TOOT-A-LOOP
The Toot-a-Loop radio, also known as Panasonic R-72 is a radio introduced in the 1970s. Perhaps you still remember the jingle "It’s an S it’s an O it’s a crazy radio! Toot a loop!”
It was designed to be wrapped around the wrist like a bracelet. These radios are known by collectors as a bangle or wrist radio. It opens out into a "S-shape". Stickers were included to decorate and personalize your radio.
Toot-a-Loop was available in red, orange, yellow, blue, orange and lime (green). Orange and lime were only sold in New Zealand and Australia. These are very hard to find. Australian and New Zealand models had the badging National Panasonic and were advertised as a "Sing-O-Ring" radio.
In their advertising, Panasonic explicitely told what you could do with the radio:
"Wind the Toot-A-Loop around your wrist, and be the first on your block to have a bracelet that plays music."
"Twist it open to make the world’s craziest hearing device. Hear rock & roll. And music."
"Use the Toot-A-Loop to feel a little more secure when your mother takes away your baby blanket."
"Share the Toot-A-Loop with a friend. After all, half a radio is better than half a crayon."
"Or just sit back and listen. Because the Toot-A-Loop (Model R-72) is also a terrific AM radio. And like all our other crazy color portables, the Toot-A-Loop is as much fun to look at as to listen to."
If you want to buy a Toot-A-Loop radio, you should be able to find one for a price between 40€ and 60€ if you have some patience. On the other hand, if you want to buy the lime or orange version, prices are much higher. For the lime version, the most rare, prices tend to go higher than 200€.
Source pictures: JO JE BIN
Source advertising: Vintage Venus & Teddy
Text partly based on Wikipedia