[samizdis]

That's a lovely piece of kit, and I am sorely tempted to put in an order, but LEGO's promotional video and associated text descriptions seem to be a little deceptive.

As far as I can tell, the model - which has a "LEGO first" - Black and red ink spool ribbon is a new fabric element. - and each key has a letter, and the carriage moves, etc ... doesn't actually type.

[scoopertrooper]

This may shock you, but none of those lego ships are sea worthy either.

[bmitc]

Some of them are. I had one as a kid. The base allowed the boat to float in water.

[lb1lf]

-Then you misplaced the keel and suddenly had an enforced lesson in vessel stability in the comfort of your bathtub...

Good times.

[bombcar]

The Germans had access to a motor - always described in the manual but not available to the US.

[seattle_spring]

WHAT. this changes everything, as I was planning on taking the summer off to take my Saturn V into orbit.

[spoonjim]

The Lego Pop-up book does pop up though.

[mattashii]

It has one (singular) typing element that moves and hits the 'tape', which you might consider as typing. But, it indeed is not functional for the whole alphabet, nor does it have functional shift keys to shift cases.

[jan_Inkepa]

Oh yeah good catch; they should probably add a disclaimer that it's not functional.

[ElijahLynn]

Same. The video shows a typed letter in the machine too, leading me to believe it actually worked. But further digging reveals this is not the case. A ton of people are going to actually buy this thinking it works, and it won't and they will be pissed.

[spoonjim]

The same thing happened with the piano. I assume it’s people who are interested in the subject matter (pianos, typewriters) and not that familiar with what functionality to expect from a LEGO set.

[MiscIdeaMaker99]

I think you'd have to be a little gullible to think it's a real typewriter, especially if you've ever used a real one.