How can a Walkman last 25+ years?

The Walkman is the one Dorothy had when she arrived and when she was sharing her music with Lucas. As for how it is still running without a recharge or fresh batteries I can only guess it is the magic of Oz powering it. :)

Being that Ojo captured Dorothy and handed her over to West, either Ojo or West passed the device to the Wizard. Why they would might be another question.

The Sony Walkman cassette edition wasn't available in the states posts 1984...

Ask Star Lord.
The wizard is scientific. Maybe he is good with electronics.

The walkman I bought in 1987 still works, so I don't see anything wrong with that.

"Yea, well, whenever you notice something like that... a wizard (The Wizard?) did it."

Those things last longer than today's mp3 devices. I still have my aunt's walkman from the mid 80's and it works. I have an Aiwa from the early 90's and a Panasonic from the mid 90's that still both work.

I guess they must have double A batteries over at Emerald City as well.

I was wondering how the tape survived after all the years!

To clarify a couple of things and answer some of the questions in this thread:

The "Walkman" seen in this episode is actually a knockoff (possibly on purpose for TV) of the yellow monster Sony Walkmans that were introduced in 1988 and sold well into the 1990s. The original Walkman was released in 1979, walkmans that played tapes were available till about 2001. There is no reason to think a Portable Cassette player from the late 80s / early 90s wouldn't work just fine today.

The tape was a home recorded type copied from another, or a record (or even a cd, they were available in the mid-80s). If you listen carefully, you can actually hear the age effects on the tape (flanging, attenuating), however, those are probably faked, since you can barely hear any tape hiss. However, a quality tape cassette (like a Maxell XLII Chrome tape) could still be working after 25+ years. I have many that do...

The cord seen plugged into the player is in the headphone jack, and it's wired into the phono cartridge, (Wizard at work) effectively turning the speaker phone into a auxiliary speaker. That's feasible.

Finally, I don't know how the "Wizard" is powering the player. Nothing is plugged into the DC port. So, some kind of batteries. Alkalines have a max shelf life of 5 to 10 years. Does he have access to Dorothy and his home earth, or has he been able to create his own? Rechargeable batteries? That one is still a mystery.