Royal Consumer Information Products Classic Retro Manual Typewriter (Black), Model Number: 79104P

Great design. Works well. Antique looking, but fully functional.

I am so disappointed in this typewriter, I could cry. I am a poet and visual artist, and I often include text in my work. I have a vintage Royal and a vintage Hermes, but was hoping to add a new, modern typewriter to my collection as well. The Royal Classic model 79104p is made in China, with many plastic (read cheap) parts. The typewriter shipped to me has a problem with the carriage roller in that it does not advance the paper; to roll a sheet into place, I must manhandle the paper, coaxing it into the carriage by employing the paper release lever. Also, the keyboard has crooked plastic keys, carelessly glued on, and the typewritten line is often misaligned. Although some of these idiosyncrasies are welcomed because I am an artist, if you are a serious writer, forget purchasing this machine. It's pretty much a piece of crap.

"I gave the three star rating for the 'easy to use' because most people born after the 80's, 90's will have a difficult time using this as it is a 'deliberate act' tool when writing. The keys must be pressed hard and additional product must be purchased when you need to make corrections in your writing; correction tape, white out liquid, pens, brushes, etc. as well as typewriter ribbon, are needed when you make mistakes in your writing. This is not like a computer which takes slight of hand and does the work for you. I love this little typewriter. 'Takes me back to my junior high school days for school assignments and spare time writing on my novels. Thank you!"

The first one that was sent to me must have been tossed around on the truck or somewhere along the route to my home. I sent it back in exchange for another one. The 2nd one arrived quicker than I thought it would. I was happy about that. This one, #2, I took it out of the box, like I did the first one, and, low and behold, it was very very good. I own an old 1938 Royal model O, the thing is like a tank, solid and can be pounded on for hours when writing. This new one, is solid, and I can hammer on it without much concern. The words on the page are clear and dark, both red and black. I got it because my two granddaughters typed on the antique one, they respected it, but I thought next time they are over they can type on the new one, and God forbid if they break it at least it's not an antique. I like it. The Classic gives me the same satisfaction of manual typing I got before I switched to computers. It's worth it. Be critical when yours arrives, put it through its paces immediately and type away for hours. If you get a lemon, send it back, it was no hassle. And in a couple of weeks after hammering away at this one if it breaks down, I'll exchange it until I get one that is built the way manual typewriters are supposed to be built, for use, a lot of use. It's worth Enjoy.

Unfortunately it kept skipping . Disappointed and had no problem returning it . Really liked it but …skipping .

Great machine. Read the setup instructions carefully. The metal bar protecting the keys during shipping must be removed and the plastic protecting the carriage. There is the possibility that those reporting dry ribbons or keys not making an imprint did not remove the metal bar over the keys. This is not an electric typewriter and does take some strong fingers. I love the sound of the keys striking the carriage and the bell ringing.

DO NOT BUY. Shoddy workmanship makes this typewriter barely functional. Followed directions etc. But this typewriter is poorly calibrated so ribbon , batten , line spacing and shift function will not work consistently enough to type a letter or post card. It is misaligned in all those places. It looks like a typewriter — but only delivers all the hassles that a thrifted version might have. It needs fixing on day one. So expensive too-/ I feel robbed! Very disappointed 😕

