I made a short news post about an upcoming minified LCD TV that has been designed to look like a CRT, and boy did it receive a lot of backlash on X. Some of it for good reason; that's because Unico, the company behind it, riddled their promotional material with AI-generated assets, and we all know how gamers feel about that... it ain't good.
But many also shamed the fact that it wasn't a real CRT. A real CRT is incredibly hard to manufacture in 2026, which feels opposite to what it should be, but the reality is that nobody makes the components anymore; nobody wants to because they cost a fortune and certain safety regulations make it nearly impossible to make it a viable product to produce, even if thousands of retro gamers want new ones.
And I'll be honest, I didn't think this product would go as far as it has gone on Kickstarter, it's managed to smash its goal and raise over $100,000 in less than 24 hours, raising eyebrows across social media and showing that there is indeed a market for CRT look-alikes. However, something feels fishy.
Before I explain the fishiness, for those new to this product, it's quite simply a retro-inspired 10" Mini LCD TV with retro ports, allowing you to connect your retro consoles and electronics to it organically, and there's even a storage hatch in the back for you to store away the console and its controllers neatly. It's a cool product with an official name of Traveller Ulw10, and its a monitor that can sit on desks or in a small gaming setup aesthetically, manufactured in the USA by a company known as Unico, who have been making retro products since 2019.
Though they have very little social media following, and are fairly unknown in the space. We've been writing about retro gaming products for almost 8 years now and this was the first we heard of them, so when I saw that they raised so much money in such a small period of time, i'd be lying if I didn't say I have my suspicions. Generating that level of revenue in such a small period of time is a remarkably hard thing to do in the retro gaming industry, but these guys farted out 6-figures in no time with no real social media campaigns, very little comments on their posts and their images and video material is riddled with AI slop and shortcuts that make it feel like its been made with very little appreciation for the audience and it shows they're willing to make shortcuts. Perhaps I am overthinking here, or they have a bunch of behind the scenes business partners who are wanting to invest in a number of these things, i honestly don't know, but it's odd.
That aside, this 4:3 display will certainly pair well with you retro consoles, and offers a modern touch that many appreciate and somewhat expect in a product like this. It comes with handles for carrying, and even modern ports too for those who want to hook this up with more modern consoles. As of now the Kickstarter is live and there's a Super Early Bird price of $289 for one Traveller ULw10 Monitor, it comes in three different colours to choose from, Gray, Red and Cream.
