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Comment by a12k | Hacker News Reader

As a child in the early 90s (maybe 1993), I nearly got crushed under one of these trying to connect my Nintendo to the AV cables on the back. It was against the wall in an alcove and the only way to access was to rotate it slightly and lean it forward to reach the connections on the back (which I couldn’t see, only feel). It tipped off the shelf and onto me, partially supported by the shelf and partially by me.

I didn’t want to get in trouble because it was so nice, so I just kind of squatted there pinned under it trying to lever it back. Thankfully my dad walked by, noticed, and kept into action. And here I still am today.

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Are you saying as a child you were able to move and hold up a 400 lbs tv or are you talking about a smaller tv?

Tilting or rotating a TV is different from lifting it (especially if there isn't much friction by design?) and might require much less force.

Yes. This was more like continuously jerking my weight backwards with all my might while holding a front corner to maneuver the TV inch by inch into a diagonal orientation, until on the last jerk it went an inch too far.

400 lbs -> 181 kg

Just curious, are you certain it was this model or just “a large CRT?”

This model retailed for $40,000 in the US (100K adjusted for inflation) and only a small number (reportedly in the low double digits) were ever sold.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/1990/03/06/to-get-the-big-pic...

Wow, goes to show how people are gullible to their "memories", never stopping to question them. This could explain the "communism was better" ramblings you get from old farts quite well...

I... just don't get it. What I remember from my young is not that much but it all definitely happened and does not need any artistic license.

It's a great understatement to say that the end of the Eastern Bloc could have been handled a whole lot better, especially from the perspective of people who would have been established or even happy with their lives under Communism: age 40+, educated, successful career at the Trabbi factory, just got to the top of the waiting list for an apartment, etc.

* This comment is not an endorsement of totalitarian governments

Are you guys lost? We're talking about a very fucking large TV here.

As the video mentions this model is so incredibly rare that previously there were only two known photos of retail units in the wild - and one of those photos was of the very unit that the guy in this story eventually managed to acquire.

The other photo is a mystery, nobody knows who took it or whether that unit is still intact.

It was also incredibly expensive - most people rich enough to buy it wouldn’t typically post their living room online in the early 90ies

And yet, common enough that a random guy in the forum claimed to have had several in his store and gave them a copy of the service manual. And that was in the same city as the collector in the video. A decent amount of these were probably sold, and almost certainly all disposed of as soon as they became obsoleted by plasmas.

I think most will infer "a large CRT" after reading OPs comment.

Crushing was probably not the only danger you were in there - even if the thing would have just fallen and imploded next to you, that could have been pretty dangerous as well...

It is very difficult to break a CRT from the front, even deliberately. The neck is fragile but a CRT TV falling on its face (which is what tends to happen as they're very front-heavy) is far more likely to break the case or the boards inside than the tube.

I also almost got killed by one too. I was a baby playing around it, the unit was a communmist era black and white monstruosity 30 something inch and it sit on a floral lace and that on a very smooth wood table, the cable was dangling around it and plugged in front of it, I pulled by the power cable and made the tv slide until it fell of the right by me.

“One of these” $40,000 tvs, sure

Probably meant the category of CRT TVs, not that exact model.

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