This thread is not the Clack Therapy thread. Please go there or elsewhere to vent. I would really appreciate this thread to stay true to the OP, even if I have been insanely lazy about updating it.Mashby has making these really awesome
lists lately. So I thought I’d ride his coat tails and do something similar. I also stole his idea of making a
GH Click Clack Wiki page. Check it out!
Clacks are pretty popular on GH. But us newbies don’t really get a lot of info on them. All of a sudden, we see a 3D going for $300 and we think it might be worth it. Well before you do that, maybe you can get some info here.
Edit on 10/8/13: The prices and colors here might be a little outdated. The "price guide' is about a 6 month window from October 2012 to April 2013. Keeping track of all the prices is too much work for one person. Also, the colors in this thread and the Wiki may not be complete. I will be updating/consolidating the two threads when the new Wiki rolls out.
Edit on 12/7/13: Finally getting around to updating the information. A better explanation of the different ClickClack keycap types is now available.
Edit on 8/28/14: I have not followed second hand Clack prices for a while. I don't follow them anymore and have adjusted the OP accordingly. Please refer to the Pricing Thread or the Price Check Thread for more information. Also a quick Google search of the Classifieds or elsewhere will show a good amount of pricing information.
TABLE OF CONTENTS (ToC)1)
What are Clacks?2)
How are they made and where can I buy one of these Clacks3)
Will they fit/match my [fill in the blank] keyboard?4)
Retail Price of a Clack5)
Colors6)
Specialty Caps7)
Secondhand Market Prices What are Clacks? (ToC)Officially called ClickClack keycaps, they are created by the user Click Clack who also has an account named Clack Factory. Other names for they caps are "Clacks", "CCs", "Click Clacks", and even "Clarks". They are novelty caps that fit on the Function/Escape row, arrow cluster, or WASD cluster. The caps have three different designs; they come in the form of a raised skull, an etched/infilled leaf, and blank. They come in a variety of colors and can fit different types of keyboards (MX, Topre, etc). More details can be found below.
How are they made and where can I buy one of these Clacks? (ToC)You can buy them from
EliteKeyboards (EK), from ClickClack himself in his
GH vendor forum, or from the GH classifieds section. The most famous of his sales are his
4Grabs sales. Periodic updates into ClickClack's cap making work can be found
in his Head's Up thread.
Most of the current cap makers hand pour their caps into silicone molds. Bro Caps
has a 6 part metal mold to make his BroBot V2 caps. It has been rumored that ClickClack may have an injection molding machine but it's very possible he hand pours his caps. The running joke is that he's cool dude (true) who has a lot of gnomes (who knows??), and that he carves them with his gnomes. So even though we all
know Clacks are Gnome-carved, ClickClack tries to throw us off his scent. (From the
Post Your Clacks thread.) The current best guess is that the caps have a mold that is either injection molded or hand poured, then ClickClack hand finishes them.
Are 3D mx triple shot or do they have painted eyes?
I believe that they are painted.
nope =)
They are triple molded and are semi-opaque.
Now that's interesting :O
Or is it? =P
Back to Table of Contents Will they fit/match my [fill in the blank] keyboard? (ToC) Clacks are made in the follow 4 stem types:
Cherry MX (From
mkawa)
Topre
Bucking Spring (From
JwasZ)
Alps (From Ripster)
Clacks then come in the following flavors (thanks to esoomenona for the help):
- Skulls
- Blanks
- Clusters
- Topre Function (fn) Caps
- Gumrot
- 4:20
- Rare or limited editions
1) Skulls can come in a
single color,
transluscent/see through (aka trans), bi-color, or tri-color. The transluscents can now be found in a glow-in-the-dark hue as well as the standard colors such as transluscent red.
Bi-colors usually come in two types: a solid color with different colored eyes (Mr. Friday, Nightowl) or have a different face color (Drunken Skull, Skeletor).
Tricolor skulls are usually split into three colors. The body has one color, the face has another, and the eyes have a third (such as the original or OG tri-color or Salute). Other tri-colors have a body with layered colors (Candy Corn skull) or mis-matched eyes (3D).
More
Example of single colored and bi-color skulls (Hack Orange, Revenge Red, Hardcore White, and Ionospheric Blue are all single colored skulls; the green Mr. Friday is a bi-color. Photo borrowed from snoopy.
Examples of bi-color and tri-color skulls. Photo borrowed from eth0s.
Computer-Lab-in-Basement’s Noct skull, it glows in the dark!
