Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 10 hours ago
We're looking at a pair of great Kobe Kogyo transistor radios today. Not that each one doesn't deserve a video of its own. This one deserves its own wing at the art museum!
This KT-63 six-transistor radio is a favorite among collectors for obvious reasons. Luscious clear and underpainted plastic covers the entire front from Maine to California except for the stylish aluminum boomerang window over New England and the metal Kobe Kogyo badge over Arizona. This radio pushes the limits of style in a refreshing way that most product designers these days wouldn't even dare to try.
Kobe Kogyo, though perhaps not a brand with which many are familiar, made some gorgeous radios. This is their first transistor radio, the model KT-6. There's a video all about this radio on this channel. Kobe Kogyo was not just an importer or a brand. They MADE their radios. And they made their own tubes and transistors to go in them, which we see branded TEN, T-E-N. That's right, they also made tubes, such as the ones in this gorgeous table-top tube radio which they called the TEN-Radio type MS-40A. Their TEN-branded tubes appeared in other radios too, other brands from Japan. And in the transistor era we see their transistors in many other brands of transistor radios. So Kobe Kogyo was a major parts supplier to others in the radio business.
It was common practice for Japanese companies to westernize their names as they sought to export to countries in the west. Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo adopted this name. You've heard of it. And Matsushita toyed around with names like Maco.. and National.. and finally arrived at a name they thought would do nicely, thank you very much. But Kobe Kogyo, ..they were a pioneer in their own way, being one of the first Japanese companies in the transistor era NOT to westernize their name for western markets. They did use the aforementioned "TEN" as a brand, and even used it on the outside of a few radios. But because transistor radios usually had a number on the front of them--the number of transistors the radio contained--the "TEN" on the front of a Kobe Kogyo transistor radio just confused everybody. And so it never proved to be an acceptable replacement for the Kobe Kogyo name on those radios.
It's a good looker inside its case too, as you can see. That case is stamped with the "TEN" logo in the lower left of the front.
Inside this KT-63 we see that "TEN" brand again, on the back of the speaker which, apparently, they also made. And the tuning capacitor here is not a plastic Mitsumi, but a substantial looking open-air part with ball bearings on the shaft. The transistors here are also branded TEN, as you might expect. A standard 9-volt battery powers the set.
I could be wrong, but I'd date this model 1958. What a beauty.
Now, a little later, I'd say in 1960, Kobe Kogyo gave us this one, their KT-80 model. It's another horizontally-configured radio but it's different in every conceivable way from the KT-63. This is an 8-transistor model with a unique and elegant clear bubble top over a slide-rule tuning dial. Usually when there is an antenna rod on a transistor radio with six or more transistors, that indicates a two-band radio, the antenna rod being for that other band, whether shortwave or FM. Very rarely is an antenna rod employed on an AM-only radio but.. here it is on this AM-only radio. The tip here is, unfortunately, missing from that antenna rod.
The grille sports a brown paint finish. The sides are chromed metal which wrap around to the bottom.
As soon as I opened it up, the battery label fell off. Here it is with that label set back in there. Inside we see most parts being a much smaller scale than the model we looked at earlier. The transistors are TENs, of course, and here they have caved in to the folks at Mitsumi Electric who have for years being trying to persuade them to use their tuning capacitors like everybody else. And a small one it is! The radio is powered by 3 volts, in the form of a couple of penlight, or AA batteries. The carrying case for this radio is stamped "Made in Japan" and sports an interesting cutout pattern over the speaker area.
I've also seen this model branded as a Play-Rite, with the same model number. And that brings up something else about Kobe Kogyo's role in the transistor radio's golden age. We also saw their first model, the KT-6 appear with other brands on it, such as Million, Realistic (for Radio Shack), and Realtone. Kobe Kogyo was, therefore, an OEM--an original equipment maker supplying other brands with radios to sell under those other brand's names.
Kobe Kogyo continues on into the present day, although no longer known by that name. Did they finally give in and weternize their name into something more easily remembered--a name with which you are now familiar? Well, for more on their history, see that video on the KT-6.
