BORING little swap meet find
 

Went to swap meet...and for some reason this little 12" GE b/w set caught my eye. The guy wanted ten bucks for the thing, and to me it looks like someone took it out of the box, taped ALL it's antennas and paperwork on top....and then it SAT. I got it simply because the damn thing still looks BRAND new....warranty card, paperwork AND both it's antennas still in their sealed bag.

For all I know, the thing was new and in a FLOOD or something, but it just looked so "nice and boring" brand new....I took it home :-)

It model number is 12XR5104S...and shows it's a "Chassis XR-A", and was built in June of 1984. Here are some pics of my just bringing it in and setting it on the coffee table. It's ONLY issue so far (not plugged in yet), is that the guy has the paperwork, antennas and stuff TAPED on top...and the tape sorta goes down both sides of the set. May take just a little 409 to clean that gunk off...or possibly some Goof-Off if it's more difficult.

The set has a homely silver front...creme top and sides...and black back. These look FLAWLESS and so far appear to look brand new. It'll make a nice shelf queen even if I suddenly find the thing has had an opposum living inside (I hope it's gone :-P )

I do notice it was made in Korea, so it's probly not really worth anything at all...but it'll look nice in the kitchen, and I'm glad I got a chance to have it instead of it just ending up in the trash without it apparently seeing NO use so far.

oops....pics (wouldn't let me edit)

Cool! Got into the sealed bag, and found it has it's little owners manual, the green warranty card, and even a schematic was in there on a seperate paper!

I like it, but then I'm partial to GE. :) When exactly did the switch from branding consumer stuff General Electric to just using the logo happen? Sometime between 1986 and 1989 for sure, but can anybody pin it down more precisely?

Nice! I have one of those sets in well used condition. That one uses a GoldStar chassis and is what they used when GE stopped making their own "XB" chassis. This same chassis was used in many other brands of 12" sets. By the early '80's, most companies figured out that they could import the sets cheaper than they could build them themselves.

As far as the switch from "General Electric" to "GE", I know they were still spelling it out in '87 because I have a BOTL knob tuned 19" GE from that year with the brand spelled out. This set uses a CTC136 chassis; which, is actually an RCA chassis. It was probably around '88, when GE sold everything to Thomson, when the logo changed.

Well..... I cleaned it all up (DID end up using Goof-Off for the tape), set all that original paperwork aside safely, put BOTH antennas together, even though I don't really use the UHF loop. It just looked cool and should be there.

Powereing this up was a non-issue......JUST like if I had gotten it new 20 years ago. I made a nice spot for it to live in the kitchen, just like it woulda likely seen back then. It makes an odd "new TV" smell after a few hours of running. If I notice this in a week or so, I might open it up and look for anything alarming. it's NOT an ozone "HV smell"...or any sort of burning smell, just some sort of "stuff being warm" smell. I actually DON'T really wanna open it up, since it's pretty obvious this set was never run before. Maybe I could just get away with taking the back off and dusting it off unless I notice anything. I don't really think it needs ANY sort of dialing in. It shows a very solid crosshatch and nicely focused dots.

Picture is exactly as I expected of it really. Big and contrasty, and the bright/contrast controls are real exagerated compared to most my small sets. Brightness goes from BLACK to WAY too bright, contrast goes from "almost white screen" to big black shadows. Good and sharp. THIS is now my biggest set now, at least on my "collection" side at 12 inches. It's still about the same size box as the Sear 9" and the 9" Quasar TV I rescued from oblivion a few months ago. It looks nice in the kitchen....because it looks boring (dunno how to explain it). Looks like it's SUPPOSED to be there :-)

It's MUCH nicer looking and more satisfying to see there than if I had gone out and got a brand new 17" LCD panel.

Don't locate it where the sun can fade the white plastic over time. That is a real nice looking set. Most of those I have seen were branded Goldstar. The "new" smell will go away after a while of regular use. It is nothing to be alarmed about. I absolutely love 12" black and white sets.

It's a funny thing about white plastic. The stuff turns yellow even if it's not exposed to the sun. It has something to do with the flame proof qualities of the new plastics.

