Winner Winner Monster Dinner!

Last week I posted this monster of a package asking for your guesses:

If you haven’t had a guess yet, take a minute to guess!

Here’s some hints:

1. Not a Selectric… or any sort of electric typewriter.
2. Wide carriage. 17 and three-quarter inches of rubber.
3. It does not have ribbon functionality.
4. It does have typing functionality, albeit strange.
5. Not a braille or cheque writing machine.

 

Tell me when!

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SURPRISE!

Yeah it’s the monster in the back.

Can’t quite tell yet? Here’s the pictures from the eBay listing:

JENG JENG JENGGGG :D

What is this?
It’s a hulk with strange characters!
It points and it smashes!
It roars!
It terrorizes with its red rust frothing at the mouth!

This. Is. GOJIRA!
Or, you know it as Godzilla (ゴジラ), which incidentally, will be out in the theaters next month. :3

credits of Godzilla-movies.com

Ho-yeah!
Yeah. It’s a Japanese typewriter.
Congrats Ted on getting the closest guess!

Quick details.
Brand is Kokuyo, model make TW-3138, serial number 830219, probably made in the 1960’s. Mechanically Gojira is rusty as, the carriage lever is being silly and the carriage isn’t advancing as it should quite yet. I’m sure after a good flush and more discovering of the typing mechanism it’ll be stumbling smashing paper like its namesake.
Time to invest in that rust stuff!

I’ve got a couple of videos of its rather distinctive typing mechanism but I might leave that for another post, WordPress is being silly and not uploading them… and I’m heading off to bed.

Thanks for reading the supplies guys!
(Just one more time, I love this GIF :D )

Mystery Package!

That’s a Rubix cube for measure — it’s massive! There is much to do for this one and I am ridiculously excited, can you tell? Guesses anyone? ;)

C-C-C-Crazy!

I’ve got a nasty habit of collecting and purchasing things in pairs… Check out the suite of typewriter pairs I had at one stage.

My husband gives me “the look” every time we hit the shops and I exit with pairs of everything (sometimes multiple pairs, oh dear). I can’t help it, and I’m beginning to think it’s a real problem!

Proof of my OCD-ness is the horde of Model P’s. The most I have had at any time was probably 4 as per this post (two dark greens, one lime green, and one crinkled blue). Very pretty together, but I ended up keeping just three (Lime green, forest green and peach).

Two’s dandy but three’s a crowd for sure!

So how did I end up with three of a kind?
Honestly… I haven’t got the slightest of clues. :/

Lyla came first from Germany about 20 weeks ago. It already had a known drawstring issue, and that the ribbon covers were missing. The original eBay listing had the machine beautifully pictured, and I assumed that the keyboard was a German one. Imagine the surprise when it was revealed to be an Italian board! I got onto cleaning it pretty quickly, and I unknowingly smoothed out the rose gold panels… I thought it was funny look dirt then I saw it sparkle in the light. :(

The innards have odd rusting and oxidation, hopefully there’s a cure out there, somewhere.

I wasn’t game enough to fix the drawstring up till recently. I think the recent Type-In gave me written courage ;)

Fast forward to 17 weeks ago — this handsome bugger of gold and black turned up around Christmas time complete with original manual and in great condition. Went a little bit smarter with this one and used a toothbrush for the gold panels. The gold on the panels aren’t as bright as the lavender one, but still really handsome.

Then 3 weeks ago this scarlet mountain ash stunner of a smasher made it to our door right before I went away to Brisbane. It was a little bit of a wait for Scarlette to get to me from The States, the eBay seller was sick.
Gleaming innards, scratched hot body and a little problem with twisted cat gut is everything a collector wants. Wrangling the drawstring was a bit interesting but got it settled after an hour or so. Types like a dream!

Looking at it still gives me the shivers.
:)

Putting the three up together made me realise that I have touched almost all colours in the DuPont DUCO^® Finish… well at least in the base colours.  The cream and gold one is the only one in my to-touch list… or to-own :)

Be ready for more Corona 4’s! (and a manual)

J’s Mr. Green, Singapore

Steve Snow’s blue wonder, Brisbane

Ms K’s maroon madness, Singapore

Original size manual

Web sized manual

I think that’s enough Corona 4’s for the day, don’t you think?
Have a good weekend!

Schecksicherung

Just a quick hello and bye as the nephew is here and a commission was due yesterday and me just trying to fit this post before February ends: got this in the mail from Germany the other day, and absolutely loving it. The teeny tiny pins punched two and a half sheets of 80gsm easy. Looking at the print blown up is just dots to me. In real life print it is very clear. I exceptionally like “l” “*” and the subscript “o”.
Time to think of ways to use this!

Ciao everyone.

4 sets of cylinders and indexes, can’t wait to add more to the horde!

ITAM – Mignon Goodness

I have a suspicion Mignon’s were made for the handicap.

But this post isn’t about what I have on the way, it’s about this beautiful Mignon 4! (which I think was one of the first few typewriters I purchased into my spiral.)

Mignon 4, serial number 230746, 1925

Terrible profile picture

Appreciating different designs in different sorts of typewriters, this is part of what the ITAM is about.

I’m really pleased with this Mignon 4. The design is simple and functional – the flower like gears ensures that the type cylinder corresponds to the exact letter in the area the pointer is at. Only one word echos in my mind every time I pull the walnut wood lid off — “Ingenious.” The versatility it provides with interchangeable indexes and cylinders make this typewriter just incredible. Just a pop under da’ hood and a change of the cylinder and it feels like you have a whole new typewriter.
It’s design is simple, and is one I’m sure typewriter designers in their day have forehead-slapped themselves for not thinking simpler.

This set I got from Germany was really expensive, but it was worth every cent. Pristine working condition and came with extra goodies:

Oh the goodies! Original manual in German, brushes and the other two type sets.

Bulletin, Fraktur and Italics

Three index-cylinder sets?
Oh yes pleases.

The Fraktur and bulletin typeface is gorgeous, and that’s two typefaces off my wanted list.
Fraktur is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m sure I’ll be churning out some correspondence to a few lovers I know soon. My letter pile has been growing and I really should just dive in and reply! I promise, soon!

I’ve been meaning to get back into the swing of typewriter things but the rains in Darwin has been pretty severe. Laundry is taking two and a half days to get dry, and I’m not ready to deal with rusty or mouldy machines.  The air feels a little heavy, but nothing like what it was in October/November. I swear I felt like I was drowning in air.

Oh crumb, I just realised one of the cases in the to-clean-cabinet is covered in mould.
Time to get a move on, got a couple of posts lined up for the next few days. Hopefully it’ll see the light of day sooner than later.
Happy ITAM guys, can’t wait to read more awesome posts, and thanks for reading ;)

P.S. Mignon Manual download here:

ORIGINAL SIZE

WEB FRIENDLY SIZE