I was doing some research on the TPS-L2, and found something interesting at Walkman Central:
http://www.walkmancentral.com/products/tps-l2 The TPS-L2 used the basic case and mechanical parts of the TCM-600 cassette recorder. The only change to the mechanical parts was the fitment of a stereo tape head and the removal of the record key, erase protection lever, erase head and tape counter.
TCM-600, TPS-L2 (w/o Walkman Branding), TPS-L2 (w/ Walkman Branding)
Turns out the TCM-600 is found a whole lot cheaper than the TPS-L2, I managed to pick one up on ebay for thirty bucks with shipping today. It isn't an exact match because of the different buttons and a few other small cosmetics, but it's as close as I'm gonna get without dropping a few hundred dollars.
It's also good to know that the TPS-L2 had two different styles, with and without the Walkman logo, and different placement of the SONY logo and extra text.
The cassette player used in the movie is the one WITH the Walkman logo.
So, once I recieve my TCM-600, I plan on modifying it, filling in the small readout section on the top left, repainting the one side, possibly with one of the blue/grey Testors metal flake sprays, and I'm going to have some vinyl or waterslide decals made at a local decal shop of the Walkman and Sony logos to apply after the modifications.
So far, this is the best original Walkman logo artwork I can find, would anybody possibly be able to clean it up a bit?
I'm also working on tracking down the correct and/or close enough cassettes used for The Awesome Mix Vol. 1 tapes.
The tape itself is obviously a transparent grey plastic, but I noted a few defining marks, between the two reels are a few white ovals, peeking out from under the tape label in the top middle is what looks like the bottom of some sort of logo, and there's also a series of distinctive ridges along the bottom part of the cassette, I wonder if we can track down the exact make and model?
I'll keep you fine folks posted and let you know of any more developments, take care!