[piano-driven lounge music]
Greetings and welcome to an LGR thing
that is going to be a bit more relaxed,
laid back as I work on more involved projects,
in the meantime.
Yeah, this right here is a model kit from Japan
based on the IBM ThinkPad 701C,
a legendary laptop that I have covered previously on LGR.
And the real standout feature of that laptop
is the design of its keyboard,
which is officially known as the TrackWrite.
But more colloquially known as the Butterfly keyboard.
It's just a fantastically satisfying design,
both to look at and to use,
the fact that it transforms
from the smaller to a larger keyboard layout
in such a compact little package overall,
it was just an amazing computer design for 1995,
and it's still impressive today.
So it makes sense that this model
would be chosen to celebrate the 10th anniversary
of the IBM ThinkPad.
And that anniversary happened in 2002.
I haven't had it that long, but you know,
it's been sitting around unassembled for all that time.
And I got this a while back just to assemble on a rainy day,
and it just stopped raining.
So this will be a perfect day to do it, I think,
and check it out.
It's got the keyboard assembly that is supposed to work
pretty much like the actual TrackWrite keyboard,
which is just awesome.
I love putting together smaller scale models,
and this is a 65% one.
So, it's not like super tiny necessarily,
but yeah, it's going to be relatively small,
and you can see here that it was actually manufactured
for IBM by Akimitsu,
or I guess they were the ones that sold it anyway.
Looking at their website,
they were the ones that took care of the IBM Logo Store,
I guess they still do.
But yeah, this was apparently sold for a limited time
or limited quantities in some form on that website.
And also given to IBM employees and trade shows.
I just imported it however long ago
because I wanted to put it together.
And then, you know, here it is.
So we've got some instructions, so that'll be good.
Hopefully they're pretty simple,
they're all in Japanese of course,
but you know, we'll figure it out.
And then the computer parts themselves, look at this.
We got some gears and all sorts of weird little things
like springs, lots of screws, of course,
a little teeny little screwdriver.
It looks like a little TrackPoint nub there. [chuckling]
And of course,
we've got the computer itself.
It's almost handheld,
but not quite, a bit larger than like an NES Classic
that would probably be around this size.
So yeah, it's much smaller than the computer itself,
but not like super, super, super tiny either.
Look at that though.
That's the keyboard.
Ooh, that's going to slide apart and stuff.
The keys don't press down,
but I mean, the modeling quality looks fantastic.
I don't know if like this company
does a bunch of other models or anything, but dude,
the last thing, like a little model, a card,
like a museum card that you'd see and put to the side of it,
just sat down and like a little plastic thing.
Okay, you got a layout right here
of all the different parts.
There are a good number of them.
Don't know how long this is going to take to put together,
but obviously I'm going to be editing it.
So I guess it doesn't matter too much to you. [chuckles]
I've never actually put together
like a model of a computer before.
I've only ever done like cars, and planes, and boats,
and things like, but this...
Ah, it just, it looks pretty straightforward,
relatively speaking.
There's also a little spot in the front here
where you can slide in like a little printout of a screen.
[chuckling]
I think that's a nice touch.
Hmm, all sorts of little things in here.
So this, I'm assuming, is just going to be
all the different parts that we need
to get the Butterfly keyboard itself going on.
There's a little cover there for,
it looks like probably the side of the computer.
Oh yeah, look at this.
[keyboard sliding]
Of course, with the standard Japanese layout
that the ThinkPad 701C had in Japan,
I don't know if this was a more popular machine over there
than it was here in the US.
I mean, it had its cult following pretty much worldwide,
but you know,
I've only ever seen the US version in person and stuff.
And here we go, we got the laptop shell itself so.
You know, what I wonder if this is supposed to go.
Yeah.
So that's more of a thing
that just like goes in there like that
as opposed to being a little card on the side.
That's really cool.
Okay.
And then here is the bottom part of the case, man.
And the details on this are impressive.
I mean, seriously there,
I mean, it looks like a tiny little ThinkPad. [laughing]
So, all right,
let's go ahead and put this together.
Let's see how it goes.
[gentle piano music]
[keyboard snapping]
All right, so first up,
it looks like we're going to be doing some stuff
to the keyboard itself, get that whole assembly going.
So,
I got these two little rings here.
And I got my little tiny TrackPoint nub.
It is not a rubbery, it is just plastic,
but it looks as it should really. [laughing]
Get that.
[grunting]
I was moving the camera a bit here
'cause it was getting in the way.
