Author Topic: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple  (Read 38381 times)

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Offline SirYeetWilliams

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #50 on: Wed, 04 October 2023, 18:44:28 »
LOVE this, will buy
Sofle+ user.
Colemak enjoyer.
Unnecessary GB addict.

Offline sdotlee

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #51 on: Wed, 04 October 2023, 20:21:54 »
I absolutely NEED these haha

Offline LOL WTH

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #52 on: Thu, 05 October 2023, 08:23:14 »
I kinda like that R1 purple!

Offline Bobatype

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #53 on: Thu, 07 March 2024, 20:19:02 »
Hi,
Sorry for the lack of updates, so just to quick confirm where things are at:

1) Color samples are all confirmed/finalised.
This took a few iterations as using opaque color code references really was hit/miss. Here's a quick photo to summarise the process:



2) Kitting composition is confirmed/final. Original post has been updated.



In the base kit, the novelties were trimmed down or shuffled around for further cost optimisations. It still has most of the fun stuff.
Got rid of the excessive R4 yellow C-button novelties, had to remove the 1.25u 'select' (1.50u remains). Also after looking at some samples of translucent shine-through windowed keycaps, ditched the idea translucent 'Power' windowed novelty keys. The light leakage is not great on windowed keys with translucent caps.
For all the kits, the underlying holes have been made a little less visible, as per the manufacturer, on the standard alphas/modifiers (non-novelty keys), these mold holes tend to be less evident (refer to photos of PBTFans Vior/Klein Blue photos). Note these renders are still an approximation, since all I have are novelty samples as reference which has a different mold structure.



In the accent kit, colours for directional arrows were changed to be a different colour configuration from the base kit RGBY arrows for extra variance. Yellow directional arrows removed for both cost optimisation and the fact that the novelty kit already has 4 yellow arrow novelty keys (the C-buttons). Colours in kits have been tweaked to better reflect the samples a little better.

There were nil changes to the 40s, numpad, and international kit (yes, the text 'Alt Gr' modifiers will stay... it doesn't effect the pricing if they're gone or not). Katakana sublegends kit is the same, but I'm still unsure if it'll still go ahead at this stage. I'd like to keep it, just so that people who get the base kit + alphas, could potentially cover 2 keyboards. Please note the katana kit render doesn't depict underling holes, which is inaccurate.

3) Estimated date of production:

I'm still waiting for an accurate ETA from the manufacturer. Sorry no news on that end. This will be a pre-orders -> in-stock model. I'm also awaiting quotes about the kit pricing before finalising vendors.

4) Deskmats:

Production files have been sent. Awaiting prototypes. I've decided to go with black stitching for all of them for simplicity's sake.
There was a choice between smooth fabric or Jacquard as deskmat texture, and I've decided on the latter.

5) Collabs:
I'm exploring keycap artisan options. I've been discussing Aiglatson Studio on what might be a good fit, and here's a proposal for a 1u metal keycap artisan:




Open to feedback. I did consider more gamer themes, such as a game cartridge, or D-pad, or gameboy, but given metal artisans are opaque, decided that a white accent with a simple but iconic atomic orbit would be better.

I'm also exploring potentially doing a Zoom 75 keyboard collab with Wuque Studios. However this would be dependent on if they can consistently match the polycarb top with the intended purple (they couldn't get it consistent for WS Akuamarin x Zoom75, which is why the top was changed to clear polycarb.
--------------
I will post again when I have more significant news on the project status.
Most importantly, color sampling is finalised, and it will get made. However, it's just a matter of when at this stage.
« Last Edit: Thu, 07 March 2024, 20:37:46 by Bobatype »

Offline Xury46

  • Posts: 70
Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #54 on: Sat, 09 March 2024, 14:37:51 »
Thanks for the update! I'm planning on putting this set on my purple frosted Curio. Would it be possible to add a blue left arrow and a red right arrow? This would give a nice mirrored symmetry to the colored modifiers: red, yellow, blue | blue, yellow, red

Offline Xury46

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #55 on: Sat, 09 March 2024, 15:36:40 »
Sad to see the 1.25u 'select' go. I was hoping to have a matching start and select on the bottom of my Curio

Offline Bobatype

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #56 on: Tue, 12 March 2024, 09:39:07 »
Artisan keycap idea in collaboration with Salvun x Maxvoltar:





Specs:
- Top is aluminium, stone washed, laser engraved.
- Bottom hand-dyed polycarbonate
- Cherry profile R1

Thoughts?
---

I kinda like that R1 purple!
I agree R1 purple was really pretty, but for me it deviated a bit too far from what 'atomic purple' felt like.
Maybe I'll find a way to repurpose it for a future keycap set in the future under a different theme.

