Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
To be honest, the two radios we're going to look at today.. are kind of cheap looking.
"To be honest"--don't you love that expression? Whenever I hear someone say that I think, "yes, be honest. For a change." "To be honest, sounds like an admission that everything else that person ever says is a lie. We used to say "honestly"-- as in "honestly, I think these radios look kind of cheap." But what do I mean by cheap?
Well, not this. This is a different kind of cheap--this is cheaping out on design. With these, they didn't even try to make an attractive product. This is the kind of cheap that disrespects the buyer by giving little thought or care to what the product looks like. It obviously doesn't matter to them, the maker, what the product looks like, so they figure why should it matter to you, the buyer? I could go so far as to say I find this insulting. Do companies think insulting us is how to get our money?
So no, these radios are definitely not cheap in design or styling. They do not insult. What I mean here by "cheap" is "Breaks easily." And indeed if you find one of these radios you are likely to find it broken in some way. The first thing to go is the little cabinet. Expect cracks and/or missing pieces from the thin and brittle plastic cabinet.
The Top Notch and Master branded radios we're looking at today are good lookers for sure. I was lucky to find these radios still in their original boxes and very little used. The Top-Notch came with a leather case, and earphone, a leather earphone case and it looks like there was a battery supplied in here originally too. And the owner's manual comes tucked in under the lid, held in place with a ribbon. Well now isn't this a nice little package.
The owner's manual--or instruction folder--has a round cut-out on the front, what's called a die cut. That's a deluxe touch. They didn't have to do that. Changing the battery is discussed and it is noted that on this radio there is a battery door so that the entire back of the radio need not, and should not, be removed. So.. keep out. And we get the circuit diagram even though we have just been told that we have no business in there where the parts are. I suppose this is to show the guy in the radio repair shop while he is ushering you out of the store while shaking his head and saying no, we don't work on those. The case is top grain cowhide--the real deal. As opposed to the vinyl or cardboard case you might get with one of these radios--if you got a case at all.
And here's the Top-Notch looking straight at you. What a beauty. I think that of all the underpainted colors, white is unsurpassed. There's a beautiful pearly look to it. Clean and crisp. It's a squarish radio--or rectangularish, I should say--.. no real shape to it other than that of a little box. And on the back is the battery compartment door.
The term "Top Notch" is an idiom in English, the origins of which are said to be with sailors describing the highest point on a ship's mast. Alternate origin stories involve carpenters marking the quality of their tools with a notch on the handle, the higher up on the handle, the better the tool. While historians can't agree on the true origin, or much of anything else, it IS agreed by all that "Top-Notch" indicates something good, or superior, or best. And here on a radio, Top Notch is of course just a brand name. A pretty good brand name, I should say, better than "Really Good" or "Swell." Maybe "Swell-Tone." I like that name. It's a good thing I wasn't old enough in those days to be naming these things or we might have had the Recept-O-Matic, the Station-Getter, or the Sound-Spewer.
And speaking of crummy names for transistor radios, here's the "Master." It's in the sort of box we usually see with Marvel radios from Yokohama Electric. But it was Orion who made this one. Here it is as an Orion with the same model number and with a claim that it has an "ABS Cabinet! Plastic Alloy--The Most Tough and Beautiful." Well, maybe that's true for the Orion version of this radio but I doubt it is for this Master-branded version. Like the Top Notch, it is so "delicately made"--shall we say-- that it is damaged even though obviously barely used. It has several cracks and is missing a badge from the speaker grille. Such a badge would have just fallen off as the glue that held it dried out. But oh, what a cutie, and I'm very glad to have it in my collection, in any condition. This one has mirror-finish underpainting--something you didn't see much on a radio. On the back of the cabinet, molded into the plastic, it says "Six Transistor, Japan." And there's this crude black “7” stamped over the “6” indicating that no, actually, it's a seven transistor. Oh, that's a treat. And inside of it we find it employs the typical 9-volt battery and uses Mitsubishi transistors.
To be honest, I like these two "cheap" radios very much. In my early days of collecting these radios, before eBay, we collectors--the few of us who knew...
