Has Anyone Ever Seen A Royal Prince M5000 Like This!!??

[ubergreenguru]

So... This was a recent eBay find of mine: A 1997 Model Year Royal Prince M5000 with a RED BAG!

First off, I thought 1996 was the last production year for all variants of Royal Metal Hand Vacuums... So I was quite surprised to find a M5000 with a 1997 date code!

On top of that, I had never before seen a Royal M5000... Or any Royal Prince variant with a Red cloth bag like this one!

Upon finding this on eBay earlier this week, I *immediately* purchased it since I had never seen anything like it ever before! (Plus, the price was right!)

I just received it earlier today & as I anticipated from the pictures on eBay, it was in pretty rough condition (Nozzle Housing badly oxidized; missing both brush roll + bottom plate) -- But more importantly, the cloth bag is in remarkably good condition! (No rips/tears; no stains; no corrosion around bag ring)

I plan on purchasing another M5000 or M501 to use as a donor machine for the parts that are missing and/or too far gone to bother restoring - and eventually get this little '97 Royal Prince restored to as much of its original glory as I possibly can.

Anyways! I am *VERY CURIOUS* to know if anyone here on VacuumLand.Org has ever seen a Royal M5000 with a red bag like this one!?

And has anyone seen or heard of any other Royal Prince Metal Hand Vacs that were manufactured in 1997 like this one!? - Because before I stumbled upon this particular vacuum, the most recent Metal Hand Vacs I had seen were made during the 1996 model year. (I thought Royal stopped producing Metal Hand Vacs after 1996?)

I would love to hear if anyone knows anything more about this [obviously rare & uncommon] Royal M5000 variant!

If you have *any* information or details about this Peculiar Royal Prince - Please Share!

Thanks For Looking!

Sincerely,
~Justin in Chicago

 

[regularrett69]

I have the matching upright to that little one! I've seen a couple of Princes with weird bags, never that one. The one that I remember most was last month there was a metal prince with a pro series bag somehow, but it didn't say pro series on anywhere other than the bag pattern. 


 


Regards, Garrett

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

UberGreenGuru

Justin,

Awesome find!

But... I hope that another rare version of the M5000 will surface. That is, a late 1987/early 1988 build without the finger guard by the on/off switch.

~Ben

 

[lesinutah]

Every

High end model of royal had a prince in same color scheme and bag.

 

[ubergreenguru]

KirbyClassicIII, I will keep an eye out for one of those & let you know if I come across one.


Lesinutah, that's cool! Royal litterally made a little hand vacuum to match their uprights - I love it!

 

[ubergreenguru]

RegularRett69 - I remember seeing that M5000 w/ the Pro Series bag on it, too! Definitely a weird combination... But I'm assuming it didn't come that way from the factory though.

 

[centralvacs1928]

Very cool! I have the more common M5000 with the pink/mauve bag and yours looks much nicer.

Never knew they made these all the way to '97 either. They are a great little vac, so much more solid and quiet than anything else.

 

[ubergreenguru]

Centralvacs1928 - I completely agree with you 100 Percent! The Royal Prince Model 5000 + Model 501 Hand Vacuums are amazingly solid and well-built machines! Plus, for the amount of power these little vacuums have, they are surprisingly & pleasantly quiet!

Royal built some truly spectacular vacuum cleaners during their heyday. Good, solid, powerful, all-metal, American-made vacuums that were built to last! (Back when Quality actually meant something to manufactures & consumers)

I have a couple other M5000's in my collection with the more common Pink/Mauve Scafitex bags. - I also have a Stark Model 570, which was a private-label version of the M5000 produced by Royal for Stark. The M570 is nearly identical to the M5000, however, has no logo on the bag & features the "Stark" brand name on the nozzle rather than the Royal logo.

As much as I love my M5000's with the Pink/Mauve bags... Every time I walk into the room and see the Velvety Red Bag paired with the Dark Red Housing & Handle Grip of the M5000 - I can't help but think to myself "*THIS* is how a M5000 is *SUPPOSED TO LOOK*!" - The '97 M5000 simply looks *SO DAMM GOOD* with that red bag on there!

