The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Inigo wrote: Sat Mar 16, 2024 6:37 am And why these late condor needles in plastic boxes with a polar bear? From where?s-l1600.jpg

Polar Bear needles are not the same as the Condor's pictured above. They resemble the EMI long playing needles :

I've also seen the polar bear boxes with the name condor, similar to this Or it is a different enterprise, or at some point it was linked to HMV, as in Germany?
In the other hand, in Germany they're were similar needles if other brands, like Astra or others... The same needle with other brands, even engraved in the needles themselves...

Its nice to see all these beautiful Tins
I have this HMV it's only says pick up
Is it older then the other once which says more detailed what's in it like the one of my picture soft tone?

I haven’t seen this Pick-Up needle tin before, it’s a nice tin. It appears quite early for pick-up needles. Maybe a similar age to the Soft-Tone tin? I love needle tins but like epigramophone most of my tins have come with the machines I’ve owned but I like to see HMV variants.

It seems like the later use of the word Condor came to mean long-playing needles not just for EMI but Polar Bear who may have copied the name.

Inigo wrote: Sat Mar 16, 2024 6:37 am And why these late condor needles in plastic boxes with a polar bear? From where?s-l1600.jpg

They are German "Langspielnadeln" Long Play Needles.

jamiegramo wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2024 5:53 am I haven’t seen this Pick-Up needle tin before, it’s a nice tin. It appears quite early for pick-up needles. Maybe a similar age to the Soft-Tone tin? I love needle tins but like epigramophone most of my tins have come with the machines I’ve owned but I like to see HMV variants.

It seems like the later use of the word Condor came to mean long-playing needles not just for EMI but Polar Bear who may have copied the name.

I have never seen the Pick-Up needle tin before either, and unless I have missed something it is not included in "The Collector's Guide to HMV Nipper souvenirs", but the writers made it clear that the Guide was exactly that and not a complete catalogue.

The "Needle Tin Bible" is Grammophon-Nadeldosen by Horst-Dieter Linz. It has pictures and info on nearly every known needle tin and variation. They normally retail around $90 USD, but there is one on Amazon for $31 USD.
https://www.amazon.com/Grammophon-Nadel ... 3866460090

In case anyone is interested in making Columbia paper needle pack replicas, I am attaching templates that I made from originals. Just print them out in color, cut them out, then fold and paste them together. I made them to fill a Columbia counter display.
These should be printed as 8.5"x11" landscape layout.

slammer wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2024 4:39 am I love the needle tins, but I tend to scrounge them off my friendly neighbourhood Gramophone man.
What I would like to do is use water transfers to make my own tins, just for fun and giggles. Problem is I can´t find any tins of the right shape or size, neither on amazon or alibaba or any other tin box selling company.
So where would one find nice little tins?

I know it sounds like a fun idea, but there are many rare, expensive fakes on eBay in Europe that are made this way. Real tins are lithographed directly on blank tins. The counterfeit ones are made with stickers or decals over old, common tins. Since they are made using old original tins, they are hard to spot. I'll dig through some stuff and post pics of fake tins that I received from a seller in Germany. Some of these tins were priced in the 100's of Euros, like a Mickey Mouse tin or Charlie Chaplin tin... The best idea is to avoid doing the same.

Curt A wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2024 10:05 pm The "Needle Tin Bible" is Grammophon-Nadeldosen by Horst-Dieter Linz. It has pictures and info on nearly every known needle tin and variation. They normally retail around $90 USD, but there is one on Amazon for $31 USD.
https://www.amazon.com/Grammophon-Nadel ... 3866460090

Very amusing book, it's ideal to go through it at evening and relax before going to bed.

It's funny how out of enthusiasm some tins that are definitely not needle-related eventually ended up in the book.