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Old 31st May 2017, 9:59 pm   #81
paulsherwin
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Default Re: "House" brands.

Sainsburys has been using 'Celsius' (or something similar) for their Vestel tellies for the last few years. Having bought Argos they may switch to Alba or Bush now.
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Old 31st May 2017, 10:13 pm   #82
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Default Re: "House" brands.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Biggles View Post
...I still have a multimeter made from a kit in the eighties produced by Tandy and I'm pretty sure that is a Micronta...I definitely remember buying bubble packed Archer components.
Normally the mere concept of bubble packed small items annoys me, but the exception was when you bought bubble packed ICs from Tandy, because if you bought an IC from there you invariably got a neatly folded datasheet in with the packaging - especially interesting and useful if it was a linear IC like an audio amp, or a complex microprocessor peripheral IC. I still have a few of those 'free' datasheets in my collection.

I have three original Tandy Catalogues here -
1980-1981
1986-1987
1990-1991

By the time the third one comes along Tandy have noticeably started to use the Memorex brand name quite extensively on their audio equipment (Stereos, etc) - someone did briefly mention a Memorex branded Tandy stereo already. I actually thought I had a memory of their having sold Marantz branded audio gear, but perhaps it was Memorex that I was really thinking of.

As to the name 'Realistic', I guess that was supposed to mean Realistic as in 'Sounds Realistic', but if so it didn't make much sense to use it on anything which wasn't audio reproducing equipment.

Incidentally, my 'local' branch was the one on Shields Road, over on the east side of town. Like you, I often swung by there on my way to or from Aitkens.

I don't want to turn this into a 'fond memories of Tandy' thread but there's one other thing I remember - the little flyers they used to send out with their latest offers and always including an offer of a free gift, which tended to be either a very cheap small screwdriver set in a clear pouch - the screwdriver with the flat red handle had a wire stripper built in but if you tried to use it the handle would crumble in your hand - or - and this one was especially ingenious - an enormous long grey torch- you got the torch for nothing but when you went to claim it you would be invited to buy the 5 or 6 'C' cells which were needed to power it... a fantastic wheeze for dramatically increasing sales of large, expensive batteries.
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Old 31st May 2017, 10:23 pm   #83
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Default Re: "House" brands.

Quote:
Originally Posted by paulsherwin View Post
Sainsburys has been using 'Celsius' (or something similar)
Celcus.

It's also Sainsburys who sell (probable) Vestel TVs as 'Sharp' branded TVs as well, and also Blaupunkt branded audio and TV products.

For ASDA you'll see similar items branded 'Polaroid' - yet another off-target misuse of a respectable old name.

From Tesco... 'Logik' and 'Technika' seem to ring bells.
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Old 31st May 2017, 10:36 pm   #84
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Default Re: "House" brands.

There is http://radioshackcatalogs.com/ if you want to browse what the American version had on offer through the years, from their first catalogue in 1939 to their last in 2004/2005. As far as Realistic branded kit goes, a number of their early offerings in the few years before the Tandy takeover and the merger with Allied were in fact American made. In those catalogues you will find numerous brands including Garrard, Tandberg and even Ampex.
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Old 31st May 2017, 11:02 pm   #85
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Default Re: "House" brands.

Dixons (Currys?) got into hot water over the name Matsui; it was thought to be misleadingly Japanese sounding, with all the percieved benefits 'we' supposedly associated with Japanese imports at that point in time. My Matsui 14" never actually gave up; apart from noisy volume pot syndrome it was still working when it hit the skip. The same applies to the Micronta DMM, (some of it) actually still works.

The only Crown product i had was a general copy of the Sony Walkman concept.
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Old 31st May 2017, 11:30 pm   #86
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Default Re: "House" brands.

I have three ex-Tandy items, all in regular use and working perfectly, and all with different brands: a "Realistic" 4 band radio that I keep by my bed [Taiwan], a "Radio Shack" AM/FM portable that lives in the garage [China], and an "Optimus" shoebox mono cassette recorder [Thailand]. The last two were bought cheaply when their Chelmsford branch closed and the stocks were being sold off.
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Old 1st Jun 2017, 12:01 am   #87
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Default Re: "House" brands.

