This just in:

 

I was contacted by an old friend a Mr. Brian Makepeace who wrote about a part of his collection and included pictures and a AVI movie: Warning this is a 1.4 Million bit file, it may take a while to down load it.

Hi Richard,

The new issue looks great!  I don't know if you know that I have a working classic communicator. Did you want to place a mpeg of a working unit? I think that mine and Greg's are the only truly functioning units left.

Another show where you can see the working units is in the episode Day of the Dove when Kirk holds the communicator up to his face you can see the brass rod that is used to wind up and start the stop watch below the midplate.

 

You a right the non working communicator did not have center plate between the grill hinges I was told that only the hero working communicators had the midplate between the brass wheels. It is just glued in place. The frame of the midplate does have this section missing, it is added later and actually is larger than it should be! I was told that this communicator is an original the seller  guarantees it! ( I know whom he bought it from and I too believe it is a real one, Richard A. Coyle)

The holes in the grid are the same as others that that other well know collectors own. There were even some hand drilled metal 3rd season grills that are very rough. This unit never had velcro and is only one of two hero's the seller or I know of that doesn't have velcro. An interesting note: The rhinestones have the metal material removed from the backs. If you place a light behind them they light up! Even the speaker grill is opened from behind. This is how some tricorders were done as well. 

I have to explain the third picture. It shows the rhinestones and the speaker grille lit up from behind. Was the original intent to use incandescent lights to light the area up??

 

Another note. This comm is a dark gray color, it is from a material called Kydex  from the early 60's. If you search for the same material it doesn't exist today. It was designed to be the future of plastics because it was near fire proof but was too costly for consumers. You can get a black color with a haircell  texture in ABS and a modern version of Kydex but not the dark gray color.

 From the collection of Brian Makepeace

 

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