Yup....It's not at all next to the only window, and that window IS where the sink is, so NO television is ever gonna be in danger of water OR sun in this kitchen. It'll see a pretty easy life sitting there. I'll turn it on when company is around just for fun...and the occasional cooking project will have it playing....mimicking what is on the TV in the front room. I'll turn this one on FAR more often than a little 7" LCD TV/radio/CD/DVD boombox thing I have on top of the fridge. That boombox thing is always so much silliness with it's REMOTE and all the stupid menus. SOMETIMES I'm in that mood.....but usually I am NOT, and wanna JUST turn on the TV.

And yes Dieseljeep. I found that to be the case with the little RCA "lunar" clock radio. It's SUPPOSED to be all white (and would look REAL NICE that way again)....but it's all yellow....EVEN underneath, and the few I have seen ALL seem to look like that. Some worse than others.

I may someday paint it white again (The Lunar)....but so far have just left it unmolested. I did pull that one apart to get it's little flip-clock working....and ALMOST painted it white THEN.

It appears this GE uses a near identical chassis as my '87 12" Emerson which has a Goldstar Tube.

Couple pics of this little set....where it now lives :)

I turn it on almost every day....just for a couple hours.

Sorry this didn't turn much into any sort of restoration project....not even a single screw touched, but aside from removing some tape residue from the top and sides.....I might as well have just brought this set home brand new from an old Fedco store.

No, it'll NEVER be a CT-100 or anything like that, but I think its still pretty neat as it is, on its own...

Google search for "Retrobrite" (hope I got the spelling) the vintage Computer collecting crowd developed it for removing yellowing from vintage plastic.

I think when I was a few years old my folks let me play with a similar GE to yours. The cord had been cut off because it was busted. Some where between when I was 4 and 9 years old in the mid 90's I dropped the set about 3' and released the vacuum on the CRT outside when my folks were around. They thought the thing might be leaking toxic gas and had me stand back until the hissing stopped. LOL It hit the curb on the next garbage day after that.....

That dumb incident caused me, a few years later, to release the vacuum on a 21" CRT in 50's monochrome RCA table set so I could discharge the HV......God was I dumb then. That set is still rotting in the woods as it has for at least the last 4 decades.

Hehehehe...Back around '83 or so, I'd just gotten my Uzi. Hadn't had it Converted to Rockin Roll yet, but even in semi-auto, an Uzi ain't exactly Chopped Liver...Anyhow, I bought an old Sixties vintage GE B/W console, me & a bud took it up to The Dump, & he videotaped me shooting the old GE...I first pulled all the tubes out, set 'em on top & plinked 'em off..Then, the 2 big tuning knobs met their fate. Finally the CRT exploded in a hail of 9 MikeMike...We just left that ol' TV up there, I it served as a Target for all the OTHER wannabe Rambos...Every time we came back, a little more had been turned into Doodle-Dust... By Oct/Nov, even the chassis was more or less gone.. I think I paid the old guy $2 for it, we CERTAINLY got more than our money's worth of Fun outta it...C'mon, all y'all KNOW you've always wanted to BLAST AWAY a junky old TV...Sad thing is, there are some microwave antennas up there that got made into impromptu targets, & the place also turned into one of the bigger drug supermarkets around here...And I think a couple of Girls got, uhh, "Compromised" up there, so the city shut it down. A big padlocked gate guards the joint now, w/a stern "WARNING !" sign.

That's a boring find alright...

Next.

It was PERFECT for where I wanted to put it Gellis. I don't want a Motorolla table set sitting there in the kitchen, or the Sony 301, and I have NEVER liked the little "Naxa" little 7" LCD DVD boombox thing....for where it is anyway. I don't want any wood or metal set in the kitchen...or something that gets HOT and has lots of vent holes...or takes ten minutes to come up. This little GE looks like it's doing EXACTLY what most boaught them for.

I like how BORING it looks here. it's actually a GREAT performer. I almost put the Sears 9" color set here, but it's actually a bigger cabinet.

Any monochrome set is a curiosity these days. Once I get my '64 Zenith 15L37 cleaned up, there WILL be a rule in my house that any black and white shows must be viewed on a BW set.

