I worked at McDonald's in 89. We had this stacked at the counter for customers to take. By 89, a lot of people had already ditched their turntables, in favor of cd.
That bit is what confused me when I first learned about this record, since this was the time when everything was becoming digital I mean, it was probably a super cheap promo for McDonald's, but still
best best would be taping it to another record or putting some hard back card on it to straighten it out (or if you can carefully split the front and back into two bits you could thicken it up and stick it back together)
i still can't get over how this was a real thing mcdonalds made, but what's crazier is how the winning record is basically lost media nobody but the winner knows what the winning record sounded like
Flexidiscs were usually just very thin, floppy plastic. Much more floppy than this cardboard-backed one. The cardboard backing is unusual and seems to have contributed to the demise of this one. I noticed when you showed the back that this had the usual advice to place a coin on the record if it slips, to weight it down.
@timf-tinkering ok that's funny, I had no idea that was legitimate advice for these things I'll have to take that into consideration for the next time I play this record, that might be able to fix the issues with playing this
my recollection of that McDonalds Flexi disc was that it was given away free in my local news paper. Also I don't recall it having the cardboard backing. Looking online a copy that looked like what I recall. This was the Flexi disc with no cardboard backing. From what I see in the online pic there was some glue so it may have been attached to a backing. The thing is although Flexi discs are low quality they usually last ok if store them flat. I'd bet yours is not playing great because the backing is not flat. As the name Flexi disc implies they are flexible.
@1899Dan I'd imagine why it's so flexible is that unlike normal records, one side is paper and the vinyl is put on top and pressed down with the grooves That's my closest guess, at least. I could be way off about this, but I don't know a lot about flexi disks in general
@@phoenix_ac0 most flexi discs I own are just the plastic with no paper or cardboard backing. I do also have some promotional records which I'm not sure are technically Flexi discs but are basically cardboard with a light plastic layer on top that seems to have the grooves pressed in it. The Scratch Piklz had a post card sized record like that which I have somewhere and in the 80's Burger King had this style of plastic laminated top with cardboard base records to go along with their Alf hand puppet promo. Pretty sure the McDonald's Flexi disc doesn't need the cardboard backing to play as I believe it's actually a Flexi disc and the grooves are in the actual plastic and not pressed into the cardboard though I may be incorrect as Mcdonalds did a few of these promotions in the 80's and I don't recall all of them.
😂😂😂SMH.... A few things you should know about records and turntables. 1. Any time you see a red cartridge on the tone arm, that means it's a ceramic stylus. Ceramic doesn't last long at all and has a conical tip, which produces a lesser quality sound. 2. The platter should have a rubber mat for the record to sit on . 3. Stay away from turntables that have a platter smaller than a full size album or come with a silly acrylic piece to put on the platter to play full size albums. They will cause you nothing but headaches in the long run. 4. You don't have to spend a ton of money on an very expensive turntable to get really good sound from records. Wal-Mart has a Audio Technica for around $150.00 that comes with an elliptical stylus. 5. You'd be surprised at how good records can sound if you take the time to make sure everything is set up correctly. Watch a few TH-cam video's on turntable set up. Get that Audio Technica at Wal-Mart and you'll be miles ahead of where you are now.
my next video (mainly just showing off my small record collection) does touch on that topic, particularly with how i'm going to approach upgrading my current setup but yeah, my current turntable being a POS is not lost on me. i needed something non-committal since i'm usually bad with spending money on a new hobby and then doing absolutely nothing with it three weeks later. with that said... now that i do know that i like vinyl, i'm absolutely getting a better turntable; but that might have to wait for now, at least (saving up, doing better things, etc.).
Yeah but the grooves are round... sort of. The idea is you were supposed get out a pair of scissors and cut it to make it round. Leaving it square not a good idea as it could easily destroy your stylus. Thankfully you are playing it on a POS record player so it's no big loss of the stylus gets broken.
I worked at McDonald's in 89. We had this stacked at the counter for customers to take. By 89, a lot of people had already ditched their turntables, in favor of cd.
