The rarest production Macintosh finally added to my collection

The Macintosh PowerBook 170 “JLPGA” special edition

Apple was one of the sponsors of the 1992 Japanese Ladies PGA golf tournament, and to commemorate this they released a limited edition of the PowerBook 170 with a unique color scheme. I have been unable to find any first hand accounts of the history of this machine, but it is generally understood that approximately 500 of these PowerBooks were made in this unique color scheme

I’ve seen it mentioned in several places that perhaps fashion brand United Colors of Benetton was involved in the design as one of the other sponsors of the golf tournament. I have been unable to verify this, but the similarities in the color scheme of this PowerBook and their brand colors is unmistakable.

Color scheme of the fashion brand United Colors of Benetton
Brand colors of United Colors of Benetton.

Other than cosmetic differences, this special edition was just like any other PowerBook 170 except for two details: it has a Japanese/English keyboard and came with 8MB of RAM instead of the standard 4MB. The power adapter, packaging, and other accessories were the standard versions that came with all PowerBook 100 series laptops.

I found this particular PowerBook 170 “JLPGA” for sale in Japan and jumped on the opportunity to buy it for three main reasons: it was cosmetically in very good condition, it was working, and the asking price was almost half of what they usually sell for on eBay. I’m very pleased with my purchase and I think it makes a very cool addition to my collection.

I have a few other Macs in my collection that were specifically targeted at the Japanese market, or only sold in Japan: the Color Classic II, PowerBook 550c, and the PowerBook 2400c. I’m still on the look out for the elusive Apple II J-Plus!

My  Collection

Overview photo of Jimmy Grewal’s collection of vintage Apple computers

This post contains a list of the vintage Apple products currently in my collection. This list does not include smaller accessories such as keyboard, mice, modems, etc. I will update this post from time to time to reflect new additions.

Apple I, II, III
Apple-1 (NTI)
Apple-1 (Mimeo-1 replica)
Apple-1 (Newton-1 replica)

Apple II (Rev. 0)
Apple II (Rev. 3)
Apple II+
Apple II+
Apple III
Apple IIc
Apple IIc
Apple IIc
Apple IIc Plus
Apple IIe
Apple IIe Platinum
Apple IIGS (Woz Limited Edition)
Apple IIGS (Woz Limited Edition)

Apple Lisa
Apple Lisa 1
Apple Lisa 2

Classic Macintosh
Macintosh 128K
Macintosh 128K
Macintosh 512K
Macintosh Plus
Macintosh SE (prototype)
Macintosh SE
Macintosh SE (FDHD)
Macintosh SE/30 (prototype)
Macintosh SE/30
Macintosh Classic
Macintosh Classic II (prototype)
Macintosh Color Classic
Macintosh Color Classic II

Macintosh II
Macintosh IIcx (prototype)
Macintosh IIcx
Macintosh IIci
Macintosh IIfx
Macintosh IIsi

Macintosh LC (Prototype)
Macintosh LC
Macintosh LC II
Macintosh LC III

Macintosh Quadra 700
Macintosh Quadra 900
Macintosh Quadra 800

Power Macintosh
Power Macintosh 6100
Power Macintosh 7100
Power Macintosh 7500
Power Macintosh 8600
Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh
Power Macintosh “Power Express” (prototype)

Power Mac G3/G4/G5
Power Macintosh G3 (desktop)
Power Macintosh G3 (mini-tower)
Power Macintosh G3 (blue & white)
Power Macintosh G3 (blue & white)

Power Mac G4
Power Mac G4 Cube
Power Mac G4 Cube
Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver)
Power Mac G4 (MDD)

Power Mac G5

Developer Transition Kit (Intel)
Developer Transition Kit (Apple Silicon)

Mac Pro (2008)
Mac Pro (2008)

iMac/eMac/mini
iMac G3 (Bondi Blue)
iMac G3 (Raspberry)
iMac G3 (Tangerine)
iMac G3 (Graphite)
iMac G3 (Flower Power)
iMac G3 (Snow White)
iMac G4 (15-inch)
iMac G4 (17-inch)
eMac
iMac G5

Mac mini (G4)
 
Laptops
Macintosh Portable
Macintosh PowerBook 100
Macintosh PowerBook 170
Macintosh PowerBook 170 JLPGA
Macintosh PowerBook 165
Macintosh PowerBook 165c
Macintosh PowerBook Duo 230
Macintosh PowerBook Duo 280c
Macintosh PowerBook 520
Macintosh PowerBook 540c
Macintosh PowerBook 550c
Macintosh PowerBook 5300cs
Macintosh PowerBook 1400cs
Macintosh PowerBook 3400c
Macintosh PowerBook 2400c

Macintosh PowerBook G3

Macintosh PowerBook G4 (Titanium)
Macintosh PowerBook G4 (12-inch)
Macintosh PowerBook G4 (17-inch)

iBook G3 (Blueberry)
iBook G3 (Tangerine)
iBook G3 (Graphite)
iBook G3 (Indigo)
iBook G3 (Key Lime)
iBook G4

MacBook (Core 2 Duo - Black)
MacBook (Core 2 Duo - Black)
MacBook Pro (17-inch)

Servers
Networks Server 500
Power Mac G4 Server
Xserve (Intel)
Xserve G5 Cluster Node
Mac mini Server (2010)

Handheld Devices
Newton MessagePad
Newton MessagePad 110 (transparent case)
Newton MessagePad 120
Newton MessagePad 130
Newton MessagePad 2000 (2100 upgrade)
Newton MessagePad 2100
eMate 300

iPhone (2G)
iPad
iPhone 4

Printers
SilentType
Dot Matrix Printer (Lisa)
Dot Matrix Printer Wide Carriage (Apple ///)
Daisy Wheel Printer
ImageWriter
ImageWriter (new in box)
ImageWriter Wide Carriage (new in box)
Color Plotter (new in box)
Scribe
LaserWriter Plus
ImageWriter II
ImageWriter LQ
LaserWriter IINT
Personal LaserWriter SC
StyleWriter

Monitors
Sanyo VM 4209 (Feb 1977)
Sanyo VM 4209 (Nov 1977)

Monitor III
Monitor II
Monochrome Monitor IIe
Monochrome Monitor IIe
AppleColor Composite Monitor IIe
IIc Flat Panel Display
Monitor IIc 
AppleColor RGB Monitor (IIGS)

High-Resolution Monochrome Monitor
Macintosh Portrait Display
AppleVision 14 Display
Apple Studio Display (15-inch)
Apple Studio Display (15-inch Blueberry)
Apple Studio Display (15-inch Graphite)
Apple Studio Display (17-inch ADC)
Apple Cinema HD Display
Cinema Display (20-inch DVI)
Cinema Display (23-inch DVI)
LED Cinema Display (24-inch)
LED Cinema Display (27-inch)
Thunderbolt Display

Peripherals
Scanner
Color OneScanner 600/27
QuickTake 100
QuickTake 150
QuickTake 200

ProFile (5MB)
ProFile (5MB)
Macintosh Hard Disk 20
Hard Disk 20SC
AppleCD SC
Apple Tape Backup 40SC
PowerCD
Xserve RAID

DuoDock
DuoDock

Bandai Pippin
Apple Interactive TV Settop Box
Apple TV

AirPort Base Station