Collecting Vintage, Atomic Transistor Radios

Transistor radios are a very collectible item these days. They have been called shirt-pocket radios and they have become a very sought after collectible item for collectors of space age electronics. The first transistor radio was on the street in 1954. Just in time for the "Rock Around the Clock" crowd. The first transistor radio was the Regency TR-1 and it cost a fortune in those days...$49.95. In today's economy that would be close to $360. YIKES!

In 1957, an unknown Japanese company, Sony, began to export their first transistor radio the TR - 63. They marketed their transistor radio as the "First Pocketable Radio ." This model, made an immediate splash and became an economic success. Thousands of unique transistor radio models were introduced and produced between 1955 and 1965.

Transistor radios were typically small enough to fit in some ones' shirt pocket. They were approximately 3" in height. The designs were fantastic. They were atomic looking and appeared to have come from a space-age science fiction movie.

Collecting vintage transistor radios is a more affordable hobby than collecting the older larger tube radios made of Bakelite. Some of these radios will sell in the thousands of dollars, if in mint working condition. Hobbyists can pick up very nice collectible vintage transistor radios for around $20. This is not to say a transistor radio collector won't have to pay up in the hundreds for the more rare radios. It is just, overall, a more economical hobby and one that is fun in a different way. The style of transistor radios is just so retro and cool.

The hey-day of the transistor radio ran simultaneous with the space age and the race to the moon. Manufacturers of transistor radios wanted to cash in on the space age mania going on in the 60s and started to name their radios spacey names such as: the Starfire, the Aurora, the Raleigh Astronaut etc. Transistor radios would sport motifs of comets, rockets and jets. More specialty made transistor radios were molded in the shape of rockets and robots.

A trendy marketing strategy was making transistor radios called "Boys Radios". These radios were made of two-toned plastic shells and looked like toy radios. One unique feature of the "Boys Radios" was they had only two transistors. These transistor radios were anything but high quality, but they were popular and sold well because they were cheap.

Another marketing strategy, started by the transistor radio manufactures, was adding many more transistors to them saying they improved performance. In actuality, this was not the case. It was not uncommon to have radios marketed with 12 to 16 up to 18 transistors. The reality was that a radio was actually only able to use up to eight for operating. If the truth be told, the transistor radios, that boasted large amounts of transistors, just had them set inside the radio. They often were not hooked up to any circuitry.

Transistor radio collecting is a fun, affordable hobby, but be careful...once you become a transistor radio collector, you may become addicted.

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