What is this? And what is radio about it? My guess is that it's a "string phone," like the many nifty examples in my book "Toy Walkie Talkies." But by Motorola? Did they make toys? It's 10 1/2" tall and red with blue and white trim as you can see, and there's a handstrap on the back. The metal "antenna" isn't connected to anything inside. In fact, there aren't any electronics of any sort inside. That business on the side in the second picture looks mysterious enough, but the hole could certainly be for string, so I'm going to stand by my guess that this is a string phone.

Well, I've heard from a couple of guys lately who have pointed out that this item is a toy version of Motorola's WW2 era BC-611 "Handie Talkie." OK, but is this just a toy model of that BC-611 or is this also a string phone? And did Motorola actually make it? I can tell you that I have seen Motorola-branded TV trays for eating TV dinners in front of your Motorola TV, so the idea that they may indeed have issued this toy is not entirely out of the question. Thanks for stopping by to see this little wonder. If you know any more about this than I do (which admittedly isn't much), let me know will you?