Green iMac G3

[CooperBox]

I'm trying to find out a little more about the green 'flavoured' iMac.
Wiki shows 2 types, a Lime and a Sage. If I understand it correctly, the Lime is the earlier tray loader, and the Sage the later slot loader. Has anyone seen both, and can comment on the colour differences, i.e. is the lime more 'florescent' and the sage a more subdued green colour?
In the experience of any G3 iMac collectors, which is the rarer of the two?
In the years I've been following ads for iMacs, until yesterday I'd never seen a green G3 for sale, which makes me believe they are pretty scarce.
And again for those collectors or anyone else knowledgeable, which tends to be the most rare G3 iMac colour, Lime, Sage or Grape?
For info I've seen a few Dalmations and Flower Power iMac G3's in the last 12 months - in fact I have both, but never seen green or grape colours.

 

[bunnspecial]

Lime is a bright green, almost yellow color.

Sage is iMacs are transparent and a very dark green-blue color.

There are also Bondi "blue" iMacs, which are green colored to my eye.

Bondi only came in tray loaders, sage only in slot loaders, and lime was in both. Lime slot loaders are 400mhz, and sage ones are 450mhz or faster.

I'd say sage is the rarest of the colors discussed here-I've seen very few of them for sale.

BTW, I consider all of the "five flavor" tray loaders-including grape-to be about equally common.

 

[pl1984]

They can be yours:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-iMac-G3-Grape-Power-PC-400MHz-320MB-RAM-18GB-HD-OS9-w-KB-and-Mouse/332733893464?hash=item4d787c4b58:g:nzIAAOSwweRbMpm4:sc:ShippingMethodStandard!80015!US!-1&_sacat=0&_nkw=g3+imac&_from=R40&rt=nc&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR3.TRC2.A0.H0.Xg3+imac.TRS0

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-iMac-G3-Grape-Power-PC-333MHz-96MB-RAM-6GB-HD-OS9-w-Key-Board-and-Mouse/332733893463?hash=item4d787c4b57:g:UBgAAOSwqYBbMpmS:sc:ShippingMethodStandard!80015!US!-1&_sacat=0&_nkw=g3+imac&_from=R40&rt=nc&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR3.TRC2.A0.H0.Xg3+imac.TRS0

NOTE: Not my auctions.

 

[bobesch]

The "Lime/Fruit Colors" G3 iMacs came as early TrayLoaders (333MHz) and later SlotLoaders (400MHz). The colored cases have a rice-paper like transparency. The "Sage" is fully transparent (like the Ruby, Graphite and Indigo). The "Fruit Colors" came with Hockeypuck-mouse & colored keyboard, both resembling the color of the iMac. The later models came with the acrylic-black "Pro" mouse/KB.
The Lime-iMacs are much darker than the KeyLime-Clamshells. Bondi iMacs look more similar to the Blueberry-TrayLoaders, but the HockeyPuck-mouse of the Bondis doesn't sport that curved excavation on the surface of the mouse-button.
Here some pictures ... https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imac-g3-carnage.2126395/#post-26226496
You may compare the colors of the iMac sitting on the shelve (found that picture in an eBay-auction) Me I've got a SL Lime/Tangerine/Graphite and a TL Bondi/Blueberry sitting on the table in our dining-room...

 

[CooperBox]

They can be yours:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-iMac-G3-Grape-Power-PC-400MHz-320MB-RAM-18GB-HD-OS9-w-KB-and-Mouse/332733893464?hash=item4d787c4b58:g:nzIAAOSwweRbMpm4:sc:ShippingMethodStandard!80015!US!-1&_sacat=0&_nkw=g3+imac&_from=R40&rt=nc&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR3.TRC2.A0.H0.Xg3+imac.TRS0

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-iMac-G3-Grape-Power-PC-333MHz-96MB-RAM-6GB-HD-OS9-w-Key-Board-and-Mouse/332733893463?hash=item4d787c4b57:g:UBgAAOSwqYBbMpmS:sc:ShippingMethodStandard!80015!US!-1&_sacat=0&_nkw=g3+imac&_from=R40&rt=nc&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR3.TRC2.A0.H0.Xg3+imac.TRS0

NOTE: Not my auctions.

Not at $US175 they won't be mine! But thanks for the links anyway.

