Here is my little tribute to a range of reels made by a long departed UK manufacturer, probably known better in the UK for their GAT air pistol, TJ Harrington & Son, based at the Magda Works, Walton on Thames, England.
These reels were available in the UK in the 50's and 60's
The reels featured here are:
The Dan Dare...esque Omnia:
The Omnia, Le Omnia Super & Le Super Omnia, the latter two of which are otherwise identical and are of an early skirted spool design.
The Korka and The Magnet, which are also both Identical albeit for the name on the spool face, and possibly the orange grip of the Magnet (I have seen a Korka with this orange coloured grip).
The Magda, which is a slightly beefier version of the previous two.
And the somewhat over engineered Bantam, which has no manufacturers name cast into it, but is thought to be a much rarer TJH product. This reel also exudes a certain 50's space age look to it.
These reels were most probably aimed at the younger angler, or those on a budget.
They are made of cast alloy, but the internals of the Omnia and the Bantam are interesting to say the least (similar rotor gear), particularly the Bantam, which uses an almost identical gear train on both sideplates, with a centre linked pivoting, oscillating shaft for the spool, which makes for a weighty reel. Sadly all of these reels have a sluggish low retrieve ratio (certainly 2:1 for the Omnia).
A large single slotted screw at the rear end of the Omnia's main casing is all that is required to be removed, for the internals to be accessible (loosen scew off a few turns, tap screw head flush to body with the end of a screwdriver to force internals forward; fully remove screw and dissasemble. Replacing the assembly is a bit more fiddly however).
This company is also well known for its centerpin reels, with names like 'Little Kraka', 'Invicta', 'Maxima', Regina', 'Germina', 'and Triple Check'. Another reel, 'The Wey Mk1&2' is thought to have been a TJH product, but like the Bantam, no definite on this one either.
For those viewers outside of the UK, TJH used a modified spelling of old London slang terms for two of their reels; Little Kraka and Korka came from 'Little Cracker', and 'A Corker', meaning something particularly good.
They also made cast alloy sling shots.
Ok, not the British engineering boast of, say, Hardy or Youngs...or even intrepid for that matter, but definitely a nostalgic trip for some.
From my lone, but regularly undertaken observations over the past few years, I would put the Le Super Omnia / Le Omnia Super as most common of the bunch, followed by the occasional Korka, then Magda and Magnet, and least seen (by myself anyway), The Bantam.
I have added a partly self penned spooky, spacey tune to the video called 'Near The Speed of Light' (in keeping with the 50's rocketship look of some of the reels). Please use the volume down (or off) control if you find it too annoying.
Hope you enjoy this video, and thanks for watching.