The very first ones had black lettering on the dial shields………. The Royal 500D – 1957 An 8th transistor was added along with other chassis enhancements and so was the Long Distance designation. The suggested retail price remained at $75.00 But it is safe to say that any early Zenith Royal 500 in excellent condition is in high demand. These three new colors are considered special by collectors and are always in higher demand. Three new colors were added to the Ebony and Maroon colors: White, Tan and Salmon (Pink). Also, early feedback was that the small knobs were hard to use, so larger knobs were introduced. So Zenith switched to the printed circuit boards as many other manufacturers were doing. The Royal 500B – mid 1956 With the success of the Royal 500, the high demand made it necessary to find a way for faster production. It is not known how many of these were made, but it appears that these were the minority and collectors place a premium on them. NOTE: Some early examples of the Maroon hand wired 500s came with a semi see-through (translucent) cabinet. About the first 100,000 units were hand crafted pieces of art. The Royal 500A – 1955 (hand wired circuit board) – Introduced in November, 1955. An average example of most of these models can be found on eBay for between $40 – $80 with nice examples easily topping $100. After all, why not get the top of the line? They are fairly easy to find in good operating condition and fairly inexpensive to obtain. For the collectors who enjoy taking a step back in time while listening to their classic, I recommend that you choose a Zenith Royal 500. Many other early transistor manufacturers used cells that are either expensive or obsolete today, or have “stopped working” so those radios now are good only for display. Many will still function well today after over 60 years of service, however many would benefit from a tune-up and some new capacitors. One of the nice features about collecting Zenith Royal 500’s is the fact that they all use penlight (AA) batteries that are easily found today. Their initial purchase price in 1955 was high at $75.00 (over $650 of todays dollars) and the price remained that until 1959 when the price was reduced to $59.95. These radios were rather large pocket radios measuring 5.5″ high, 3.5″ wide, and 1.5″ deep and they weigh 15.5 ounces without batteries. These 500’s were designed to be powered by 4 inexpensive AA penlight cell batteries which made them economical to operate in comparison to the more expensive battery types of other radios. They were known for their superior performance and the early ones were powered by seven transistors when most other radios used only 4 or 5. ![]() Their cabinets were made of an “unbreakable” nylon (instead of plastic) which allowed it to hold up better to use over the years. ![]() The Royal 500 represented the “top of the line” for Zenith pocket transistor radios and was extremely popular with the public. The first four styles were nicknamed “the owls” because their appearance resembles an owl at first glance. During those 10 years, it went through 7 styling changes and several performance improvements. It’s life spanned from it’s introduction in November of 1955 to it’s exit in 1965. The Zenith Royal 500 was one of the longest running transistor radio series.
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