MCD: Like HitClips, but bigger & longer 

"Time for Ricky Martin to come out of the blister pack, better late than never" - LOL that had me in stitches. wonder how many people will understand this inside joke!

The price is the first red flag for me - selling it at $15 is practically what the cost would have been to simply buy the new CD

"Flippin' Eck" - Techmoan.

Ricky Martin's Maria is timeless, it will never cease to be annoying. And the lower quality of sound does not affect the essence of the song.

It doesn't surprise me that these failed of course. I'm just amazed that they got to market and no one questioned how dumb of an idea it was.

When you show the price, first thing I thought of: "For $16.99, it'd be cheaper to just head over to Wal-Mart and buy the full CD!"

All I can think of is "Bigger. Longer. Uncut."

When I saw MCD on the title I thought it was a happy meal promotion.

There's almost a whole dollar's worth of electronics in there!

Those speaker grilles make Ricky, Britney et al look like they've been shot at and filled with bullet holes.

A new VWestlife video is a perfect start to my Monday

I love it when your channel suddenly becomes Techmoan for a few seconds before reverting, and for a moment I second-guess reality itself.

Thanks for helping Mr. Martin come out

Hah I went to a Ricky Martin concert in the late 90s with my GF - he had a 30 year old Mustang on stage, which is now a 60 year old Mustang if it still exists. Probably it is worth 4x as much now ;)

That ending was cursed

"I think it's about time for Ricky Martin to come out...of the blister pack! Better late than never." Very cheeky 😂 Also, I appreciate that you're the kind of person to investigate the source of the sheet music used for the package background design and then include it for us so we can go listen. After looking into it myself, it appears the song was written as a tribute to the late Lester Young, who was known for wearing a pork pie hat. Thank you, as always, for the great content!

You could buy the whole CD for 16.99 in 2000. Granted, you still needed a player, but you could buy a low end portable CD player for under 50 bucks. Right around 2000 or 2001, I bought a CD walkman that could play CD, CDRW and MP3 on CDR or CDRW for like 49 Dollars. Virtually all stereos in kid's rooms had a CD player in them.

For the cover, they grabbed sheet music which no longer needed licensing, probably.

After seeing the thumbnail I was hoping that Ricky Martin had released his own proprietary music format...MartinClipDiscs or something

It's only bigger & longer when it's decompressed below atmospheric pressure.

"Revolutionary audio compression" which probably just means ADPCM instead of PCM lol

I'm loving the Techmoan clips lately.

Definitely can tell who this was aimed at. I did not recognize or know any of the artists except Brittany Spears, Ricky Martin, Backstreet Boys, N-Sync and of course, Elton John. The only "Be Witched' I knew was that TV show. Did not realize there was a musical act. This is someone that is 10 years older than our "VWestlife" host (Class of 88), so I was (and still) into bands/artists like Rush, Styx, Asia, Pink Floyd, Yes, as well as Queensryche, Ronnie James Dio, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Judest Priest, etc. But still, at $15 for a single song, when you could just buy the whole CD album for that much. I guess there was "coolness" factor of having the ability to listen your favorite song on your keychain like that, especially at a time before things like MP3 players really became mainstream.

I'm liking the uptick in understated comedy on the channel lately.

7:59 WOAH! That's a Classic Game Room jumpscare if I've ever seen one!

Nice attention to detail regarding the sheet music background picture. Also, was not expecting Creepy Elton John.

Any toy that I had that used watch batteries was basically disposable. I had enough trouble getting my hands on regular batteries back then.

"older than Nick Carter and can still claim to be a teenager in 1999" is a surprisingly tight window!

@3:57 - Goodbye Porkpie Hat was the first tune I ever heard Jeff Beck rip out. I was a fan from that point on.

I love your relationship with techmoan Mat, he's mentioned you in the past and now I want to see a collab.

It's weird to think you and I are only one year removed from having been in the public school system at the same time, despite that I was barely a teenager when I started watching you, and you already seemed to be this wise elder figure :)

10:09 - yes, I do predict that to be more or less the sound that will accompany this nightmarish vision when it haunts me in my dreams tonight. Well-divined.

Oh the 90s. We romanticize about the decade a lot, but this is just a good reminder of how pricey some electronic toys were. That being said, I wish I still had my Nano puppy keychain. $20 back in 1997!

You got me baffled for a second until you included the 'except Nick Carter' bit......

Wow, I never knew VWestlife was also such a Ricky Martin fan. You learn something everyday!

Great video. I always enjoy your channel. Thank You.

Yes, I actually do remember these! I saw one in a bargain bin decades ago, it's an NSYNC one (of course!). It was a pretty cool novelty.

Nice a video about mcd I missed these thanks for bringing me memories Kevin you are probably maybe the only one I watch theirs video from start to end with like 7 others RU-vidrs I had the Elton John versions.

6:09 HE BANGS, HE BANGS!

