I recently came across an old 1969 Montgomery Ward catalog from 1969. While browsing the TV sales pages, I was surprised to see them offering a Color Round set.

I always thought by 1969, round sets were out of production, but I guess not. It was on sale for $ 379.00. It had the danish modern looking cabinet with that nappy scratchy looking cloth they used on some electronics in the 60's on the speaker cover.

Has anyone seen roundies from around this time or later ?

There was an old thread about this, probably several years ago, deeply buried now! At that time I browsed the Sams files and as I recall the last one listed was a Magnavox in 1970. Other late ones were that Wards Airline and a Philco-Ford. I think by that time the round tubes could be bought pretty cheap; meanwhile, factories were cranking out rectangular tubes as fast as they could go. A roundie in '69 was a good way to build a cheaper set than your competition. Philco ran a funny ad with a big, burly guy struggling to carry one of their roundie table models, and noting that you could get "big screen" Philco color tv for the price of those "other guys" portable color sets.

Yeah, Bryan, I remember that thread- We postulated that these "last-gasp" roundies were loss-leaders and/or cleaning out of old stock on CRTs. Wonder how many of 'em survived ?

Philco ran a funny ad with a big, burly guy struggling to carry one of their roundie table models, and noting that you could get "big screen" Philco color tv for the price of those "other guys" portable color sets.

I've seen that ad, it's pretty funny!

Hi,

Also, remember that that last Philco roundie used a few transistors in it's circuitry. It makes nice pictures. Also, Magnavox had an economy color roundie up to 1971. :tresbon:

I have a late model Philco roundie. I think it's a 1966. It has some transistors hiding in there, but it's largely tube type. And, it has a tuning eye tube.

-Ian