# Smuggling TVs into Reagan-era Mexico! Can anyone ID tiny, grainy 1980s electronics box photo? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 15, 2026, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smuggling-tvs-into-reagan-era-mexico-can-anyone-id-tiny-grainy-1980s-electronics-box-photo/1030905 "2026-06-15T02:29:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smuggling-tvs-into-reagan-era-mexico-can-anyone-id-tiny-grainy-1980s-electronics-box-photo/1030905/1 "2026-06-15T02:29:41Z")
I just picked up an interesting book, “Over and Back” by “Wild Bill” Callahan, the other day. A memoir about the p[ractice, in the 1980s, of smuggling consumer electronics—TVs, phones, etc—from the United States into Mexico](https://www.oldjets.net/contraband-runners.html), where they were sold on the black market to bypass prohibitive import duties. Literally like DC-3s crammed full of VCRs, flying at low level to remote airstrips. Wild stuff. But my question is even MORE esoteric: in the book, there’s actually a grainy black and white photo of some of the cargo being unloaded in Mexico, circa 1985, including a couple of boxes of…something. [[Album] imgur.com ![](https://i.imgur.com/oOdVUZT.png?fb "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/a/m9LhA3y) The black boxes in front, just distinctive enough that someone might be able to recognize the brand, but juuuuuuuust grainy and small enough that it’s driving me mad trying to figure out what it is. It looks like the words/brand in largest text is something like “ELESTIA”…or possibly “GLESTNIA” or “BAXTNA”…none of which are a name I recognize or could find traces of. There’s a photo of something on the front, presumably of the product, or of the product in use, but just looks like an indistinguishable gray box with loopy squiggles on it. And, what looks tantalizingly like the words “82 watts” on the upper left corner of the box…and a similar box, a few feet behind it in the photo, that has text in the same spot that kind of looks like “24 watts.” That’s all I got. None of the AIs I checked with had a clue, and I’m not certain I’ll be able to contact the author to find out. But, obviously, this IS one of the premier places you’d go to to try and identify a piece of historical ephemera that sounds like it came out of a Warren Zevon song. So…can anyone weigh in? Maybe even a proud former owner of a GLXTNE™ brand Turboencabulator, happy to reminisce about the good ol’ days? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smuggling-tvs-into-reagan-era-mexico-can-anyone-id-tiny-grainy-1980s-electronics-box-photo/1030905/2 "2026-06-15T02:52:51Z")
That bottom box sure makes me think of a celing fan. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smuggling-tvs-into-reagan-era-mexico-can-anyone-id-tiny-grainy-1980s-electronics-box-photo/1030905/3 "2026-06-15T03:17:01Z")
Might be this. They make water pumps. [![](https://www.waterpump-cn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/logo-tobacco-2-300x80-1.jpg) ](https://www.waterpump-cn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/logo-tobacco-2-300x80-1.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smuggling-tvs-into-reagan-era-mexico-can-anyone-id-tiny-grainy-1980s-electronics-box-photo/1030905/4 "2026-06-15T04:46:11Z")
Their website says established 2008 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smuggling-tvs-into-reagan-era-mexico-can-anyone-id-tiny-grainy-1980s-electronics-box-photo/1030905/5 "2026-06-15T05:20:35Z")
Agree. The black box in front is almost certainly a ceiling fan. The pic is quite clear. The large number and word(s) at upper left probably say “52 INCHES”. The brand above the pic could be nearly anything, but I favor something close to PLESTTOR. The only other identifiable box toward the left rear in the third tier of boxes is the same thing. I _think_ there are two more of the same; one behind the front box on the ground, and one 4 boxes back in the second tier. The rest of that stack of boxes look a bit like wooden crates, but are more likely to be the white underside of more of the same fan boxes. They’re very much all the same size. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smuggling-tvs-into-reagan-era-mexico-can-anyone-id-tiny-grainy-1980s-electronics-box-photo/1030905/6 "2026-06-15T05:40:45Z")
