Admiral 8" Playmate w/box on eBay

[Eric H]

1970's?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-9-Admira...item41565a156d

[Sandy G]

That's what I'm thinkin'. Possibly late '60s, too. Cute little set-Maybe hybrid.

[bgadow]

Interesting the way they co-branded with Kmart. Somewhere in the stash I have a folder of Admiral factory service manuals and many of them are for Kmart branded sets. The older 9" Admiral shows up every once in awhile-I have one, down and dirty-but I don't recall seeing one of these.

[ChrisW6ATV]

It is from 1973-74. My brothers both had TVs like that.

[jr_tech]

Hybrid? Compactron?

jr

[ctc17]

Is that some kind of screen burn? Thats a weird place if it is.

I have two sets exactly like that, one is turetone and sharp. The chassis are the same, all tube. 38HE7 and the rest are 7 and 9 pin. Taiwan made.

[N9ZQA]

Originally Posted by ctc17

Is that some kind of screen burn? Thats a weird place if it is.

Just went back to the page. It's plugged in and down in the description they mention it being on. Had to read it through a couple times before I caught it.

I've got one of these too. Works very well, in fact I used it as a bedroom TV for a while.

I can still remember the Kmart by where I grew up having a separate room in the electronics department with shelves on the walls full of operating TV sets.

-Jim

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by N9ZQA

Just went back to the page. It's plugged in and down in the description they mention it being on. Had to read it through a couple times before I caught it.

I've got one of these too. Works very well, in fact I used it as a bedroom TV for a while.

I can still remember the Kmart by where I grew up having a separate room in the electronics department with shelves on the walls full of operating TV sets.

-Jim

So the bar is just a camera sync problem?

On the thread "smallest all tube portable" the mid-50s 8" RCA still appears to be the winner at 8"x8.5"x13" (884 cu in), is this set even close to that?

jr

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Hybrid? Compactron?

jr

I remember working on those... Yes; typical series string Compactron lineup (38HE7, 17JZ8, et al)

Charles

[wa2ise]

Did someone buy the rights to the Admiral trade name? Like Emerson? This set looks like something from Japan or Hong Kong.

[bgadow]

Admiral became part of Rockwell around 74-75. They seemed to have moved production of bw portables to Taiwan around 1970, give or take. From what I've read, the Asian division later became AOC (Admiral Overseas Corp or maybe Admiral Of China? I say the first one.) Rockwell dropped electronics in 1980 but continued the major appliance line; their biggest customer was Montgomery Ward and eventually Wards started using the Admiral name on the electronics they sold. Among the more interesting trivia, Zenith built some sets for Monkey Wards so thus there were some Zenith-built Admirals.

Rockwell sold Admiral to, I think, Raytheon (when they still owned Amana) and they in turn sold it to Maytag, which is now part of Whirlpool. I think the name is being used by one of the big store chains right now?

In 1970 National Union Electronics (Emerson & DuMont) stopped making TV sets and contracted with Admiral to build them. I'm not sure how long that lasted-I think they were done by the mid-70s. There-more than was asked, but it made me feel good to type that all out!

[radiotvnut]

Years ago, I had a 14" Admiral hybrid color set, that was made in Taiwan, from the early '70's. It performed somewhat OK; but, was not great by any means. I've had two Admiral built Monkey Wards 19" color TV's from '79. These had an inline CRT with a single board chassis and pushbutton varactor tuning. IIRC, they were made in Taiwan. I've also worked on some AOC sets from the early '80's. The cabinets looked similar to some of the "late" Admiral sets; but, their electronics were pure junk from Taiwan. I've seen these AOC sets with toasted flyback transformers that would take out other components in the deflection and power supply along with it. And, the flyback's were difficult-to-impossible to find.

Admiral also made sets for Western Auto (Truetone). I remember seeing some solid state color consoles with varactor tuners from the late '70's and I saw one '77-'78 22" Admiral built Truetone console B&W TV.

[AUdubon5425]

Rockwell acquired Admiral in 1974, and from what I remember reading laid off about 40% of the workers in the home entertainment division. Montgomery Wards ended their relationship with Admiral in late 1978; subsequently Admiral ended production of sets. By that time (Sept. 1978) all portable color and B&W sets were made in Taiwan; only final assembly of console sets were done at the plant in Harvard, Ill.

Admiral took over production of Emerson and DuMont sets for National Union in Feb. 1970. That arrangement ended in Dec. 1972 when NU exited the business. I'm not sure who had the rights to the Emerson name after that - by the early 2000's it was being used by an outfit called Major Electronics.

[radiotvnut]

Emerson TV's of the '80's and early '90's had an "Emerson Radio Corp" address on the back; but, the TV's were built by Orion, with a few Goldstar built sets in between. I've never seen an Emerson TV that was made between the '72 cutoff date and the early '80's. And, I've only seen one or two early '80's Emerson's. Most of what I saw was from the mid '80's and newer. I don't know if there were simply no Emerson branded TV's built during the '72-early '80's time period or if they were just not common in my area.

[Dennman6]

In Feb. 1979 my dad went shopping for a new TV to replace the RCA Victor 23" B&W set he had bought new in 1965. I was 16 at the time. He took my mom & I along. She was to pick out the cabinet style AFTER I picked out the brand. My dad realized I knew more about color TV than he did, since I'd had a year of basic electronics at the BOCES vocational center when I was in high school. Also, my uncle had done electronics in the 1950s & 1960s, & mentored me in this area.

After dad concluded from newspaper ads that Kmart was the place to buy from(cheapest prices), we headed over to the Kmart in Liverpool, NY(we lived near Syracuse at the time). Kmart had a great display area for TVs, as it was a separate room in the electronics dept. with low-level lighting-great for really seeing what a CRT could do. I chose the RCA ColorTrak CTC-92 console. Mom picked out the dark Mediterranen console over the Early American oak cabinet(same RCA chassis). Also there were Zenith Chromacolor II, Admiral, & KTV-the Kmart house brand. Admiral must've been on its last legs by then, but the CRT did look good-but not as nice as the RCA or Zenith sets. The KTV sets didn't look that good at all by comparison, & they were positioned farthest from the RCAs. Then came the Zeniths, then the Admirals, FINALLY the KTV(clever, right?).

So who made the KTV line of sets, & were any of them any good? They had lots of 12 or 13" to 19" KTV sets, & only that one console by them. And the RCA CTC-92 still functions, with only a fusible resistor replaced in fall of 1980, after almost 2 years of daily use in a house they never had surge protectors. Everything was plugged straight into the wall outlets in those days.

Dennis Forkel