In a now closed post it was pointed out that Star Trek IV-The Voyage Home features two episodes with a boombox. In reverse chronological order, as it is appropriate to a time-travel movie: (1) Mr. Spock unleashes his neck grip against a punk on the bus; (2) two garbage men run away from the park as they witness the arrival of a spaceship.

The scenes are interesting because they show a stereotyped vision of boombox people. They are depicted as either lackadaisical punksters or garbage men: as teenagers, they have no manners and listen to "damn noise"; when they grow-up, they fight with their wives and have shitty jobs.

In 1986, when Leonard Nimoy directed the movie, the golden age of the boombox was sadly starting to decline. High-volume music had already been forbidden in public places, and the average citizen was hostile to blasters. The passengers's applause at Spock's stunt on the bus reflects this bourgeois vision by making visible, on screen, the audience's off-screen laugh at the workers in the park.

Thirteen years later, Spike Lee will be more sympathetic with Richie, the punk character who is assaulted by the mobsters at the end of Summer of Sam. Richie doesn't blast a box, he makes other people's ears bleed with his electric guitar. But he is unquestionably the closest relative of Radio Raheem that I can think of (Do the Right Thing, 1989).

Voyage Home Quiz. As far as I know, none of the "outer space" boomboxes have been identified. Are they the same prop? Are they not? Whatever the case, the photograms around 1:11 of the second clip should help locate at least one model. It has octagonal speakers, and it's definitely in silver plastic. Any ideas? Hope so, because I don't know the answer...

sudden inspiration - i won't tell you where i was when i got it...  

what if the second clip featured the hitachi trk-8130 (or some related model)?

It's definitely not the Hitachi TRK-8310, cause it has rectangular tweeters grilles and chrome dust caps, and Hitachi's tweeters are round and no caps on the woofers.

It could be Mitsubishi Diatone 711, but on the other hand - there are no small buttons above cassette door, or we can't see them, because of the image quality ... and this Diatone was top of the line, pretty expensive radio, way too cool for the garbage truck  

my beat up boombox made its way into my beat up car in the late eighties when the radio broke... it sounded great

sorry to insist but the more i look at the hitachi TRK-8130E the more i think it's the box of clip #2. judge it for yourselves:

here's the Mitsubishi Diatone 711 for comparison:

i agree here Samovar, defo looks to be the hitachi in clip 2

the dialtone looks good..i bet its twice as heavy as that hitachi and twice as loud

Hitachi has round tweeters grilles, but the box from the clip has rectangular ones, and the tape door window is located a bit lower, than on the Hitachi.

he turns the volume knob on the left front side and these radios have the controls on the top?! so is neither.

perhaps the box on the first video was IDeed in the past....but im pretty sure its the sankei TRC-S90.....because of the strap hooks on the edges....

The punk's boomer in star trek 4 is indeed that Sankei, which might well be an aka boomer.

The placement of the tuning knob is a good pointer, which I believe is used when the punk turns the music up (something that seems to happen often in films & TV).

Here's a pic:

http://mikeberggren.com/post/27235028525/spock