track Record” you can now enjoy sound to go along the cartoon! Just fire up that old turntable and spin the nice flexi disc, while you use any 8mm projector - etc. like my Nilus, to project the cartoon!

Very cool but timing must be rather precise I guess Nevertheless first time I’ve ever seen a package like this - at least in Denmark. The price tag is still there - 46,50 dkr. that’s like $8 in 1965 - expensive entertainment!

This is the rare red version of the Nilus 8mm silent projector from the 1950’s.

Mine is in near-mint condition with original warranty card from Illum anno 1959! Extremely futuristic design and bold red color, not at all very common for it’s time, and compared to other projectors from the same period!

The Nintendo Ten Billion Barrels was designed by Gumpei Yokoi in 1980, almost a decade before he designed the famous Nintendo GameBoy. This game is very similar to professor Ernõ Rubik’s infamous “Magic Cube” originally from 1974 (renamed Rubik’s Cube by Ideal Toys in 1980) but the Ten Billion Barrels is much much harder to solve.

The puzzle has 23 colored balls arranged in five columns spaced evenly around the sides of the barrel. The barrel itself has six rows. Two (nonadjacent) columns have only 4 balls, which lie in the middle four rows. The other three columns have 5 balls, and the extra balls either lie all in the top row or all in the bottom row. The black central core can move up or down, and that moves those three columns along with it. The middle four rows lie in two discs, which can rotate. By rotating a disc, the balls in the two rows it contains are moved around to the other columns. The aim is to place four balls of the same colour in each of the five columns, with the three black balls filling up the top of the longer columns. See more at http://www.geocities.com/jaapsch/puzzles/nintendo.htm

Mine is near MINT and in original box!

These vintage brochures are true graphical gems from the 1950’s when car illustrations wasn’t drawn in Illustrator or 3DSMAX but by hand!

I got hold of a bunch of old car sales material - everything from Morris Metro to MG and VW. A few pamphlet are remarkable better drawn than the rest - especially the two VW van booklets with 22 colorful pages and truly awesome illustration, but also the Volvo 544 got great images and illustration. I high res scanned all pages from the Volvo and VW brochures, and was planing to use the illustrations in graphical design - first of all just desktops but some are very suitable for etc. t-shirt print!

Below is an example of the smooth illustrations from the VW brochure! I also made a quick and dirty 4bit (8 color) desktop for your PC which can be downloaded here - it’s made up of MG, Volvo, Morris Metro and VW images.

Here one of several vintage posters I bought - most posters are 1940’s to 1960’s classic Danish transport themes etc. DSB (Danish Railroad Service) and SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System), but also this very nice vintage KLM Flying Dutchman poster! All 8 posters can be seen here www.retrolution.dk/plakater

Great Tin-tin money bank in very nice condition - complete with original lock and keys. Not really that rare, but still a lovely colorful piece which reminds me of my childhood! Thou my bank didn’t give out this type, but the dull Rasmus Klump money bank - but now I finally got one

Bought this beauty at a local garage sale last weekend - complete in original box including a bunch of 1960’s cartoon and horror movies! Uses 6 large batteries and movie reels are attached on the back of the projector - build in tin and plastic, great design if you ask me! Could have been something from The Jetsons! This item is not for sale - got more information about it? Please post here, or write kenneth@retrolution.dk

Here’s a part of my personal collection of Holmegaard / Kastrup pop-art opal-glass design. The ‘Palet’ series was designed by Michael Bang around 1970 and was mainly design for household purpose - a large variety of items was born, including everything from vases to bowls, jugs and lamps.

Per Lütken got employed at Holmegaard in 1941 without previous knowledge of glass works. During the late 1960’s and early 70’s he too began designing pop-art opal-glass items - Lütkens collection was entitled ‘Carnaby’ and only included vases, but in wonderful shapes and bright colors. The orange vase on the second row, to the right shown in the picture below is from the Carnaby collection.

Otto Bauer Designed the “bottle vases” for Holmegaard / Kastrup glas - the largest one in my collection is almost 50cm high - extremely rare and not for sale.

Here’s another fine example of vintage japanese electronic design, which definitely deserve space on the retrolution hall of fame shelves.

This very slick designed radio can be worn around your wrist, as well as being turned 180 degrees to form a s-shape. Unfortunately this radio only got AM band, just as the Panapet. Has got build-in speaker, volume button, ear-phone plug and a nice toot-a-loop metal plate at the oppisite end of the futuristic AM-tuner seen on the picture below. Mine is red, a bit worn but was bought for just $5 - not for sale.

Slick organic design and produced in almost all colors of the rainbow. This is the nice National Panasonic Panapet 70 from the 1970’s Japan - nice build-in round-shaped tuner - unfortunately only with AM band, no European FM band available. 2 silver buttons for tuning and adjusting volume + build-in speaker. Fits in your hand but also equiped with a string to carry it along. Mine is the cool cobalt blue version - it’s not for sale, just for viewing pleasure.

