[GB] SA By the Sea - Shipping Now!

[THRILLHOIAF]

Updates Hub

07/06/18 - Second Round of Color Samples!

More

Hey guys, exciting stuff! I got a second round of color samples for the set and I'm REALLY stoked on them.

with the original colors I was pretty stoked and happy! However I wanted to see some them pop a bit more, a little bit lighter and not so flat/muted. We definitely got that 100% with the latest batch


Inside lighting conditions:



Natural lighting conditions:



E-mail sent to Melissa to confirm selections
Materials ordered for manufacturing

05/25/18 - Colors samples arrived

More

Hey guys I just received color chip samples in from SP!

I'll let you all peep the album, I tried to cover as many different lighting scenarios throughout the day to best capture how each color changes in different settings. Will add more when I get home so everyone can see what the colors look like in a mildly bright computer/gaming room.


https://imgur.com/a/6jeh3Ia


Overall I think these are a good start! In bright light all the colors are near bang on with the pantone guide and are quite accurate to the render! That being said, I noticed throughout the day as lighting changed, that the color samples also varied quite heavily from being near-bang-on to "that doesnt seem right?"

Fortunately with a production slot of Q4 this year, we've got plenty of time to nail down the colors, and while this was a good start, I think I'm going to do my due diligence and see if I can refine these to be more accurate


To be more specific, I'm going to request chip samples in a couple near-identical pantones to see how they compare, and ask to see if they can provide  the current pantones  but with their bases (magenta/cyan) a bit brighter, just so we have something to compare to!

But yah like I said, I still think the colors look great, really captures the palette of the film and really look great together!

Cheers!

EDIT:




^Picture in my comp dungeon - SA Camping for color scale (Camping also uses WCK alphas)

4/15/18 - Updates, final numbers, production schedule, novelties

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Hey everyone sorry for the lack of update since our GB ended, been busy fine tuning the details with SP, but I wanted to give everyone an update on where we're at!


Final Kit Numbers
Base Kits: 108
Novelties: 82
Numpads: 53
Non-Standard Adapters: 56

We sold quite well with our basekits and fortunately JUST cracked the 50 MOQ for the numpads and NSAdapter kits! Thank god too, because if we didn't crack the 50MOQ for the 2, then we'd have probably had to refund the entire groupbuy, so hooray for making it everybody!

Production Schedule
Payment was submitted officially to Signature Plastics on 04/10/18 so we've secured our spot on the production schedule

With Pulse R2 and a crapton of other SA set orders coming in just prior to ours, our spot on the production schedule got bumped down to Q4 of this year 2018


Artwork/Novelty Tweaks
and finally, just minor tweaks to some of the novelties had to be made due to SP's tooling restrictions

mainly, parts of the sisters and boat novelties being too thing

I've submitted revised artwork for SP to work with, so I'll hear back soon enough whether the revised works or not!



-so in the original, the mouth on the sisters was too thin and thus became a block outline, I also smoothed out the eyes a bit so she's less derpy lookin
-then the boats rudder handle was too close to the boat so it had to be raised, but raising it goofed with the scale of the boat itself, so I had to raise the cabin up, and make it look a little rounder to balance it out! kind of what I wanted it to look like in the first place, the original was a bit too thin which wasnt really keeping with the movie
-artwork was also split on the boat novelty, so for the 1u boat novelty, the rudder handle will not have a hand-hole on it for the 1u novelty

again these are tentative changes, for all I know these revisions might not be good enough and more will have to come, but I thought I'd keep everyone up to date with any revisions that need to be made since we got a ways until we enter production stages


Thanks for bearing with me guys! Apologies for the lack of updates the past couple weeks, hopefully this one answers enough questions

TLDR

• Payment submitted to SP 04/10/18
• Production tentatively scheduled for Q4 2018
• Artwork needed updating on Sisters and Boat novelties
• Kit numbers were good!

here's an incredibly rushed/lazy render of the set on the upcoming Espectro for your patience!

More

Joke reference

03/26/18 - Groupbuy purchase phase concluded!

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I'm stoked guys we made it through the groupbuy phase! Looks like we've met MOQ for our most important kits. I hope to provide total kits sold counts and other details about how the buy went asap, just bare with me while i sort numbers and other details out with Dave from Mechkeys.ca.

Again big thanks to all those who supported this set from the very beginning and every person who joined the gb. I hope we can get this bad boy in everybody's hands as soon as possible

March 26th Update Continued

Attention all those who purchased the Blanks and 40s kit...

I sadly regret to inform you that we unfortunately undersold on the 40s kit, and after careful evaluation of our numbers, couldn't find a justifiable way to get the 40s set made

An e-mail will be sent out from Mechkeys later tonight asking those who bought the 40s set if they wish to refund JUST their 40s set, or their entire order


I'm really sorry guys, I really tried my hardest to sell the 40s kit to prospective buyers (I think 50% of my reddit posts highlighted BTS on a 40%) and I truly believed that the great coverage would be enticing enough to get the MOQ met, but unfortunately it was just not in the stars for us on this run!

Believe me when I say we evaluated our options of buying up the remainder of the sets at the bare minimum MOQ, however we found that it would mean the groupbuy taking on a huge loss, and would leave us with a handful of 40s kits that would have to be sold at nearly double the original sell price in order to break even

And to the few who bought blanks kits, thank you so much for believing in the sets color scheme enough to get blanks! I honestly wasnt sure there would be a single set sold, but to you who believed in the set that much, much love you're my heroes!

All this being said, I'm ecstatic we made it with the rest of the kits, and as the recent owner of a beautiful silver Pearl, and the equally unique CONTRA, I was really crossing my fingers that the 40s kit made it, but my mama always told me to never give up on something you believe in, so maybe not today but in the future, us 40s freaks can figure something out

Again sorry for the inconvenience everyone, and I hope you understand that we did everything we could to try make it happen

Cheers
Cody

03/20/18 - Update

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Forgot to update this one, but due to losing a couple days off the kit-revamp we decided to extend the GB finish date to the 24th!

