TRANSISTOR RADIO DESIGN
Focusing on the design of pocket transistor radios manufactured during the 1950's & 1960's!
SANYO 6C-5
This splendid Sanyo 6C-5 was manufactured in Japan in 1957. It is a very rare and beautiful radio! It was Sanyo’s third transistor radio and their first vertical shirt pocket set. Upon release it sold for 12,900 yen. At that time an ad in a Japanese magazine referred to the 6C-5 by the nickname 'Ruby' (Ref: Alan Kastner's Radiowallah!)
I can find no reference at all to this Sanyo 6C-5 in any of my collectors’ books. In fact there is very little reference to Sanyo in my books during this time period as most of their radios made for export were branded as Channel Master. I doubt that many of these radios were exported but there is evidence that they were sold in Canada. I would imagine that most were made for the Japanese domestic market which would explain why they are so hard to find now.
Sanyo was founded in Japan by Toshio Iue in 1947. The company's name means three oceans and refers to the founder's ambition to sell their products worldwide, across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. Sanyo's first product was a bicycle lamp! They claim to have manufactured Japans first plastic cabinet radio in 1952; it must have been a tube model. In 1959 they were Japans top exporter of Transistor Radios. Today Sanyo is a Fortune 500 Company and one of the worlds leading manufacturers of consumer electronics.
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This Sanyo 6C-5 features a rich under-painted face, and enamel on plastic tuning dial. It also has a little cloisonné badge on the lower right of the metal speaker grill headed with the letters TR (for transistor!). S A N Y O is printed on the front below the tuning dial in very much the same style as S O N Y used.
It is a solid and well built radio. The casing is made of very thick plastic unlike later shirt pocket radios of the 1960’s and 1970’s. This probably explains why this one is free of chips and cracks, or perhaps it was just never dropped. It comes with the leather case which was available at extra cost to the original purchaser.
It measures just 118mm H x 72mm W x 31mm D.