And thanks to all for the other comments which certainly helps to clarify.
I'm off to see a lime next week, if I dare! Can't help wondering though if I'll have enough courage to bring it home.......

 

[bobesch]

Not at $US175 they won't be mine! But thanks for the links anyway.

And thanks to all for the other comments which certainly helps to clarify.
I'm off to see a lime next week, if I dare! Can't help wondering though if I'll have enough courage to bring it home.......

Well, just do! When I brought home first the Tangerine, then the Lime I feared a lot of frowning ...
But instead there was just an "oh" an "aha - how nice", which did rather sound real than coming from a psychotherapist's voice ... "The Twins" are still allowed to stay in the living room ...
[doublepost=1533579365][/doublepost]BTW: here's a 1st-gen. G3 Bondi close by ...
The Bondi looks particularly beatiful, but be prepared: they don't go into sleeping mode and the fan is running all the time
https://www.ebay.de/itm/AUTHENTIQUE...80057.m570.l1313.TR4.TRC1.A0.H0.Ximac+g3.TRS0
Mods: not my auction!

 

[Slix]

I don't have a Sage (yet...) but I can vouch that the Lime ones are significantly more bright, and the Tray Loaders are much less translucent than the Slot Loaders.

Here's a 512 Pixels video showing the family tree with some high quality photos. Note however that he doesn't have slot loads of the 5 original flavors, so those are not entirely correct images shown there.

I can say that in my limited time searching for iMac colors I don't have, Lime took a while to find, of either variety, and I've yet to find a nearby Sage.

 

[MBAir2010]

I was working for a business journal when those imacs came out.
We did feature a story on the imac.
I had a bodni blue tray loading until 2010.
That ran i think tiger, or just kept jaguar with hd upgrades.

To answer you question the colors realease were just for flavors like lifesavers.
Bobesch nailed the discription very accurately, and he get teh free internets!

Ummm they are not worth anything but collecting umm needs.
I was very happy to give my imac G3 away to a deserving college art student with CS3.

They were in every tv sitcom until 2004, i think “6 feet under” displayed a blue on in season5.

I would transport mine if i neded to go onsite to work.
They were more portable than a PC because the computer was one unit with 3 handles.

 

[CooperBox]

Thanks for the additional comments/link. Very helpful.
@Expobill - To say that, "they are not worth anything" is highly debateable, and such sweeping statements can be extremely misleading. One should remember that they may not be worth anything in one particular country i.e. USA, but the world is a very large place outside the US, and in some places these G3 iMacs (any colour) would be hard to find, indeed even sought-after.
I think all would agree that prices one sees on the 'Bay' are often highly exaggerated, however just for info I've just done a quick search of an extremely popular site in my location, and found these:
G3 Indigo. 160€ (US$186)


G3 Indigo. 350€ (US$406)


G3 Indigo with IOmega cd burner, & photoshop 350€ (US$406)


G3 Dalmation 150€ (US$174)
One of my personal favourite iMacs, and if I didn't already have one would readily offer half that price.


G3 Indigo OS 10.3.9 500MHz 640Mb memory 150€ (US$174)


G3 Lime, OX 10.4 & 384Mb memory 300€ (US$347) Incidently this is NOT the one I intend going to see, and personaly would not even pay a third of that price.


Now I'm not suggesting for a moment that these prices wil be realised, but clearly many sellers believe that's their worth, and for sure some buyers will be tempted, albeit to make whatever they feel is a reasonable offer based on the asking price.
There were of course cheaper units on the same site, but the above may well be an indication that these G3 iMacs are increasing in value, and for every one which gets trashed means they will progressively become more scarce.
The lime I am going to see will allegedly be trashed if no buyer is interested. Same with a Pismo I have my eye on.......

 

[bobesch]

One more thing: the Tray-Loader's fans are allways on!
Even if I like the Bondi-color most and the TrayLoading-optical-drive over the SlotLoading ones I'd go for the SL/400MHz-versions, when it comes to the Fruit-Color-iMacs, despite of any collectors-thoughts ... - 'cause in working condition they should be more kind of fun than a hassle.
The 400MHz machines with os9/Tiger are unique workstations, that might be randomly used to distract yourself whilst engaged with some very boring tasks by accessing stuff through email-correspondence (Classilla) network-sharing/webDAV or screen-sharing (VNCthing). If not needed they easily go to sleeping-mode and stay silent, while the TrayLoaders fans would be humming all the time ...