03/14/18 - Update

More

Hey everyone sorry I've been stingy with the updates! Have been waiting on kit sales from our proxies before I provided an idea on how we doing! But can't wait forever since theres only 6 DAYS LEFT!!! wooooooah time flies!

Current numbers of our NA groupbuy can be found here

These numbers dont include our vendor purchases or personal purchases! Hopefully we'll get up to date numbers from our EU proxy and we'll be able to give a more comprehensive look into how we're doing!

Right now I'm hopeful that we'll meet MOQ on a few of the kits! I'm prepped to do whatever I can to make sure the other sets get made as well, for now I'll just do what I can to promote the set and try to get as many last minute buyers as possible in on this beauty!

Thanks everyone for your patience!
2/20/1 - Kit Revamp Update

TL;DR - Refunds issued on original kits across all proxies, so don't be alarmed if you see a refund on your account - it's so you can purchase the set at even cheaper price than before!

Sale Concluded March.24th

NA: Mechkeys.ca
EU:Mykeyboard.eu
CHINA only:zFrontier



Kits
sold @ MECHKEYS.CA in CANADIAN DOLLARS

Base Kit - $129.95 CAD



40% - $94.95 CAD
Did not Meet MOQ

More

Non Standard Adapter - $59.95 CAD


Novelties - $54.95 CAD



Numpad - $49.95 CAD



Blanks - $79.95 CAD
Did not Meet MOQ

More

KIT ALBUM


USD Prices

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I know theres a lot of confusion because we are selling from a Canadian website in Canadian dollars, here are the prices in USD for all you folks wondering how much our Canadian dollar is worth (spoiler, not much)

• Base kit - $102.78 USD
• 40% kit - $75.10 USD
• Non Standard Adapter Kit - $47.10 USD
• Novelties Kit - $43.46 USD
• Numpad kit - $39.50 USD
• Blanks Kit - $63.23 USD

Details

SA By the Sea is a set inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. I absolutely love this movie and wanted to design a set that captures the light hearted happy go lucky spirit of the movies titular character Ponyo.

• Designed by THRILLHOIAF/The1THRILLHOUSE/Cody
• SA Sculpted with semi-matte/matte finishing
• Rows: 1-1-2-3-4-4
• 4 sets
• ABS Doubleshot
• MX Compatible
• Manufactured by Signature Plastics
• GB Duration: 30 days - possibility of extension depending how we do
• Estimated production start date: July 2018 - will update estimate throughout GB duration

Renders




















Special thanks go to Dave from Mechkeys.ca, Koobaczech and Oblotzky for all the help finalizing sets, the gorgeous renders, and all his helpful advice on how to maximize SA By the Sea's appeal!


Thanks again for everybodies patience and understanding! I'm still learning, but I am dedicated to bringing this community a brand new sculpted SA set they can be proud to wear on their keebs

[Perfex]

HAM!

[danielucf]

My daughter loves Ponyo, may have to pick this up for her first mech some day.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Oblotzky]

GL! Looking forward to end of the year

[danielucf]

Is....the price going to drop as people order?

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[derre]

i got a pok3r, and dont know which set to get,
Alphas+Novelties does not have a tab key cap, is that true...?

[THRILLHOIAF]

My daughter loves Ponyo, may have to pick this up for her first mech some day.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

cute!

Is....the price going to drop as people order?

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Unfortunately, no...this is looking to be a VERY small groupbuy, so the likelihood of us hitting ALL MOQ's and being able to offer tiered pricing unlikely.

i got a pok3r, and dont know which set to get,
Alphas+Novelties does not have a tab key cap, is that true...?

To cover a poker would require the Alphas+Novelties and Modifiers kits!

If you scroll up we have images of each kit that shows which keys are included!

[danielucf]

i got a pok3r, and dont know which set to get,
Alphas+Novelties does not have a tab key cap, is that true...?

Alpha+novelties doesn't come with mods.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Puddsy]

$210 USD for an SA set... and people say GMK is pricy

GLWGB, i like this colorway

i got a pok3r, and dont know which set to get,
Alphas+Novelties does not have a tab key cap, is that true...?

nope

[danielucf]

As much as I like this set I can't drop that coin for a childs first keyboard set. Since this is already a group buy the decision has been made so I imagine other avenues of sale were passed over. Maybe a round two will be able to get better numbers. I'll keep watching in case prices drop.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Peiweisgreat]

Dang even when converted to USD, this will cost a pretty penny. Doesn't look like I can afford this set atm GLWB though, I really want to see this set in person.

[buzzking00]

I was super interested until I saw the prices that I could not afford =(

[lovetree]

What's the MOQ for each kit?

[THRILLHOIAF]

What's the MOQ for each kit?

100 for each kit!

[zFrontier]

Lets do this

[Morgan3Wheeler]

Lets do this

I can not find this set  in your en.zfrontier.com

[Sylvestyeo]

Where is the Asia proxy? Don't see it on en.zfrontier as well.

[THRILLHOIAF]

Where is the Asia proxy? Don't see it on en.zfrontier as well.

Lets do this

I can not find this set  in your en.zfrontier.com

The actual groupbuy page for those WITHIHN China is found here

If you are in SEA/Korea/Japan/Singapore regions, it would be best to send zfrontier a message directly from here as I believe they cannot offer their usual  free shipping outside of China,

[Koobaczech]

Great job on all of the work and putting all this together fellas. Even better that its being made by Signature Plastics. Maxkey sort of invaded the market and people are used to lower quality, lower priced sets, but you get what you pay for! Maxkey has inconsistent mixes, lacks kit support, scratches easily and doesn't have the gloss that SP sets have. Hope you meet MOQ and this gets made. I'd really love to add another high quality SA set to my collection!

