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Was the VR 200 really intended to be the one and only Beta VCR from Marantz? Was there ever supposed to be a Betahi-fi model? This mystery is compounded by the magazine advertisement shown above on the left. This two-page spread appeared in Playboy in1983, and it promoted their new products coming out that year. About midway down there an illustration of an exciting new Betahi-fi stereo VCR from Marantz, the VR 250. The white arrow points to an area enlargement that plainly shows the Beta VCR intended to have videos most advanced stereo sound, Betahi-fi. Now for the puzzle. They went to the trouble to promote this new model, but did it ever see the light of day? On close inspection it is almost a direct clone of the Toshiba V-36C. Click on the picture. Look familiar? Their first Beta was made for them by Sanyo. However, this one, except for the Marantz signature gold cabinet color and name, looks almost identical to the V-36C. Click on the picture again, and the two units are shown together. Now this is where it all seems to go south because the VR 250 is nowhere to be found in the real world. Searching the Web yields nothing. So we are left with only speculation as to what happened. Perhaps someone in the global internet community can shed some light on this. But for now this Marantz VR 250 remains a mystery. ©Misterßetamax
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