2) Blank Clacks are non-skull caps that come in single, double (such as Oktoberfest), or triple colored layers (such as Julysicle). There are also Splats, which are blanks but have a bloody splatter image on them. Splats aren’t layered.
More
Dubsgalore’s Julysicles
Dustinhxc has a Candy Corn blank on his 1.
Formerly jcrouse’sBloodshot splats.
Prototype Paint Ballin’ splat. Owner wishes to remain anonymous.
3) Clusters are Blank Clacks that come in a set that fit on the WASD or arrow clusters. They have their own ClackFactory profile, which I believe is between OEM and Cherry.
More
Formerly jcrouse’s WASD and arrow clusters.
4) Topre function caps are caps that fit on the HHKB function location in the proper profile.
More
sth’s HHKB with Oktoberfest fn cap
5) For Halloween 2013, there was an
EliteKeyboards sale with this new cap style from ClackFactory. It looks like an ogre or troll instead of the old standard of skulls and blanks. Gumrots come in MX and are solid. GummyRots are MX and Topre and come in a translucent color.
More
HendyZone’s MX Gumrot.
6) These keycaps have a marijuana leaf on them. There are two types of leaves: O’ Natural and Toast. O’ Natural is more like the original leaf. Toast is a simplified more bold pattern. Then there are four color variations:
- Sticky – Solid color with an engraved leaf
- Sticky Icky – A bi color cap: the body has one color with an engraved leaf infilled with a different color
- Sticky Icky Icky – A bi color cap: the body has one color, the engraving has the same color and isn’t infilled. Then the leaf is another color.
- Good Times – a tri colored cap: the body has one color, the engraved infilled outline a second, and the leaf itself a third
More
From ClackFactory’s 4Grabs, examples of Sticky and Sticky Icky Icky. In the first picture, 1 shows the O’ Natural leaf. 2 is Toast.
7) ClackFactory has done a lot of
different caps and many different materials. He’s done everything from the Deskthority Award’s Wingnut cap to swappable magnetic fridge stems for his caps.
More
Wingnut caps are prizes for the annual Deskthority awards. That picture is from the 2013 awards.
Detachable magnetic MX Clack adapter.
I should also say that some of the Clacks used to come in sets. For example Nightowl, T2 Terminator, and I think the black/red splats came from a set called Bloodshot. ClickClack's cryptic explanation can be found
here.
Back to Table of Contents Retail Price of a Clack (ToC)How much is a clack going to cost me? Here's some pricing from 2013.
This is from danielucf in the
What we got in the mail thread. He’s a cool dude with a lot of info.
Out of curiosity how much were the CC's? I want to know a baseline resale price people think is a good deal so I don't get ripped off. Thanks.
If you sell or buy at their retail price which has been between $14-34, roughly, you will not be ripped off. I believe single colors have been $14-24 depending on if it was straight from Clack Factory, or a little more if it was from elitekeyboards. Tri-colors are more in the upper range like $26-34. Obviously anything above retail is profit, and how much you want to profit during resale is up to you.
So these prices are from EK or from Clack when he sells them. ClickClack will sell them direct in his 4Grabs sales. He’ll also do random sales like
this laser charged sale which was for a MX Black Vader cap. In the EliteKeyboards sales, he’ll do a lottery. You register your information and if you get picked, EK will send you an invoice.
Now if you want to take your chances in the classifieds… (Thanks to jdcarpe! This was also posted in the What Did You Get in the Mail Thread. Also a cool dude.)
We could start a new thread just for this discussion, but the average prices they have been going for lately, i.e. market value, not retail (and charitable sellers notwithstanding) are these:
Solid colors $3o-110+
Tri-colors $120-150+
Rare/limited $200-250+
That's what you could expect to pay when buying them at auction or from a seller who paid those prices for them.
If you are patient, people sometimes give them away for free, or sell them at cost. Or sell them at a personal loss, to try and do something nice for someone.
Now if we want to go back in time a little, we can find more pricing. The pricing below is a bit dated but it's from Clack's
4Grabs Sale Thread. This means these are retail prices are directly from ClickClack himself. You can see how pricing changed over the course of ten months: from December 2011 to September 2012. I'm not sure if a Hack Orange is worth more than a Milk Blue. It might be a judgement call. (I'll update if I can find more info.)