[MikeTheTiger]

Great job on all of the work and putting all this together fellas. Even better that its being made by Signature Plastics. Maxkey sort of invaded the market and people are used to lower quality, lower priced sets, but you get what you pay for! Maxkey has inconsistent mixes, lacks kit support, scratches easily and doesn't have the gloss that SP sets have. Hope you meet MOQ and this gets made. I'd really love to add another high quality SA set to my collection!

Amen, Koob! 

[THRILLHOIAF]

Great job on all of the work and putting all this together fellas. Even better that its being made by Signature Plastics. Maxkey sort of invaded the market and people are used to lower quality, lower priced sets, but you get what you pay for! Maxkey has inconsistent mixes, lacks kit support, scratches easily and doesn't have the gloss that SP sets have. Hope you meet MOQ and this gets made. I'd really love to add another high quality SA set to my collection!

[Captainbuttmonkey]

$210 USD for an SA set... and people say GMK is pricy

I'm probably being dumb here and missing something obvious, but is it not most likely to be a case of:

Alphas/Novelties + Mods - $109.95 + $154.95 = $264.90

Alphas/Novelties + 40% - $109.95 + $119.95 = $229.90

?

Not my cup of tea personally but really nice set that you've clearly put some effort into. I think it's a bit of a shame that SP have given you seemingly crazy prices (I realise it's for a low MOQ but still =S). Also I can't see a lot of EU people buying it even with a proxy as there is no ISO support. I hope it goes well and I am entirely wrong however =].

[Puddsy]

$210 USD for an SA set... and people say GMK is pricy

I'm probably being dumb here and missing something obvious, but is it not most likely to be a case of:

Alphas/Novelties + Mods - $109.95 + $154.95 = $264.90

Alphas/Novelties + 40% - $109.95 + $119.95 = $229.90

?

Not my cup of tea personally but really nice set that you've clearly put some effort into. I think it's a bit of a shame that SP have given you seemingly crazy prices (I realise it's for a low MOQ but still =S). Also I can't see a lot of EU people buying it even with a proxy as there is no ISO support. I hope it goes well and I am entirely wrong however =].

prices on mechkeys are in CAD not USD

[Captainbuttmonkey]

$210 USD for an SA set... and people say GMK is pricy

I'm probably being dumb here and missing something obvious, but is it not most likely to be a case of:

Alphas/Novelties + Mods - $109.95 + $154.95 = $264.90

Alphas/Novelties + 40% - $109.95 + $119.95 = $229.90

?

Not my cup of tea personally but really nice set that you've clearly put some effort into. I think it's a bit of a shame that SP have given you seemingly crazy prices (I realise it's for a low MOQ but still =S). Also I can't see a lot of EU people buying it even with a proxy as there is no ISO support. I hope it goes well and I am entirely wrong however =].

prices on mechkeys are in CAD not USD

Ahhh, so I am indeed being dumb and missing something obvious

[Puddsy]

$210 USD for an SA set... and people say GMK is pricy

I'm probably being dumb here and missing something obvious, but is it not most likely to be a case of:

Alphas/Novelties + Mods - $109.95 + $154.95 = $264.90

Alphas/Novelties + 40% - $109.95 + $119.95 = $229.90

?

Not my cup of tea personally but really nice set that you've clearly put some effort into. I think it's a bit of a shame that SP have given you seemingly crazy prices (I realise it's for a low MOQ but still =S). Also I can't see a lot of EU people buying it even with a proxy as there is no ISO support. I hope it goes well and I am entirely wrong however =].

prices on mechkeys are in CAD not USD

Ahhh, so I am indeed being dumb and missing something obvious

i missed it at first too, someone messaged me and i edited my comment

[tommyonsn]

no massdrop, very good！buy buy buy!

[Sylvestyeo]

Where is the Asia proxy? Don't see it on en.zfrontier as well.

Lets do this

I can not find this set  in your en.zfrontier.com

The actual groupbuy page for those WITHIHN China is found here

If you are in SEA/Korea/Japan/Singapore regions, it would be best to send zfrontier a message directly from here as I believe they cannot offer their usual  free shipping outside of China,

Has anyone been able to message zf? Kindly share the process please. I can't create an account since I don't have a Chinese number unfortunately

[Brammm87]

So glad mykeyboard.eu is the proxy for this. Having met them, I know this'll go smooth.

[Puddsy]

Where is the Asia proxy? Don't see it on en.zfrontier as well.

Lets do this

I can not find this set  in your en.zfrontier.com

The actual groupbuy page for those WITHIHN China is found here

If you are in SEA/Korea/Japan/Singapore regions, it would be best to send zfrontier a message directly from here as I believe they cannot offer their usual  free shipping outside of China,

Has anyone been able to message zf? Kindly share the process please. I can't create an account since I don't have a Chinese number unfortunately

you can send a message to their "contact us" on their site

it's chinese new year now though, so you've got 2 weeks before they'll reply at least

[THRILLHOIAF]

Hey everyone, major update regarding SA By the Sea here,

We've read and listened to all of the communities feedback regarding the set, the tl;dr end result being, we are issuing refunds on everyone's existing purchases of their SA By the Sea kits, but that does not mean this set is dead, no no no! We are immediately going to re-launch, with the set split apart into smaller kits for better pricing and accessibility

 As mentioned, we read and saw all of the concerns with the set, the main ones regarding

• the cost
• the kit sizes

   

These two were the biggest issues to tackle for our potential SA By the Sea users who may have been put off by the price of the original kits, so we sat down Tuesday and re-designed each kit to

• increase accessibility to buyers
• lower the gat damn price!

