Uploaded October 2023 | Updated September 2026, 6 hours ago
It's the smallest radio in the world!... No, it isn't.
And I don't think it ever was, even in 1958 when it first came out. A GREAT radio, yes! Smallest in the world? I don't even know why they'd say such a thing. And they said it in an ad in a 1958 magazine that showed several other, smaller radios. Standard was a classy outfit--so how did this ad happen? Well, it looks like the ad was run, not by Standard itself, but by the --you're going to make me say this, aren't you? .. the Nihon Denshi Tsusho Co., Ltd. And I guess maybe that explains it.
As we look over this terrific radio, see if you can guess what it has in common with the Regency TR-1 transistor radio. It's something on the outside of the cabinet, and it's something we saw on other early American transistor radios but almost never on radios made in Japan... I'll reveal the answer later in the video.
This sure is a good-looking radio of obviously high quality. Those who disparaged the entire category of Japanese-made transistor radio as cheap, either willfully overlooked radios such as this, or were just ignorant of them.
So who were these people who ran this ad, the, uh --you're going to make me say this, aren't you? .. the Nihon Denshi Tsusho Co., Ltd. Who were they? My guess is that they were a distributor. I thought Standard had their own distribution in place quite early on, but, well, here we are. This tripod stand sketched in underneath the radio is not a real thing, as far as I know. Not for this model, anyway. Just a little artistic license from our friends at...you're going to make me say this, aren't you? .. the Nihon Denshi Tsusho Co., Ltd. The artistic license of this imaginary tripod stand is the very sort of artistic license that is used in the text to claim the radio the radio is the smallest in the world, and that its sound is "very serene."
Standard is perhaps best known in transistor radio collecting circles for their tiny "Micronic Ruby" radios--little miniature marvels--the height of hi tech in their time... Do you suppose that the ad we looked at with the tripod was planned originally to offer one of those micros and so that's why the claim of being "smallest in the world." Then at the last minute they changed out the picture and the details to this larger radio? No, that's a lousy guess. Even for me. Because the ad ran in 1958 and the micronic ruby radios didn't appear until the '60s. Forget... I even mentioned it.
So what does this radio have in common with the Regency TR-1? Well, if you're lucky enough to find one of these Standard radios, you may be UNlucky enough to find one from which the Standard lettering has been worn off. The method used to apply the Standard name, hot gold foil stamping, is less permanent than it ought to be. This lettering can and will rub off just in normal use. Having your brand name wear off a product is not a good look. I mean it implies you don't even care about your brand so why would you care about your products? Well, that's maybe a little harsh, but as you may have already noticed on this channel I don't shy away from corporate critique. The foil stamping technique came to be used as a less expensive substitute for an earlier method of applying logos and lettering. In fact the Regency TR-1 HAD used this earlier method in their first generation models.. but switched over in 1955 to foil stamping. There's a video on this channel about the Wilco ST-630, which is one of the LAST radios to use that original technique, a technique that goes back to commercial radio's earliest days in the 1920s. What technique am I talking about? The technique of molding the logo or lettering right into the cabinet in the molding process, and then applying paint, often gold paint, into the indented area. And here's another radio to use the technique, the 6TP-304 from Toshiba. You're not going to wear off those letters. But you will wear off these letters. This is one of the foil-stamped Regencys.
The extremely observant may have noticed that both techniques are present on this Standard. The "6 Transistor" lettering is molded in and painted, while the Standard logo at the top is foil stamped. Now why would they do that? Why not do both the same way? How could it possibly save production costs to apply lettering using two different operations instead of one? I'll tell you what I think in a minute.
It's a great looking radio in ivory--and a great looking radio in black.
Now, why the two methods of applying lettering to the front? I think the reason is the same as Regency's reason for changing to gold foil stamping in 1955. Why did they do that? Because they began acting as OEM for Bulova, making their TR-1 for Bulova, rebranded as the Bulova 250. Regency re-made their cabinet molds so that their brand was not molded in and the area where it was, was just blank. That way ANY brand could be applied later, theirs, or others, by gold foil stamping--Regency, or Bulova, or Mantola.