Thanks for the update! I'm planning on putting this set on my purple frosted Curio. Would it be possible to add a blue left arrow and a red right arrow? This would give a nice mirrored symmetry to the colored modifiers: red, yellow, blue | blue, yellow, red
Apologies, I wish I could cater to this, but I can't add anymore keys at this stage. PBTFans doubleshot manufacturing process means I can't really add any more keys to the current kits. I would have to rearrange the color arrangements of the existing RGBY arrows which I'm not going to do.

Sad to see the 1.25u 'select' go. I was hoping to have a matching start and select on the bottom of my Curio
Unfortunately it was a decision between the 1.25u 'D-pad' or 'Select', and I chose to forego the latter, as I wanted a 1.25u 'OS' novelty key option that not just text-based.

Offline n1sm0__

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #57 on: Tue, 12 March 2024, 11:10:19 »
I will probably cop as I love the semitransparent design, but PBTFans really teasing me with those semitransparent green keycaps and not releasing a full set.

Offline Bobatype

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #58 on: Tue, 12 March 2024, 20:13:26 »
Renders of the Salvun x MV x Bobatype artisan collab with the (Nostalgia) logo [as seen in the Novelty ANSI enter]... instead of "Atomic Purple" text:
 




More



« Last Edit: Fri, 15 March 2024, 11:25:47 by Bobatype »

Offline aicyborg

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #59 on: Wed, 13 March 2024, 19:45:03 »
I would rather it say Atomic Purple than Nostalgia in a very "I want to make this say Nintendo but I'm afraid of their lawyers"-type way. It's also arguably a bit more true to how the real GB carts looked if the text is smaller - the titling "Game Boy" was quite subtly bevelled into the tops there.

Oooooon the other hand, GMK CYL Cubed3 just straight up copied the whole physical appearance of a GameCube for the HIBI there, so I don't know.

More interested in the Salvun design than the Aiglatson design, personally.

Offline CandyKeys

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #60 on: Tue, 26 March 2024, 15:40:01 »
Cant wait for this , happy to finally see updates!
The CandyKeys Mechanical Keyboard Store

Offline NixieType

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #61 on: Sun, 14 April 2024, 21:03:06 »
I would rather it say Atomic Purple than Nostalgia in a very "I want to make this say Nintendo but I'm afraid of their lawyers"-type way. It's also arguably a bit more true to how the real GB carts looked if the text is smaller - the titling "Game Boy" was quite subtly bevelled into the tops there.

100% agree with this. The "Nostalgia" looks really bad because of how close to "Nintendo" it looks. Atomic Purple makes the reference obvious without looking super weird. Please consider changing it back.

Offline Nullifidian

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #62 on: Fri, 06 September 2024, 05:23:47 »
I've lost hope with this keyset. The last minute changes never stop.

Offline Bobatype

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #63 on: Fri, 06 September 2024, 05:49:22 »
I would rather it say Atomic Purple than Nostalgia in a very "I want to make this say Nintendo but I'm afraid of their lawyers"-type way. It's also arguably a bit more true to how the real GB carts looked if the text is smaller - the titling "Game Boy" was quite subtly bevelled into the tops there.

Oooooon the other hand, GMK CYL Cubed3 just straight up copied the whole physical appearance of a GameCube for the HIBI there, so I don't know.

More interested in the Salvun design than the Aiglatson design, personally.

I would rather it say Atomic Purple than Nostalgia in a very "I want to make this say Nintendo but I'm afraid of their lawyers"-type way. It's also arguably a bit more true to how the real GB carts looked if the text is smaller - the titling "Game Boy" was quite subtly bevelled into the tops there.

100% agree with this. The "Nostalgia" looks really bad because of how close to "Nintendo" it looks. Atomic Purple makes the reference obvious without looking super weird. Please consider changing it back.

Those are fair points. Perhaps I can explore seeing if Vendor/Manu is open to offering both options in pre-order period and ppl can pick their preference. The aiglatson studio artisan has been scrapped.

I've lost hope with this keyset. The last minute changes never stop.

Sorry to hear you've lost hope. Some of the delays was waiting for the novelty molds to be made. As you can see, the novelty kit is quite large. The molds have since been manufactured and the novelty legends have been approved (see below). So the set will go into production, it's just a matter of time. The kits are finalised.