WOULD I RECOMMEND THIS FOR HARD-CORE COLLECTORS? Sure. WOULD I RECOMMEND THIS FOR A BEGINNER: No. Freaking. Way. When I brought the new Royal Classic into my office this afternoon, an immediate din filled the air. My NOS Charger 11 doubled over in laughter. The Corona 3s shrieked. My refurbished Hermes Rocket wailed, “I thought you said you loved me!” The Olivetti M40 and Studio 44 just shook their heads and, I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but I believe they were mumbling in Italian about my mental state. The Contessas said nothing because they were too busy staring at themselves in a mirror. The most interesting response, of course, came from the five Royals in the room, who all looked at each other and said, “Whose kid is that?” Now before I roll into a full appraisal of the Royal Classic, I think it’s important that we analyze it in context of its peers, not its ancestors. Obviously, this guy isn’t going to measure up to any machine built before 1980. But here’s a quick recap of the other recent typewriter efforts attempted in the late aughts and 2010s: OLIVETTI MS-25/ROYAL SCRITTORE: I don’t know just how well these things can type out of the box because the first time I tried the Scrittore, the ribbon vibrator exploded at the “jumped” portion of the quick brown fox sentence. I do, however, suspect these machines are an excellent fuel source on a cold night in the wilderness. ROYAL SCRITTORE II: If you’ve seen one of these slappy claptraps, they are an obvious imitation of the rounded Olympia Traveller C. They work about as well as them, too. I found them to be an improvement, for whatever that is worth, and I must admit they are a favorite among the new typewriters because it’s just fun to watch those typebars just flying around like someone hysterically waving their hands. ROYAL EPOCH: I think the makers really made an effort with this one, but the only way I can really describe it is with a Star Trek reference. Bear with me. In the original pilot episode titled “The Cage” – which was rejected by NBC – Captain Pike encounters a human survivor on the Planet Talos. The survivor was badly injured when her ship crashed on the planet and the Talosians, who had never seen a human before, tried to put her back together as best they could based on information they cobbled from the downed ship. Apparently, the only thing they found was a DVD of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” because when they put her together … well … yeah. But the Talosians had really big brains and were masters of illusion, so they were able to cast her appearance to others as if she was real and spectacular. This is the Epoch. It was put together by rapscallions who found typewriter parts in a dumpster. They then handed their creations to someone who put them in a sleek – if unspectacular – body to make a buck. WE R MEMORY KEEPERS TYPECASTER: Stupid name, but I get it. I have two of these and they were among the weirdest experiences of my typewriter collecting life. When I took the first one out of the box, it was as if no one tightened its screws. It was inoperable. The carriage return lever was dangling. I was bored and I channeled my inner Talosian to put the thing back together in a close approximation of what it was supposed to be. Result: Amazeballs. It was a really surprising machine. The alignment was hopeless and each typed line looked like a flat street with speed bumps. But the feel was better than any of the previous new models and better than many 1970s machines. As you well know, the body design is probably the best of all the new machines and a clear inspiration for the Royal Classic’s look. It is plastic and cheap plastic at that. Boo. I bought a second WRMK out of curiosity. It had none of the out-of-box issues of my first one. Its parts were all in the right place with the screws tightened and all, but I committed the sin of typing on it and the noises it made still haunt me. It’s gone now. I told my other typewriters it’s living on a farm where it can run free. OK. The Royal Classic. Here we go: From the drop, as you probably expected as soon as you saw pictures of it, this guy is clearly a continuation of the We R Memory Keepers Typecaster. It’s so obvious that even in the owner’s manual, it is accidentally called a Typecast at one point. That led to an immediate and terrifying concern for me, considering its price. I bought this for $188, which is just $19 over the price Michaels charged for the WRMK. If they replaced the plastic with metal and chose to charge just $19 more for it? There had to be compromises in the build, be it the typewriter’s function or the cheapness of the metal body. Good news: The metal is LEGIT. This is rock-hard, Grade-A steel. Everywhere. The only plastic bits are the keytops and the various knobs. It’s heavy. It’s sturdy. Most of all, it’s bloody gorgeous. Somehow, the metal makes that much of a difference, aesthetically. If it can type even halfway competently, it’s a machine I’ll keep in my office, in my rotation, and on display at all times. Bad news: It can’t type competently. Worse news: It actually hurts to type on it. There is a significant design flaw with the space bar. It is low-slung and has enormous give in it. When you hit it with your thumb, your digit will slam against the front of the frame. After just one sentence, I was feeling a dull throb in the side of my right thumb from striking the frame. Perhaps I can build up a callous. Cripes. This is a pica machine and the typeface pushes the bounds of just how big it can go. The alignment is erratic. One line is perfectly level, the next is a rollercoaster. That is a dark and frightening sign for the build quality. I consider an inconsistency like that to possibly be worse than if it was just simply a rollercoaster. Such a variance means the machining of the components was haphazard and lacked quality control. I call this sort of typewriter a Fernando – “You look MAHVELOUS! It’s better to look good than to feel good!” The feel of the keys is decent enough. It’s like the Epoch and the WRMK in that the tops have a slight cupping to them for your fingertips. It’s comfortable for all your digits except your thumb, which will be giving its life in service to your screed. The keystrike itself is consistent, though the sound of the typebars is that same, annoying, chintzy echo. It has the weird tinny sound of all the others when you use the carriage return. The return isn’t very smooth and there was enough resistance early on that I wondered if I left a plastic stopper in it somewhere. I didn’t. It just needed to warm up. It does stay in place. No hint of migration as you type on it (this detail may vary – I am using a felt pad underneath it). In conclusion: Our Chinese typewriter overlords get a lot of credit for continuing to try new things. The body is a clear and obvious improvement and it rivals the bodies of all our favorite 1940s and 1950s models. Really! I can’t believe I’m typing that, but it’s true. They improved nothing else. I guess we just have to accept that for now. Maybe the next generation will contain build improvements. I’ll gladly pay a little more for that. Remember, back in the early- to mid-century days, buying a typewriter cost the equivalent of a high-end laptop. If they ever put that much effort into a typewriter again, it would probably cost $400-$500 and not find much of a market, so I get the shortcuts. However, it’s a bit of a Catch-22 – you aren’t going to make enough money on a cheap build to justify putting the money into a better build. If you had a better build from the beginning, there’s not a big enough market for typewriters to justify the expense. Will these new typewriters ever improve enough to rival their ancestors? Doubtful. But who knows. Maybe the materials will become cheaper and enable improved build quality. One can dream. In the meantime, I’ll probably be right here, buying every new attempt. I appreciate the effort. This latest typer is pretty, pretty, pretty and definitely an improvement style-wise. Sadly, the mechanics remain a mess, so when I say this typewriter is an improvement, all that really means is we’ve progressed from an Edsel to a Pinto. If you are just starting out on your typewriter adventures, stick to Craigslist or eBay and find you a Smith-Corona Sterling or Super-Silent from the 1950s. It remains the simplest, smoothest and most ubiquitous machine on in the Typosphere. You can get one for less than the cost of this beast and it will last longer despite giving the Classic a nearly 70-year head start.

My girlfriend is an aspiring writer and I got this for her to spice her hobby up a bit. She loves it. It works perfectly. Easy to use. It's satisfying to hear the constant clacking of metal as she spit balls ideas.

Typewriter arrived broken. Working on returning it for full refund.

It is not authentic. The logo on the one I got is not straight so the manufacture is poor. You have to press very strong on the keyboard for the ink to be transferred to the paper. It looks good as a design, but don’t expect to write too much. The only thing that bothers is the twisted logo. The delivery was excellent though.

Diese Schreibmaschine ist eine absolute Frechheit. Funktioniert überhaupt nicht. Billigprodukt , keinen Euro wert.

I'm not a typewriter collector- I just wanted a simple classic manual typewriter and this is it. Looks and feels beautiful and it was a wonderful Christmas present that I am using alot!