View Full Version : The 1960 Arkay Fantasia...


Celt
06-16-2013, 07:11 PM
Oh my... :scratch2:

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=178998&stc=1&d=1371427873

N2IXK
06-16-2013, 07:20 PM
Looks like a shameless knockoff of the 1958 Kuba Comet to me:

http://www.earlytelevision.org/kuba.html

47'Plymouth
06-16-2013, 09:52 PM
Kuba was German,..Arkay was built in Brooklyn,NY

wa2ise
06-16-2013, 10:04 PM
I can picture a modern version of this with an HDTV 60 inch flatpanel.

__________
\ |.hdtv..| /
_\|_____|/_
\_________/
--^-----^--

Eric H
06-17-2013, 01:02 AM
Looks like the TV might be a Zenith Space Command.

W3XWT
06-17-2013, 07:31 PM
Looks like a "Brooklynized" Kuba Komet to me!

truetone36
06-17-2013, 07:46 PM
TV looks like a Zenith, tape recorder looks like a Voice Of Music can't tell what the other components are, though. I wouldn't mind having one in my living room!

Einar72
06-17-2013, 10:43 PM
Who has ever owned an Arkay besides me?

Tony V
06-17-2013, 11:16 PM
I own several Arkay radio's but was unaware they made tv sets.

47'Plymouth
06-18-2013, 01:32 PM
I'm building a 1964'Arkay Tv kit as we speak23"inch model

kubafantasia
08-24-2017, 05:38 PM
I know this is a very old thread but somebody has any info about where to find a Kuba Fantasia in NYC or have in display any?> I am working in a project about it.

Electronic M
08-24-2017, 06:42 PM
Odds are none exist anymore. If one was in collector hands I'm sure there would be a thread with pictures of it that were taken more recently than the 50's....

Sandy G
08-24-2017, 07:35 PM
I dreamt I had a Komet, but came home one night w/a snootful of Rum tum Tiddley um tum, got into a fight w/the damthing,& ended up skewered on one of its Flying Buttresses...

Phil Nelson
08-24-2017, 07:52 PM
I know this is a very old thread but somebody has any info about where to find a Kuba Fantasia in NYC or have in display any?> I am working in a project about it.I have never seen an Arkay Fantasia. I suspect that very few were sold, and perhaps none survive, as Tom C suggests. Or, possibly that single photo just shows a factory "concept" set that never made it to the retail market.

There is no such thing as a "Kuba Fantasia." The Kuba set is called a Komet. The ETF museum in Ohio has a Kuba Komet, which you can see at this web page:

http://www.earlytelevision.org/kuba.html

Regards,

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
https://antiqueradio.org/index.html

kubafantasia
08-26-2017, 12:30 PM
Thank you everyone for the comments and info.

Phil do you suggest that there is no evidence that Arkay built something similar to a Kuba Comet model?

Provably you are right thats why It is hard to find information about it.

Thank you again and have a great weekend everyone.

Marcelo

Phil Nelson
08-26-2017, 01:49 PM
Apparently, Arkay built a set named the Fantasia that is similar to the Kuba Komet, but not the same.

Kuba and Arkay were different companies, so you shouldn't mix up the names. (In other words, there was no "Kuba Fantasia" or "Arkay Komet.")

Phil Nelson

Sandy G
08-26-2017, 03:51 PM
Wonder if Kuba was trying to get into the apparently HUGE market for American servicemen & women who wanted to send home a neat Chermin radio...I wish Rohde & Schwarz had been so tempted...I've talked to a number of folks who've told me that big radio was the high point of their deployment But 15,20 years on,a goodly number of those radios were still in service. Amazing how they got such great sound & reception out of so few tubes...

decojoe67
08-26-2017, 05:22 PM
I happen to love these mid-century winged cabinets. In all my years I've never heard of an American counterpart of the Kuba Komet. If one ever turned-up it would likely go straight into a museum of art. Hard to find a more space-age looking piece than that!

Eric H
08-26-2017, 06:14 PM
Oh my... :scratch2:

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=178998&stc=1&d=1371427873

What's with the trellis and picket fence, was this supposed to be used on your back porch? No wonder none are left. :D

decojoe67
08-26-2017, 08:18 PM
What's with the trellis and picket fence, was this supposed to be used on your back porch? No wonder none are left. :D
It obviously is a photo from some consumer trade show. I would bet the set was a one-off piece for the show. It's just too wild for any company to expect to make a profit on.

Dave A
08-26-2017, 11:23 PM
Don't sit on the left side. You wont hear anything.

Eric H
08-27-2017, 02:28 AM
It obviously is a photo from some consumer trade show.

Exactly, but it's decorated like Grandmas back yard.

If you're trying to sell bleeding edge Moderne shouldn't you decorate with the latest ultra hip decor from Eames, Saarinen and other eBay catchphrases? :thmbsp:

KentTeffeteller
12-17-2017, 11:14 AM
Wonder if Kuba was trying to get into the apparently HUGE market for American servicemen & women who wanted to send home a neat Chermin radio...I wish Rohde & Schwarz had been so tempted...I've talked to a number of folks who've told me that big radio was the high point of their deployment But 15,20 years on,a goodly number of those radios were still in service. Amazing how they got such great sound & reception out of so few tubes...

Rohde & Schwarz never made consumer anything. Only instrumentation, military, or broadcast grade gear. The closest in radio that that ever got and sold new to the consumer at any price, was the USA built REL Precedent FM tuner, which was short lived due to the fact that they lost money on every one of them, a lesson a certain Saul B. Marantz didn't heed when he introduced the Model 10 and 10B FM tuners, who's cost overruns and losses sustained cost Saul the Marantz Company and forced the sale to SuperScope in 1964. REL wisely ended the Precedent and went back to their normal line of business.