Sure enough, there's a retro device called the Pocket Stylophone, a toy, that first hit the shelves in Britain in 1968. Interestingly, it was a toy but just didn't end up being a smash hit in North America. The reception changed slightly as we entered the early 70s. Once Space Oddity became a staple on Canadian radio, the "Bowie instrument" became a cult curiosity but never crossed into the mainstream public consciousness at the time.
Stylophones made a comeback in the 2007 through different ownership that still continues to evolve with fresh products, and even a notable new model making its debut this January. I nearly bought one that closely follows the original retro design on Amazon Canada for the equivalent of around $US 35 but, alas, then I started snooping around on the internet.
Oh my. I have probably always been a bit interested in electronic music. Can anyone reading this remember the song called, Popcorn from around 1972? Quite a bit later, when I was overseas as a young man in my 20s, I bought a pirated cassette tape by Kraftwerk, a German musical group. In the very early 80s, I was still intrigued by the science behind the manufactured sounds. (At this very moment, I'm listening to a 2009 remaster of Kraftwerk's Pocket Calculator on my Onkyo receiver via Spotify.) Of course electronically-synthesized sounds entered traditional pop music and have never left the building.
However, thanks to an Internet wormhole, I may be ready for something much more robust than a retro Stylophone. I am tying to convince myself that I must own my own mini synthesizer. Damn, it's like a large secret club has been meeting for decades that nobody told me about!
Perhaps a Behringer JT Mini? Less hassle trying to import midi files from a laptop. What about a Korg Volca? Key or Modular?
Damn, my little toy project has the potential to get out of control and I have yet to shape a single beep or boop at all! I fear this might make for a hobby that demands a whole lot of equipment of increasing complexity and expenditures.