History Line Shimano Reels

[phoneman]

Anyone have any good resources on the history line of the shimano reels from the first one the current model?

[*Hootie]

The first one was the Shimano Bantam 100.

Hootie

[aavery2]

I know just enough to be dangerous, the first reels produced under the Shimano name were  the Bantam 100 and 100ex, they were introduced in 1978.  The first reels that Shimano produced were for Lew Childre Co., the Lews Speed Spool.  The Bantam 100 and 100ex shared a lot in common with these reels.

 

They expanded their line up in 79 and had reels like the 200, 300, 400, 500 and 10ex.  Most of these reels were around until the early 1980's and you know the rest of the story.

[*Hootie]

  On 9/25/2014 at 10:29 PM, aavery2 said:

I know just enough to be dangerous, the first reels produced under the Shimano name were the Bantam 100 and 100ex, they were introduced in 1978. The first reels that Shimano produced were for Lew Childre Co., the Lews Speed Spool. The Bantam 100 and 100ex shared a lot in common with these reels.

They expanded their line up in 79 and had reels like the 200, 300, 400, 500 and 10ex. Most of these reels were around until the early 1980's and you know the rest of the story.

Very good Aavery. I have the catalogs to prove you are correct.

Hootie

[phoneman]

Pardon my ignorance.

Batum, dsv, d, mg, e, then f. Something likebthat without going into too much details of models?

[aavery2]

I forgot about the 1000 that thing was a monster, I have seen picture of it in comparsion to 200 size reels and it was big.  I also think that I got it wrong on the 10ex, I think looking at  the link Fish Tank provided it was just the model 10.  

 

Phoneman what you are asking about is the progression of models over the years, there have been several. The B series I believe introduced the Chronarch and the Super Free Models SF) I believe the Citica was also introduced at this time.  There was no C models, The D model came next and was a hefty jump in price over the B, ticked a lot of people off, but it was much more like the reels we use today, a true workhorse of a reel, built with a lot quality.   The E series came next and many think that the Curado E may be the best reel of that model they have produced to date.   At some point 50 series reels were introduced the MG stands for magnesium frame, the DSV just means it is a D model Salt Water safe version of the reel, the FV indicated Flipping Version.  The 50, 100, 200 and 300 are what is used to identify to some degree the size of the reel but more so the spool size.   They have also used the letter H to identify high speed reels, and well as the number 7 as in Core MG7.  

 

So a reel like a Shimano Core 100MGFV   would be a 100 sized spool/reel made of magnesium in a flipping version, and a reel like the 200DHSV  would indicate a 200 sized reel/spool, D series, high speed, saltwater safe version.  

 

Just a quick down and dirty and other can fill in the many holes I have left.

[webertime]

  On 9/25/2014 at 10:29 PM, aavery2 said:

I know just enough to be dangerous, the first reels produced under the Shimano name were  the Bantam 100 and 100ex, they were introduced in 1978.  The first reels that Shimano produced were for Lew Childre Co., the Lews Speed Spool.  The Bantam 100 and 100ex shared a lot in common with these reels.

 

They expanded their line up in 79 and had reels like the 200, 300, 400, 500 and 10ex.  Most of these reels were around until the early 1980's and you know the rest of the story.

Rainman...

[aavery2]

  On 9/25/2014 at 10:40 PM, *Hootie said:

Very good Aavery. I have the catalogs to prove you are correct.

Hootie

Basic history of Shimano, it is on just about every web page that has anything to do with their history.     The reels that I remember the best were the B and D series, my brother and I would walk to the local Woolworth Woolco, and spend a lot of time dreaming about someday upgrading our Zebco 202's and 33's to a full fleet of those bad boys.

[aavery2]

  On 9/26/2014 at 12:00 AM, webertime said:

Rainman...

I wish,  I can only remember things that interest me, other than that, I can just barely recall my own phone number.

[phoneman]

Wow aavery. Spot on. Answers my question perfectly. Thanks

[Zimobass]

The super hero of Shimano owners, Dan aka Bantam once posted this. Helps to work out the age, and country of manufacture.

 

First letter is the year, second letter is the month, third letter is the country of manufacture. The list is long so I am not going to type it all since it covers 1976-2015. I will post a couple and you can figure out the rest. We use A-Z for the years, so they reset every 25 years.

Years:

2002- A
2015- N

1990- O
2001- Z

Months are A-L:

Jan- A
Feb- B
Mar- C
Dec- L

Country of origin:

S- SIC (Japan)
P- SCM (Malaysia)

[FrankW]

I have a Bantam Black Magnum 100ULS purchased in 1979.  It has a flipping switch, 2 stainless bearings and 5:1 gear ratio.  The box says "Specially Designed for light line Bass Fishing."  It has a graphite frame and end caps.  Weighs 7.9ozs.  Yesterdays finesses reel.

 

Frank