Royal Manual Typewriter black (79100G)

I read all 20 reviews on the Amazon site before pulling the trigger and rolling the dice that this typewriter wouldn't be broken during shipping. That really seemed to be the delineation between a good and bad review for this machine.Because of that, I wondered as I waited whether or not the Royal Epoch was made of flimsy plastics. Would it fly apart under heavy use? Would the carriage return lever -- something many people wrote negatively about -- be as fragile as claimed?Well, I was pleasantly surprised. It's plastic, sure, but it's very heavy plastic, almost metallic to the touch. It's heavier than it looks. Everything was attached. No bugaboos during shipping (whew!). I put it through its initial paces and everything was in working order. This is a very good machine!One thing I must caution those who are considering it, though -- manual typewriters are not for the faint of heart. You have to be a true writer, someone who wants to connect with their inner Hemingway, Gellhorn or the like. There will be no corrections. It won't be pretty on the page, like a computer printed document. This is old school and your nimble keyboard fingers may very well not be up to the task.Now that's something else I noticed throughout the reviews I read. If you were someone who grew up and learned to type on a manual, you're hunky-dory with the idiosyncratic nature of these beasties. If you're a newbie? You're gonna have a learning curve. Don't give up!In time, you will discover the freedom a manual gifts to you. Writing at a computer invites distraction. If you're on a manual, you are there to write. And write you will! You might be tempted to hit eBay and find a vintage manual and you are welcome to do so. The vintage machines are outstanding to this day, especially the Royal Quiet Deluxe (I have one of those). But they do require a lot of upkeep. This Royal Epoch pays homage to its ancestors while be a modern and, thusly, easier to maintain beastie. Buy this machine. You will not be disappointed! (Unless it's shipped badly, lol). Good luck!

Beautiful machine. They don't make it like this anymore. Grab one!

The typewriter is a very, very basic one. Yes, you get what you pay for. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting to have the same quality of that of a top of the line, vintage typewriter. However, I did expect it to at least function properly. I'll also admit that I'm a novice at this but I learned how to type in high school many moons ago so I knew the keys would require much more pressure than our modern keyboards. But this will in fact break any nails you may have after constant pressing down on the keys...just so you know. You must press firmly in order to achieve an even application of the ink. Otherwise, you'll achieve faded or an incomplete lettering onto the paper. I can get past that since the the keys pad tend to soften over time. Secondly, the letter "e" and "a" seem to strike higher that the rest of the letters. Which is a problem in itself since most words use the letter "e" and or "a". However much of my disdain is the fact that no one, not even the seller, can tell my why or how to remedy the ink smudging or leaving dust after typing. Although spanking brand new, I don't know if I need another ribbon or if this is just a piece of junk...probably a little of both I would presume. If you want a typewriter just for the sake of having one, try your local antique shop. I wouldn't recommend this product. You can have mine!

Full disclosure: I bought this typewriter, my very first, partially because I wanted to know how typewriters work. I figured that a newly-made one would be easier to set up and get started on than an old fixer-upper, but a significant part of my interest was that, if I ran into problems (like other people who have reviewed the Epoch), I'd get the opportunity to pop the thing open and tinker around in it to try and fix it myselfI have the dubious honor of saying: this typewriter delivered on both fronts! And the only reason I give a three (rather than two, or one) star review to this machine—which over the past four weeks has never faltered in its dauntless attempts to turn itself into an inert heap of metal and plastic—is that I am flushed with the satisfaction, pride, and defiance of keeping this ever-breaking heap of garbage working.PROS:I genuinely enjoy writing with the Epoch. Though it may be that I am simply genuinely enjoying writing with a typewriter. There is a kind of magic to using such a complex machine, with such a nuanced function, that is purely and solely mechanical in nature. To type on something that works because of levers and physical rules, and not electricity and the incantation of abstracted numbers. As someone born into the digital age, I savored my moments on the first day when I would look at it and think, "how do I turn this on again?" Or when I finished—a brief urge to switch it off, so it wouldn't run down its nonexistent battery.It also worked fine right out of the box. And came with a ribbon installed! That was nice.CONS:On my second day of owning the typewriter, I used the Tab key a lot, and after a while, the carriage advancement started getting slower and slower, the spacing between keys more erratic and cramped, until finally it was unusable. I was leaving on a trip the next day, so after fiddling around with it to no avail, I let it rest for a week. When I got back, the problem was fixed! So I used Tab a lot again and, sure enough, the problem re-manifested. After deciding to void my warranty, I took everything apart and discovered a weird little plastic gear-like contraption near the escapement which appeared to have no function other than expanding when it rotates, sabotaging the operation of the typewriter. I removed it. Works great!About a week later, one of the platen knobs, under normal usage scrolling up the page, suddenly loosened. It felt as though I had unscrewed a nut inside, and now it is fully non-functional. I've yet to fix that.Then, this evening, after a few days of occasional hitches in the carriage's action, I realized that the assembly holding the ball bearings on which the carriage slides had started to pop out of its track. (This is immaterial, but I tried to push it back in, and one of the ball bearings popped out and rolled around the floor.)Also, a few keys are consistently sticky (forgivable), one of the tab stops is frozen in place (fixed with pliars), and it's dang hard to take apart (probably for the best).SO:I like my typewriter. I also despise it. It's an adventure. If you're new to typewriters, have a spare $150, and this sounds like fun to you—take a chance. Go ahead and get this one. The day you get it, you take it out of the box, and it works. It's a typewriter.If you're an ordinary, well-adjusted person who wants a functional typewriter, though, I'd say shop around. As my dad says—the things used to be everywhere, everyone used them, they didn't all fall into a volcano when the Apple Lisa went on sale. My guess is you can find an older one for cheap pretty much anywhere, and any typewriter manufactured before 1990 will serve you better than a new Epoch.A caveat: I wanted to fix this typewriter myself, so I can't say for sure that I didn't just get a crappy one that I should have returned. Perhaps if I had wanted to wait for a new one, I'd have a nice, usable typewriter. A normal person returns a typewriter that stops working in the first week. I am broken inside. So, at least, is my typewriter.Happy typing!