Gosh! I seriously love these Royal Metal Hand Vacuums so much that it has become an obsession!

It's probably a good thing that there's not more carpet in this house... Otherwise I *KNOW* I'd be collecting Royal Uprights, too! So until I move somewhere with more carpeting, my Oreck Upright is perfect for my vacuuming needs. Even then, I already have 4x Orecks Uprights in my collection. [this post was last edited: 3/30/2021-08:11]

 

[ubergreenguru]

KirbyClassicIII, Please check your E-Mail - I sent you something that *may be of interest*! [Re: Royal M5000 w/o Switch Guard]

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

UberGreenGuru

Justin,

I got the email you sent me!

~Ben

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

UberGreenGuru

Justin,

Here's the parts list for the Royal 501 that applied to the pre-1988 models without the finger guard by the switch.

Most of the parts used on these early M5000s I'm speaking of were the same, except substitute the following color code for any other trim color regarding applicable trim pieces:
8 - Burgundy
(cf. 1-501314-800 - handle grip in burgundy)

Notable trim parts used exclusively on M5000 series F:
1-060636-100 - cord, gray
2-028731-800 - burgundy handle grip with gray cord

~Ben

 

[themaritimegirl]

I found another...

If this is the first Prince of this variety that has been documented here, then I have just found the second. Unfortunately, it's the subject of a destruction video on YouTube.

Oddly, while the bag matches, the vacuum itself is a normal blue/grey 501.

 

[themaritimegirl]

Oops

I mis-copied the link. Here it is:

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

themaritimegirl

Florence,

A very sad ending for this 501, indeed...

Another Royal also got mistreated... this model 3-604 Heavy Duty Commercial (you will have to view this directly on YouTube, and to click the "I Understand" button to watch):

(oddly, despite what damage they did to this machine, the motor still ran until they merely unplugged the power cord)

~Ben

 

[regularrett69]

UberGreenGuru

I see you replied saying that you don't think the pro series bag on the royal prince was original, but I think otherwise. I have seen about 4 of these sell on eBay so far, and all of them have a dark blue main housing with the pro series bag. There's no way that 4 of these just happened to have been switched up and sold. Also, the bags in all of them were perfectly fitted to the bag collar. Dirt Devil Pro Series bags weren't sewn in the same way royal prince cloth bags were, and the dirt devil ones had a rubber collar sewn to them.

Best regards, Garrett Thompson

 

[panasonicvac]

Out of curiosity

Did they ever make a Dirt Devil version of one of these before?

 

[human]

I believe the metal ones carried the Royal name and the plastic ones were Dirt Devils.

 

[huskyvacs]

Yes, Royal was the parent company and "Dirt Devil" was just a brand.

Dirt Devil brand was always about low end and budget vacuums to fill price gaps left by other manufacturers. They typically swung their sword under the $80 price margin. That's why in poorer neighborhoods and communities you will see Dirt Devils by the ton, but in richer areas - even department stores - you might see very little to no Dirt Devil brand appear or be sold.

There was a very short lived commercial line for Dirt Devil brand name in the early millennium where they took their metal bodied Royal uprights and sold them under the Dirt Devil brand but they are rare to find. There was never a Dirt Devil metal hand vac.

The following photo was from an eBay auction from early 2021 of a 2003 Dirt Devil 089000 that sold for well over $120.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

huskyvacs

Royal initially marketed the Dirt Devil brand in 1984, which at first only consisted of the model 503 hand vacuum, to help the company break through into the mass market channel (Sears, J. C. Penney, Montgomery Ward, Wal-Mart, etc.) since their metal vacuums were only carried through their authorized dealerships (just as Kirby, Rainbow and Filter Queen did, and still does, with selling their machines).

The 501 Prince metal hand vacuum was, however, sold at some mass-market chains like Macy's and (Sportsman's) Emporium, among others.

~Ben