Phonograph:Vanity Fair

By emblazoning this portable record player with an image of Michael Jackson, the Ertl Company hoped to capitalize on the astounding success of the pop star in the mid-1980s. Ertl designed this cardboard-and-plastic record player to fit the pocketbooks of children who, the company expected, would clamor for anything associated with Jackson. After the success of his 1979 album "Off the Wall," which sold 15 million copies and generated a then-unprecedented four #1 singles, Jackson's 1982 album "Thriller" launched him into the stratosphere of popular music. With more than 50 million copies sold worldwide, it became the best-selling album of all time and remained at #1 on the Billboard pop album chart for a record 37 weeks.

The Ertl Company began in the late 1940s as a small family operation that manufactured model tractors. By the 1980s, after its sale to Kidde, Inc., the company had become one of the foremost names in toy collectibles. Although the record-player format is a bit of a departure for a company best known for its model cars, it certainly fits with movie memorabilia and other tie-ins to popular culture.