Freeplay S 360

The radio is absolutely RUBBISH it only works when the clockwork mechanism is unwinding then it goes off and stops. I call mine the wind me up radio. You cannot open it to try to repair it. It is totaly useless. My wife purchased it for my one Christmas, I now wonder whether it was an early April fools day present. It now an ornament on one of the shelves in my design and technology classroom. Showing my pupils an example of a very poor ...  Read the complete review

I have owned one of these for a month and have been very impressed with its performance. This is one of those products that has been in the public eye for several years but I have not bothered to investigate further even though it has several obvious advantages over other radios. I suppose the main reason is that most people will have several radios in their house already so any new product must be pretty darn good and distinctive to justify buying it.... The wind-up radios were first publicised when various documentaries showed inventor Trevor Bayliss promoting and marketing them in Africa where a larger version was hugely sucessful due to the general ...  Read the complete review

I remember when the posh girl at school first got a gramophone. We all piled round to her parents shop and looked on aghast at this wonderful technology. Just a few winds and as if by magic music would emerge from the trumpet. Hang on. That's not my memory. Ah, I'm having another 'Little House on the Prairie' flashback. Nevermind, what it does bring to light is the history of winding things up is old enough to feature in period dramas. But life moved on and oh so quickly. Without the luxury of predicting the future the human race ransacked Mother Earth's assets and found they could create all sorts of labour saving ...  Read the complete review

Freeplay Ranger is the latest in the Freeplay range of wind up radios. The whole concept puzzles me! We live in an age when we are always utilising the latest labour saving devices. We use dish washers, washing machines and vacuum cleaners to save our energy, yet this radio is powered by 'human energy'. You turn the handle to generate the power which makes the radio play. It takes work! This in itself doesn't sound so strange to me, because it does mean that you never need to buy batteries, so it doesn't matter where in the world you are, you can still tune in. Human energy will always be available and you just wind the handle ...  Read the complete review

Imagine those summer days when you want to listen to the radio in the garden, or take the radio into the bathroom, or camping etc.etc. Those batteries never seem to last long do they? And what a waste of money if you happen to fall asleep! Originally designed for use in Africa, where lack of batteries and electric sockets is prevalent in some rural areas, this self powered radio sounds a brilliant idea. It's very small(comes in two sizes, the smallest of which is about a foot), see-through and very funky-looking,and has am. and fm. frequencies. You can wind it up clockwork style, and run it from that, or, if it's daytime and sunny, there's no need, ...  Read the complete review