Okay, how about this? [![](https://www.cloudynights.com/uploads/monthly_02_2017/post-247996-0-16765000-1487989300.jpg) ](https://www.cloudynights.com/uploads/monthly_02_2017/post-247996-0-16765000-1487989300.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smuggling-tvs-into-reagan-era-mexico-can-anyone-id-tiny-grainy-1980s-electronics-box-photo/1030905/7 "2026-06-15T13:53:55Z")
I saw a ceiling fan as well before reading the comments. I was wondering if the name could be something like ELESTAIR, but I don’t think that quite works. (I thought I maybe saw AIR in there, working with the fan theme.) ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smuggling-tvs-into-reagan-era-mexico-can-anyone-id-tiny-grainy-1980s-electronics-box-photo/1030905/8 "2026-06-15T14:20:46Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Might be this. I think it looks like _ELESTAR_ too but not that same logo. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smuggling-tvs-into-reagan-era-mexico-can-anyone-id-tiny-grainy-1980s-electronics-box-photo/1030905/9 "2026-06-15T14:45:38Z")
Looked through the trademark office and saw two other ELESTARs in there, but neither match in terms of look or area of business. Could it be a brand name in Spanish that starts “EL” something? Though that only looks like a single word and it doesn’t fit the narrative of the photo. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smuggling-tvs-into-reagan-era-mexico-can-anyone-id-tiny-grainy-1980s-electronics-box-photo/1030905/10 "2026-06-15T14:52:54Z")
Could the name be Goldstar, aka LG? They made inexpensive consumer appliances and electronics in that era. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smuggling-tvs-into-reagan-era-mexico-can-anyone-id-tiny-grainy-1980s-electronics-box-photo/1030905/11 "2026-06-15T15:46:58Z")
Perhaps it’s a model name rather than a brand name? ---
**Author:** ![bodangus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c37758/32.png) [@bodangus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bodangus)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smuggling-tvs-into-reagan-era-mexico-can-anyone-id-tiny-grainy-1980s-electronics-box-photo/1030905/12 "2026-06-15T21:47:33Z")
Looks like a fuzzy picture of a lawnmower to me. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smuggling-tvs-into-reagan-era-mexico-can-anyone-id-tiny-grainy-1980s-electronics-box-photo/1030905/13 "2026-06-15T23:34:39Z")
I did wonder if the logo says FIESTAR, like fiesta and star mixed together. But that’s the name of a K-Pop band so looking up Fiestar Fans is a fruitless search. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smuggling-tvs-into-reagan-era-mexico-can-anyone-id-tiny-grainy-1980s-electronics-box-photo/1030905/14 "2026-06-16T04:53:17Z")
> _“Enhance 224 to 176”_ > _“Enhance. Stop”_ > _“Move in, stop”_ > _“Pull out, track right, stop”_ > _“Center in, pull back. Stop”_ > _“Track 45 right. Stop”_ > _“Center and stop”_ > _“Enhance 34 to 36”_ > _“Pan right and pull back. Stop”_ > _“Enhance 34 to 46”_ > _“Pull back. Wait a minute, go right, stop”_ > _“Enhance 57 to 19”_ > _“Track 45 left. Stop”_ > _“Enhance 15 to 23”_ > _“Give me a hard copy right there”_ Easy. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smuggling-tvs-into-reagan-era-mexico-can-anyone-id-tiny-grainy-1980s-electronics-box-photo/1030905/15 "2026-06-16T05:13:30Z")
Does anyone want to join the Vintage Ceiling Fan Forums? > **[Home | Vintage Ceiling Fans.Com Forums](https://ada19851985.proboards.com)** > > Visit our forum at: ada19851985.proboards.com ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smuggling-tvs-into-reagan-era-mexico-can-anyone-id-tiny-grainy-1980s-electronics-box-photo/1030905/16 "2026-06-16T11:57:48Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Vintage Ceiling Fan Forums That’s a thing? Of course it is, here in the Internet of the Long Tail.