of the locking lever 210 is connected to one of the first link members 160 by a resilient member 180 due to the resilient member 180 the tape cassette housing 120 is capable of resiliently ascending and descending for the close contacting with and separation from the sub chassis 112 one side of the locking lever 210 is provided with the locking recess 230 into which the locking protrusion 220 is inserted so as to lock the tape cassette housing 120 onto the sub chassis 112 in a close contacting manner the corner 230 a of the locking recess 230 is connected to a guide surface 217 extending from the lower end of the locking lever 210 the locking lever 210 pivots within a range that is determined by a regulating protrusion 127 protruding from a side of the tape cassette housing 120 and a second hinge 173 protruding from the second link member 170 to a predetermined height accordingly excessive pivoting movement of the locking lever 210 due to the recovery force of the resilient lever 210 can be prevented meanwhile an unlocking protrusion 213 protrudes from a lower end of the locking lever 210 the unlocking protrusion 213 comes into contact with an end of the unlocking lever 117 pivotably disposed on the sub chassis 112 when the tape cassette housing 120 is locked operation of the unlocking protrusion 213 will be described below hereinafter loading unloading operations of the tape cassette housing as constructed above according to various embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings a loading operation of the tape cassette.