If you thought cloning was wrong...

[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by Big Dave
Clever morphing. RCA dropped "VICTOR" around 1968, as well as Nipper. That Zenith is definitely not original to the cabinet.

Sounds to me as if the seller just put several different components into the cabinet, possibly to replace old worn-out units. I had relatives who did this with their old TVs when the TV chassis quit or the CRT went bad; all they did was take the old set out of the cabinet, then they built a wood frame around the opening where the set was to hide the gaps, and finally, they put a brand-new color set in the opening where the old chassis had been.

No remotes in those days, but no matter: the TVs the new sets replaced weren't remote sets either. One of my relatives had a really nice RCA Victor console (early sixties; 1962, IIRC), the "Brindisi" home-entertainment center console. If you look at old ads for these you will see they were magnificent sets, but they were so long they would take up most of an entire wall in your living room. (An old friend of mine has one of those huge entertainment-center cabinets in the living/family room of his home; I've seen the thing--it literally fills much of one entire wall in the place, and is nearly as tall as the ceiling. But it's nice, and holds his TV, VCR and stereo installation, so I guess it has to be big.)

I'll take a look at the pics of that rebuilt console on ebay after I post this. I'd like to see just how it was modified. I thought I saw an RCA Victor receiver/amplifier unit in the space reserved for such, and a Zenith TV in the center where the old TV chassis was originally. The TV has its original Zenith remote as well. It looks as if the job was done really well, as it is almost impossible to tell that this console was made from components of different manufacturers (unless you look at the nameplates on the units, of course). From the front, this console looks very good. It fooled me at first; I thought it was one of those great old Zenith TVs from the '60s. Didn't know it had been cobbled together with other components until I looked at the pics of the thing on ebay.

BTW: If it were me, I would have held on to that set after putting that much work into it. I can only guess, but I think this is being sold either because the seller is moving or cleaning out his/her home. Guess I'll have to reread the item description (I just glanced at it when I saw it a few minutes ago).