Cello aren't a supermarket brand, they're the UK's only TV manufacturer and their factory is in County Durham.
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Old 1st Jun 2017, 1:47 am   #88
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Default Re: "House" brands.

Quote:
Originally Posted by usradcoll1 View Post
Were the Philips VCR's actually made by them or rebadged Panasonics?
Philips took over the Magnavox, Philco and Sylvania product line in the US.
Almost all of them were made by Panasonic until the early 90's, then they switched to having them built by Funai. Very trouble prone!
Philips made most (*) of their European models themselves in their Vienna factory (1971-2002), some in Krefeld (approximately 1982-1987), some in Nuernberg (approximately 1994-1997) and later mass production in Szekesfehervar (approximately 1996-2002). In 2002 they sold out to Funai so Europe got to know the same shitty quality that always gave Philips a bad reputation in the US.

(*) They actually bought in a few Panasonic models in the 1980's to temporarily fill in gaps in the model range. Also for the far East and for Eastern Europe, some models were made by PJVM, a joint venture with JVC, and by Sharp.

P.S. I think the US saw some rare models (maybe by PJVM) with a Philips head drum in Japan designed deck or entire machine. Mostly they used the original Japanese head drums, though.

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Old 1st Jun 2017, 9:32 am   #89
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Default Re: "House" brands.

I still have a couple of working Tandy Realistic watches that work just fine.
One is actually a talking watch.
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Old 1st Jun 2017, 9:55 am   #90
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Default Re: "House" brands.

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Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
Can anuone recall any other of these house-brands?
On this side of the world, David Reid Electronics had Promax and ProSeries. both were cheap rubbish, but I have a Promax boombox out in the workshop, and a ProSeries clock radio - both were presents in from my parents in 1987 (boombox for my birthday, clock radio for Christmas). The clock radio is still going strong after a recap/reflow/clean a couple of years ago when the time started racing, and the amp part of the boombox is fine - the tape decks stopped working 10 years ago and I haven't looked at it! ProSeries also had some surprisingly good but cheap headphones - although they tended to fall apart.

Dick Smith had Shimasu for a while in the early 90s - I had a Shimasu tape answerphone for a few years, and they also marketed PCs with that name in the 486 era. That morphed into Digitor, while for the last 10+ years before they went under it was "DSE" then "Dick Smith." They also had some oddball brands - like "Konka" TVs.

Meanwhile The Warehouse has had their Transonic brand for almost everything - junk, but very cheap junk. I know an electronic service tech who used to look at their TVs occasionally - any hint of a problem and The Warehouse would just send a few other failed sets so he could scavenge parts, even if they were well out of warranty! Their house brand for TVs is now Veon.

Quote:
Originally Posted by emeritus View Post
A bit OT, but regarding customers' liking for Japanese-sounding names, I remember that for a brief time in (AFAIR) the 1970's , there was an ad run by Philips UK on UK commercial radio where a customer came into a shop and asked for something Japanese and the assistant offered him a "Phirrips". The ad was pulled when Philips HQ heard about it.
I remember there was an ad here in the 80's where the actors talked about their "Kamakuza." I can't remember what brand or even what kind of appliance was being advertised - the fake Japanese name they were taking the out of ended being more memorable!
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Old 1st Jun 2017, 9:58 am   #91
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Default Re: "House" brands.

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Originally Posted by hamid_1 View Post
Another Argos 'house' brand : Mikomi , used for TVs, MP3 players and other consumer electronics......
We have two Mikomi 14" analogue telly's which were purchased from Argos some ten to twelve years ago and although only having moderate use they aren't all that bad for a "catalogue shop special". They certainly owe me nothing.

One thing I did find convenient was that when programming the Volume on the PVR/TiVo remote handsets I found that the Philips code worked fine for the Mikomi sets.

