1960 Toshiba 7TP-303
Shirt pocket radio, thermoplastic cabinet
4 7/16 x 2 3/4 x 1 3/8 inches / 113 x 70 x 35 mm
Seven transistors (Toshiba), superheterodyne circuit
Three 1.5v AA cells
Manufactured by Tokyo Shibaura Electric Co. Ltd. (Toshiba), Kawasaki, Japan
Commonly referred to by collectors as the "Cat's Eye". This is almost certainly Toshiba's worst cabinet design and its worst "styling" attempt. In the 1990s, I wrote about this on my "M31 Galaxy of Transistor Radios" Zephyr ZR-930 page, contrasting these two examples of outlandish cabinet design:
[The Zephyr ZR-930 is a] great example of "Hey, let's not leave ANYTHING out!" cabinet design, also found in Toshiba's 7TP-303 "Cat's Eye." Both are memorable: the Toshiba for being quite dopey looking, and the Zephyr 930 for being so stunning in appearance.
The Toshiba 7TP-303 pastes a big, gold "7" (for 7 transistors!) in the middle of it's speaker grill, almost like an afterthought. The Zephyr has its "9" for 9 transistor as part of the reverse-painted plastic, and inside a gold badge that mimics the shape of the speaker grill.
True, the Zephyr does have some weirdness going on, like that curlicue cross thingy above the tuning dial, but at least it's tiny -- unlike, say, a giant gold relief chevron plastered onto an exactly-square speaker grill (I'm not naming names here, but the initials of such a radio are "Cat's Eye"). And where the Toshiba Cat's Eye cabinet is as hard and angular as a brick, the Zephyr's cabinet angles are contoured -- as if the Zephyr were meant to be held in a person's hand.
Maybe a better radio to compare against the "Cat's Eye" would be Toshiba's own 6TP-309 "Deep Vee" — The 309's chevron (the "vee") begins at the top of the cabinet face and runs down through the reverse plastic area, ending partway down the speaker grille. This must have involved a fairly tricky manufacturing process, and visually it brings the whole cabinet face together. The "Cat's Eye", by contrast — well, you've got the idea by now....
In terms of self-disclosure, I should say here that my own Toshiba "Cat's Eye" came to me mint-in-box, never opened until I unwrapped the cellophane wrapper encasing the box. I keep it in storage now, and no I don't want to sell it.
(Take a look at the September 16, 1960 "article" in the New York times, essentially an advertisement for this 7TP-303 and the Toshiba 9TM-40).
|