I have to wonder how many people bought this for the novelty of it, and then promptly forgot about it after playing it just once, unless they really liked playing Ricky Martin’s Maria from a keychain! Even for the time, I think the free in-store sample would’ve been enough to persuade me to spend that $15 on something else. Still, this was an interesting look at something I didn’t know existed.

Mingus would be fuming if he was around to see this!

0:43 - I got ya beat, Class of '96. 😁 And I don't remember MCDs either. 0:59 - Oh. My. Gawd. Five's "Slam Dunk (Da Funk)," I had forgotten all about that song! (OK, Mr. Peabody, I set the Wayback Machine to 1998. Let's gooooo!) 2:42 - B⭐witched! C'est la vie! 4:14 - I had the exact same reaction to Ricky Martin coming out that I did when Barry Manilow came out. "Yeah, yeah, we knew that already." 🤣 9:18 - 🎵Shoo-bee-doo-wop and Scooby snacks/Met a fly girl and I can't relax...🎶 Why pay $15 for one low-bitrate song on a keychain player with tiny speaker, when one could spend $18-20 for an _entire album_ on CD that you could play through your Discman, CD Boombox, car CD player, home DVD player, computer CD-ROM drive? Then there's the occasional expense of button-cell batteries, which were harder to find (at your local department store) at the time than regular AA or AAA (which even drug stores and gas stations carried)... OR, $15 for keychain music player with one low-bitrate song, or $9.99 to 10.49 for an _entire album_ on cassette?

We're of similar ages (my tassel says 2002) and I too was an obsessive reader of the RadioShack catalogue, but not only do I have no memory of this bizarre product, I never encountered HitClips either! The Goodbye Pork Pie Hat detail is fascinating!

I remember McDonald's used to sell cheap music players during the iPod craze. From what I recall, it played a 30-second song sample twice when you insert the card. The electronics is nothing much, same thing you would find in a musical greeting card.

Very interesting show - thank you!

"So I think it's about time for Ricky Martin to come out... of the blister pack. Better late than never." - That cracked me up.

"Time for Ricky Martin to come out..." Ha! Around the time that song was doing the rounds, i had a rusty old Nova with a tape deck that needed new belts. Everything played on it sounded just like that clip of Ricky at the end of rhe video. Also those B*Witched dolls are terrifying.

TechMoan's cameo make my day 😂😂😂 !!

I love this channel.

The size of the question of "Why?" in my head is only exceeded by the question of how they could possibly license all that music from Sony, of all record companies. Little marketing experiments like this usually start with music from smaller record companies that are easier and cheaper to license from, and then move on to the big ones like Sony and BMG. On the other hand, that might explain why they're fifteen bucks each. By the way, do I see correctly that they're the same thickness as a CD jewel case?

Is the music from those public domain CDs on the internet anywhere? The music at 8:00 is literally the theme music to Classic Game Room, and I recognize other music from him in your other videos, so I’m pretty sure he used the same CD set. I’ve looked for it on RU-vid before though and couldn’t find it.

3:43 I’m not sure Elton would’ve approved these 🤣🤣🤣

Collect them all. They were lucky if someone collected more than one at that price point.

Is old enough to remember those MCD's...

I haven't seen one of these devices before but I do remember Techmoan showing similar things. I for some reason like the sound of Aliasing Distortion, I remember hearing it on the Amiga unless you turned on the filter to stop it.

Interesting - they recorded the bass part of the song although the Speaker is not able to reproduce.

That's some high quality sound!!😂😂😂

I never had one of these but always wanted some. I have tons of hitclips. I briefly heard the audio from one of these devices back in the day. I'm curious if you connected this to a good amplifier if it would sound better. I wish someone would bring these back so I can collect them. Thanks for this video as there isn't many MCD videos on here

To be fair I's love to have these for like 5$ each as a keychain or zipper dongle.

4:16 It's so amusing that that split-second pause is hilarious, but only if you get the reference. 😂

When Tiger Electronics somehow improves upon your product idea, you know it's time to pack it in.

The very end had me laugh so hard I spit out my drink! 🤣

that sound at 5:45 made me think my playstation was going nuts

Never heard of an MCD before. This was a mini music player keychain that they were trying to compete with Tiger/Hasbro’s “HitClips”. It started around 1999 and discontinued by the early 2000’s. There were many of them in the series features artists like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and more, plus Elton John with his classics. But sadly, MCD doesn’t included a collection of oldies from the 1950’s and 1960’s that includes Elvis Presley, Rolling Stones, Beatles, plus a collection of 1970’s and 1980’s that includes Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Bee Gees, Donna Summer and more.

I had a few of these in the early 2000's. (C'est La Vie by B Witched, Rollercoaster by B Witched, and Everybody Get Up by Five) Never thought I'd see one of them again! They were cool to have as a kid, but definitely not worth $15 even back then.

"Goodbye Porkpie Hat" is a pretty good tune. I'm particularly fond of Jeff Beck's version.