So next up, looks like we have the bottom part
of the keyboard assembly itself here.
It's the plate that it goes on,
fits all the gears and things.
And we've got a little tube, little spring.
And this part,
which looks like it's going to go, kind of like this here.
And then you've got this little guy
that connects to the lid itself,
and makes all the gears and stuff happen
for the keyboard transformation.
Yeah, like this.
Yeah.
Oh, dang, that's even more substantial than I thought.
Thankfully there are only two types of screws.
These longer ones here.
And the shorter one.
And it seems the shorter ones
only go on the lid part, and the rest are all inside.
So that's good.
There's a satisfying teeny little
Phillips head screwdriver too. [chuckles]
I like that even this is modeled to be shaped
like a shrunken down screwdriver.
All right.
And this goes
here.
Yeah.
Just kind of guides that in place.
All right, next here.
It looks like we're just dropping this all
onto the keyboard assembly.
And we've got these little tracts
or things that go on the tracks.
Keep those in place.
[keyboard sliding] [laughing]
Oh,
yes, I'm very satisfied already.
I don't know about you.
All right, we're getting right to all the gears and things.
Thankfully they are all numbered too.
Like that has a teeny little number six on it.
Number five right here.
This is number seven.
It looks like it goes on
this.
Yeah.
And eight goes below that.
[laughing]
Feels like I'm playing a real life
Gizmos & Gadgets puzzle.
So you've got A that just slots down and here.
Aha.
And then the four piece
slots down here.
Oh, yeah.
[clicking]
Yeah, I can see how this will work
once it's all in place around back.
As it is, it's popping out of these little rails here,
but yeah, I think that's good.
All right, we've got some stuff around the top now.
Kind of, part of it anyway.
So this right here is the little LED strip, [chuckling]
or at least it would be.
I'm guessing it just snaps in place,
but don't really see anywhere for the edges to snap on.
Because yeah, it just pops right out
if you barely touch it, [chuckling]
I'll get some glue here in a minute.
And this part, it's a little translucent bit.
So yeah, that would be the infrared port right there.
[laughing]
Okay, I got that glued in place.
I'll just set that aside and let it dry,
okay.
Those are the bottom part.
Actually, yeah,
you can see the little IR blaster logo right there.
A little icon.
Ah, it looks a little, you can see some of the edges.
It's one of the few spots on here
where you can really see where it was cut out
from whatever mold it was in.
Yeah, like right here too.
All right, we've got this guy coming on here.
[snaps]
[chuckling]
Simple enough, looks great.
And we'll get another one back here.
Oh, awesome!
So it's got a little slider for the expansion bit
around back where you plug in like docks and stuff.
I guess you just kind of thread it through.
Yeah.
That's cool.
Okay, I get the little LED part dried in there now.
So that is staying in place much better than it was.
And now we can screw that on to this part here,
two little screws on top here.
It looks like this third one will be held in place
by one of these other pieces,
which we are going to go ahead and put on there now.
So let's see. [chuckling]
Hopefully all my gears and things are in there
in the correct spot.
Actually, let me just triple check.
It seems like it is.
[snapping]
Feels good.
It looks good.
Now let's just screw it together and see how it goes.
[gentle lounge music]
Alrighty, so the way this will work
is the lid will be moving this little latch,
and then [keyboard snapping]
yeah.
Pulling it together when it closes and then when it opens.
[laughing]
Alrighty,
it's lid time.
Let's get this on here.
[laughing] Looking like a computer.
Oh.
And we got the front bezel assembly here
with these little latches and springs
to clip this screen in place.
Oh, that's awesome.
So let's see here, a little spring action right there.
Oh dear, that's precarious.
[groans]
[chuckling] Oh, no!
Ah, I was afraid of that.
There we go.
You just need to go over the little rod bed.
It didn't want to at first but,
I just wasn't trying hard enough.
Try that again.
I can get these in here first.
That seems like it'd be easier.
Wait, no, yes, kind of.
If I put that in place,
it'll hold the spring until I can get it in there.
I think that's how it's supposed to work.
Okay, that's totally working.
Now, it's just all the rest of those little screws.
I hope the keyboard assembly still works.
[gentle lounge music]
The final screw.
All right.
Well,
I guess that's it.
So,
[chuckles] the question is,
does it close when this does?
Not really.
[grunts]
Hmm.
What in the world?
Hmm. [snaps]
Yeah, totally works if I do it by hand,
but that's kind of not the point.
Yeah, the top of the lid here,
looks a little tad warped perhaps,
a little [grunts] like that.
