At Christmas, Santa brought me a rather large Lego box. It was the Typewriter 21327 set, a semi-functional portable manual typewriter. At 2079 pieces, I knew this was going to be a long build, and knowing what I do about manual typewriters, it was going to be complicated.
I had to wait until I had some free time before starting it. Being off work this week with spring break, I started Tuesday morning and finished at lunch today.
The first part to be done was the keyboard. As expected, it was complicated! All of the keys “work”, except for the shift, shift lock, backspace and space bar.
That was enough for the first day. The second day was building the “basket” that all the keys push on and the escapement and carriage.
The escapement on a manual typewriter is the part that makes the carriage “click” forward with every keystroke. The carriage is spring-loaded and pushing it away from the camera loads the spring. Keystrokes allow the carriage to come forward a little bit. You can see the big notched “propeller” gear with the red catch in the picture.
Today was all about finishing the case, the roller and the “fake” type bars flanking the real one. The roller really works, but the ribbon is dry and the spools aren’t real.
Overall, this kit is a funny mix of things that actually work and things that don’t. The keyboard and escapement are mind-blowing. But no matter how complex this kit is, a real manual typewriter is even more complex. A typical typewriter in 1960 (a rough estimate of the year that this model would represent) would have cost about $300 to $400, which is over $3,700 in today’s dollars. These were computers for their time, mechanical marvels that continue to work 50 years later with some care and attention.
It was fun to build and made me appreciate my collection even more.
Must have taken someone awhile to figure out!!! Fits right in with your collection.