Which boxes were sold where and why?

[mmcodomino]

So, I am going to add this thread to this huge subject we all have been discussing about for a long time.

I have some specific questions though...
The big Nationals...I just saw an RX7000 by Panasonic pop up on eBay while I usually would only see them as domestic Japan boxes labeled as National.
Has Panasonic sold that model anywhere else in the world?

Then the good old M90 - I know of the C (obviously Canadian) and the JW/W releases which were sold in the USA I believe...
Has the M90 ever made it out if the North American market (not counting the Victor M90)?

Conion C100-F - we recently saw one pop up in Finland (I believe) labeled as anything but Conion, Clairtone or Helix
So what is up with that?

Some input would be appreciated

 

[stormsven]

I was thinking the same about some boomers but the seller of now your Conion c 100 told me that his parents bought it from here in Bulgaria back in the 80s . Rado found a masterblaster and superjumbo in jypsies ghetto in the second biggest city too. I found 3 x WX-1 (they look very common here ) now im after pair of wx speakers too, than a TRC 931 in damn small city (the seller told me he is the owner from new bought from here too ) Your mx 920 was bought from here new too. We (collectors in Bulgaria ) were sure that all those boomers were never sold here...., but looks like somehow some small amounts of those rare machines found the way to our comunistic (back in the 80s) and pretty closed market. Nobody knows what and when the trade can bring. And all data from back than is sure lost. It can be that some boomers was never officially sold in some areas , but thats not meaning some small , independent sellers was not having some ways to have em and selling in different countries all round the globe. For example i recently found that lot of GF 777 where reimported in Russia from Afghanistan back in the 80s ( in Russia 777 and other boomers were sold in Berezka shops back then).
So all can i say - who knows

 

[Gluecifer]

I've got a feeling the C100 was sold in most parts of the developed world in the 80s, I think the place there's the least of them is the UK, from what I've seen on here.

I have it on authority that the M90 definitely wasn't sold in .au, and Australia in general missed out on a lot of the big flash ghettoblasters and I can attribute most of this to the market here in the 80s. There was no mainstream street culture here in the 80s and hip hop and such never had any kind of market penetration. Australia's music market in the 80s was very 'pub rock' oriented. Even the new wave and synth pop music of the 80s was late getting recognised here.

As we all know there were THOUSANDS of different models and hundreds from each from the big manufacturers. I'm sure they only distributed certain radios in certain territories based on the popularity and market demographics. Japan's always going to be the place where every model was sold (from .jp makers). I think there was a lot of experimentation with where radios were released in the early days too, from the small amounts dotted around the place it would seem the RX-5700 and RX-7000 were released outsite of Japen. Theres a good chance these were either too expensive for the market or an unpopular design.

It's a very fascinating subject! Of course I'm just going off what I've seen and what I remember.



Rock On.

 

[Zippy]

I think here in Germany there was the problem that we had "rather decent" domestic units but most of them were not boomboxish.. Grundig, ITT, Universum stuff... some were great but most not that much. Telefunken rocked Also it seems that some Japanese brands collaborated with German brands (or vice versa) - for example the Sanyo Big Ben was branded ITT here and there's a Nordmende boombox which is essentially the JVC RC-838.

Just a small addition to the worldwide dilemma...

P.S.: Yes, it's very sad that those National/Panasonics weren't sold all over the world

P.P.S.: Another reason why the GF-777 is absolutely iconic - I think it was sold all over the world.

 

[devol-toni]

The big Nationals...I just saw an RX7000 by Panasonic pop up on eBay while I usually would only see them as domestic Japan boxes labeled as National.
Has Panasonic sold that model anywhere else in the world?

Some input would be appreciated

Matsushita was branded its products (until the mid-80's) in relation to the region of the world in which they are sold.
"National" brand was for Japan market
"Panasonic" for American continents
"National Panasonic" for Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.

European version of RX-7000 (National Panasonic) is very rare to find and as I know only our member Tshorba has the one.
https://boomboxery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=9321

This model is mostly to be found as "Panasonic" and "National".
In any case, they are very rare and they are one of the most desirable models of boomboxes from the Matsushita.

 

[tshorba]

Matsushita was branded its products (until the mid-80's) in relation to the region of the world in which they are sold.
"National" brand was for Japan market
"Panasonic" for American continents
"National Panasonic" for Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.

European version of RX-7000 (National Panasonic) is very rare to find and as I know only our member Tshorba has the one.
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=9321

This model is mostly to be found as "Panasonic" and "National".
In any case, they are very rare and they are one of the most desirable models of boomboxes from the Matsushita.

National was used in Oz and not just Japan. Most of the Panasonic boxes I have had in my collection are National branded, with the RX-7000 and RX-5030 being the only National Panasonic boxes I have had. There was a Nat Pan RX-7000 sold on ebay.au the other day and from memory there was also one last year.

In Australia we didn't get much quality JVC due to the importer agent, but Sony, Pioneer, Sharp, Akai, Toshiba and Sanyo all had (and have) corporate offices here (to service Oceania) I know we did get a wide range of Pioneer, and more than likely the other brands above, but they were beyond most peoples reach.

In the 80's here, home hi-fi was the third biggest purchase for households behind a house then car. Due to people buying good home systems I think a lot of the "expensive" box models were never imported in great numbers and only sold through high level specialist stores. I think a lot of boxes sold in Oz were also brought as a stereo for the kids or shed rather than the "street" or "culture", this could be why we never had brands like Lasonic and the higher end models are less common. I also think more of the higher end models will start to appear in Oz as the older generation starts to pass and houses are cleared of their contents. I do wonder how many M-70's etc are still in peoples sheds or kitchens doing radio duties.

This is my understanding of the situation after working with people who owned the shops back in the day.