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Old 1st Jun 2017, 10:20 am   #92
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Originally Posted by paulsherwin View Post
Chinon were a Japanese camera company, not a house brand. Dixons used the Prinz brand on some of their cameras, with Prinzsound used on the audio stuff..
I think Saisho was also a Dixons brand ?
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Old 1st Jun 2017, 2:40 pm   #93
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Default Re: "House" brands.

How I miss Tandy.

And yes, much of the Realistic stuff was very good indeed. Reel to reel tape recorders made by TEAC, cassette decks made by Hitachi, "walkman" made by Sharp....receivers from the same factory as Toshiba I think.

Lower down the food chain, my Realistic SA-10 micro stereo amp remains in service at work, hooked up to my work PC. 37 years old and has never missed a beat.

My Realsitic Minimus 7 loudspeaker today is the centre/dialogue speaker in my 5.1 system and the rears are a bigger Realistic (I forget the model). All hailing from the 80s and still giving top performance for their price/size. Indeed today there are articles on modding the now famous Minimus 7 to give true hi-fi performance. The Realistic Mach Two has gone down in legend.

And the Realistic PZM mics...every bit as good as pro boundary mics costing as much as 10 times the amount.

I've always been curious about house brands...how they stack up to the big names and where they come from. Saisho stuff seemed fair quality but I always saw the name as an attempt to tap into the idea that Japanese meant high quality.

Prinz I remember on photo gear from Dixons.."PrinzColor film" and Prinz cameras and projectors. Again, going on the idea that a German sounding name would inspire confidence.

I remember early 80s catalogues with brands that I didn't see elsewhere. As well as recycling real brands such as Murphy, I saw "Duette" and "Cathay" on things like portable cassette recorders. I never saw those brands elsewhere, anyone remember them?

Waltham was definitely not a house brand, I found various Waltham products in various shops...usually the bottom end of the market but reasonable quality. My parents had a Waltham LED clock/radio that must have lasted over two decades. It's now replaced by my Micronta (Tandy) giant LED clock which is some 30 years old. Last I saw of Waltham was the name on VHS cassettes and light bulbs at the turn of this century.
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Old 1st Jun 2017, 4:11 pm   #94
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Default Re: "House" brands.

I agree with Stevehertz that Realistic hi fi amps/receivers from the 70's were actually as good as anything else from the far east, the hi fi press were unfair on them.

I remember from my mums Kays catalogue, which I think most 12 years old boys would spend some time looking through(!), audio systems by Van Der Molen. Never saw them on sale anywhere else, they gave the image that they were just a tad above Fidelity in the unit audio stakes..
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Old 1st Jun 2017, 5:43 pm   #95
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Default Re: "House" brands.

Argos also has acoustic solutions as one of their audio brands
If it's not been mentioned before Lidl have Tronic seemingly for there rechargeable batteries and chargers.
DSG Retail also have Kenwood for their kitchen equipment and Advent for their PC stuff.
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Old 1st Jun 2017, 7:27 pm   #96
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Default Re: "House" brands.

My Kenwood kettle came from Argos! They're not a supermarket brand, but owned by Delonghi aren't they!?
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Old 1st Jun 2017, 7:31 pm   #97
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Default Re: "House" brands.

When I worked for the Rumbelows chain of stores our "own brand" of Tvs/Videos etc was Osaki.

I'm guessing a direct competitor to the Currys Matsui brand.
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Old 1st Jun 2017, 7:35 pm   #98
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Default Re: "House" brands.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Junk Box Nick View Post
I seem to remember a Boots cassette recorder that looked like it was was a repackaged Philips EL3302. I think the case was blue.
You're not wrong!

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Old 1st Jun 2017, 7:37 pm   #99
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Default Re: "House" brands.

'Wellco' appliances are a wholesaler brand sold to independent retailers. It's worth knowing that the big retail chains also use 'better' brands under license on 'cheaper' products, if it's mutually beneficial.
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Old 1st Jun 2017, 8:12 pm   #100
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Default Re: "House" brands.

The synopsis is that you should never buy anything on the brand alone. It helps if you can determine who made it and where, but otherwise you're on your own.

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