c.1965 Sonny TOKYO
Horizontal coat pocket, thermoplastic cabinet
6 5/8 x 3 5/8 x 1 7/16 inches / 168 x 92 x 37 mm
MW, six transistors (unmarked), two large tubular 3v batteries
Made in Italy
This is a great example of a "radio cantinara" ("basement radio") produced in Italy in the mid-1960s, a unique breed of transistor radios intended to cash in on the Japanese transistor radio boom across Europe by posing themselves as being Japan-made. These radios were produced by small, low-budget firms across Italy, and they quickly gained the nickname, "basement radios". All basement radios portrayed their faux-Japanese nature in one way or another, usually in several ways. Here, it's "Sonny" (Sony) and "TOKYO".
Lello Salvatore has written a wonderful article about these radios and their makers, available here, and I really recommend you take a look at it.
As with many other basement radios, this Sonny TOKYO has a pretty standard circuit, employing six unmarked transistors — an extra touch here that's also found on many other basement radios is the superfluous telescopic antenna. And you shouldn't read "TR. 10" as a model number: Many basement radios had some variation of "TR 10" written on their faces, intended to suggest that they were ten-transistor radios, which they weren't. As with most of these "basement" radios, this set was powered by a pair of really big 3-volt batteries -- see the photo below.
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