 

There isn't much that can be done about SP's price increases over the past couple years, especially for smaller vendors trying to get a smaller MOQ custom set completed! That being said, by "Massdrop-ifying" our sets into smaller, more accessible kits, Signature Plastics was able to provide us with new pricing that make this a MUCH better deal for buyers!

When I first designed SA By the Sea, I truly believed that offering a comprehensive kit that offered an insane amount of coverage would be THE selling point to potential buyers...chock this up to me still being QUITE green when it comes to designing a custom set for a very passionate community! Truth be told this set wouldn't be where it is right now if it wasn't for guys like Dave from Mechkeys.ca, Oblotzky, or Koobaczech, its members of this community that helped refine SA By the Sea into what it is today! I was a bit stubborn in my ways, and ignored the advice I received to break the kits down, so I apologize whole-heartedly for offering something to the community that didn't reflect the norm of custom keyset purchasing!

All that being said I present to you the brand new SA By the Sea sets WITH revised pricing


PRICING AT MECHKEYS.CA BASED IN CANADIAN DOLLARS

• Base - $129.95 CAD
• 40% - $94.95
• Non Standard Adapter - $59.95
• Novelties - $54.95
• Numpad - $49.95
• Blanks - $79.95

[/b]


With our redesigned BASE kit, we wont be forcing novelties, numpad, or a non standard adapter kit onto purchasers; Buyers now wont have to buy 3 kits just to fill a non-standard bottom 40%,

You can purchase/re-purchase SA By the Sea from your respective proxies starting February 21st!

• NA: mechkeys.ca
• EU: Mykeyboard.eu
• China:zfrontier - (users purchasing from KR/SEA/TW etc. should contact Zfrontier direct about arranging purchase to your region - something to do with shipping costs)

Thank you everyone for all the feedback and the kind words throughout this process,

We promise to deliver you a great SA set in 2018!

[mudcakehoney]

This is great news thanks for listening to the community

[Oblotzky]

GL with the relaunch! Still looking great

[donut_sauce]

Awesome news!

[lemur]

any updates on how things are going with MOQ?

[Peppermint216]

Base, non standard and novelties are at 25% moq.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/81u8lf/20_days_left_to_get_in_on_sa_by_the_sea_from/dv57880?utm_source=reddit-android

[THRILLHOIAF]

Base, non standard and novelties are at 25% moq.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/81u8lf/20_days_left_to_get_in_on_sa_by_the_sea_from/dv57880?utm_source=reddit-android

any updates on how things are going with MOQ?

Correct! That number might be a bit higher too as we havent counted proxies towards the Gb! Will post a more formal update once we get all current numbers in! Thanks for your patience!

[Sylvestyeo]

Just FYI, those in Asia ex China won't be getting theirs from Zfrontier, (if any at all).

https://imgur.com/a/2UMFj

[THRILLHOIAF]

Just FYI, those in Asia ex China won't be getting theirs from Zfrontier, (if any at all).

https://imgur.com/a/2UMFj

Yeah they are China only, if there is enough people from a certain region going in on the GB then arrangements might be made... for now, SEA/KR/TW can order through mechkeys.ca! 

[Darknight00z]

Almost time people. Are we near MOQ? shame to see such a pretty set not make it.

[THRILLHOIAF]

Almost time people. Are we near MOQ? shame to see such a pretty set not make it.

Hey man thanks for the kind words! I’m curently waiting on updated numbers from our proxies,

IIRC, were looking good on base kits, novelties and non standard adapters! Some of the less popular kits like the numpad and 40s kits will need some assistance/personal investment to make happen which we’ve already prepared for!

We will do everything we can  to make sure each kit gets produced (except probably blanks, those might be doa)

A much more formal update will come once we hear back from our EU proxy, so we can better inform our purchasers

[donut_sauce]

the mechkeys link is going to a 404 page for me fyi

[THRILLHOIAF]

the mechkeys link is going to a 404 page for me fyi

shoot, that was the old GB link, apologies - you can find the revised GB link here

EDIT: thanks for bringing this up actually, none of the links had been updated properly and were dead...fml.

[Oblotzky]

Almost time people. Are we near MOQ? shame to see such a pretty set not make it.

Hey man thanks for the kind words! I’m curently waiting on updated numbers from our proxies,

IIRC, were looking good on base kits, novelties and non standard adapters! Some of the less popular kits like the numpad and 40s kits will need some assistance/personal investment to make happen which we’ve already prepared for!

We will do everything we can  to make sure each kit gets produced (except probably blanks, those might be doa)

A much more formal update will come once we hear back from our EU proxy, so we can better inform our purchasers

[THRILLHOIAF]

03/14/18 - Update

Hey everyone sorry I've been stingy with the updates! Have been waiting on kit sales from our proxies before I provided an idea on how we doing! But can't wait forever since theres only 6 DAYS LEFT!!! wooooooah time flies!

Current numbers of our NA groupbuy can be found here

These numbers dont include our vendor purchases or personal purchases! Hopefully we'll get up to date numbers from our EU proxy and we'll be able to give a more comprehensive look into how we're doing!

Right now I'm hopeful that we'll meet MOQ on a few of the kits! I'm prepped to do whatever I can to make sure the other sets get made as well, for now I'll just do what I can to promote the set and try to get as many last minute buyers as possible in on this beauty!

Thanks everyone for your patience!

[donut_sauce]

03/14/18 - Update

Hey everyone sorry I've been stingy with the updates! Have been waiting on kit sales from our proxies before I provided an idea on how we doing! But can't wait forever since theres only 6 DAYS LEFT!!! wooooooah time flies!

Current numbers of our NA groupbuy can be found here

These numbers dont include our vendor purchases or personal purchases! Hopefully we'll get up to date numbers from our EU proxy and we'll be able to give a more comprehensive look into how we're doing!

Right now I'm hopeful that we'll meet MOQ on a few of the kits! I'm prepped to do whatever I can to make sure the other sets get made as well, for now I'll just do what I can to promote the set and try to get as many last minute buyers as possible in on this beauty!