I remember that era like it was yesterday, there was Livin La Vida Loca, Mambo No. 5, bands like Cherry Poppin Daddies, Mighty Mighty Bosstones. It was the last gasp of the music video being played on MTV.

god i remember these, i was seven when they came out. they were sold in toy aisles in new zealand and i never saw them in the wild outside of stores so i assume nobody actually bought them here either

5:46 Top of the hour? I really want to know who wanted to make knockoff MCDs.

A new video from VW is definity a better day. Great one as well as i love old formats and never seem to tire of it. Seemed way over priced, but for a Ricky Martin fan it probably would have men't the world perhaps 🤔

Cool. I never heard of either one of those, we're about the same age, (class of 1999) and I was into tech my entire life.

This makes Hitclips look like iPods! Because MCD selling a single song for the same price as a full album is why it failed! Hitclips were at least smaller and cheaper, and lot of kids in my middle and high school used them at lunchtime!

I keep seeing little gadgets on your channel (and others) that I don't realize I need until.. anyway, I'm going to need to get my hands on one of those pickup coils. Reasons.

Looks like the superior digital compression to fit an entire song was just not enough to make it successful. It’s not exactly the easiest thing to market/sell especially with competitors like hit clips. Even if you bought it, it’s not like you can plug in headphones or something, it’s only through the internal speaker. You could probably buy a real mini CD for a fraction of the price if you only wanted that specific song, plus you can play it anywhere.

Of course FAO Schwarz jacked up the price, I'm actually a little shocked they sold these at all given my childhood memories of it as the snobbiest chain toy store of all time. (I specifically remember asking for Smurfs at the Tyson's Corner location in northern Virginia and being told they didn't carry them because they were "too common".)

I was in my 30s about that time and don't remember them either. Do you know if they were available in the UK? Anyway, thanks for another fun post.

this is a good example of toys being mostly developed to drive parents insane :) ... HUEPA

I don't remember those at all. I do remember the Hit Clips vaguely, but the Pocket Rockers are the ones I member as a kid. Everyone wanted those little tape cartridges.

Would it be possible to wire up the player to have a line out so you could bypass the speaker and record it directly?

Surprisingly OK speaker in there - thought it would be a piezo job, still sounds terrible though. Glad to hear Ricky Martin has come out........of his packaging, be proud Ricky, be proud. If only Elton John had a Pinball Wizard themed doll - take my money!

4:14 Time for Ricky to come out... I'll admit that made me chuckle.

The sampling rate is actually higher on the mcd than the hit clips.

Three Watch Batteries to play One Song?

6:10 i remeber that song,and can you do a video on hitclips? And compare the sound quality between a hit clip,mcd,and an analog productions double disc 45 rpm vinyl? 10:01 he looks like he was possessed like Chucky,remeber that doll?

kinda looks like it has an external RC cct for the clock, might be fun to mess with

10:05 Elton John sure seems happy there!

Huh. I was a teen in that era, and I don't remember these things at all. Pretty obscure!

You left out the 3-inch CD's best occasionally-used name, "C-Dingle". That is not a joke. The only disc on which I saw it printed was a They Might Be Giants C-Dingle which came on a long card (just like Grampa).

Personally your content is a little too boomer for me but I stay subscribed for these videos of obscure audio wankery, I love this kinda stuff so it's worth staying subbed for me

With all the talk about the revival of physical media, something like this has more chance to succeed than, say, compact cassettes, as there is no good tape being manufactured, no good playback machines, no Dolby NR. But these trinkets can now hold a whole album and have a headphone output or maybe a Bluetooth transmitter. People buy merch like cassettes as memorabilia anyway, but these at least would be usable and would not have clicks or pops or wobble. Just make sure the battery is replaceable.

Ok I dont know if you timed this on purpose or if its just happenstance but @4:20 i about spat out my drink! I see what ya did there sir! great reference (that none of your younger viewers will get) OK glitch in the matrix time, I just posted that comment and its 4:20 PM... i dunno how all of this happened...

8:00. Hey it’s the CGR song. Reminds me of better days before that channel went to shit. You know one time, they did open auditions for CGR Toys. I made a video, took me about 3 hours, made sure to have good lighting and try and capture the theme of the channel well. Turns out they liked it enough to invite me to submit videos for the channel. They offered, get this, $15 per video. And that’s with me doing all my own shooting, editing, and toy gathering. An offer which I considered a total lowball by a factor of 3. definitely not worth my time or effort, but I tried to graciously say Thanks but no thanks…

God, the Elton John clip at the end really is creepy...lol

Although i've never heard of these i have a 3' cd single from Japan on Connie Francis FOLLOW THE BOYS/FOLLOW THE BOYS[Japanese version]

"Like HitClips, but bigger & longer" and uncut?

I think this type of thing must be what one of my schoolmates had when I was in like 5th grade. (it played some Britney Spears song)

looks intresting

Would have been cool to hear a direct hook up to the sound output.

Is cd and McDonald’s same or different from each other?

WEPA!!!