This is the famous battery-operated mini Victrola made by Poynter Toys in the early eighties. The horn is almost merely decorative, its main function being to put some weight on the tiny reproducer so to allow it to track the record properly. The pipe going to the horn is very narrow, and I don't know if it is air-connected to the horn. The sound, definitely, seems to come out directly from the reproducer.
This is made of a tiny thin celluloid diaphragm which is put in motion by the upper end of the plastic lever protruding outside, with a steel needle on the lower end. This lever or stylus bar is not glued to the diaphragm, but simply gets in touch with it when the diaphragm is lowered on the record, by the simple pressure provided by gravity. So the diaphragm works in a biased form, the sound coming from the variation of this positive pressure due to the modulation provided by the needle vibration. It works on the hill and dale principle, the diaphragm being positioned accordingly.
The stylus bar is balancing on a plastic axis clearly seen, the ends of which being taken into corresponding tubular housings at either side, stamped into the plastic casing of the soundbox. Some moulding burrs can be observed at the seams, which don't help the free movement of this arrangement. But the parts are so tiny and fragile that wouldn't allow disassembling and polishing... it must be left as it is.
Nevertheless, the machine works, thanks in part to the high modulation of the records.
One curious and tech-inclined soul would enquiry about doing something to improve the sound fidelity, but I would advise not to attempt doing anything, for the risk of breaking this delicate and tiny device...
It's a little marvel on itself, and one of a very beautiful and appealing aspect. A tiny toy every Victrola collector should own...
if only for its charming curiosity. A chant for the ability and cleverness for the people at Poynter Toys that engineered and produced such a tiny device that actually works!
I bought one myself from a lady in FLA through eBay, in the 1990s, and it is proudly displayed on top of my record shelf. As any of us tech-inclined would do, I've thoroughly studied the way it works.
I've also tried to think a way to play these tiny records on a modern turntable, for the sake of transferring them to digital files, but still I've not found a way to do that... The records are so tiny that the solution should be to play them on this tiny Victrola, applying a hand-supported lp cartridge from which the signal could be recorded...
It's a little marvel!