Before mechanical keyboards, we had these. (Photo: The Lego Group)
From a distance Lego Ideas set 21327, Typewriter, doesn’t look very Lego. With printed pieces for each of its 32 keys, a working typebar mechanism, and a new cloth Lego element replicating a typewriter ribbon, it looks every bit the vintage writing tool it’s meant to emulate.
Originally conceived by
Lego Masters UK champion Steve Guiness as a Lego Ideas project in 2018, the official Lego Typewriter set differs from his concept in that instead of using bricks to emulate paper, you can feed real sheets of bleached, pressed wood into the brick-built machine. The set is meant to pay homage to the modern typewriters of a bygone age, including the one used by Lego Group founder Ole Kirk Christiansen. Between that soft green colour and its distinctive form, it’s instantly recognisable as what it’s supposed to be.