Extremely nice original Apollo 11 badge from 1969 - reading “U.S. First Man on The Moon - July 1969 - Astronauts Armstrong-Collins-Aldrin - Epic Journey of Apollo 11″. Pretty large measuring 9cm across. Found this highly collectible item on a local fleamarket some years ago - it’s not for sale, but here to show the world.

Here’s a true treasure from my own collection of vintage toys - the 1950/60’s Barbie doll lookalike attached to a windable italian Comando baby carriage. The wheels are turning and Barbie moves her feet when the carriage is winded! Ultra rare - In fact I haven’t been able to find anything like this on google or eBay. Extremely nice details - rubber wheels, metal key, blue eyes and makeup - very thorough! This item is not for sale.

4 pieces of ultra slick aluminium ceiling lamps made by Fog & Mørup, designed by Johannes Hammerborg in the late 1960’s - authentic Danish Modern in it’s best shape and form!

Fantastic cover art on this very rare soul release on the record label “Power” - funky tracks but the purple cover pop-art with a twist completely stole my heart! This rare record was only seen twice on eBay in 2006 - selling at aprox. $200. So far is has not been up for sale in 2007.

The 1960s Lotus series by CathrineHolm ranges from etc. porcelain cups and plates to enamel bowls, pots and pans.

All MINT MBO TV-game - complete in original box with boxed games! This set was given away to an upcoming collector, planing to arrange a public presentation of vintage TV and handheld games!

Found this nice camera on a local garage sale - I had absolutely no knowledge about this camera, and just bought it out of curiosity. I got quite surprised when I returned home and checked eBay for similar items!

The infamous JHQ/IHQ teak ice-bucket inspired by Japanese water-buckets from the 1800 century with a touch of Scandinavian Viking-middle age design!

Very nice set of original 1950’s Kay Bojesen teak plates, one still with the original “Kay Bojesen Eneret” sticker. Measuring 26,5 cm in diameter.

Kay Bojesen (1886-1958) trained as a silversmith at Georg Jensen in 1906. A few years later, he would open his own shop in Bredgade in central Copenhagen. Although he never gave up working in metal, he started making toys for his son in the 1920s. In 1932, he publicly introduced building blocks, which were plain and simple and beautifully made. Soon after came the incredible “Manhattan” skyscraper building set. Then it was on; he cranked out animals and human figures, amazing hand-turned bowls and platters, trains, cars and a farm set. The most famous of his toys, the teak monkey, was not made until 1951.

These 5 policemen might be part of the huge Kay Bojesen production range of wooden toys - I will contact an auction house to have it confirmed.

Impressive electronic battleship board game from 1977, complete in original box.

Here’s some unusual bonus info! IMHO the gentleman on the box looks a lot like the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen! LOL

This item is what I believe to be the ottoman for the ever famous Falcon Chair designed by Sigurd Resell.

It is beautifully done with brown leather, and sturdy polished steel frame.

The immortal orange Donkey Kong was one of the best selling Game & Watch hand held games durring the early 80’s. The game is still a nice collectors item, eventhou it was sold in several millions just in Scandinavia.

The Nintendo Game & Watch series included around 60 different model produced in a period of over 10 years from 1980 to 1991! My collection still isn’t complete - I still need around 5 or 6 games - the rare models ofcourse! If you’re interested in trading / selling Game & Watch - please do contact me at kenneth@retrolution.dk

I picked up this game at a local garage sale, its complete with serial number, battery cover and most important intact closing hasp - it will be added to my personal collection.

Here’s a true gem from the early years of Danish kitchen machinery - the mixer is fully working, complete with a Blender, meat grinder and mixer!

A mixer like this was a part of the exhibition “The industrial Icons: Danish Design” held at the Danish National Museum of Industrial Art in 2004.

Another true design icon - the immortal Olivetti “Valentine” designed by Ettore Sottsass in 1969!

This model is a scandinavian version with the chars “Æ”, “Ø” and “Å” - hence a rather attractive collectors item! Very good condition.

Today I picked up this gigantic Renault 4 poster - it measures a total height and width of 180cm x 120cm !! A perfect fit for the wall beside my toilet!

I believe this poster is from the late 70’s early 80’s - maybe even older.

Extremely rare plastic elephant - from the Danish 50/60’s family movies “Far til 4″ (father of four) where the youngest boy “Lille Per” was dragging around with this elephant - naming it “Bodil Kjær” after popular Danish female actor with the same name. The elephant is stamped “PP”.

I have only once before seen this plastic elephant - in a private toy collection owned by one of the retro store keepers in Copenhagen.

Retrolution is all about the love and passion for vintage design, long lost and forgotten items! Primarily Danish Design in all shapes and sizes - but all nationalities are welcome!

My name is Kenneth Kjær-Jensen, I’m a web designer + webmaster at www.dhigroup.com. I live in Copenhagen, Denmark - and I’ve been collecting basically everything cool and kitsch for more than 10 years.

This blog will be my digital “schaufenster” where you can press your nose against the screen and take a trip down memory lane! I’ll be displaying some of the weird and wonderful items from my attic and things gathered at the local garage sale. Stay tuned!