[keyboard snapping]
[laughing]
And on the real one, this is all metal.
You know, this is all really, really reinforced.
And it looks like they tried to do
some of that with the three screws on the side.
But I mean,
this is all just like, you know, plastic
that's not quite strong enough, I don't think.
Okay, skipping ahead here a bit.
And I've taken all apart and put it back together
a few different times now
just to try and get everything all in there
nice and spaced out correctly,
and double and triple checking everything,
screw, tightness, the gears,
tightness in the plastics, and you know what?
Yeah, it just seems to be
that the tolerances for this
and the strength that some of the components aren't quite
up to snuff to reliably get the keyboard mechanism
to do what it's supposed to, how it's supposed to.
But after messing around with, you know, the springs,
the gears, the tightness of everything,
making sure all that's good,
I tried some white lithium grease,
some lubrication going on, just to see what that would do.
I mean, it can't really hurt,
and it would make sense to put some sort of lube
on these gears and whatnot.
And you know, under the plastics that are rubbing together
because a good bit of this
does sort of rub up against itself.
So, lube is a good idea here.
And the result is.
[lid snapping]
It kind of works now. [laughing]
It doesn't really spring back as it should,
as you can see here, you kind of have to, eh, so it's still,
you know, [grunts]
not quite doing what it's supposed to,
but if you really give it some
[tapping]
[laughing]
a little bit of encouragement, then it will transform.
Especially this way,
it'll like finally do that, which is good.
It just isn't quite springing back as it should either.
This part gets stuck.
So,
[clicks]
and even then this part always does just get stuck there,
and doesn't quite come down as it should
because it is rubbing up against a whole significant chunk
of the plastic on the bottom plate here.
And I've lubed this thing up a few times now.
It's just not doing it.
So at the very least it can close now,
which is pretty awesome.
It's just that opening,
[tapping]
it tries. [laughing]
We do have to put the screen in place though.
So it does come with this handy little information card,
just kinda hangs out there.
Of course, you could print anything out and put on there,
you know, flip it over and have a blank if you want.
But yeah, we'll put this in here for now.
See how this looks.
And honestly, that alone looks pretty awesome,
but put the plastic on there.
Kind of clips in place.
Nice and reflective now.
In terms of the actual look of the model itself,
I mean, it looks fantastic.
It's got all the right ports,
got this little guy down here, who,
again, doesn't really quite want to open all the way.
It's like, got a really [grunting] tight fit.
[snaps] [grunts]
So it goes,
you know.
But anyway, other than that,
look at that.
It is a handheld ThinkPad 701C.
That is exactly what I was hoping for.
It's just wonderful in terms of the overall design,
the aesthetic and everything.
I mean, all these little bits down here,
if anybody has any computer models of this type,
whether from Japan or not, let me know.
I'd love to put them together.
I meant to mention this earlier,
but I've seen this referred to as a mosquito model.
So, maybe that's what they're called.
Maybe that's just what this is
from the company that made it, I don't know.
Anyway, this kind of a 65% scale model is fantastic
or smaller or larger, I don't know.
I just like model things.
So, yeah, I mean, I would show a real 701C beside it,
but I don't have one, I've never owned one.
The one I showed on my LGR review some time ago,
that was just here on loan to make that one video,
and had to send it back after that.
So, I guess I could show it
right next to one of my other ThinkPads.
Oh, this right here is the IBM ThinkPad 380XD.
[chuckling]
You can definitely see the obvious size difference
in terms of 65% versus 100%.
Definitely a don't speak to me or my son ever again,
type of situations. [chuckling]
Oh.
It doesn't have the fancy keyboard of course, but yeah,
definitely gives you the idea, aren't they precious.
[chuckling]
Anyway, all right,
well, that's pretty much it for this video
of this particular little model computer.
Again, kind of a shame that the hinge
isn't really doing what it should,
but it's all plastic,
and not very good plastic.
The rest of it is actually much more substantial feeling
than this part.
Yeah.
I'm overall pleased.
And if nothing else, it's just kinda cool to put together
a vintage model of a vintage computer.
This thing is 18 years old at this point,
the computer itself is 25, that's a thing.
Anyway, [fingers tapping]
hope that you enjoyed seeing this come together.
And if nothing else,
definitely check out my actual video
on the 701C ThinkPad,
it is a thing of beauty,
or any of the other videos I do on vintage computers
here on LGR, upload different things every week.
Typically on the real computers, not just flimsy models.
And that is all for this video,
and thank you very much for watching.