You know I almost never do reviews on this site, reserving them for TTC Reviews, but I didn’t want anyone to miss out on this one. I love being able to buy from small businesses or the actual craftspeople themselves, so imagine how psyched I was that I could find a super fun kid gift not made by a giant toy company…in China.
Remember record players? (Shut up if you don’t. I mean I love you and thanks for reading but, just, shhh.) As a kid, I used to sit in my room for hours and play with the speed on the record player, seeing what I could come up with for all different genres of music. (FYI, the Doobie Brothers sound suspiciously the same in any speed.) Maybe I had designs on being a future DJ. (Cris Ritz on the ones and twos.) Or maybe I was just a lonely geek. Either way, I loved playing with sound when I was young and I am certain my kids would too if they had record players. Alas, they do not, so Richard Upchurch to the Rescue..
The voice recorder that Richard made as a gift for his nephew was so awesome at show and tell that all his nephew’s little friends wanted one. Lucky for us Richard was happy to oblige the tykes and now we can all benefit with our own voice recorders that are found on his Etsy site for a super-reasonable price. (If these “handcrafted, non-toxic painted toys had a certain M&D stamp on the bottom they would cost at least double.) Richard’s based in NYC and was just featured in The Manhattan Users Guide so it’s just a matter of time before the Bugaboo pushing Manhattan and Brooklyn parents get wind of these and the prices go up. So, I’m tellin’ ya get one this holiday. Heck, get a bunch and put them in the birthday party closet like a good organized parent. (No, I don’t have a present stash, but if I did it’d be full of these numbers.) Kids any age are going to love this thing and you can be sure it will stand out among the Barbies and Lego Play sets. The voice recorder is a simple wooden box that you (oh, or your kid) can record voices or other sounds into and then play with the sounds. Our version has a dial that modulates your voice from super slow to chipmunk fast.
I was going to upload a video of me playing with it myself ( because I have-multiple times) but I’ve been sick and I didn’t want my run-over-by-a-truck appearance to distract you from the joy of the voice recorder so, instead you can go to Richard’s Website and see him demonstrate the recorder and the other products he makes, including a new Grimace Pillow that I swear looks so damn fun I was literally jumping up and down watching the video.
So go to Richard’s website, Brand New Noise, watch the videos.(Warning, there are also music samples on there that I got sucked in to for way too long. So be prepared for some serious Friday distraction. Come to think of it, go to Etsy and buy first.)Then, go to his Etsy site and get yourself a voice recorder quick so he has time to make it before stocking stuffer time. Then, imagine supporting this artist and music man as he creates magic for your kids in his NYC apartment and pat yourself on the back for being just as cool as any Brooklynite.
Voice Recorder Knob Version from richard upchurch on Vimeo.