That bit is what confused me when I first learned about this record, since this was the time when everything was becoming digital
I mean, it was probably a super cheap promo for McDonald's, but still
Who would've thought that some cheap flexi discs from McDonald's of all would sell more than Micheal Jackson's best selling album 😭
best best would be taping it to another record or putting some hard back card on it to straighten it out
(or if you can carefully split the front and back into two bits you could thicken it up and stick it back together)
I still to this day have this stupid song stuck in my head; I can recite it at any time
i still can't get over how this was a real thing mcdonalds made, but what's crazier is how the winning record is basically lost media
nobody but the winner knows what the winning record sounded like
@@phoenix_ac0 I have a vague memory of the winning song being posted on youtube somewhere...or a podcast I heard?
Flexidiscs were usually just very thin, floppy plastic. Much more floppy than this cardboard-backed one. The cardboard backing is unusual and seems to have contributed to the demise of this one. I noticed when you showed the back that this had the usual advice to place a coin on the record if it slips, to weight it down.
@timf-tinkering ok that's funny, I had no idea that was legitimate advice for these things
I'll have to take that into consideration for the next time I play this record, that might be able to fix the issues with playing this
my recollection of that McDonalds Flexi disc was that it was given away free in my local news paper. Also I don't recall it having the cardboard backing. Looking online a copy that looked like what I recall. This was the Flexi disc with no cardboard backing. From what I see in the online pic there was some glue so it may have been attached to a backing. The thing is although Flexi discs are low quality they usually last ok if store them flat. I'd bet yours is not playing great because the backing is not flat. As the name Flexi disc implies they are flexible.
@1899Dan I'd imagine why it's so flexible is that unlike normal records, one side is paper and the vinyl is put on top and pressed down with the grooves
That's my closest guess, at least. I could be way off about this, but I don't know a lot about flexi disks in general
@@phoenix_ac0 most flexi discs I own are just the plastic with no paper or cardboard backing. I do also have some promotional records which I'm not sure are technically Flexi discs but are basically cardboard with a light plastic layer on top that seems to have the grooves pressed in it. The Scratch Piklz had a post card sized record like that which I have somewhere and in the 80's Burger King had this style of plastic laminated top with cardboard base records to go along with their Alf hand puppet promo. Pretty sure the McDonald's Flexi disc doesn't need the cardboard backing to play as I believe it's actually a Flexi disc and the grooves are in the actual plastic and not pressed into the cardboard though I may be incorrect as Mcdonalds did a few of these promotions in the 80's and I don't recall all of them.
I have the same turntable but in black and it works pretty well
nice, i'd suggest getting an acrylic mat if you haven't already, it helps so much with the balance given how small the platter is
I have a Denzel curry flexi disc and I accidentally scratched it 😔 but it still plays well 🙂
they're surprisingly resilient, although perhaps they're never meant to sound good in the first place anyways. i might grab a few others down the line
😂😂😂SMH....
A few things you should know about records and turntables.
1. Any time you see a red cartridge on the tone arm, that means it's a ceramic stylus. Ceramic doesn't last long at all and has a conical tip, which produces a lesser quality sound.
2. The platter should have a rubber mat for the record to sit on .
3. Stay away from turntables that have a platter smaller than a full size album or come with a silly acrylic piece to put on the platter to play full size albums. They will cause you nothing but headaches in the long run.
4. You don't have to spend a ton of money on an very expensive turntable to get really good sound from records. Wal-Mart has a Audio Technica for around $150.00 that comes with an elliptical stylus.
5. You'd be surprised at how good records can sound if you take the time to make sure everything is set up correctly. Watch a few TH-cam video's on turntable set up. Get that Audio Technica at Wal-Mart and you'll be miles ahead of where you are now.
my next video (mainly just showing off my small record collection) does touch on that topic, particularly with how i'm going to approach upgrading my current setup
but yeah, my current turntable being a POS is not lost on me. i needed something non-committal since i'm usually bad with spending money on a new hobby and then doing absolutely nothing with it three weeks later.
with that said... now that i do know that i like vinyl, i'm absolutely getting a better turntable; but that might have to wait for now, at least (saving up, doing better things, etc.).
If you had a good record player it would be no problem playing it
Have you tried putting tape on the edges to the platter?
@@ZX-zw3ge I have not tried it, no
Yeah but the grooves are round... sort of. The idea is you were supposed get out a pair of scissors and cut it to make it round. Leaving it square not a good idea as it could easily destroy your stylus. Thankfully you are playing it on a POS record player so it's no big loss of the stylus gets broken.