I just looked for the Luxor but I do not have it. It was inoperable and I probably trashed it. I also remember having a reel shaped like the Luxor that was painted green. That is gone also.

 

I do have the Mitchell 302 and the Ryobi. The Ryobi does have the pin bail and the 302 has the regular bail on it now but there is an extra roller bail with it. 

 

 

@Dogface

Here's the collectible spinning reels that remain in my collection (I sold off a collection a dozen years ago).

Before I stocked up a few Ticas and especially '19 Stradic, our bread and butter reels were Penn 4400SS and 4200SS.  Often supplemented by the Altex mkIV, Penn 716, Luxor A No.1, and the Mitchell 410 with barstock spool. 

My daughter fishing the 4200SS, and a friend's daughter fishing the 716

The Luxor A matched with Gladding era H-I Star glass rod remains among my favorite light spinning combos.

Hardy Exalta with Phillipson ES65 got a lot of bass-fishing time. 

 

The 440 Ottomatic is too valuable to take out of its box, but I did once to take this masthead photo for the FFR Another Spin page.  https://fiberglassflyrodders.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=33

9 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

the Japanese take that to extremes, some with new pistol-grip cork. 

Yeah, perhaps i overgenralized and overexaggerated the point that AR reels are dead, far from it like you say... great info, I don't disagree at all with anything you said, I think this is why I prefer jdm more also, much of the market is about fun and traditional fishing culture, where as usdm market is based more in competition in bass angling. One example that comes to mind is the U.S market has the goal of jet skiing bass to a boat, where the Japanese culture of bass fishing is thinner lines for more recreational fun and challenge. Or pistol grip glass rods like you mentioned on bfs. 

 

Perhaps I overexaggerated slightly... probably leaning towards greatly  ? 

On 1/14/2023 at 11:25 AM, Dogface said:

... I also remember having a reel shaped like the Luxor that was painted green.....

The green reel was a Crack, where the Luxor design continued in the '70s. 

Airex was licensed to build the Luxor in the US, which they sold as the Bache Brown Mastereel, but IMO, the French-made reels were better.  With the significant exception of Altex, Luxor was the smoothest reel made until the computer-balanced reels of the last decade. 

Sorry I don't have a better photo - when this one crossed my hand, Airex collectors stood on their toes to snag it. 

1951 Wards catalog, which includes a Colorado reel (Humphreys) and Shakespeare's first flip bail (sold as Wards Sport King)

The dated '55 price sticker on my Luxor A box was $14.95.

The Bache Brown $22.50 price in 1951 dollars is $382 in today's money.  

Easy to argue with the guys who say today's reels are less value for the cost. 

2 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

The green reel was a Crack, where the Luxor design continued in the '70s. 

Airex was licensed to build the Luxor in the US, which they sold as the Bache Brown Mastereel, but IMO, the French-made reels were better. 

 

Thank you!! The name Airex is also very familiar. I wish I still had them for conversation purposes. 

@Dogface  There's a good Luxor take-down thread on ORCA. 

https://reeltalk.orcaonline.org/viewtopic.php?t=16436

About halfway down, BR member @Paul Roberts is lamenting gear lash in his really pretty but fished-through Luxor A. 

No one understood the loads on spinning reel gearing until FEM modeling in the last two decades. 

Before that, all were built by trial and error, and gear wear was a serious issue, no less of a problem in Mitchell or Penn into the 90s, especially when spools and spindles got longer.