Am I crazy to collect these?
 

Lately I've been picking up a few of these uber cheap "Made In China" 5" TV sets.

Why you might ask, well partly because they're cheap as dirt, partly because I've run out of room for anything larger and partly because they are just cute as a bug, have retro styling and are also real TV sets with CRT's, Flybacks, Yokes, etc...

They are also built on PC boards with mostly discreet components so they are repairable to some extent. (I fixed the grey one with a new cap in the vertical circuit)

The Yellow one came from a Thrift store, the grey one came from my Mom in a box of "stuff" she gave me, the white one cost me .50c on eBay :D I have a blue on on the way too.

I'm thinking in 50 years they could be the Catalin of Televisions, worth literally thousands of dollars and that extra money will come in handy when I'm 97 years old :lmao:

In early 2009 they should be flooding the landfills, thrift shops and eBay when analog goes away.

I also have one! I use it to keep up with the Football games when I travel. It is illegal here to have the set playing while driving in view of the driver. I put it in the back seat so I can listin. Some games are not on the radio. I also tune in the NASCAR races.

polaraman

I see quite a lot of those little 5" sets around here, but they are almost all the one brand/model in an overly rounded case that I find quite ugly.

The fact that they are now so cheap to make has led to them finding their way into other products. I've seen a few little TV/VCD player boomboxes and TV/Karaoke machines (some with built in cameras so you can watch yourself looking stupid). I was going to grab one of the Karaoke machines at the junk auction the other night, but it went for way more than I expected. They aren't exactly rare, so another will come along soon enough.

I do have the chassis/CRT that I scavenged from a dropped boombox. The case was a complete write off, but the CRT survived. It still works, but I have no idea what I'll do with it.

They're cheap & plentiful enuff to Have Some Dirty Fun With at Target practice...

I think I know the one you're talking about, they are all over eBay now for cheap.

I prefer the style in my pic above, they have a more "classic" TV shape.
I have no interest in the ones with flashlights, air compressors, can openers etc... I'd prefer they didn't even have a radio but that's standard on these.

Just devise a bracket to mount it to the roof liner or on the rear window deck behind you so that you can glance at it in the rear view mirror every now and then... :D

I have that white one! It's been very helpful in many situations...despite being "Made in China" ... and yes, they are really cheap as dirt!

Nobody is "crazy" to collect things... No matter what others say. Even 1,100-pound air raid sirens or old Toyota Diesel cars (my other "collections").

If you want a couple more of those, I saw a row of them ontop of the coke machine at my friend's TV shop in West LA. Not sure what the story is, but I bet they'd be free.

Charles
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Hey Charles, I'd be interested if they are in a color I need.

I also need an antenna for this blue one I just got, also a working chassis would be good but there are a thousand variations!

This one has a problem, won't tune a thing, it has raster and white noise from the speaker but no sound or video.

I can get video through the video input jack but it has no sync.
(perhaps I need to start another thread on repairing it?)

I think the're gray/black... I'll pay better attention next time I go.

Charles

Hi, I think I have two or three of these in my building. I don't remember what color they are or if they work. I'll find them and they'll be free+postage. I actually fixed a couple of these (both new) for a friend of mine. One had a disconnected CRT socket and the other one had a loose deflection yoke. I have a late '70's Panasonic radio/TV combination with the snap on magnifier that I got for free from my neighbor. All that was wrong with it was a broken connection where the AC adapter plugs in. It's really come in handy when the power goes out!

Bryan

These are neat little sets, and usually have a really sharp raster, for such a cheap set. I had one given to me last year, but I gave it away to someone else. Hope it didn't get chucked, since there seems to be a new following for these. Mine was silver. Had builtin AM/Fm tuner and a 12vdv car cable included with it.

And to think we once said 12" B&W's were not collectible! These will be one day too, I am sure.

I see DOZENS of these in the wholesale places and flea-market street here. I bought one or two that looked particularly like Robot Heads, and to one I added antennae (those funky light-up antenna-like rods they sell for cars) and mounted it on a torso-like case scavenged from some discarded beauty parlor equipment, added rubber-hose arms and mechanical hands from a toy, etc... and made a cute little robot sculpture. (If you hooked it up right with a computer input, you could give it a "talking face", but I never bothered.) :D

A while ago, I started collecting little mini-sized radios made as copies of larger vintage radios. Some of these were made as-is, others were branded and sold as promotional items by Pepsi, some banks, etc... I had seven or eight of them, when I realized that although they made an attractive display with their basic colors and shapes, they didn't really have market value and were one more source of "clutter" in my limited apartment space. I recently got rid of all of them except my favorite three and declared a halt to the idea of "collecting" these, although a part of me would still like to. I do know from the ones I had that while individually people might not think too much of them, a good-sized collection of them in a nice glass display case would make a fairly spectacular conversation piece. Never heard of anyone else collecting these, either, and they are cheap - often fifty cents or a buck! Oh, well... that's what I get for living in one of the most expensive places on Earth (real-estate-wise).

My wife used to have one similar to those in Tourquoise.The ones they sold at Wal-Mart back in the early 90's.I dont know if we still have it or not.Ill let you know if I find it.
Jimmy

I got 1 of these when Wal-Mart 1st had them. Think I paid about US$25. Never got much use until I took it to my office and now it sits on my desk. I listen to the BBC and CBC news as the tv will pick it up on the built-in whip. I could not pass it up as it was so cheap. Also would satisfy the need for a battery operated radio as we needed 1 for the house. I've seen the same model marketed under various names. Don't remember what mine is offhand.