FIVE WORST PORTABLE TYPEWRITERS EVER MADE:
1. Olivetti MS 25 Premier Plus
(minus 100 points - the benchmark)
2. Olivetti Lettera 82 (aka Hermes Baby) (minus 98.75 points)
3. Any "Rover" or "Generation" model
(minus 94.75 points)
4. IMC Primavera 2000
(minus 89 points)
5. Monpti
(minus 87.25 points)
(Looks utterly magnificent, types like total poo)
*I should confess that for this typecast I used one of those cheap Chinese ribbons which were being sold on Australian eBay (not sure if they are still being listed). Anyway, my experience with these is that they are nowhere near the quality of the Malaysian-made Fullmark ribbon. For one thing, I have found the spools to be by no means "universal". For another, there seems to be far too much "splattering" of ink all over the place.
17 comments:
This is hilarious!
Robert, you buy this junk so we don't have to. Right?
As painful as it is to admit it, the answer is "Yes". Now I have the worry of trying to get rid of it!
I take it the typewriter looks much better than it could ever type.
It may look OK, Bill, but it types like a lemon, a sick parrot, a rotten tomato. It's rubbish.
I just noticed that it has a rupees sign. Probably it's responsible for starting the Indian switchover to computers.
Yes, I noticed that too, Richard, and wondered ...
Someone suggested that since my Olivetti Lettera 41 had a yen symbol, it must be made for the Japanese market. I doubt that very, very much. I've never seen an Olivetti advertised in Japan from this period, although they did market strongly there in the early to mid-60s, before Brother etc got a stronghold. I don't think you could make a Western-keyboard typewriter in Spain that would compete for price with a home-grown Japanese machine, for one thing. The only four Lettera 41/42s I have ever seen were in Oz, NZ and Holland.
I just think that in this period, Olivetti was covering its bases and widening its range - and, more to the point, lowering its costs. It wouldn't surprise me to find Olivettis with pounds, dollars, rupees/yen on the one keyboard.
I wonder if you could drop the better-working guts of an earlier Hermes Baby/Rocket or Empire Aristocrat into that nice orange shell? Make a HermOvetti!
Olivetti would probably have cheered when Oz and NZ dropped the pound for the dollar in the mid-60s.
Remember, it's not just a keptop, it's a changed slug as well.
Hey Ted, I'm going to try that RIGHT NOW!!! Thanks, mate, great idea!
An inspired typecast! I actually thing the misalignment is a nice feature- Olivetti Lettera 82 with Comic typeface. :)
It gets worse than the Olivetti... the Royal or Roy-type version of the same machine, the ME-25 Extra is actually just slightly more shoddily built. Perhaps a -102.3 on your scale. I own one of each.
You really need to try an Olivetti Lettera 12. The twelve is without doubt the most execrable device ever put into production and to expect humans to pay money for this 'thing' is malevolent lunacy.
I just purchased a Hermes Rocket made in Brazil, please tell me I didn't purchase a machine as bad as the Olivetti Lettera 82!
Hello, my Lettera 82 is a perfect working machine! A lot of fun to use it (surely not a machine for heavy use), and, most important, lightweight! All the Best from Como, Italy. Davide
I would not be that harsh on this machine. When you buy in the dark web a second hand item chances you get a bad deal are quite high. You probably got one. Spielberg famously used one of these for Indiana Jones and nobody complained about the end result. My Lettera 82 is well engineered and certainly a good typewriter to work on. I prefer this machine to the Olympia traveller deluxe, which is also good but feels mechanically inferior. All the metal parts look and feel better on the lettera 82. Everything sits down perfect here as you would expect from a Swiss made typewriter. No one said a bad thing on the Hermes baby this is the same machine with a cheaper plasticky dress made only to please the eye but not the touch. Mine comes in a nice emerald green with white keys. It's very small and relatively lightweight which is very good for a portable machine like this one. It certainly does the job. For a better experience you should only compromise on portability which this one has in abundance.
You're right. The Lettera 82 is a blasfeme not only for Olivetti, for the Brazilian industry too! I have one and is extremely fragile, need to type slowly so the text doesn't come out misaligned and the caps lock don't works at well, close to being a worst quality Chinese toy.
By my researchs, the Brazilian Olivetti produced the heaviest office and electric models, while the portable models cames from Mexico until importation was banned by a reserve-market law from mid-70's.
In late 70's or early 80's Hermes do Brasil was closed and his actives was taken by Olivetti, with no portable models in production must be to simply rename the Hermes Baby. Earlier 82's cames with square Hermes-design keys, soon replaced by round keys and cames in a great color variety. Some examples was marked as "Made by Hermes for Olivetti"
I'm from Brazil, and as far i know here in the 80's the market was dominated by Remington due to a lowest quality of local Olivettis even in heavy models.
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