Sonic Ear anyone?

[jason h]

I've been so wrong lately with names for stuff but I think it was called Sonic Ear. A toy designed for listening-in on your friends conversations from a short distance away, this was sold as a a fun spying device.
Ironically it was MASSIVE. A shoulder-mounted bazooka-like thing with a big radar on the end and I think it was beige coloured. I really wanted one as a kid.

[sixtyten]

Re: Sonic Ear anyone?

YepI remember these

[strangebrew]

Re: Sonic Ear anyone?

I remember those too. I was very excited to find one at a rummage sale for 25 cents. it didn't work when i put batteries in it, but i still had fun using it as a big space rifle.

[Oggy]

Re: Sonic Ear anyone?

Recall them but never had one.

Moderators Edit.... For pictures of the Sonic Ear see here https://forums.doyouremember.co.uk/t...nic-ear-2.html. Huggie74

[jewbs]

Re: Sonic Ear anyone?

I had one when i was about 8 about 1980ish i think. It was amazing. I would get my friend to go behind this big barn door that used to lean against a barn wall approx 100 yards away and he would whisper, he blew a raspberry one time and no kidding it was like he was stood next to me. we used to listen to the neighbours thru the wall you could hear everything.
It was like a long megaphone shape but plastic and it was blue and yellow, the whole family used it not just me. I wish i knew what happened to it, would like another even tho im 38. If i remember rightly they took them off the shelves after a few months coz they were that good, and probably dangerous in the wrong hands.

I've been so wrong lately with names for stuff but I think it was called Sonic Ear. A toy designed for listening-in on your friends conversations from a short distance away, this was sold as a a fun spying device.
Ironically it was MASSIVE. A shoulder-mounted bazooka-like thing with a big radar on the end and I think it was beige coloured. I really wanted one as a kid.

[RJBowman]

Re: Sonic Ear anyone?

I had this toy in circa 1979. It had a rifle-size casing with a parabolic reflector. The earphone was like a stethoscope.

I had mine for about a year and the trigger switch broke. I opened it up with the screwdriver and found what at the time would have been considered a tiny circuit board, with just a few transistors. I also opened up the stethoscope portion of the toy, and found a common transister-radio earphone mounded inside the plastic shell.

In retrospect, i believe that this toy might have been a repurposing of the electronics for the pocket-size transistor hearing aids that were becoming obsolete with the arrival of smaller microchip-based hearing aids. The toy probably kept a far-east hearing-aid circuit board factory running for another year without major retooling.

[Richard1978]

Re: Sonic Ear anyone?

This reminds me of some of the Star Wars toys Kenner made by reworking existing products.

http://theswca.com/images-speci/recycle/index.html