Ah, we have a review from late '92, page 24 of the pdf..
https://www.commodore.ca/gallery/magazines/co … pute-147-01.pdf
Which I am not convinced that the picture shows a Matsushita drive, IDK just never seen one looking like that. The following page states that it's a Creative Labs soundblaster multimedia upgrade kit with SBPro, Matsu 1x drive, Labtec speakers and mic.

Edit: Ohhh, it's the cartridge load one https://twitter.com/RetroSpector78/status/134 … 899492772605952

Here's a picture of what appears to be an AST Advantage 386SX/25: (Not the multimedia variant though!)

Thanks, yes, know that machine exists, got one, the Multimedia version though, did it make it to stores?? That article above reviews one, but that's not conclusive, and since it appears to just use a Creative Labs Multimedia Kit, then it raises the question of was it factory made or dealer installed to shift 386SX/25s

Edit: So I am thinking I need to scrape together a CT-1600, a CR-563-B, and Labtec speakers... I have a CT-1600, I am fairly sure about some Labtecs being around somwhere, but a cat might have chewed the cord so maybe need repair. Now a 563B I am unlikely to have since I said I didn't see one, but they look different, like a gaping 5.25 with the caddy out, so there's a faint chance there's one around with the caddy inserted that didn't fire a neuron on recognition. I have probably been ignoring anything less than 4x for decades so may be in box of forgotten CDROMs. I should have an alternative mitsu interface drive to substitute though, I ain't looking to spend $100 on the exact right drive.

Wow, I'm just surprised that the term "Multimedia PC" existed on 386SX platform. Didn't believe it was a thing until 486 was the "go-to" system ... 😀

[EDIT] The article in above link actually shows the "MPC" or "Multimedia PC" standard - stating that 386sx with 2MiB of extended memory ... Wow!

Yes, MPC2 was the popular version for later 486es, peak multimedia mindshare saturation. People never remember MPC original, referred to as MPC 1 or MPC level 1 subsequently. Nobody seemed to care about MPC3 either. PC97 etc was more influential.

Dug up a snippet from a footnote of a tech bulletin...
https://www.minuszerodegrees.net/manuals/AST/ … AST_SB_0160.TXT

1NOTE: Early MPC machines sold by AST were configured with a Sound
2           Blaster card and either a CDU-31A-01 or -02 CD-ROM drive.  These
3           drives are not Dual-Speed drives.  This updated driver DOES NOT
4           make a Sony Single-Speed drive into a Dual-Speed drive.

So those Sony drives may also be correct to original multimedia models. I believe I may have one.

I'm still thinking about the "real model" thing though.... December issue of Compute! gets one for review, announced at end of May. Assuming mag was being printed/distributed mid November, and had standard for the time 2 month lead time, that takes us back to mid Sep for when the article had to be ready. That means the reviewer probably wanted the machine a month before that, mid August.... and according to the review AST were "scrambling" to get a review system together and forgot the disks. Scrambling for machine they said they had 2.5 months prior. This year though, AST where promoting their new 486 and the entire lineup was 486 in 1993, I'm still thinking that these 386sx/25 were sitting already made, in distributor or dealer hands, when announcement was made, but they didn't have the MPC package yet, just a back up of sx25s. So seeing it in my head like AST has to call back an sx25 from a warehouse, apply the Creative MPC upgrade kit and sent it out for the review.

Aw man, the thick plottens, AST didn't know what they were doing either 🤣

From page 49 of the pdf (BIG, 56k beware 🤣 ) page 45 of print ver... https://vintageapple.org/pcworld/pdf/PC_World … August_1992.pdf

1Garage Sale Today: Three-Legged Chips
2R etractions are painful, but here goes.
3In July you witnessed
4me getting just a little breathless over the
5prospect of a then-unreleased 486SX-based multimedia PC from AST
6that would drive the multimedia dollar premium
7down into the 300s.
8But, a few days before
9introduction, AST decided that folks would rather
10have a 386SX/25-based
11system with a big hardware -software bundle for about the
12same $900 everyone else is charging. Sorry. Can't blame AST
13for the announcement miscue. I'm very pushy, and it's a r ar e
14company whose product is truly set before my monthly deadline. But a spate of recent 386 introductions from major vendors convinces me there's a cautionary tale that needs spinnin'.
15It seems t he industry is having a garage sale. You know
16about garage sales. That's where you push youT Total Junk (as
17opposed to yom Still Closet-Worthy Junk ) out into the driveway and stare in wonder as muumuu-clad women and men
18whose T-shirts will never again see their belt buckles pay a
19quarter here, a buck there, to haul it away for you. 

Still digging through PC World they had AST advertising so I am hoping to find SOME indication of this machine's market presence. Finding it faintly hilarious that I'm digging old magazine info about this out of Commodore, Atari and now Apple focused sites.

Edit: haha yeah, AST didn't know what it was doing, very turbulent summer for them. We learn in August that Compaq has started a price war on clones for 486 desktop dominance. So pretty much we have to thank Compaq for bringing in the 486 era as most people know it from '93 instead of them remaining elite machines that home users couldn't really afford, for another year or two. So in September AST's situation is this, page 98 of pdf p.p.90 (BIG) https://vintageapple.org/pcworld/pdf/PC_World … 9_Sept_1992.pdf big shakeups in the market, so I think between announcing the 386sx MPC and getting it out there, this machine was lost in the turmoil of the brewing 486 war, and marketting was de-emphasised, I guess they just cleared them out to discounters, had promotions with their retailers. Tandy/RadioShack didn't seem to go full AST until 1993, their fliers I am finding from 1992 still had the Tandy machines front and center, no mention of other PC brands.

Edit2: it gets picked up in the Multimedia PC buyers guide in the October issue, probably 3 months stale info, notably has it down as an SX20 there, pdf pages 269, 270, 271 (BIG) https://vintageapple.org/pcworld/pdf/PC_World … ctober_1992.pdf That comes across as the inaugural MPC buyers guide, and was kind of a supplement in the magazine that may have been removed from other scanned copies from other months, so not sure if it cycles monthly, or they do alternating notebook/desktop/workstation guides at that time. So when another MPC guide is found it will be interesting to see if it's still in there.

Edit3: Trail seems to have gone cold in PC Worlds, might start with Computer Shopper, eyeballing all the 92/93 issues. One thing I am finding is that AST had no consistency AT ALL when referring to their Advantage systems (And it didn't help they have advantage named products stretching back to mid 80s with their memory boards etc) and the officially AST Advantage! 386SX/25 may be named without the exclamation, or just as Adv! or as 3/25s or many other ways of shortening it.