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In Cuba, color TV began in 1958, but sometime between 1959-1960 it was put off the air. The cubans had to be stuck with black and white TV until the mid-1970's... when they got only brand new Soviet color transmitters and TV sets.
I think that I might be EXTREMELY unlikely that any color TV set from the 1958-1960 period had survived in Cuba. Maybe even black and white TVs from before 1959 might be very hard to find, if any ( TV in Cuba began in 1950, a few weeks after Brazil ).
As for my own country, Brazil, there were never any Soviet or Eastern European TV sets sold here. Not only the standards were totally different, but also between 1947 and 1961 Brazil had no diplomatic relations with the USSR, although we had diplomatic relations with other countries from behind the Iron Curtain. Also, we were fostering our own industrial development during that period, and focused ourselves to depend less on import goods - that's why imports of TV sets from the USA decreased during the 1950's, while national production got bigger. As I remember, only two foreign nations exported TV sets to Brazil in the 1950's and 60's: the USA and Japan - the Japanese began selling TVs here during the 1950's, they had some import representatives here, from JVC, if I am not mistaken. Also, those little 8 inch B/W Sonys sold like hot cakes here in the 60's. They are very easy to find.
I do have seen, however, some components of Eastern European origin inside Brazilian made TVs of the 1950's and 60's. The countries were Yoguslavia and Tchecoslovakia. Those components were inside TVs that were made in national factories, factories that belonged to Brazilian businessman. Mostly things like capacitors and vacuum tubes. I guess they were pretty cheap.
The only Western European brand that I have seen here, was a Grundig TV set from the 50's that I saw in the collection of a guy I know. I have no idea of how this German TV set ended here, but he said that it is working - meaning that is able to receive NTSC signals.
Soviet products have a very bad reputation here. In 1990 and 1991 we made the horrible mistake of importing many thousands of that piece-of-junk-of-a-car called Lada. Yes, it was VERY cheap, but that was it's ONLY advantage. The car is a complete TRASH, from the engine to the metal used in it's body. Those Ladas seemed to be everywhere, but after a very short years they disapeared completely. Vanished. People who bought that thing lost money. Pretty quicly there were no longer any authorized dealers and repair shops. Probably parts became impossible to find - not that it make any real difference, because trying to repair that thing is a waste of time and money. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I see a Lada today on the streets during a whole YEAR. I see much more ( way much more ) 1960's VW Beetles that were Brazilian made than Ladas.
That, I guess, speaks about both the ( good ) quality of the VW and the ( zero ) quality of the Lada.
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