Unfortunately the most recent delays was after reviewing the colourway samples again, I felt that I could do it better and that they didn't match the renders I've posted in this interest check.
The colour saturation was a bit too pale (even though it still sorta worked), and the hue of purple needed to be more magenta than blue.


It's now a lot better (see column of keys on right for most recent), but I'm doing one last round to see if I can shift the hue slightly more to magenta, as that's the tinge/hint you see on the edges.
Unfortunately for translucent keycaps, colour sampling is more a process of trial and error as there are no translucent 'color standard' pantone/ral books or color chips. Complicating the process is that the GBC and the N64 controller's atomic purple cases are actually slightly different shades, and the immediate underlying white layer of the keycap is a confounding variable.
I'm sorry that there have been delays in the color sample process, but I'm glad that I didn't rush it through.
I'm trying to get the colours right before the pre-orders/in-stock, instead of doing it post GB.
« Last Edit: Fri, 06 September 2024, 05:51:47 by Bobatype »

Offline Bobatype

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #64 on: Thu, 24 October 2024, 09:52:26 »
Hi,
Just a quick update that at the end of September, the most recent round of sample of purple was approved (refer to column on the far right in below photo).



It took a lot more rounds than expected, but I'm happy that I didn't settle when I had a gut feeling it could be improved to better match the theme/renders. Many thanks to KBDFans for being patient throughout the whole process.

As all colors are finally confirmed, with custom novelty legend molds made, the manufacturer will aim to shortly move into production soon, with an aim to complete manufacturing in December.

Like other PBTFans keycaps, although this will be available in-stock; there will be a pre-order period planned to assist regional vendors with a better estimate of how many kits/deskmats/artisans to order in advance. I would hate for someone in a smaller region to miss out on a specific kit.
I'm currently in the process of confirming vendors to co-ordinate this pre-order period (?November). I will aim to release a list of participating vendors in the next week or so.
---
Unlike the keyboard renders, the kit renders have been updated to hopefully better represent the painting done to minimise the visibility of the 'holes' of the inner layer of PBTFans keycaps (refer to the  PBTFans X-ray disclaimer as an example).
---
This is a preview mock-up of the base kit packaging (note this is just rough approximation, and it is missing a small cut-out at the top border):


Offline Kokaloo

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #65 on: Thu, 24 October 2024, 11:24:25 »
YAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Offline konstantin

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #66 on: Thu, 24 October 2024, 15:59:17 »
Hi Boba, I thought you might want to know that the numpad kit is missing R1 End, PgDn keys for 1800/CP/96-key layouts.

Other than that, I think this set looks fantastic. If I were in the market for a purple set, I'd definitely cop. Great job :thumb:

Offline Bobatype

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #67 on: Wed, 30 October 2024, 00:43:01 »
Hi Boba, I thought you might want to know that the numpad kit is missing R1 End, PgDn keys for 1800/CP/96-key layouts.

Other than that, I think this set looks fantastic. If I were in the market for a purple set, I'd definitely cop. Great job :thumb:
Thanks for the kitting feedback as always! Those are good points, however for PBTFans, their child kits are pretty much set in concrete due to their manufacturing process, thus there's not really any opportunity at this stage to include those additional keys. Sorry about that.
Hopefully users can substitute them with the novelty keys.

Offline Bobatype

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #68 on: Wed, 30 October 2024, 00:46:02 »
Manufacturer's current estimated date of production completion - end of November 2024.

Current List of Vendors
    North America
        US - Divinikey
        US - Omnitype
        CA - Minokeys
    Europe
        EU - Keygem
        EU - MaxGaming
        UK - MechMods
    Asia
        CN - Mars.Universe
        KR - GEONWORKS
        SG - ktechs
        TW - PNKeyboard
        VN - Uniq Meck
    Oceania
        AU - Soupkeys

It will be updated if there are any changes.
Some vendors may elect to have a pre-order period during November (dates yet determined).
« Last Edit: Thu, 31 October 2024, 22:46:19 by Bobatype »

Offline lishan1988

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Re: [IC] PBTFans Atomic Purple
« Reply #69 on: Wed, 30 October 2024, 21:24:24 »
Manufacturer's current estimated date of production completion - end of November 2024.

Current List of Vendors
    North America
        US - Divinikey
        US - Omnitype
    Europe
        EU - Keygem
        EU - MaxGaming
        UK - MechMods
    Asia
        CN - Mars.Universe
        KR - GEONWORKS
        SG - ktechs
        TW - PNKeyboard
    Oceania
        AU - Soupkeys

It will be updated if there are any changes.
Some vendors may elect to have a pre-order period during November (dates yet determined).
KBDfans itself isn't a vendor?