I have these two Philco 9" with some minor issues, either of which can do KP duty:thmbsp:...Attachment 175664

I have a switcher before my transmitter. I can switch between "watch what is on in the front room", "watch what I am playing 24/7 on the Arcos AV700" (You'll notice it's almost ALL vintage playlists....repeated), and "watch something on a DVD" (NEVER done yet)

I do watch my electricity use though, so even though the transmitter and player are on 24/7...it's just a small solid state 50mw thing (HLLY Villa), and the sets are ONLY on when I wanna look at 'em. Since all my collection is "micro"....nothing I turn on is gonna piss off the fuse panel of an old '60s Huffmann apartment building.

The transmitter is sufficient enough for me to even take a little Sony set down to the driveway and watch it while replacing an alternator in one of the cars. THAT gets an awful lot of curious comments.

"So.....HOW the hell are you watching My Favorite Martian on that, and WHAT channel is carrying it...and so CLEAR??" I always make sure to be on batteries and have the rabbit ears up just to add to that mystery :-P

I love that little one on the right Goodlin. I think I seen one of those MANY years ago at an automotive swap meet RIGHT next to a Sony 303. Both of them were described as "car TV sets". The little Sony 303 even had a little custom wire bracket sorta thing that hung it from a seat back.

I would have gotten it if I had seen it "now".....but back then all I collected was muscle cars :-P Old GM muscle cars didn't appear to ever come with or have any TV set as an option. The Sony was apparently a Benz option, and I would imagine the little Philco you have there on the right was likely a Lincoln limousine item.

I remember them VERY well, because about that time, my dad had given me the little Sony 303 that was my first set.....and if "I" wanted it to function correctly, I had to figure out it's "no vertical" :-)

Still have the 303, and I keep it seperate from the rest. That is a special set to me. (I should get another one to put next to the 301 and 305)

I bought the same model, branded as a Gold Star, at K-Mart back in 1983-1984 for my kitchen. I agree, not the most exciting set, but it did exactly what I bought it for --- to watch the news and weather while I ate lunch in the kitchen or prepared supper. I felt I didn't need a color set for that type of use, and it was smaller and considerabily cheaper than the $250 price a basic 13" color set was commanding back then. I moved in '85 and sold it for $10 to lighten my load.

Yes, AiboPet, the Philco on the right was an option in 1966-67 FoMoCo Cars. And from what Ive read here, Lincoln being most likely. My friend gave me that set if I promised not to unload it. It came as an option in his uncle's Town Car bought in Wilkes Barre PA, which had 4 UHF (and NO VHF) channels. It has a UHF loop built into the back, so it probably worked well in that area.

[QUOTE=AiboPet;3043935]

I would have gotten it if I had seen it "now".....but back then all I collected was muscle cars :-P Old GM muscle cars didn't appear to ever come with or have any TV set as an option. The Sony was apparently a Benz option, and I would imagine the little Philco you have there on the right was likely a Lincoln limousine item.

I have a 1965 Lincoln Lehmann-Petersen Executive Limo, one of 50 made & 9 left, & in between the 2 rearwards-facing seats right behind the partition, is a little cabinet that at one time held a 5-303 quite nicely. Even has the Sony power jack, & I think, an antenna jack. Those little 5-303 sets were QUITE the "Chi-Chi" items back in the Sixties. They WEREN'T cheap, they were well made, & generally didn't give trouble & performed quite well. MAYBE mine got swapped out later for a KV-5000, who knows...(grin)

A 5100 (which I JUST got ahold of last week)...woulda looked just ducky there if that cabinet has the extra depth of the Trinitron set (about 4 more inches deep). It also would have had to change the DC plug. I'm not at home right now, but first thing I noticed is it doesn't use the old style 4-prong Sony plug of the '60s. I know it DOES run on DC, but I forget what it did for DC power. The AC is just a two prong cord.

I'm actually DOWN one of those 4-prong Sony power cords (the regular AC one)...because I got a Sony 301 that didn't have the cord. I share TWO cords between FOUR Sony sets (of which one doesn't run yet anyway). 301,303,305 (and the 700U I can't seem to get going) all use that cord :-(