J.L.RANDALL TELEVISION VIEWER

NOTES	This really is a nice little toy. Whilst several companies produced similar television-styled viewers, this one is a cut above the rest. It is quite large and houses a proper projection system, complete with a mirror and no fewer than 3 lenses ! The viewer plays a film strip consisting of a continuous loop of (I think) fourty frames, one frame being blank and thus indicating the start of the story. Each image is ¼ inch square and projects an image onto a 13/8 inch high screen. The film is placed on a carrier, which also houses the projection system, and the whole thing slides into slots in the cabinet. The bulb and first lense can be clearly seen whilst the unit protruding from the top houses a further two lenses and the final mirror that projects the image onto the frosted screen. Meantime the central area of the carrier is used two hold two 1.5v U11 batteries, whilst there is also provision to connect an external power supply via two plugs at teh rear.. An additional shelf is fixed inside the cabinet that also shields the screen from any stray light from the bulb - neat attention to detail. A lever attatched to the rear cover is used to advance the film by exactly one frame. Whilst doing so, it operates a breaker switch such that the bulb switches off whilst between frames. As such toys go, this is quite a large unit measuring as it does roughly 6 inches tall by 27/8ths inches wide by 3½ inches deep. A small leaflet encolsed witin the box list s a selection of additional "films" that could be purchased. Some names I recognise - Dan Dare, Billy Bunter and Larry the Lamb - whilst others such as Harris Twead and Kitty Hawke I'm afraid mean nothing to me. Most significant however is the last film listed, "The Corronation of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II" which presumably dates this unit to 1953 or possibly 1954 (though I'm not sure how many small kids would have spent their pocket money on this particular film strip). In order to fully appreciate the sheer quality of this toy, compare it with the Muffin the Mule television - theres just no comparison.
CONDITION	In very good condition apart from the top lid of the box being missing. The film strips are also in excellent condition, so I suspect this toy might never have seen a lot of use, especially as the thin bakelite cabinet is also still in one piece. Link to page 1 [54K] Link to page 2 [64K] Link to page 3 [89K] Link to page 4 [68K] Even came with a (rather crumpled) service manual :-)
WHERE FOUND	Bought off Fleabuy for a smidgin under £30 in total. Well chuffed with it.

One of the film loops along with its box. The box carries a hand-written
price of two shillings and eleven pence.

The viewer in action. The quality of the projected images do not do justice to the
quality of the images actually on the (Kodac) filmstrips, which are pin-sharp.

Link to list of additional
available files [77K]

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