Thanks everyone for your patience!

What was moq for base kit? 50 or 100?

[THRILLHOIAF]

03/14/18 - Update

Hey everyone sorry I've been stingy with the updates! Have been waiting on kit sales from our proxies before I provided an idea on how we doing! But can't wait forever since theres only 6 DAYS LEFT!!! wooooooah time flies!

Current numbers of our NA groupbuy can be found here

These numbers dont include our vendor purchases or personal purchases! Hopefully we'll get up to date numbers from our EU proxy and we'll be able to give a more comprehensive look into how we're doing!

Right now I'm hopeful that we'll meet MOQ on a few of the kits! I'm prepped to do whatever I can to make sure the other sets get made as well, for now I'll just do what I can to promote the set and try to get as many last minute buyers as possible in on this beauty!

Thanks everyone for your patience!

What was moq for base kit? 50 or 100?

We set a MOQ of 100 for each kit!

[Peppermint216]

Aww man, we're pretty far off 100 for anything. I hope you can sort something out if moq is not reached. Reality is, there is always demand when a keycap set ships.

[THRILLHOIAF]

Aww man, we're pretty far off 100 for anything. I hope you can sort something out if moq is not reached. Reality is, there is always demand when a keycap set ships.

Dont worry, including zfrontiers sales we're at about 50% MOQ for Base kits and novelties

we're currently looking into purchasing at a lower MOQs to ensure we get made

[UnbornApple]

I unfortunately need to cancel my order. I sent an email to mechkeysdotca@gmail.com with the order number requesting to cancel.

[ManicMatt1125]

Beautiful set. I really want to get in on this buy. My only holdup is having been burned before by GON for 600+ I notice that they are not due to ship out until September, which is scarily close to PayPals 6 month limit. Can you offer any reassuring words for someone who is hesitant such as myself?

[Oblotzky]

Beautiful set. I really want to get in on this buy. My only holdup is having been burned before by GON for 600+ I notice that they are not due to ship out until September, which is scarily close to PayPals 6 month limit. Can you offer any reassuring words for someone who is hesitant such as myself?

Pretty sure any of the vendors are more interested in staying a legit business for the next decade+ than scamming you out of 200$ one time and getting the **** sued out of them.

[ManicMatt1125]

Tomorrow, 3/20 is the finaL day to order, right?

[THRILLHOIAF]

Tomorrow, 3/20 is the finaL day to order, right?

Due to the kit remake we're actually going to be extending the GB to the 24th! I was gonna post a little something on r/mk tomorrow

[THRILLHOIAF]

Beautiful set. I really want to get in on this buy. My only holdup is having been burned before by GON for 600+ I notice that they are not due to ship out until September, which is scarily close to PayPals 6 month limit. Can you offer any reassuring words for someone who is hesitant such as myself?

I can assure you that ripping people off and getting hit with a class action lawsuit.

I've been pretty upfront on various outlets that this is a passion project for me, and is not even remotely close to being a get-rich quick scheme. I'm dedicated to getting the set made, even if it means me buying up the rest of the sets to meet MOQ, I'm in it to get made, not to get rich

[ManicMatt1125]

I like your answer, I'm in, will submit my order shortly

[THRILLHOIAF]

I like your answer, I'm in, will submit my order shortly

ay thats great! Thanks for the support! 

[Koobaczech]

Beautiful set. I really want to get in on this buy. My only holdup is having been burned before by GON for 600+ I notice that they are not due to ship out until September, which is scarily close to PayPals 6 month limit. Can you offer any reassuring words for someone who is hesitant such as myself?

I know both of these guys running the GB (Mechkeys, Thrill) personally. There's nothing to be afraid of dude lol. If some **** went down id go and slap em around for you

[donut_sauce]

what time is this closing today?

[grizzly_teddy]

Wow came here to find out about how much time left in this GB - I missed it by  a day

[Okonomiyaki#2832]

Lovely set. Just send a PM

[lovetree]

Did all kits meet MoQ?

[THRILLHOIAF]

Did all kits meet MoQ?

will provide a fancy update later today once we've finished crunching numbers

Lovely set. Just send a PM

Wow came here to find out about how much time left in this GB - I missed it by  a day

pm'd

[THRILLHOIAF]

March 26th Update

Ive updated OP to reflect current GB status.

currently crunching numbers with Dave before we submit our order to SP. Will have more details about number of kits sold, kits that didn't make it and other important details as soon as possible.

thanks to all who supported this project throughout the many phases and I llook forward to providing you with some great information asap

[THRILLHOIAF]

March 26th Update Continued

Attention all those who purchased the Blanks and 40s kit...

I sadly regret to inform you that we unfortunately undersold on the 40s kit, and after careful evaluation of our numbers, couldn't find a justifiable way to get the 40s set made

An e-mail will be sent out from Mechkeys later tonight asking those who bought the 40s set if they wish to refund JUST their 40s set, or their entire order


I'm really sorry guys, I really tried my hardest to sell the 40s kit to prospective buyers (I think 50% of my reddit posts highlighted BTS on a 40%) and I truly believed that the great coverage would be enticing enough to get the MOQ met, but unfortunately it was just not in the stars for us on this run!

Believe me when I say we evaluated our options of buying up the remainder of the sets at the bare minimum MOQ, however we found that it would mean the groupbuy taking on a huge loss, and would leave us with a handful of 40s kits that would have to be sold at nearly double the original sell price in order to break even

And to the few who bought blanks kits, thank you so much for believing in the sets color scheme enough to get blanks! I honestly wasnt sure there would be a single set sold, but to you who believed in the set that much, much love you're my heroes!

