My Japanese Boombox Odyssey (The Long Version)
Well, as many of you know, I came to Japan to do whatever it took to add to my collection. I came to the island of Okinawa to visit my wife, see my step daughter graduate high school and search all the thrift stores, used stores, yard sales and any other place I hoped to find radios.
I tuned up absolutely NOTHING!
My second plan was to shop http://www.Yahoo.jp auctions. But this is not as easy as one might think because the only way to pay for the things you win at auction is you have to pay through the Bank of Japan and in order to do that, you have to be a Japanese citizen of which I AM NOT!
The other issue is where to have it shipped! Many of you know, this is the deal KILLER! You can get great deals on radios on http://www.Yahoo.jp but shipping to places like the USA will cost hundreds of dollars, so at the end of the day, you might have gotten the radio you wanted, but most of the time, there was no money savings!
The only way around this is to do what I did and use an “In Between Company†that handles the transaction for you. You win the auction, they pay your bill and handle shipping. But as I have learned they still charge you for every little transaction along the way and it’s still not cheap.
The only thing I had on my side was being able to ship to my wife’s new address (she moved since last time I was here). This made it financially feasible to take advantage of the deals on http://www.Yahoo.Jp even though I have to still pay the “In between†company.
I came out here with a laundry list of radios to look for. Right before coming out there was a perfect Victor RC M90 (Victor is the Japanese version of JVC) listed for 6000 yen, it closed for 57,000 yen or $760 US, still a great price, but it closed while I was on the flight over! It’s OK as I didn’t have that kind of money to spend.
I was also looking for a Sharp VZ 2000 (also known as a VZ V2 in Japan) that are always listed….but of course when I got here….not one to be found!
Our great member Monolithic helped me navigate http://www.Yahoo.Jp and with his help I ended up finding the section that I needed to find all the radio’s one could dream of and after searching one page after another I saw HER! A true beauty of a specimen. I actually had searched for this radio in the search engine…..but as it turned out…the seller MISSPELLED her name! FATE?
She is without a doubt a rare bird and one of the most visually beautifully designed blasters of all times. I had only seen pictures of this beauty once on a thread of Monolithic‘s.
She is MY kind of radio. Silver one piece with lots of knobs, buttons, switches, twin antenna’s and LED’s, LOTS and LOTS of LED‘s! She is a mid sized box with 6 inch speakers, LED VU’s, cassette music search and much much more!
I have searched for more info on this radio and it seems very rare indeed, even finding pictures online is hard to do.
Now she is not a shelf queen and does have a few “Love Marks†but she is complete and working, but needs belts.
So with out further waiting, here she is….
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the TOSHIBA RT 9990SM
As always, she will need a full cleaning, deoxit and belts. But so far, I'm VERY happy! There is almost no scratchiness in the volume, treble, bass and balance controls. The switches all work as they should. I can hear the cassette motor spinning away, but no wheels turning. The antenna's are in tacked (They have white tips? Original?) Battery compartment is clean, all knobs accounted for, all LED's working!
She has a few scratches, one small dent in the left speaker grill and two small dents on the top aluminum trim.
The AUX in works, but I think it may have a loose solder joint because if you wiggle the plug, the sound flattens out here and there.
She sounds crisp and clear, no static or hint of blown speakers. Tuner pull's them in strong.
Again, over all, I'm a happy man!
With 9 D cell Energizers.....she is no light weight for a mid-sized box coming in at 17.8 lbs. Still very carry-able. And with that said...there is only one thing left to do...STRUT THE SEA WALL AND SHOW THOSE PUNKS DOWN THERE HOW IT'S DONE!
More Pictures Coming Soon!
VIDEO:
[youtube]EUYdIT_K8FU[/youtube]
Toshiba Electronics sign in the City of Naha, Okinawa Japan
......and you guys thought I was just a Lasonic guy!
Well, as many of you know, I came to Japan to do whatever it took to add to my collection. I came to the island of Okinawa to visit my wife, see my step daughter graduate high school and search all the thrift stores, used stores, yard sales and any other place I hoped to find radios.
I tuned up absolutely NOTHING!
My second plan was to shop http://www.Yahoo.jp auctions. But this is not as easy as one might think because the only way to pay for the things you win at auction is you have to pay through the Bank of Japan and in order to do that, you have to be a Japanese citizen of which I AM NOT!
The other issue is where to have it shipped! Many of you know, this is the deal KILLER! You can get great deals on radios on http://www.Yahoo.jp but shipping to places like the USA will cost hundreds of dollars, so at the end of the day, you might have gotten the radio you wanted, but most of the time, there was no money savings!
The only way around this is to do what I did and use an “In Between Company†that handles the transaction for you. You win the auction, they pay your bill and handle shipping. But as I have learned they still charge you for every little transaction along the way and it’s still not cheap.
The only thing I had on my side was being able to ship to my wife’s new address (she moved since last time I was here). This made it financially feasible to take advantage of the deals on http://www.Yahoo.Jp even though I have to still pay the “In between†company.
I came out here with a laundry list of radios to look for. Right before coming out there was a perfect Victor RC M90 (Victor is the Japanese version of JVC) listed for 6000 yen, it closed for 57,000 yen or $760 US, still a great price, but it closed while I was on the flight over! It’s OK as I didn’t have that kind of money to spend.
I was also looking for a Sharp VZ 2000 (also known as a VZ V2 in Japan) that are always listed….but of course when I got here….not one to be found!
Our great member Monolithic helped me navigate http://www.Yahoo.Jp and with his help I ended up finding the section that I needed to find all the radio’s one could dream of and after searching one page after another I saw HER! A true beauty of a specimen. I actually had searched for this radio in the search engine…..but as it turned out…the seller MISSPELLED her name! FATE?
She is without a doubt a rare bird and one of the most visually beautifully designed blasters of all times. I had only seen pictures of this beauty once on a thread of Monolithic‘s.
She is MY kind of radio. Silver one piece with lots of knobs, buttons, switches, twin antenna’s and LED’s, LOTS and LOTS of LED‘s! She is a mid sized box with 6 inch speakers, LED VU’s, cassette music search and much much more!
I have searched for more info on this radio and it seems very rare indeed, even finding pictures online is hard to do.
Now she is not a shelf queen and does have a few “Love Marks†but she is complete and working, but needs belts.
So with out further waiting, here she is….
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the TOSHIBA RT 9990SM
As always, she will need a full cleaning, deoxit and belts. But so far, I'm VERY happy! There is almost no scratchiness in the volume, treble, bass and balance controls. The switches all work as they should. I can hear the cassette motor spinning away, but no wheels turning. The antenna's are in tacked (They have white tips? Original?) Battery compartment is clean, all knobs accounted for, all LED's working!
She has a few scratches, one small dent in the left speaker grill and two small dents on the top aluminum trim.
The AUX in works, but I think it may have a loose solder joint because if you wiggle the plug, the sound flattens out here and there.
She sounds crisp and clear, no static or hint of blown speakers. Tuner pull's them in strong.
Again, over all, I'm a happy man!
With 9 D cell Energizers.....she is no light weight for a mid-sized box coming in at 17.8 lbs. Still very carry-able. And with that said...there is only one thing left to do...STRUT THE SEA WALL AND SHOW THOSE PUNKS DOWN THERE HOW IT'S DONE!
More Pictures Coming Soon!
VIDEO:
[youtube]EUYdIT_K8FU[/youtube]
Toshiba Electronics sign in the City of Naha, Okinawa Japan
......and you guys thought I was just a Lasonic guy!
beautiful stereo, greatest holiday present ever 