To be honest, the two radios we're going to look at today.. are kind of cheap looking.
"To be honest"--don't you love that expression? Whenever I hear someone say that I think, "yes, be honest. For a change." "To be honest, sounds like an admission that everything else that person ever says is a lie. We used to say "honestly"-- as in "honestly, I think these radios look kind of cheap." But what do I mean by cheap?
Well, not this. This is a different kind of cheap--this is cheaping out on design. With these, they didn't even try to make an attractive product. This is the kind of cheap that disrespects the buyer by giving little thought or care to what the product looks like. It obviously doesn't matter to them, the maker, what the product looks like, so they figure why should it matter to you, the buyer? I could go so far as to say I find this insulting. Do companies think insulting us is how to get our money?
So no, these radios are definitely not cheap in design or styling. They do not insult. What I mean here by "cheap" is "Breaks easily." And indeed if you find one of these radios you are likely to find it broken in some way. The first thing to go is the little cabinet. Expect cracks and/or missing pieces from the thin and brittle plastic cabinet.
The Top Notch and Master branded radios we're looking at today are good lookers for sure. I was lucky to find these radios still in their original boxes and very little used. The Top-Notch came with a leather case, and earphone, a leather earphone case and it looks like there was a battery supplied in here originally too. And the owner's manual comes tucked in under the lid, held in place with a ribbon. Well now isn't this a nice little package.
The owner's manual--or instruction folder--has a round cut-out on the front, what's called a die cut. That's a deluxe touch. They didn't have to do that. Changing the battery is discussed and it is noted that on this radio there is a battery door so that the entire back of the radio need not, and should not, be removed. So.. keep out. And we get the circuit diagram even though we have just been told that we have no business in there where the parts are. I suppose this is to show the guy in the radio repair shop while he is ushering you out of the store while shaking his head and saying no, we don't work on those. The case is top grain cowhide--the real deal. As opposed to the vinyl or cardboard case you might get with one of these radios--if you got a case at all.
And here's the Top-Notch looking straight at you. What a beauty. I think that of all the underpainted colors, white is unsurpassed. There's a beautiful pearly look to it. Clean and crisp. It's a squarish radio--or rectangularish, I should say--.. no real shape to it other than that of a little box. And on the back is the battery compartment door.
The term "Top Notch" is an idiom in English, the origins of which are said to be with sailors describing the highest point on a ship's mast. Alternate origin stories involve carpenters marking the quality of their tools with a notch on the handle, the higher up on the handle, the better the tool. While historians can't agree on the true origin, or much of anything else, it IS agreed by all that "Top-Notch" indicates something good, or superior, or best. And here on a radio, Top Notch is of course just a brand name. A pretty good brand name, I should say, better than "Really Good" or "Swell." Maybe "Swell-Tone." I like that name. It's a good thing I wasn't old enough in those days to be naming these things or we might have had the Recept-O-Matic, the Station-Getter, or the Sound-Spewer.
And speaking of crummy names for transistor radios, here's the "Master." It's in the sort of box we usually see with Marvel radios from Yokohama Electric. But it was Orion who made this one. Here it is as an Orion with the same model number and with a claim that it has an "ABS Cabinet! Plastic Alloy--The Most Tough and Beautiful." Well, maybe that's true for the Orion version of this radio but I doubt it is for this Master-branded version. Like the Top Notch, it is so "delicately made"--shall we say-- that it is damaged even though obviously barely used. It has several cracks and is missing a badge from the speaker grille. Such a badge would have just fallen off as the glue that held it dried out. But oh, what a cutie, and I'm very glad to have it in my collection, in any condition. This one has mirror-finish underpainting--something you didn't see much on a radio. On the back of the cabinet, molded into the plastic, it says "Six Transistor, Japan." And there's this crude black “7” stamped over the “6” indicating that no, actually, it's a seven transistor. Oh, that's a treat. And inside of it we find it employs the typical 9-volt battery and uses Mitsubishi transistors.
To be honest, I like these two "cheap" radios very much. In my early days of collecting these radios, before eBay, we collectors--the few of us who knew...