All this being said, I'm ecstatic we made it with the rest of the kits, and as the recent owner of a beautiful silver Pearl, and the equally unique CONTRA, I was really crossing my fingers that the 40s kit made it, but my mama always told me to never give up on something you believe in, so maybe not today but in the future, us 40s freaks can figure something out

Again sorry for the inconvenience everyone, and I hope you understand that we did everything we could to try make it happen

Cheers
Cody

[lovetree]

March 26th Update Continued

Attention all those who purchased the Blanks and 40s kit...

I sadly regret to inform you that we unfortunately undersold on the 40s kit, and after careful evaluation of our numbers, couldn't find a justifiable way to get the 40s set made

An e-mail will be sent out from Mechkeys later tonight asking those who bought the 40s set if they wish to refund JUST their 40s set, or their entire order


I'm really sorry guys, I really tried my hardest to sell the 40s kit to prospective buyers (I think 50% of my reddit posts highlighted BTS on a 40%) and I truly believed that the great coverage would be enticing enough to get the MOQ met, but unfortunately it was just not in the stars for us on this run!

Believe me when I say we evaluated our options of buying up the remainder of the sets at the bare minimum MOQ, however we found that it would mean the groupbuy taking on a huge loss, and would leave us with a handful of 40s kits that would have to be sold at nearly double the original sell price in order to break even

And to the few who bought blanks kits, thank you so much for believing in the sets color scheme enough to get blanks! I honestly wasnt sure there would be a single set sold, but to you who believed in the set that much, much love you're my heroes!

All this being said, I'm ecstatic we made it with the rest of the kits, and as the recent owner of a beautiful silver Pearl, and the equally unique CONTRA, I was really crossing my fingers that the 40s kit made it, but my mama always told me to never give up on something you believe in, so maybe not today but in the future, us 40s freaks can figure something out

Again sorry for the inconvenience everyone, and I hope you understand that we did everything we could to try make it happen

Cheers
Cody

A shame that 40s and Blanks could not make it. 

[Brammm87]

Too bad those didn't make it, but I'm really happy the rest of the set did! I'm looking forward to it.

[jraper13]

hey! i just was able to place an order today for the base kit only shipped to US. Was I able to get in? Really want one of these badboys.

Thanks
Joey

[THRILLHOIAF]

hey! i just was able to place an order today for the base kit only shipped to US. Was I able to get in? Really want one of these badboys.

Thanks
Joey

haha, we reopened the set on the site to let those who had their order refunded re-purchase sans blanks/40s kits

if you got in I highly doubt Dave(mechkeys) is gonna void the order haha!

We're submitting our order to SP early this week so you may have lucked out!

[jraper13]

hey! i just was able to place an order today for the base kit only shipped to US. Was I able to get in? Really want one of these badboys.

Thanks
Joey

haha, we reopened the set on the site to let those who had their order refunded re-purchase sans blanks/40s kits

if you got in I highly doubt Dave(mechkeys) is gonna void the order haha!

We're submitting our order to SP early this week so you may have lucked out!

NICE!!!!! Guess i got lucky, thanks!

[howj]

urgh ... late to the game ... but if there's still space i'd love to jump for a TKL set!

[THRILLHOIAF]

4/15/18 - Updates, final numbers, production schedule, novelties

Hey everyone sorry for the lack of update since our GB ended, been busy fine tuning the details with SP, but I wanted to give everyone an update on where we're at!


Final Kit Numbers
Base Kits: 108
Novelties: 82
Numpads: 53
Non-Standard Adapters: 56

We sold quite well with our basekits and fortunately JUST cracked the 50 MOQ for the numpads and NSAdapter kits! Thank god too, because if we didn't crack the 50MOQ for the 2, then we'd have probably had to refund the entire groupbuy, so hooray for making it everybody!

Production Schedule
Payment was submitted officially to Signature Plastics on 04/10/18 so we've secured our spot on the production schedule

With Pulse R2 and a crapton of other SA set orders coming in just prior to ours, our spot on the production schedule got bumped down to Q4 of this year 2018


Artwork/Novelty Tweaks
and finally, just minor tweaks to some of the novelties had to be made due to SP's tooling restrictions

mainly, parts of the sisters and boat novelties being too thing

I've submitted revised artwork for SP to work with, so I'll hear back soon enough whether the revised works or not!



-so in the original, the mouth on the sisters was too thin and thus became a block outline, I also smoothed out the eyes a bit so she's less derpy lookin
-then the boats rudder handle was too close to the boat so it had to be raised, but raising it goofed with the scale of the boat itself, so I had to raise the cabin up, and make it look a little rounder to balance it out! kind of what I wanted it to look like in the first place, the original was a bit too thin which wasnt really keeping with the movie
-artwork was also split on the boat novelty, so for the 1u boat novelty, the rudder handle will not have a hand-hole on it for the 1u novelty

again these are tentative changes, for all I know these revisions might not be good enough and more will have to come, but I thought I'd keep everyone up to date with any revisions that need to be made since we got a ways until we enter production stages


Thanks for bearing with me guys! Apologies for the lack of updates the past couple weeks, hopefully this one answers enough questions

TLDR

• Payment submitted to SP 04/10/18
• Production tentatively scheduled for Q4 2018
• Artwork needed updating on Sisters and Boat novelties
• Kit numbers were good!

here's an incredibly rushed/lazy render of the set on the upcoming Espectro for your patience!

More

Joke reference

[Okonomiyaki#2832]

Thank you so much for the update!

[THRILLHOIAF]

More

4/15/18 - Updates, final numbers, production schedule, novelties

Hey everyone sorry for the lack of update since our GB ended, been busy fine tuning the details with SP, but I wanted to give everyone an update on where we're at!


Final Kit Numbers
Base Kits: 108
Novelties: 82
Numpads: 53
Non-Standard Adapters: 56

We sold quite well with our basekits and fortunately JUST cracked the 50 MOQ for the numpads and NSAdapter kits! Thank god too, because if we didn't crack the 50MOQ for the 2, then we'd have probably had to refund the entire groupbuy, so hooray for making it everybody!

