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General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc. |
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29th May 2017, 11:20 pm | #41 |
Dekatron
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Re: "House" brands.
It certainly was for various things, stationery for example. I don't remember seeing it on electronic items, but that could just be because I wasn't visiting their shops at the time.
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30th May 2017, 12:14 am | #42 |
Pentode
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Re: "House" brands.
I remember that East Midland electricity board used the name Emelec for some of their stuff, I presume it was the equivalent of the Electra name used by other area boards.
I have some Winfield cassette tapes, I must have bought them from Woolworths.. |
30th May 2017, 12:14 am | #43 |
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Re: "House" brands.
Agreed Paul, I don't think Woolies ever used Winfield for electronics, though they certainly used it for pretty much everything else.
Didn't Woolies use the Embassy brand for their range of 45rpm singles, which were pretty feeble cover versions of the chart hits of the day? |
30th May 2017, 2:19 am | #44 |
Dekatron
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Re: "House" brands.
They did indeed. I still have a few from the mid '60s, but their Embassy discs go back further, well into the 78 period. It was quite a popular brand for steel needles too.
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30th May 2017, 8:18 am | #45 |
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Re: "House" brands.
I used to have one of those 'Westminster' portable radios - as Radiomuseum (courtesy of Howard Craven) confirms it was a rebadged Perdio. I fitted two DIN sockets to mine, one for tape in/out, to which a Philips Nxxx portable cassette recorder was often connected, and the other to allow for connection of a mains PSU.
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30th May 2017, 5:15 pm | #46 |
Dekatron
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Re: "House" brands.
In the context of house brands and rebadging, does anyone know anything about the Elpico brand? I have one of their car radios from the 1970's and it's not a bad radio but has a fault. All efforts to find service info for it have failed and I wonder whether looking under some other brand names might turn something up. It looks to be British made, and very like Radiomobile, but cannot find a match.
Thanks B
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30th May 2017, 5:27 pm | #47 |
Dekatron
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Re: "House" brands.
Made by Lee Products is all I know.
Lawrence. |
30th May 2017, 5:38 pm | #48 |
Heptode
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Re: "House" brands.
Elpico is Italian I think.
I have an Elpico reel recorder . Peter W...reelguy |
30th May 2017, 5:42 pm | #49 | |
Dekatron
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Re: "House" brands.
Quote:
Woolworths also had "Hercules" which was their in-house equivalent of Duraplug. I recall that the 'white' Hercules 13A rubber plugs turned a disturbing shade of yellow rather rapidly. |
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30th May 2017, 5:48 pm | #50 |
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Re: "House" brands.
Rubber plugs. I remember the live and neutral pins turning in towards each other! Probably as result of the main casing screw bring overtightened on to the rubber base.
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30th May 2017, 6:18 pm | #51 |
Dekatron
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Re: "House" brands.
Seems to have been a British company, Lee Products (GB) Ltd. according to an entry in R+TVS for 1962-3, but the little Italian Geloso tape recorders were about their most successful offering judging by how many have survived. If Elpico was a brand of convenience for whatever equipment they had to sell, small wonder there's a lack of service data.
Paul |
30th May 2017, 7:01 pm | #52 | |
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Re: "House" brands.
Quote:
How about also 'Micronta' for anything vaguely like test gear - Multimeters especially, but also signal injector / tracers and things like that. 'Archer' for small handtools and soldering accessories ....'Science Fair' for the educational electronic toys, like the 100-in one electronic project kits? Realistic speakers (sometimes branded 'Optimus' or 'Minimus') were often unexpectedly decent, I had a large pair of Realistic Mach-Twos which succumbed to foam surround disease just a few years ago, and I foolishly scrapped them before realising I might have been able to get the drivers fixed, and before realising that nobody made similar large, floor standing speakers with decent sized - 10" or more - bass drivers anymore. And who couldn't love (?) their way of describing the products - there would be three stereo systems across a double page of the catalogue, and they would be labelled "Good", "Better" and "Best". There were a few instances where I recall them selling original-brand equipment, notably Casio (watches and handheld TVs), Weller (Soldering irons), Memorex (Audio Tape)... were there more? |
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30th May 2017, 7:07 pm | #53 |
Hexode
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Re: "House" brands.
Silvercrest is used by Lidl for electrical and electronic products.
Dave GW7ONS |
30th May 2017, 7:19 pm | #54 |
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Re: "House" brands.
When I was a kid I remember Vesta and Sunshine were Woolworth's names for their excellent light bulb range. Autovox was Comet's radio and TV range. I think Proline was another. J.
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30th May 2017, 7:20 pm | #55 |
Octode
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Re: "House" brands.
I recall Civic but can't remember the shop it came from.
Graham
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30th May 2017, 7:42 pm | #56 |
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Re: "House" brands.
A couple of points of (possible) interest. (1) Autovox weren't a 'house' brand, but a famous Italian manufacturer of Car radios & Stereos, which were distributed in the UK by different firms over the years. Some of their products were rebadged as other brands - The MA754 radio/cassette player, e.g., was also sold as the Motorola 252, and as a 'Brovox'.
(2) Lee Products Ltd. were a British company who manufactured Car Radios branded 'Elpico' (L.P. Co.). They, at one time, IIRC, also imported Autovox products. |
30th May 2017, 8:07 pm | #57 | |
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Re: "House" brands.
Quote:
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30th May 2017, 9:20 pm | #58 | |
Dekatron
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Re: "House" brands.
Quote:
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30th May 2017, 9:27 pm | #59 |
Dekatron
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Re: "House" brands.
Civic was a TV sales/rental chain in its own right; I guess they bought stuff in and badged it up?
I remember them for their ads featuring Harry Worth: https://youtu.be/8iugrSJIgz8 They seemed to disappear in the early-1970s. |
30th May 2017, 9:33 pm | #60 |
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Re: "House" brands.
Lidl also use Powerfix on power tools.
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