2011 Pricing
2012 Pricing
Back to Table of Contents Colors (ToC) Now that we have an idea of what we can expect/want to pay, we have a more important question: What color clack should we get? Now Clack has a
listing of all the colors he’s made. But I have an issue with the list: There’s no pictures! Don’t panic. Also, I've unearthed a little picture that might help to explain some of his color names:
If you ever wondered why it was called P1 Purple or T2 Terminator. This is why. ClackFactory has a master list/grid and that's how he plans it. This is the only pictures I've been able to find of this. I don't have a full matrix to post.
Reaper’s Picture. Borrowed from the
Post Your Clack Thread.
Now onto your regularly scheduled pictures.
Q = Original EK Tri Color Skull
W = Salute
E = 3D
R = Candy Corn Tri Color Skull
T = Jack o’ Lantern
Y = P1 Purple
U = Vader
I = Candy Corn non-Skull
A = F2 Blue
S = Tickle Me Pink (Confirmed
here)
D = Concrete Mint Green
F = Hack Orange
G = Painful Red (Confirmed
here)
H = Revenge Red
Z = 420 (Don’t know the color name)
X = 420 (Don’t know the color name)
C = 420 (Don’t know the color name)
V = Mint Gum Green
B = Mr. Friday
N = Depth Black
DanGWanG’s Picture from the same thread as above. They are all single color skulls.
1 = Revenge Red (Same as H from Reaper’s picture. Left is MX, Right is Topre, Confirmed
here)
2 = Painful Red (Same as G from Reaper’s picture) (Confirmed
here)
3 = F2 Grey (Confirmed
here)
4 = Depth Black (Left is MX, Right is Topre)
5 = Milk Yellow*
6 = Yolk Yellow (Confirmed
here)
7 = Orangesicle (Confirmed
here)
8 = Candy Corn Tri Color Skull (Same as I in Reaper’s Picture)
9 = Milk Pink (Confirmed
here10 = Tickle Me Pink (Same as S in Reaper's Picture)
11 = See #1
12 = Jack o’ Lantern (Same as T in Reaper’s Picture)
13 = Mint Gum (Confirmed
here)
14 = Guac
15 = ??
16 = 3D Tri Color Skull
17 = Milk Blue*
18 = Original EK Blue (Confirmed
here)
19 = P1 Purple (Confirmed
here)
20 = P1 Purple (Same color as 19 but different stem I think)
A combination of non-skull single color and single color skull Clacks from Tsangan. An explanation of the profiles can be found
here.
21 = Midnight Indigo (Confirmed
here. I still think it looks like Midnight Blue from the 4Grabs thread but I'll concede
)
22 = Juice Yellow
23 = Machine Green (Sorry Tsangan but your guess of Army Green might be wrong! But Clack himself ID'd this in his 4Grabs. Maybe there's 2 names?)
24 = Chartreuse/Toxic Green (Yes it has 2 names according to
4Grabs)
25 = Octopink (Same as Reaper's
S and 10)
26 = Candy Corn (Same as Reaper's
I)
From
ekw808.
27 = Salute (Same as Reaper's
W)
28 = 3D (Same as Reaper's
E)
29 =
(Purple and White?
These are Skeletor)
30 = Milk Purple (Confirmed
here)
From
Turbo Slaab. Skipping the Clacks I have ID'd already.
31 = Julysicle
32 = Hardcore White
33 = EK Grey (Confirmed
here)
34 = Oktoberfest
Found this wonderful picture from DanGWanG. Going to borrow it; the original post was
found here. You can find him at
his blog.
For more detailed color information, please check out the Click Clack Wiki page Back to Table of Contents Specialty Caps (ToC)AA = Ducky Quack (From
here)
BB = Dark Ducky Quack (From the same thread as above)
CC = Ripster's Red Vader (From
here. There is also a black Vader. I'll update when I find a picture I like.)
DD = sixty's Custom Clack (Sixty is a member on Deskthority, pic found
here)
EE = Litster's Wingnut from the 2012 DT awards.
FF = Donut clack (Not sure if it's real, found it in
Clack's Gallery. Posted mainly for Halverson and rowdy ^_^)
Some transluscent prototype caps from ClickClack. Sixty posted these pics
here. (Thank you noisyturtle for the info!)
Purple prototype caps! Noisyturtle gave me the link but I think it might've been from Clack's subforum.
Back to Table of ContentsPricing on the second hand market (ToC)Second hand market prices can be discussed in the
Clack Valuation Thread. Please keep the pricing discussion there.
Back to Table of Contents