Production Schedule
Payment was submitted officially to Signature Plastics on 04/10/18 so we've secured our spot on the production schedule

With Pulse R2 and a crapton of other SA set orders coming in just prior to ours, our spot on the production schedule got bumped down to Q4 of this year 2018

Artwork/Novelty Tweaks
and finally, just minor tweaks to some of the novelties had to be made due to SP's tooling restrictions

mainly, parts of the sisters and boat novelties being too thing

I've submitted revised artwork for SP to work with, so I'll hear back soon enough whether the revised works or not!

Show Image

-so in the original, the mouth on the sisters was too thin and thus became a block outline, I also smoothed out the eyes a bit so she's less derpy lookin
-then the boats rudder handle was too close to the boat so it had to be raised, but raising it goofed with the scale of the boat itself, so I had to raise the cabin up, and make it look a little rounder to balance it out! kind of what I wanted it to look like in the first place, the original was a bit too thin which wasnt really keeping with the movie
-artwork was also split on the boat novelty, so for the 1u boat novelty, the rudder handle will not have a hand-hole on it for the 1u novelty

again these are tentative changes, for all I know these revisions might not be good enough and more will have to come, but I thought I'd keep everyone up to date with any revisions that need to be made since we got a ways until we enter production stages :)


Thanks for bearing with me guys! Apologies for the lack of updates the past couple weeks, hopefully this one answers enough questions :)

TLDR

• Payment submitted to SP 04/10/18
• Production tentatively scheduled for Q4 2018
• Artwork needed updating on Sisters and Boat novelties
• Kit numbers were good!

Just following up, SP confirmed the revised artwork was good to go :)

[Okonomiyaki#2832]

Glad to hear that and cant wait for it!

[Brammm87]

Oh man, it's gonna be hard waiting for this :/

[[Lewynlight]]

shameless bump. regretted so much for not joining this. PM me if someone want to let go of their alphas + modifier.

[THRILLHOIAF]

05/15/18 Update - Color chip samples got shipped today! Should receive them in the next week or so!

I saw an old pantone book at work and compared it to Pantones own website and it was shockingly off, so hopefully thats just the result of me using an old book and we're still good...regardless, we got plenty of time to nail the color matching

[THRILLHOIAF]

05/25/18 - Colors samples arrived



Hey guys I just received color chip samples in from SP!

I'll let you all peep the album, I tried to cover as many different lighting scenarios throughout the day to best capture how each color changes in different settings. Will add more when I get home so everyone can see what the colors look like in a mildly bright computer/gaming room.


https://imgur.com/a/6jeh3Ia


Overall I think these are a good start! In bright light all the colors are near bang on with the pantone guide and are quite accurate to the render! That being said, I noticed throughout the day as lighting changed, that the color samples also varied quite heavily from being near-bang-on to "that doesnt seem right?"

Fortunately with a production slot of Q4 this year, we've got plenty of time to nail down the colors, and while this was a good start, I think I'm going to do my due diligence and see if I can refine these to be more accurate


To be more specific, I'm going to request chip samples in a couple near-identical pantones to see how they compare, and ask to see if they can provide  the current pantones  but with their bases (magenta/cyan) a bit brighter, just so we have something to compare to!

But yah like I said, I still think the colors look great, really captures the palette of the film and really look great together!

Cheers!

EDIT:




^Picture in my comp dungeon - SA Camping for color scale (Camping also uses WCK alphas)

[tommyonsn]

  very good color!
expect to receive.

05/25/18 - Colors samples arrived

Show Image

Hey guys I just received color chip samples in from SP!

I'll let you all peep the album, I tried to cover as many different lighting scenarios throughout the day to best capture how each color changes in different settings. Will add more when I get home so everyone can see what the colors look like in a mildly bright computer/gaming room.


https://imgur.com/a/6jeh3Ia


Overall I think these are a good start! In bright light all the colors are near bang on with the pantone guide and are quite accurate to the render! That being said, I noticed throughout the day as lighting changed, that the color samples also varied quite heavily from being near-bang-on to "that doesnt seem right?"

Fortunately with a production slot of Q4 this year, we've got plenty of time to nail down the colors, and while this was a good start, I think I'm going to do my due diligence and see if I can refine these to be more accurate


To be more specific, I'm going to request chip samples in a couple near-identical pantones to see how they compare, and ask to see if they can provide  the current pantones  but with their bases (magenta/cyan) a bit brighter, just so we have something to compare to!

But yah like I said, I still think the colors look great, really captures the palette of the film and really look great together!

Cheers!

EDIT:

Show Image

^Picture in my comp dungeon - SA Camping for color scale (Camping also uses WCK alphas)

[Brammm87]

Any updates on this? Are the colors being changed?

[THRILLHOIAF]

Any updates on this? Are the colors being changed?

hey no colors aren't being changed. just in the arduous process of color-matching!

I put in a request for a separate batch of color samples from SP but have yet to hear back. Will follow up for a response!

[THRILLHOIAF]

07/06/18 - More Color Samples!

Hey guys, exciting stuff! I got a second round of color samples for the set and I'm REALLY stoked on them.

with the original colors I was pretty stoked and happy! However I wanted to see some them pop a bit more, a little bit lighter and not so flat/muted. We definitely got that 100% with the latest batch


Inside lighting conditions:



Natural lighting conditions:



Going to send an email to Melissa at SP asap, locking our color selections, and who knows, fingers crossed we can maybe slide up the production schedule

[Brammm87]

Looking good! Excited for this buy.

[Okonomiyaki#2832]

Thank you so much for the prompt response and updates.

[Okonomiyaki#2832]

Has the payment been made and a production schedule been confirmed?

