Initially I agreed, but actually I think it stands. The design is similar enough, regardless of era. Honestly, I really do wish this kind of design would come back
Hot take... This trend was just a modern (at its time) reimagining of the TRUE peak of tech design: 80s era clear cases with brightly colored interior components.
Fun fact, you can relive the old days by going to prison and being on good behavior to get a transparent TV or radio/CD player in your cell very similar to this.
Ten years or so earlier, you could still get a TV where the sides of the case were made of wood. Wood, metal and black plastic throughout. Physical buttons that went 'clunk', a physical slider to adjust the volume, a metal dial for tuning.
I actually took a busted one of those and fit a 32in flat into it. Blocks off a little of the edges with the frame and gives it that square screen look without losing anything important. Cheap soundbar sounds amazing inside the box, everything is plugged into a surge protector inside and fed through the antenna hole.
I really want to get a Vintage breadbox or radio to put the DVD player inside of.
That sounds amazing. I'd love to see a photo. I'd planned a similar project with an old radio, but it's one of those things that's been on my "I'll get round to it eventually" list for 5 years :)
Honestly, I am really happy we passed that transparent bubblegum-toy style. My hope is that we move towards physical buttons again, at least where they make sense (cars for example).
Wish granted. Now everything comes with those cheap shitty bubble-like buttons that are incomprehensibly stiff and only work if you press at just the right angle with just the right amount of force, and there's a 50% chance they register twice.
That translucent blue plastic becomes about the most absolute brittle shit over time. When they say plastic lasts hundreds if not thousands of years, translucent blue plastic missed that memo.
Did it even have a power switch? Mine isn't translucent, but my OG George Foreman grill does not even have a power switch, you literally gotta unplug that mofo if you don't want your house to burn down.
I don't know why, but translucent colored plastic gives me "cheap garbage" vibes. Probably because knock off memory cards and controllers for the PS1/PS2 used exactly that design.
I always go for the clear plastic replacement shells for my electronics. I got a Dreamcast with a chewed up shell that is now clear blue, did my GBA SP in a clear green a couple of years ago, and I'm looking into reshelling my Wii too now.
Yeah. Love that round fucking mouse, and that computer with a space heating, ESD producing CRT crammed into the same chassis. Those things were fucking garbage.
Ok, fine, Graphite iMac G3 is perfection of form over function. That better?
Never actually had one, always wanted one. I did use the hockey puck mouse at school, and agree that it was fucking terrible. Can't really speak to the esd issues from the CRT, didn't use it often/long enough for that to affect me, though I can certainly see how it could have been a problem. Most computers are some level of space heaters, as far as that goes, especially if you've got a decent GPU, so I'm not sure I'd really knock it too much for that unless it was just really super egregious.