I think I had a near miss here! Just after we stopped dealing with Ferguson over the Dixon's Logic episode We started dealing with Sharp I don't know if it was these sets as we didn't deal with them very long so I didn't get to know the various chassis.
The first batch we had was the last. A couple blew up in the shop before they were even sold one went off with a bang that blew the end off the PCB near the LOPT. Sharp wanted to send us a "repair kit" but we objected to this as the panel was damaged we wanted the set replaced.
They sent us what looked like a second hand panel at this point we returned the set for credit and closed the account. I seem to remember having a bit of bother with the ones we did sell as one ended up as a loan set while it was still fairly new. Our loan sets were usually older ex rental sets as they had a hard life and inevitably got knocked around a bit.
We went from Sharp to Toshiba. The sets were excellent and sold well the only downside was that Toshiba pushed and pushed for you to sell more.. the more you sold the more orders they wanted, Maybe it was just our rep..?
I remember there was some budget portables around that time they were very good value but had a habit of going splat! We would replace two capacitors in the power supply when they were new before they went out and had no further trouble. I cannot remember the make possibly Bush? Available in various bright colours ISTR..
Rich.