 

[bobesch]

Happend to find a beautiful 'Grape' TrayLoader 266MHz iMac G3 with KB and mouse yesterday.
As with the 'Lime' and 'Strawberry' ones a color not often to find close by ... And the color looks gorgeous - during daytime like french-blue, in the evening like the lilac blanket on the picture below.
Installing the OS did proof a bit tricky, since they first gen. TL 'Fruit Colors' do not sport FireWire and TargetDisk-Mode.
It came with the original os8.5 install/restore-media, but I had problems to read any of my USB-sticks with os8.5 even if they were recognized in System-Profiler.
Luckily a fresh install of os9.21 solved the problems with the USB-drives.
When trying to install Panther I became aware, that my partitions did have the wrong size: Panther (10.3) apparently requires 8GB as the maximum partition-size (mine were 10GB for os9 and the rest for OSX), so I had to start installation from the scratch. Quite picky, these old G3 machines.
Here's a picture ...

 

[CooperBox]

A somewhat scarce 'iGrape'. Nice find! Is this your first G3 iMac or do you have other flavours too?

 

[bobesch]

A somewhat scarce 'iGrape'. Nice find! Is this your first G3 iMac or do you have other flavours too?

Yep - I'have to admit, I became a little bit obsessed about the knobby iMacs recently ...
All started with a Graphite 400 a few years ago which had been my only G3 iMac for a long time.
Then, starting with a Bondi at the beginning of the year, numbers increased a bit... and my first Graphite is now accompanied by the Bondi, a 266MHz Grape and a 333MHz Blueberry (TrayLoaders) plus both 400MHz Tangerine and Lime (SlotLoaders).
Well, if a Strawberry and an Indigo would come along, I'm sure, I wouln'd say no then ... - it's an obsession indeed!
The SlotLoaders are IMHO the better choice, when it comes to the Fruit Colors, since the fan switches off in Sleeping mode and they sport FireWire ...

Good fun to get routine in setting up OS9 (and Panther/Tiger /w Classic).
Last weekend, the Tangerine has got an SSD-upgrade (with SATA-IDE-adapter) and "my full" installation routine of OS9 including VirtualPC6/WinFundamentals/RDP-Client6 and it's now ready for it's first run as a fat-client at my office network and RDP-session with Win2008-Server.

Despite of their size they are not banned from the living room yet

 

[Amethyst1]

@bobesch; that's a really great collection of iMacs you've got there. And an SSD upgrade too. Can I ask which SATA-to-IDE adapter you're using? And have you considered giving Mac OS 8.6 a try? It should be a little faster than 9.2.2.

 

[bobesch]

@bobesch; that's a really great collection of iMacs you've got there. And an SSD upgrade too. Can I ask which SATA-to-IDE adapter you're using? And have you considered giving Mac OS 8.6 a try? It should be a little faster than 9.2.2.

Here's the link to the adapter ... https://www.amazon.de/Buchse-Konver...?srs=9164909031&ie=UTF8&qid=1535812341&sr=8-2
When I started with Mac OS8.5 (it came with the original optical-media of the Grape) I had trouble with USB-mass-storage, I plugged in. Since the TrayLoaders do not sport FireWire, file transfer was limited to network-connection, but I had to get Classilla, Transmit and Goliath for web, FTP and webDAV onto the iMac first ...
Then my early iMacs had only CD-drives not DVD and booting from external DVD-drive via FireWire failed also a a few times. Quite picky, the 1st gen. iMac-G3.
So I was happy, with os9.x everything worked neat-less, and I upgraded to 9.22, since that version ought to be the one that is suited best for the combination of OS X & classic.

 

[Amethyst1]

@bobesch;
Thanks for your reply. These are fair points in favour of 9.2.2.

 

[z970]

Yep - I'have to admit, I became a little bit obsessed about the knobby iMacs recently ...
All started with a Graphite 400 a few years ago which had been my only G3 iMac for a long time.
Then, starting with a Bondi at the beginning of the year, numbers increased a bit... and my first Graphite is now accompanied by the Bondi, a 266MHz Grape and a 333MHz Blueberry (TrayLoaders) plus both 400MHz Tangerine and Lime (SlotLoaders).
Well, if a Strawberry and an Indigo would come along, I'm sure, I wouln'd say no then ... - it's an obsession indeed!
The SlotLoaders are IMHO the better choice, when it comes to the Fruit Colors, since the fan switches off in Sleeping mode and they sport FireWire ...
View attachment 779024
Good fun to get routine in setting up OS9 (and Panther/Tiger /w Classic).
Last weekend, the Tangerine has got an SSD-upgrade (with SATA-IDE-adapter) and "my full" installation routine of OS9 including VirtualPC6/WinFundamentals/RDP-Client6 and it's now ready for it's first run as a fat-client at my office network and RDP-session with Win2008-Server.

