Hello friends , Starting this thread mostly to attract attention from our friends in Japan and open a gate to gather any information might be out there about the Conion CRC - H83F boombox. Maybe its a shot in the dark and certainly serious boombox collectors around the world should haven't left any stone unturned but still there is hope. What is it all about ? The only known fact for the Conion CRC - H83F is the photo below : There is much speculation even if this is an actual model or just an artists rendering. To me it looks like the real deal probably a prototype. @deech well known for his extraordinaire ability unearthing boomboxes certainly has some more bits of info than I do. I have added several hundreds of pixels to the picture above to have a clearer view of the basic design elements though nothing added in respect of details , nevertheless sharing with you this rather crud picture of an otherwise cool mystery boombox. So if anyone has any information , another picture , a rumor , or the Conion CRC - H83F itself (!) let us know and bring joy to the boombox community.
One reason that I believe there existed at least one . If you think of it , the company that made the dishes ( I hope they weren't used as ashtrays) were given a bunch of Conion models photos or they photographed them themselves. The obvious reason was to promote models meant to be for sale. Now , that no one has ever since then seen the CRC-83F can be explained by two possible reasons : 1-There was only one prototype that never reached production , in the worst case scenario it was destroyed or thrown away by an employee during a clean up not knowing its value , or if we are to be optimistic it is still in the closet of someone involved in its development. 2-There was a really limited production run of just a few. In both cases you can think any reason for halting production : - High manufacturing cost and simply the market couldn't (or wouldn't if there was only a prototype) afford the pricing , that eventually led to limited orders. - Specific parts suppliers problems. - They switched fast to another model to catch up with important features of the competition etc.
I'd believe it was a unicorn box but there so many other boxes and Walkmans where the production was so low. My buddy in Japan tells me they do not like old equipment and it gets tossed all the time, the space is very limited and it looks like that's a pretty big box, so for someone to hold on to it for close to 40 years would be a huge undertaking. I do think we're reaching a time where the original owners are at the point of getting rid of things and luckily the market value is up, hopefully some of these rarer items will start showing up, I know units that were reletively rare 20 years ago are now starting to show up regularly. You guys that see those Conions are lucky, I don't ever remember seeing one, so they're all rare to me.
You have a point there and maybe there isn't any physical evidence of this model anymore , what intrigues me the most is how it managed to appear in a promotion item and can't be found any picture of it in a catalog , a magazine or a newspaper ad.
I can think of another explanation, which was that the box was a non functional "model" made to test the market. Some years ago at work we were designing a piece of equipment and got a professional model making company (the sort that also make architects models etc) to make a life size model of the equipment, to be photographed and go on a sales brochure etc. The wooden model they made used real connectors switches etc. When we got real equipment in the model got put on a storage shelf. Several times I thought "I can use that" before realising it was just a very detailed empty wooden box. I wonder if anyone here apart from Marian knows the cost of making the tooling for something like the front of a boombox. A lasting memory from a visit to the Science Museum was the tooling to make a Tupperware type plastic jug which they had on display. It was a cube of solid steel about 45cm (18') across with the shaped of the jug machined into it. A huge investment, but once made you can pop out the jugs for little more than the cost of the raw plastic. One of the very first Amstrad products was an injection moulded clear plastic cover for record decks, inspired by a butter dish. Getting the tooling made cost more than a house, but once that was done they could make them, with better quality, for 1/10th of the price of the competition who were vacuum moulding sheet plastic. An example of plans changing due to cost was that the very first publicity photo for the Commodore Pet showed a "futuristic" curved case. I have since found out from a Commodore history book that was made of wood like our model. Commodore quickly realised that as they already had a factory making sheet metal products like filing cabinets it would be far more cost effective to make the case out of sheet metal, giving the angular boxy Pet we are all familiar with.
I would understand a prototype or even a non working mock up appear in a catalog but the other way around would require quite a marketing nerve from Conion to send their dealers promotional dishes that were crying " I'm here you can buy me " and have in their hands a single non working model.
Another story from the Commodore book was that Jack Tramiel's usual method of market research was to take prototype units to CES (the consumer electronic show) and see which generated the most interest. Those would get put into production while the ones that didn't get much interest would get cancelled. There are many prototype cars that never made it into production, from basic ones like the planned first replacement for the Mini https://www.aronline.co.uk/concepts-and-prototypes/concepts-bmc-9x/ to amazing ones like the Lamborghini Marzal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamborghini_Marzal
Also the VW New Beetle and Porsche Boxster were realized after public demand after their prototype appearance in exhibitions or other projects like the 4door Porsche the 989 of the 90's canceled just before the production was to begin after Porsche CEO was fired . Same applies as you already mentioned at CES , in all that we have much information and plenty of evidence , in the case of Conion CRC - H83F we have just that dish.
