LC pizza box case history

[macdownunder]

Greetings all,

Just taking a look at the stack of LC pizza boxes I've got and I started wondering when Apple started using generic cases (ie not screened logos - seems to be linked to non-autoinject floppy drive).

Now, I've got:

LC - screened name

LC II - screened name

LC II - stick on name

LC III - screened name

LC III - stick on name (but has a IIIplus motherboard, so I gather is a IIIplus)

LC 475 - stick on name

Q605 - stick on name (and modified case)

Now I gather the stick on nameplates are a way of using up old stock etc, but until I found the LC II with a stick on name and non-autoinject drive today, I had assumed that the 475 was the first with that style case, and that the LC IIIplus were built using available cases of the day.

Was the LC widely available with non-autoinject drives?

Regards,

Macdownunder

 

[LCGuy]

From what i've seen:

LC: Only produced in the old-fashioned auto-inject case

LCII: Mostly used the old auto-inject case, but some later LCIIs used the newer LC475 manual-inject style case

LCIII: Most LCIIIs i've seen used the old-fashioned auto-inject case, however my October 1993 Singapore-built LCIII (which is definately a standard LCIII, not an LCIII+, we got this machine when it was brand new, i am the original owner and know its entire history, and can confirm it is still on its original mobo) has the newer manual-inject style case

LC475: By this time they had mostly switched over to the newer manual-inject style case, however some very early production model LC475's used auto-inject cases, from what i've seen.

For the record, my LCII is an auto-inject one, and my LCIII and LC475 are both manual-inject.

Anyway, i'm thinking that they must've switched to manual-inject half-way through 1993...they must have just used up whatever auto-inject cases they had left on whatever machines and then switched over to the manual-inject cases once supplies of the older cases ran out.

Also, another thing to note - all auto-inject LC cases have the model name silkscreened directly onto the case, and all manual-inject LC cases have "Macintosh" silkscreened onto the case, and the model name silkscreened onto a tag which was glued onto the case.

 

[Maccess]

You're correct. I can confirm all that you've posted, having seen and had (and in some cases still have) all those case styles you've mentioned, except the auto-inject LC475. I've seen pictures of those, though.

 

[MacMan]

I've got two LCIII's - one has the auto-inject floppy with the very "linear" case front and the other has a manual inject drive. Both my LC475 and Performa 475 have manual-inject drives but I did see an LC475 with an auto-inject drive at an auction house eariler this summer. Thinking back, I should have bought it as it was something of a rarity...

 

[LCGuy]

You're correct. I can confirm all that you've posted, having seen and had (and in some cases still have) all those case styles you've mentioned, except the auto-inject LC475. I've seen pictures of those, though.

Indeed...the auto-inject LC475's are very rare...i've never seen one IRL, only in photos. Which is why i'm guessing they're likely only very very early production models.

 

[madmax_2069]

my lc 475 i use to have was a manual-inject ( it fragged itself ). went to turn it on and seen the magic smoke escape. i seen a few of the auto-inject LC 475's being sold on the net. the owner prolly just thinks its just another LC 475.

i use to remember the site. i think it was something like stack o mac's or something to that degree.

got its replacement but its not what you would call rare. which is my P 475 in my sig.

EDIT: i found the link to the stackomac site

http://mysite.verizon.net/res7gt1w/stackomacs/index.html

there is some diffrent models of the LC 475 in there. not to mention a few others as well

 

[defor]

the lc/performa 5xx series also has a very similar mix-and-match history regarding its faceplates.. now that i've completed my colelction of plate styles i'll be posting it online sooner or later...

personally i'm a fan of the lc look over the retrofitted performa case styles both lc II-III and the 5xx series were known to come in... autoinject and proper groove details make for a far more elegant case...

 

[Mike Richardson]

http://mysite.verizon.net/res7gt1w/stackomacs/WebInventory/4x475.jpg

That top one is very interesting. They just silkscreened "Macintosh Performa" on the case, and then this rather off-looking sticker says "Performa 475". I would say that's a pretty rare variety of 475.

 

[LCGuy]

That sticker doesn't look very "Apple-like". Whats the bet that someone could've accidently rubbed off the "475" with one of those all-purpose cleaners that damages SS text, and then slapped on a home-made sticker saying "Performa 475". I'm sorry...but i do think that if Apple had put it there, they would've made it a lot more professional-looking.

 

[Franklinstein]

I just remembered that the replacement stickers may have been part of an upgrade program.

IIRC, there was an Apple program where an older pizza-box LC could have its logic board replaced with a newer model (the LC/Performa 475). Then, a sticker would be attached to the case to reflect the machine's new status. I don't know all of the details (such as, could a user do the replacement or was it done at an Apple service centre?), but I'm pretty sure that that explains the odd stickers, kind of like a less-expensive version of the original-Mac-to-Plus conversion. I don't think this upgrade path was quite as common, though; it was probably cheaper or the same price to just buy a new LC 475 than it would be to replace the logic board in an older one, and install a new hard drive (>40MB) and OS to match.

As for "professional-looking", many machines I've seen coming out of an Apple service centre have had things done to them that were definitely not professional, such as missing/stripped screws, incorrect parts (wrong processor speed, for example) or missing stuff (such as customer-installed RAM), or significant cosmetic damage.

 

[LCGuy]

Yeah, there was an Apple program that facilitated logic board upgrades for the pizzabox LCs. It was a dealer upgrade only...since it required removing the main logic board they wouldn't allow users to do it themselves.

Btw, i've seen AppleCentres do nasty things like that too... [xx(] ]'>

 

[Danamania]

Curiously, the two 475s that I've seen online with autoinject drives and the horizontal linework across the case were posted from israeli owners. I suspect there's a difference with countries, and who got what/when.

Dana

 

[Scott Baret]

Bumping this as I just found it again...with some questions...

You mention LC II's in cases without the groove. I have never seen one in the USA and doubt its existance here because our LC II ended production in early 1993. Of course, they could have continued to produce them undercover like they did the SE (they made SEs into early 1991, I have one that proves this). Do you know where that LC II was from?

Interesting to see that not all LC III+'s have the new case--I was always under the assumption that they switched cases with the speed bump, at least in the USA.

Any more pictures of these mysterious 475's would be appreciated.

Also, if memory serves me right, was the LC 475 going to be called the LC IV originally? I thought I read about an LC IV, LC 4, or LC IIII in MacWorld sometime in early 1993.

 

[LCGuy]

Scott, all the manual-inject LCII's i've seen here in Australia have either been in schools, or otherwise come from Education Queensland, which makes me think that they may have kept production going for education customers after they phased them out of mass-production, much like what they did with the eMac. Wouldn't surprise me, as, as everyone knows, the LCII was a very hot product with education.

 

[Charlieman]

The real mystery is why Apple continued to sell cheap Macs with the more expensive auto-inject floppy drive for so long. The auto-inject drive is visibly more expensive, and the new case moulds were already in production, so why use a more costly part?

Perhaps there were warehouses stacked full of old drives, or pre-orders for new Sony drives. Perhaps drives and upper cases were deployed according to what was most readily available locally at the time of manufacture. Whatever the scenario, it implies that Apple's manufacturing process was in a real mess at that time.

 

[Scott Baret]

LCGuy--good theory on that. They probably were dirt cheap by then so the schools could buy them in bulk for next to nothing. I have reason to believe the 12" RGB monitor was also kept in production longer than we think, not only in Australia but in other parts of the world as well.

Charlieman--I think the extra parts theory is why Apple made SEs into 1991. It also, as I mentioned in my stickied thread in the compact forum, may explain why early Classics used a different CRT connector. It also explains the LCIII issue.