Shiny chrome and gold Filco Mac ADB keyboards - any info?

[DeChief]

I bought these two Filco keyboards on Yahoo auctions earlier this year and was wondering if there was any information on them out there. The gold one came with the box and black ADB cable while the chrome came with nothing.





They both came from the same person in one listing, along with a Japanese layout Jaki keyboard and a tiny no-name RGB keyboard. It's difficult for me to tell if they're custom or not. I don't know anything about chroming or dying keycaps, but the printing on these looks really good so they might be legit. If they were made by Filco, my best guess as to why is that they were made as a sales celebration eg. hitting 10,000 units sold or something like that.

[Findecanor]

I've seen pictures of the Filco Stealth before, but with silver case.

Edit: https://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/art ... cexpo5.htm
The gold Stealth keyboard was sold at T-ZONE Mac building.
The Stealth with silver case and gold keys that I had seen is also in the article but mentioned as a prototype.

The Silver non-stealth was exclusive to the Akihabara Mac Academy.

From http://turedurenarumamani.blogspot.com/ ... st_13.html
A gold Stealth made in 100 units sold as "'98 venue report extra edition".

[John Doe]

I have a very similar one as your second, except mine was white color, not shiny at all. What kind of switchs did they use? I guess ALPS black?

[Findecanor]

The bottom keyboard is a FKB-97S. The wiki listed white and transparent versions. The transparent ones are called "Filco Skeleton" because you can see its innards.
(I added mention of the silver to the Wiki).

[robo]

I love the huge "STEALTH" graphic printed on a giant ergo keyboard with built in trackpad covered in fake gold plating.

[derzemel]

man, these are fingerprints magnets on a whole different level.
They look like a gaudy kitschy mess... and they are awesome.

[Riceball]

Watching this thread with interest. I picked these up a while ago, but haven't gotten around to doing anything with them yet. All are slightly different from yours, but the blue and beige one (and a fourth one not pictured) are Filco branded. They are all ADB. One of them came with an ADB to ADB cable and the others came without cables. Curiously I read somewhere that Filco sold similar boards as PS/2 compatible and I have seen some boards on the Yahoo auctions with what appear to be ADB to PS/2 cables that didn't have any active protocol conversion. I've been hoping that they will be usable over PS/2 with a simple hack together of a PS/2 and s-video cable, but I haven't gotten around to trying it yet.

[swampangel]

They look like a gaudy kitschy mess... and they are awesome.

Exactly

[Findecanor]

Watching this thread with interest. I picked these up a while ago, but haven't gotten around to doing anything with them yet.

Nice! Do they all have the same model number on the back?

[Riceball]

Nice! Do they all have the same model number on the back?

Just went to check and realized the beige one in the picture is not actually Filco branded on the back, but all three (the blue filco, the beige not-filco, and the beige filco not in the picture) have SMK QC stickers. (quick addendum: FCC ID's for all 3 start with KM9 also pointing to SMK)

The model numbers are
Blue Filco: FKB-107j-AI
Beige Filco (not in picture): FKB-109J
Beige Mackey (branded Sanwa Supply on the back): SKB-102MJ
Grey Macway (branded Tec Parts on the back): TP-999KB-E

[DeChief]

I've seen pictures of the Filco Stealth before, but with silver case.

Edit: https://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/art ... cexpo5.htm
The gold Stealth keyboard was sold at T-ZONE Mac building.
The Stealth with silver case and gold keys that I had seen is also in the article but mentioned as a prototype.

The Silver non-stealth was exclusive to the Akihabara Mac Academy.

From http://turedurenarumamani.blogspot.com/ ... st_13.html
A gold Stealth made in 100 units sold as "'98 venue report extra edition".

That was fast, mystery solved! I'll get some better photos of both for the wiki.

So 100 units of the gold Stealth, would it be safe to assume there were a similar number of the chrome non-Stealths sold by Mac Academy?

I have a very similar one as your second, except mine was white color, not shiny at all. What kind of switchs did they use? I guess ALPS black?

The chrome/silver one has white ALPS, I haven't checked the gold Stealth yet.