I imagine most of you will file this under 'mildly interesting', but thought I would share anyway as new discoveries in the Topre world are few and far between.

I managed to get my hands on another Topre keyboard and found that does not use a metal mounting plate for its switches. It is the KB0300 and it was available in Japan in the second half of 2005. This was probably the first taste of Topre for the more budget-minded Japanese keyboard aficionado. At one point it was available new on vshopu for just 9,777 yen! The keyboard itself is very light compared to a Realforce and the switches definitely feel different -- probably much closer to an HHKB I would imagine. For some reason, they put an LED under the blank key next to the right Shift. Also strange is that they decided on Japanese legends for some modifiers and even put a legend on the space

As far as I know, the only other plastic moulded mounting plate keyboards made by Topre are the μTRON and the HHKB Pro series.




I'm sorry about the shit lighting on this pic -- I'll take a better one for the wiki page when I get around to writing it

Eventhough I would not considder myself an Topre enthusiast, this is interesting.You should not even think about not posting something like this! Congrats to your rare find! Amazing board.

Awesome find !!! Looking forward for more pics. Is it uniform or variable?

Thanks guys
This one is uniform 45g. Now that you mention it, I am pretty sure that variable force is actually something unique to the Realforce line. The exception to this are collaborative keyboards (e.g. older Just Limited models, CS NEO, etc) which are essentially just modified Realforces.

Cool board! Funky layout for being contemporary and that enter is really a fat bastard.

Vintage looking, isn't it? Yet, for a little while, this was the Topre for all those who forever ask "but where can I get one for less than a [prized body part]?!?!" If they were in Japan…

The Type Heaven's ancestor. Those caps are lasered, right? The ESC key looks straight off my oddball "Vatican Edition" G80-3000LAMIT!

There is definitely a vintage vibe to it. Most everything else out there looks kind of like an IBM M. This is cool though!

Furthermore, there are semi-spheres on f and j rather than the nowadays Topre-typical (?) bars.

What cap material are we talking? Guessing ABS, but that's only based on price ^^

Caps are actually good old dye-sub PBT! I am pretty sure that the re-legendables are ABS, though.
Characteristic ABS yellowing is evident on other examples of Topre boards with re-legendable caps:

Ugh.. That's a beauty.

I really want some Japanese keycaps for my 87u 55 now

Actually, scratch that.. I really want my 87u 55 now, but don't have the money to pay for shipping from my proxy

Hmm. PBT, absolutely. But how do you know they're dyesub, besides an educated guess?

The lasered PBT caps on that oddball Cherry of mine aren't bad. But the legends are pale and insubstantial compared to dyesubs. This board looks a bit like it in the pics. How about comparing a cap against a Realforce? With an eye to legend quality in particular.

I am pretty confident they are dye-sub. I am in the Myopia generation but my near-distance sight is still very good

I think the pics are not that great because the camera lens I am using is junk and you can see the chromatic aberration on the 'R'. I was using a pretty wide aperture I think so the tops of the caps being out of focus makes them blurry and doesn't help but if you really aren't convinced I'll break out the extension tube on the weekend and take some clearer pics.

Side by side macros on the legends please!

Those are absolutely dyesubs. No contest.

Huh, i think i have a NIB numpad with the same switches, I wonder if it could be a topre.

Beautiful board, thanks for sharing!

Look really good! I'm one of happy hacking user. So I have lot of interesting this style of switches.
Is this model only for Japan? Hmmm... I hope to get more chance for testing of local keyboards.
Where can I try to test typing in Tokyo? Tell me a good place for me.

DAT FUNKY LAYOUT :) That's a nice catch, thanks for the write up! Love those rare beasts.

kbdcraft wrote:Look really good! I'm one of happy hacking user. So I have lot of interesting this style of switches.
Is this model only for Japan? Hmmm... I hope to get more chance for testing of local keyboards.
Where can I try to test typing in Tokyo? Tell me a good place for me.

Unfortunately the KB0300 isn't for sale anymore, but you might be able to find a second-hand one somewhere in Akihabara. Or you could grab the one currently on Yahoo Auctions: http://page13.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/a ... r126654607

Another bit of trivia: Apparently this keyboard was made for Casio. They made 200 of them and I'm not sure what happened but at some point a whole bunch of them were in the hands of vshopu and some shops in Akihabara. Perhaps Casio didn't need them in the end and sold them all off? Or maybe they didn't quite need as many as they were given and got rid of the excess. This is what happened with the green and orange ilovex keyboard.

Oh wow cool find man.. Love my Realforce, so this is neat to see....