I actually spoke to Nick via Facebook. He shared his story with me about a similar difficult childhood. He spoke about his boombox keeping him company in the face of all the strife. He also left home at a very young age and was on his own. It felt like an amazing connection when we spoke. I was overjoyed that he was able to have that boombox back in his life as an adult.
So the search for more AKA’s continues! The more AKA’s I can identify, the better chance at finding one. As per GPT: ️ The GPX Identity Parent company: Dick Proctor Imports (DPI), later known as Digital Products International (based in St. Louis, Missouri). GPX didn’t make their own gear — they imported “white label” product from Hong Kong/Taiwan OEMs and sold it into discount, catalog, and regional department stores in the U.S. Sister Brands / Twins / AKAs These are brands that often carried the exact same chassis as GPX models (like your 900X), with only the badge swapped: Centurion – One of the clearest “twins,” often using the same knobs, button bars, and fascia layouts. Lloyd’s – A Dynascan brand, but shared a surprising number of identical OEM chassis with GPX (sometimes just cosmetic tweaks). Yorx – Another discount “hi-fi” importer; many Yorx mini-systems and boomboxes are literal twins of GPX products. Soundesign – Owned by Tandy/RS affiliates; rebadged versions of many GPX-tier portables. Electro Brand – Another St. Louis–based discount importer; frequently used the same OEM suppliers as GPX. Emerson (budget lines) – Some GPX chassis were sold as low-end Emerson portables. Candle / Candor – Canadian distribution; at least a few GPX-lookalike boomboxes trace directly back to Candle Electronics. Lasonic (early models) – Before the TRC series got big, Lasonic also sold a few re-badges from the same OEM pool. Craig / Sylvania (low-tier) – Occasionally the same basic decks with different faceplates and badging. The best research resource I’ve found is newspapers.com ($20/mo). It’s how I located the GPX twin. I’ve thoroughly researched Lloyd, Yorx, and Electro Brand. I can’t find any twins to the Centurion E901X / GPX 900X under those brands. Will continue to dig into other brands via newspapers.com As for search criteria, I’ve been focusing on the 1983 - 1986 timeframe. Keywords like “Lloyds detachable speakers”, “Lloyds 4-speaker” “Lloyds 6-speaker” (if you count the maybe fake tweeters), “Lloyds 900”, “Lloyds 901”. Any other search ideas would be welcome! Still no luck finding out the brand name on the silver unit. The brand name is just so unreadable. Eternal gratitude to anyone who can jump in on the AKA search or provide any other leads / suggestions!
One of these days I'll jump on newspapers.com but there's so many free versions that I haven't finished milking all of them. I've found some good ones for foreign countries but when you can't read the article, it's hard to find the keywords or info. Sometimes I get lucky with a photo. The original digger was Jens, TPR950e, that guy knew everything and legend has it he only had one, maybe two boomboxes. I remember old threads saying he actually went to libraries (in Germany) and would go through microfilm to get information. He knew companies and AKA's. https://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/i-found-the-old-old-old-forum.4827/
He also had this CD, a few of the old members might have one lying around, C2G has screen shot some content, it might have what you need.
I don’t know him very well but he seemed quite happy to engage me on boomboxes Easy to tell he was a good hearted human being.
Just a quick thanks for the interest in this thread. Come hell or high water, I’m going to find that BBX
A lot of early Craig Offerings were Sanyo Products. This site has some useful information on Hong Kong Manufacturing, I pulled up the "Radio" listings. https://industrialhistoryhk.org/?s=radio&apbct__email_id__search_form=
