WM-FX21

The WM-FX21 is another low-cost FX-series radio Walkman, built around an all-plastic standing body with AM/FM stereo reception, manual tape selection, anti-rolling support, and an auto-volume limiter for safer long listening sessions. It kept the radio-and-cassette formula extremely simple, with very little in the way of playback enhancement or interface sophistication. The whole machine was clearly built to stay light, cheap, and easy to understand.

Compared with the FX12, this one feels even closer to a routine-use object than a "feature product." It sits in the part of the Walkman story where Sony was no longer really selling aspiration at the low end, just keeping cassette and radio available in forms everyday people could still buy without much thought.