This Sony TR-86 was manufactured in Japan on January 24 1959 according to the date code obtained from the electrolytic capacitors. This is normally a fairly accurate guide to dating these radios, give or take a week or two. It was released several months after the ground breaking and highly successful Sony TR-610 but was far less popular with consumers. It is not as elegant as or as aesthetically pleasing as the TR-610 and looks a little ‘boxy’ however it does have a beautiful, thick reverse painted face and jet age dial pointer and I like it!
In early advertising Sony calls this «the worlds smallest 8 transistor radio» and promotes its «exceptional tone, selectivity and interference rejection» Ref: Ottawa Citizen 28th of May 1959.
This luscious red Sony TR-86 looks good enough to eat! It is one of only a handful of Sony radios that used reverse painting on the dial face and on this model it works exceptionally well. It features a large reverse-painted face with a prominent gold ‘8’ above the volume knob. The dial pointer is tapered slightly giving it the appearance of a missile. The vertical lines on the speaker grill are a nice touch to. This radios’ appearance syncs well with the whole ‘Jet Age’ theme of the late 1950’s.
Upon release it was available in four colors; black, ivory, green and red and sold for $59.95.
This advertisement appeared in a June 8th 1959 edition of Life Magazine. It was rather small and had to be enlarged, hence it’ s not very clear.
Inside you will find eight transistors and a serial number of 51848. This Sony uses a standard 9V battery.
