I still have 3 of those cubes. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, they are also referred to as the legendary "Hubi's Cube"s
But they can pop indeed.
what later used to be sold as "type a" or "alpha-1" is NOT exactly the same cube - they have a crispier feeling. But they also fit your description - light, cuts corners extremely well. But back in 2007, they were like the 3 I still have.
They all feel like a dream, two of them have been used for years, and I still use it for OH.
Furthermore, IMO, those cubes are NOT suitable for modern speedcubing. Sub10 style won't work on it.
see it in action:
this one is so smooth it's unusable for 2H
and THIS is like, my favourite cube ever:
lol I was so slow back then
those 2 cubes mean a lot to me.
I haven't used the third one that much.
I also have an incredibly crazy not-so-old-type a which all of you might know from WC.
Rowe: I'd be willing to send you my third old type a (bought in August 2007, not really used much) if you don't find any place to buy one. But I don't believe that you'll really like it. It doesn't fit modern cubing style. It still feels like a dream, though
The earliest Alpha that Stefan has on his website is the Alpha 1
http://speedcubes.net/model.php?model=15
Back then, the screws were different. And there was some discussion about the core, I think. anyway, this is Alpha-1, and this is also what used to be called type a, but a slightly different model than my 2007-old-type-a.