I said I would never do this............................

[boater sam]

There's a story about the bent "U" which I believe to be true. The company wanted to borrow a real TR82 to copy the appearance. They approached Gerry Wells at the Vintage Wireless Museum who loaned them a set. By sheer chance that set had a bent "U" that was faithfully copied.

I've had the story from Gerry himself, at around the time the TR82/97 came out, and while he was a great one for telling tall tales in this case I think was telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Sounds totally plausible. Thanks Jeffrey.

Makes a nice story and an unusual looking "U".  I see that for the later copies they resorted to a correct font!

Sam.