We're looking at a pair of great Kobe Kogyo transistor radios today. Not that each one doesn't deserve a video of its own. This one deserves its own wing at the art museum!
This KT-63 six-transistor radio is a favorite among collectors for obvious reasons. Luscious clear and underpainted plastic covers the entire front from Maine to California except for the stylish aluminum boomerang window over New England and the metal Kobe Kogyo badge over Arizona. This radio pushes the limits of style in a refreshing way that most product designers these days wouldn't even dare to try.
Kobe Kogyo, though perhaps not a brand with which many are familiar, made some gorgeous radios. This is their first transistor radio, the model KT-6. There's a video all about this radio on this channel. Kobe Kogyo was not just an importer or a brand. They MADE their radios. And they made their own tubes and transistors to go in them, which we see branded TEN, T-E-N. That's right, they also made tubes, such as the ones in this gorgeous table-top tube radio which they called the TEN-Radio type MS-40A. Their TEN-branded tubes appeared in other radios too, other brands from Japan. And in the transistor era we see their transistors in many other brands of transistor radios. So Kobe Kogyo was a major parts supplier to others in the radio business.
It was common practice for Japanese companies to westernize their names as they sought to export to countries in the west. Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo adopted this name. You've heard of it. And Matsushita toyed around with names like Maco.. and National.. and finally arrived at a name they thought would do nicely, thank you very much. But Kobe Kogyo, ..they were a pioneer in their own way, being one of the first Japanese companies in the transistor era NOT to westernize their name for western markets. They did use the aforementioned "TEN" as a brand, and even used it on the outside of a few radios. But because transistor radios usually had a number on the front of them--the number of transistors the radio contained--the "TEN" on the front of a Kobe Kogyo transistor radio just confused everybody. And so it never proved to be an acceptable replacement for the Kobe Kogyo name on those radios.
It's a good looker inside its case too, as you can see. That case is stamped with the "TEN" logo in the lower left of the front.
Inside this KT-63 we see that "TEN" brand again, on the back of the speaker which, apparently, they also made. And the tuning capacitor here is not a plastic Mitsumi, but a substantial looking open-air part with ball bearings on the shaft. The transistors here are also branded TEN, as you might expect. A standard 9-volt battery powers the set.
I could be wrong, but I'd date this model 1958. What a beauty.
Now, a little later, I'd say in 1960, Kobe Kogyo gave us this one, their KT-80 model. It's another horizontally-configured radio but it's different in every conceivable way from the KT-63. This is an 8-transistor model with a unique and elegant clear bubble top over a slide-rule tuning dial. Usually when there is an antenna rod on a transistor radio with six or more transistors, that indicates a two-band radio, the antenna rod being for that other band, whether shortwave or FM. Very rarely is an antenna rod employed on an AM-only radio but.. here it is on this AM-only radio. The tip here is, unfortunately, missing from that antenna rod.
The grille sports a brown paint finish. The sides are chromed metal which wrap around to the bottom.
As soon as I opened it up, the battery label fell off. Here it is with that label set back in there. Inside we see most parts being a much smaller scale than the model we looked at earlier. The transistors are TENs, of course, and here they have caved in to the folks at Mitsumi Electric who have for years being trying to persuade them to use their tuning capacitors like everybody else. And a small one it is! The radio is powered by 3 volts, in the form of a couple of penlight, or AA batteries. The carrying case for this radio is stamped "Made in Japan" and sports an interesting cutout pattern over the speaker area.
I've also seen this model branded as a Play-Rite, with the same model number. And that brings up something else about Kobe Kogyo's role in the transistor radio's golden age. We also saw their first model, the KT-6 appear with other brands on it, such as Million, Realistic (for Radio Shack), and Realtone. Kobe Kogyo was, therefore, an OEM--an original equipment maker supplying other brands with radios to sell under those other brand's names.
Kobe Kogyo continues on into the present day, although no longer known by that name. Did they finally give in and weternize their name into something more easily remembered--a name with which you are now familiar? Well, for more on their history, see that video on the KT-6.
