I’ve been discussing the restoration of a hundred y.o. radio, and I thought about the retro light bulbs that look like incandescents but use LED filaments.
Someone should make some old tubes that are actually using LEDs that look like the filaments, but just for decorative purposes. The glass envelope would look like the tube; there would be a plate so it looks like the original from the outside. The tube would otherwise be non-functional. It would look like the real tube when the LEDs are powered on. They would be expensive but they would be able to give a hundred percent authentic look to a reproduction radio set.
I’ve been trying to resolve the problem of making something that is so much like the original. The originals were very large: about 500mm by 250mm by 250mm. It would make sense to build the repro to a smaller scale. Maybe 2/3 scale or slightly smaller.
An actual solid state radio receiver will fit into a hollowed out area under the base and all its controls could be accessible from the back edge of the base. But today’s receivers can have bluetooth that allows remote control. All it really needs is a speaker.