A Trio of Motorola Quasar II's turn 42 today!

[drh4683]

Here's something that doesn't happen very often. Consider that 40 years have gone by and finding three of the exact same model TV's, in the same neighborhood, in three different houses, thus three different estate sales, all of which are low hour survivors. And if you think those are tough odds, lets throw in another unusual fact: ALL of them were born on the exact SAME day! So what are the odds? It happened on the northwest side of Chicago...

This interesting phenomenon happened over the last 4 years for three Motorola Quasar II consoles, models WL9158KP which use the TS-934 chassis. All three of these sets share the same exact Julian date code on the model tag which read "F3271". This translates to "Franklin Park, IL: September 28th, 1973". And today they turn 42 years old.

Here are the details:

Set#1 was found on 5-20-2011 (serial# 8159)

Set#2 was found on 9-5-2014 (serial# 8584)

Set#3 was found on 4-28-2015 (serial# 8016)


Attached are the photos of all three of the sets just as I found them in their original homes and also are photos of the corresponding model tags where you can see the first (5) figures of the serial number are the same. This is the Julian date code. Since the homes were all grouped somewhat close together (all within about a 1 mile radius), I've hypothesized that there must have been some kind of sale going on around October, 1973. The sets all having the same date codes tells me that they were probably from the same inventory or warehouse, so all probably bought from the same store. What store that is I don't know. Motorola TV's were popular sellers in Chicago at Polk Brothers department stores. (Polk Brothers departments stores have been defunct since 1992). So they may have had a sale going and everyone was buying up these Quasar II's.

And somehow, all three of of them have turned up from owners who kept them for the last 40+ years. An additional unusual fact is that all three must have been left unplugged when not in use because all of them have strong original CRT's, something very rare for an instant-on set. Perhaps whoever they bought them from gave strong advice to "unplug them when not in use" and this advice was followed by these particular customers? It seems too strange how all three somehow escaped the death of instant on.

I completed a total electronic restoration to #8584 last fall and its such a nice set to watch. You can rank the picture quality right up with with those Zenith Chromacolors!


Here's the trio all shown in one place; the first three photos are how they were found in their original homes:


DSC00764 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC09008 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC02633 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC09069 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC09068 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC02647 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC09013 by drh4683, on Flickr

IMG_73_motorola_0002 by drh4683, on Flickr

IMG_73_motorola_0001 by drh4683, on Flickr

Motorola_AR by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC09035 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC09046 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC09630 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC09039 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC09038 by drh4683, on Flickr