13 years ago when this website came into being it was merely a personal website displaying my, at the time, small collection of radios and a wish list of things I needed at the time to complete several radios. For many years now, the wish list has not been officially linked - or if it is, it is lost amongst the approx. 15,000 pages that make up this website now - however, up until last night one item remained on the list that I had not acquired. That item was a green dial pointer for an AWA 500M Radiolette.

Whilst the radio has been restored and the dial pointer glued and the crack disguised as best as can be, it's not quite up to the standard of the other five colours of this model in my collection. The good news is that after 13 years I can lay claim to this item that will replace the existing cracked one and make this rare radio a completely restored one. The acquisition came via an auction on Ebay. I'll swap this link for a photo once I receive the item.

I suppose the moral to this story is that if you wait long enough for that illusive part, it will eventually come your way and that is one of the most rewarding aspects of radio collecting. Whilst there have been opportunities to simply purchase an identical complete receiver and simply swamp the dial pointers before on-selling the just-purchased radio, this was simply not the best way of achieving the desired outcome because there'd still be a radio out there with a cracked dial pointer. The radio I purchased last night has little, if any, hope of undergoing a cabinet restoration and whilst it is unfortunate for us to lose a radio like this, it is the best way to obtain required spares for such rare radios. Bearing in mind that the 500M is something like 70 years old, the extra chassis will also provide much-needed electronic components and an extra power transformer. Although I may well on-sell the chassis to an interested person if it is complete.

Ironically, the radio I bought to provide me with the dial pointer cost $100 more than the original one. Once the 'new' dial pointer is cleaned, polished and added to the original radio it should be worth around $1,000.00, though I am not interested in selling it. It will go back on display when the time comes.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

It"s Beautiful Brad ! and in classic Green , Very nice

Well done.

Expensive knob, but that's the way it goes with rare stuff. The previous owner must have had a conniption when that set was dropped.

I know about waiting: I've been in the market for original knobs for my Kriesler Duplex for years. These knobs were not strong and usually broke off decades ago, so they are rare as rocking horse droppings nowadays.

I eventually found one through the help of an HRSA member, and I recently bought a wreck at an auction simply to get the one good knob on it.

Happy now!

I may repair the wreck and sell it with non-original knobs ... or simply turn it around at a future auction.

I made a similar coloured Astor Mickey look like that once, when polishing the cabinet. I felt suicidal for a brief moment. That's just how things go with Bakelite sometimes. The Radiolette looks like it was dropped from a great height though, as the chassis is bent in one corner, near the tuning shaft.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

You may even get a few bucks for the old cracked knob.

That probably will happen. It did glue together nicely and could well be rebroken and fused with the same material that some use to repair Bakelite cabinets.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

A lovely radio and I can only wish for a green bakelite. I only have brown or white ones, these small AWA's are one of my favourites.

The seller who dropped the one you purchased must have wept for a week.

What a thing to happen.

There's no doubt at all that obtaining a full colour set of any radio is hard. After more than 25 years of collecting I still don't have such a group of radios though I am very close with two models. When most people think of coloured radios they usually think of the Astor Mickey because it was made in the widest choice of colours. The funny thing is that it is statistically easier to get a good number of coloured Mickeys on the shelf than just about any other radio. In the period they were made they outsold just about every other radio and there's still lots of them around. To get them though, you need plenty of notes in your wallet. Given the number of variations the Mickey came in and what they can fetch, you'd need something like $40,000 to acquire the full range of colours in quick time.

The two radios I have built up collections of colours is the Radiolette pictured above (white, brown, green, turquoise, cream and burgundy) and the Healing 401E (white, marbled white, brown, black, burgundy, mottled green and mottled yellow). There's two more Radiolettes and three or four more 401Es to get. The cream Radiolette must also be rare because it is the only colour I have that doesn't feature in Radio Days.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

Thanks for the comments on the small 500MY Radiola's, I have never seen a cream one. Presume cream is a yellowey colour and think have only seen a green one in the flesh so as to speak once.

One fellow I knew had a burgundy one I think, its a long time since I have seen him.

By far brown or white's predominate.

I'll dig up a photo of my Radiolette collection in its display cabinet in the next hour or so. It is elsewhere here but will post again to make life easy.

There was a cream one for sale on Ebay a couple of weeks ago though I think it had a crack in the cabinet. It also had a high starting price and thus taking a long time to sell.

This set up is in storage at the moment but it'll most likely make a reappearance in the new year and I can't wait to make it happen. Just before this lot went into storage I installed LED tape lighting in the cabinet which improved the look quite a lot. It allowed the display to become a focal point at family gatherings.

The two missing colours, a light brown - though there is some debate as to whether this rare colour is a colour in its own right or just a variation of the more normal dark brown - and a white cabinet with what looks like sprinkles of Nestles Quik on it. I am told there's only a few of these surviving and all are in collections.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

Very impressive,
I'm envious.
JJ

Thanks for the photo, a very nice display and like the cabinet. So there is a cream version, never knew of its existence as thought there was only a white one.

I also have one of the vibrator 4volt ones in brown which was intended for those in non mains regions.

Interesting little radios and they must have been very popular in their day.

Cream would be rare. It is the only colour of this model that doesn't feature in Radio Days. The one that is missing from my collection is a white one with spots like Nestles Quik on top of coffee froth.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

Wow! Nice collection there!

The dial pointer roundel has arrived. Looking forward to putting it on the radio and having it complete for the first time in probably 25 years.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...