R.I.P. VHS? Last Remaining VCR Manufacturer to Stop Making VCRs This Month

Funai Electric, the last remaining VCR manufacturer, will reportedly stop making VCRs by the end of this month.

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Image via Complex Original
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Nostalgia finally takes an L. Despite our obsession with resurrecting Nickelodeon classics and keeping a watchful eye on Smash Mouth's consistently fascinating tweets, all the nostalgia in the world wasn't enough to save the beloved VCR format. Funai Electric, described by Mashable as the "last remaining producer of VCRs," has announced plans to officially cease the manufacturing of VCRs by the end of this month. Bummer.

Surprisingly, the Japanese manufacturer reported sales of 750,000 VHS units in 2015. If that sounds like a laughably high number, you're not entirely wrong. But Anime News Network, citing a report from Nikkei, says the company is having some trouble finding parts and keeping up with an obviously "declining" market. So yeah, blowing it out with nearly 800,000 VCRs is pretty awesome. Just not awesome enough to, you know, turn an actual profit or whatever it is companies have to worry about.

But not everyone moved on to future relics like DVDs and Blu-ray back in the '00s. Plenty of people spend a large amount of time collecting old VHS tapes and, in theory, likely require a working VCR to enjoy them. Just ask the dudes who tasked themselves with relentlessly tracking down and recovering the otherwise hopeless VHS tapes of the 1996 cinematic banger Jerry Maguire, a movie so ubiquitous we shouldn't really have to explain it to you here.

RIP, VCR. You brought millions of people the unique joys of adjusting the tracking, cursing at a previous renter for not being kind and rewinding, and taping over someone's wedding video just to have a hard copy of Street Sharks.

Lucky enough to still own one of these so-called VCRs? Congratulations! You have now cornered the nostalgia market. Act accordingly.

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