My kids had one of these. It's a clever design. And it's true, the old style was much more interesting. Theoretically, you could press a new record for the old-style. Which would be a cool project.
I actually didn't have the old toy, I was looking for something like it but I just imagined it in my head and searching on the web I found the linked blog post as a result, so I read and at firt I was happy because the thing existed but then disappointed after I understood it doesn't exist anymore.