It's the smallest radio in the world!... No, it isn't.
And I don't think it ever was, even in 1958 when it first came out. A GREAT radio, yes! Smallest in the world? I don't even know why they'd say such a thing. And they said it in an ad in a 1958 magazine that showed several other, smaller radios. Standard was a classy outfit--so how did this ad happen? Well, it looks like the ad was run, not by Standard itself, but by the --you're going to make me say this, aren't you? .. the Nihon Denshi Tsusho Co., Ltd. And I guess maybe that explains it.
As we look over this terrific radio, see if you can guess what it has in common with the Regency TR-1 transistor radio. It's something on the outside of the cabinet, and it's something we saw on other early American transistor radios but almost never on radios made in Japan... I'll reveal the answer later in the video.
This sure is a good-looking radio of obviously high quality. Those who disparaged the entire category of Japanese-made transistor radio as cheap, either willfully overlooked radios such as this, or were just ignorant of them.
So who were these people who ran this ad, the, uh --you're going to make me say this, aren't you? .. the Nihon Denshi Tsusho Co., Ltd. Who were they? My guess is that they were a distributor. I thought Standard had their own distribution in place quite early on, but, well, here we are. This tripod stand sketched in underneath the radio is not a real thing, as far as I know. Not for this model, anyway. Just a little artistic license from our friends at...you're going to make me say this, aren't you? .. the Nihon Denshi Tsusho Co., Ltd. The artistic license of this imaginary tripod stand is the very sort of artistic license that is used in the text to claim the radio the radio is the smallest in the world, and that its sound is "very serene."
Standard is perhaps best known in transistor radio collecting circles for their tiny "Micronic Ruby" radios--little miniature marvels--the height of hi tech in their time... Do you suppose that the ad we looked at with the tripod was planned originally to offer one of those micros and so that's why the claim of being "smallest in the world." Then at the last minute they changed out the picture and the details to this larger radio? No, that's a lousy guess. Even for me. Because the ad ran in 1958 and the micronic ruby radios didn't appear until the '60s. Forget... I even mentioned it.
So what does this radio have in common with the Regency TR-1? Well, if you're lucky enough to find one of these Standard radios, you may be UNlucky enough to find one from which the Standard lettering has been worn off. The method used to apply the Standard name, hot gold foil stamping, is less permanent than it ought to be. This lettering can and will rub off just in normal use. Having your brand name wear off a product is not a good look. I mean it implies you don't even care about your brand so why would you care about your products? Well, that's maybe a little harsh, but as you may have already noticed on this channel I don't shy away from corporate critique. The foil stamping technique came to be used as a less expensive substitute for an earlier method of applying logos and lettering. In fact the Regency TR-1 HAD used this earlier method in their first generation models.. but switched over in 1955 to foil stamping. There's a video on this channel about the Wilco ST-630, which is one of the LAST radios to use that original technique, a technique that goes back to commercial radio's earliest days in the 1920s. What technique am I talking about? The technique of molding the logo or lettering right into the cabinet in the molding process, and then applying paint, often gold paint, into the indented area. And here's another radio to use the technique, the 6TP-304 from Toshiba. You're not going to wear off those letters. But you will wear off these letters. This is one of the foil-stamped Regencys.
The extremely observant may have noticed that both techniques are present on this Standard. The "6 Transistor" lettering is molded in and painted, while the Standard logo at the top is foil stamped. Now why would they do that? Why not do both the same way? How could it possibly save production costs to apply lettering using two different operations instead of one? I'll tell you what I think in a minute.
It's a great looking radio in ivory--and a great looking radio in black.
Now, why the two methods of applying lettering to the front? I think the reason is the same as Regency's reason for changing to gold foil stamping in 1955. Why did they do that? Because they began acting as OEM for Bulova, making their TR-1 for Bulova, rebranded as the Bulova 250. Regency re-made their cabinet molds so that their brand was not molded in and the area where it was, was just blank. That way ANY brand could be applied later, theirs, or others, by gold foil stamping--Regency, or Bulova, or Mantola.
