I know you weren’t knocking it, that is the attitude of some - if it isn’t brand new it’s outdated and useless.
And some of the earlier stuff, like the piece you have, was made a lot better than some of the newer stuff. I am amazed you haven’t lost more of the plastic parts in it, just from outgassing the last 33 years. I know probably much more of the internals on it were metal.
The newer vcr’s heads (what reads the tape) wear out in a few years. That thing must have great heads on it.
I have a nice collection of old electronics and the like. I have a few Philco Predictas, my 1978 Atari 2600 and an old RCA SelectVision player that is basically a video record player, among others weird things. I am a collector of a lot of odd things.