Despite of their size they are not banned from the living room yet


View attachment 779022 View attachment 779023

That's a lot of Macs for one man.

 

[bobesch]

That's a lot of Macs for one man.

Yeah, wise man, and a heavy load to carry (each weights about 30 pound).
And until I go to the happy hunting grounds, a few of them will serve as fat clients in my office, while the rest of them will be un-submerged preserved for further generations to remember old times ...
At least, that iMacs together with my old Palm and TRG devices could run a home network and sync Calendar/Contacts etc without the Holy Cloud.

(BTW currently most people would roll their eyes and tend to dump that old iMac-stuff.)

 

[z970]

And until I go to the happy hunting grounds, a few of them will serve as fat clients in my office, while the rest of them will be un-submerged preserved for further generations to remember old times ...

Very good.

That's a better fate than being recycled into novelty pens.

 

[Slix]

Yep - I'have to admit, I became a little bit obsessed about the knobby iMacs recently ...
All started with a Graphite 400 a few years ago which had been my only G3 iMac for a long time.
Then, starting with a Bondi at the beginning of the year, numbers increased a bit... and my first Graphite is now accompanied by the Bondi, a 266MHz Grape and a 333MHz Blueberry (TrayLoaders) plus both 400MHz Tangerine and Lime (SlotLoaders).
Well, if a Strawberry and an Indigo would come along, I'm sure, I wouln'd say no then ... - it's an obsession indeed!
The SlotLoaders are IMHO the better choice, when it comes to the Fruit Colors, since the fan switches off in Sleeping mode and they sport FireWire ...
View attachment 779024
Good fun to get routine in setting up OS9 (and Panther/Tiger /w Classic).
Last weekend, the Tangerine has got an SSD-upgrade (with SATA-IDE-adapter) and "my full" installation routine of OS9 including VirtualPC6/WinFundamentals/RDP-Client6 and it's now ready for it's first run as a fat-client at my office network and RDP-session with Win2008-Server.

Despite of their size they are not banned from the living room yet


View attachment 779022 View attachment 779023

Nice collection! You're so close to all the flavors.

What do you mean by using it as a fat-client? I think I understand a thin-client, but haven't heard of fat-client as far as I remember.

 

[Amethyst1]

What do you mean by using it as a fat-client? I think I understand a thin-client, but haven't heard of fat-client as far as I remember.

I hope @bobesch doesn't mind me chiming in. A fat client is a thin client which is also a fully functional computer on its own.

 

[bobesch]

Nice collection! You're so close to all the flavors.
What do you mean by using it as a fat-client? I think I understand a thin-client, but haven't heard of fat-client as far as I remember.

Oh, they are literally fat clients ...
... but indeed also fully equipped computers.
Going to use them as RDPclients for RDP-ScreenSharing with the Win2008Server in the Office: OS9 - VirtualPC - WindowsXPpro Fundamentals (=SP2) with RDP-Client v.6x.
I does sound a bit awkward - well, it is pretty awkward, but it's good fun!
It started with a Cube G4 and an iMac G5 as a fun project, but after I noticed, that the RDP-Client/Server-combination (with a new SSD-raid on the server) was much faster than previous fully equipped Windows-Clients, I replaced the Win-Clients first by PPC-Macs, then, after the MS RDP-Client for PPC failed to connect to the Server, by white intel-iMacs/Lion.

Now, after getting more familiar with OS9 the old hardware (iMacs G3, Cube G4, Gooseneck) are gaining more and more attraction again to bring them back to work - but only one at a time, to avoid confusion at my collegues ...
"Barbies Toilet-Seat" aka Clamshell will be the final challenge ...



@CooperBox: sorry for that lot off-topic ... and back to the "Green iMac": the 'Lime' 400MHz DV SlotLoader or the 500/600MHz 'Sage' are really more fun for these kind of projects ...