[THRILLHOIAF]

Has the payment been made and a production schedule been confirmed?

Yes yes, payments have all been made, Melissa last correspondence with me, she was ordering the custom color plastics for production!

[grizzly_teddy]

Any updates on ETA?

[THRILLHOIAF]

Any updates on ETA?

Hey GT, I asked Melissa at SP about the possibility of samples for the Vancouver MK meetup and was told that our set is set for an end of December ship, with a production start date at the beginning of December!

A late Christmas/boxing day gift for us it looks like

[grizzly_teddy]

Any updates on ETA?

Hey GT, I asked Melissa at SP about the possibility of samples for the Vancouver MK meetup and was told that our set is set for an end of December ship, with a production start date at the beginning of December!

A late Christmas/boxing day gift for us it looks like

Cool thanks for the update!

[THRILLHOIAF]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

work was kicking my ass all over today, then I checked my e-mails on my break and got pictures of the set!

right now they are just re-tooling the backspace novelty as the roundness of the lettering was causing fill issues with the doubleshot so I had to provide a newer version of said novelty that is more CNC friendly! Mucho thanks to Oblotzky for connecting with Engicoder on the CNC help!

without further adieu

Base Kit



Non Standard - Novelties - Numpad


Close-up of completed novelties



I'll provide a further update once SP has confirmed the updated backspace novelty design is CNC friendly and doesn't cause any other doubleshot issues! Until then, GET HYPED!

[danielucf]

My daughter is going to flip her lid when she gets this on a keyboard. She is three on January 14th and can't type yet, but LOVES Ponyo. I will teach her to type on this keyset when the time comes. Looking great so far.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[w0odyallen]

i need my glorious HAM! keys

[THRILLHOIAF]

Wellp looks like production is complete! I received a picture of the last key printed ,




So now I'm just waiting on vendors to provide shipping addresses to SP and then we'll get some shipping information and then boom we in business baby

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone who's stuck with me this far!

[Brammm87]

Oooooh baby, looking forward to receiving this set!

[Ye11ow]

Any updates on when this will ship? Very excited, thanks!

[THRILLHOIAF]

Any updates on when this will ship? Very excited, thanks!

Orders for all three have had shipping arranged from signature plastics to the various proxies...

had to arrange shipping of the NA order to mechkeys.ca through my work due to the insane cost before duties/brokerage we were being quoted at

so I'll be able to monitor and track the NA shipments transit to mechkeys closely

[hwatisthat]

I checked the mechkeys site, and made me a bit nervous. The message is:

"I am stepping away from the business for an undetermined amount of time. If you require help. support, etc please check the discord. There will be people there who can assist in my absence."

Is there a spreadsheet or something to see status?

Thanks again for facilitating this awesome group buy!

[THRILLHOIAF]

I checked the mechkeys site, and made me a bit nervous. The message is:

"I am stepping away from the business for an undetermined amount of time. If you require help. support, etc please check the discord. There will be people there who can assist in my absence."

Is there a spreadsheet or something to see status?

Thanks again for facilitating this awesome group buy!

Dont sweat that, that was from a time period where Dave was dealing with the whole Espectro ghosting fiasco. Products are on route to proxies and will be distributed after a qc

[hwatisthat]

Thanks for the quick reply. I appreciate it. =)

[grizzly_teddy]

I checked the mechkeys site, and made me a bit nervous. The message is:

"I am stepping away from the business for an undetermined amount of time. If you require help. support, etc please check the discord. There will be people there who can assist in my absence."

Is there a spreadsheet or something to see status?

Thanks again for facilitating this awesome group buy!

Wait is that the guy who wrote about how he basically had to fork over like $50k or something because he didn't know if the keyboards would ever come?

Dont sweat that, that was from a time period where Dave was dealing with the whole Espectro ghosting fiasco. Products are on route to proxies and will be distributed after a qc

[THRILLHOIAF]

I checked the mechkeys site, and made me a bit nervous. The message is:

"I am stepping away from the business for an undetermined amount of time. If you require help. support, etc please check the discord. There will be people there who can assist in my absence."

Is there a spreadsheet or something to see status?

Thanks again for facilitating this awesome group buy!

Dont sweat that, that was from a time period where Dave was dealing with the whole Espectro ghosting fiasco. Products are on route to proxies and will be distributed after a qc

Wait is that the guy who wrote about how he basically had to fork over like $50k or something because he didn't know if the keyboards would ever come?

Sort of, he began his groupbuy on a predetermined pricetag for espectros, then they jacked up the price after the groupbuy was complete by like 150% or something so the margin was like $15 a board to cover definicies/shipping....then they ghosted him when he asked for updates

had to get someone in china to find the manufacturer to prove they hadn't just taken his money and run

didnt hear back for some time so he began the process of giving out refunds to everyone in the gb out of his own pocket. then his contact in China found the manufacturer and confirmed they were in production.

**** was super unfortunate

[Okonomiyaki#2832]

Any estimated timeline for shipping?

[THRILLHOIAF]

Any estimated timeline for shipping?

NA proxy should be receiving their shipment today, so the next couple weeks or so will probably be all QC and shipment prepping to those who ordered from NA.

not sure about Zfrontier or MKeu's shipments progress though.

[5inn3d-]

will there be extras?

[THRILLHOIAF]

will there be extras?

hey, unfortunately I only was able to buy a couple extra sets that a lot of people have message me about, once I know how many I can part with I'll probably do a raffle for those that are intereseted. obviously with how many people who've inquired I want to be able to make it fair for everyone across timezones, so when the time comes I'll post something here about being included in a raffle

[tommyonsn]

received! too beautiful! thanks!

[THRILLHOIAF]

received! too beautiful! thanks!

Ayyy im stoked for you! Glad you’re happy,

thanks for joining and happy clacking!

[wjchen]

I just received mine. It's amazing and really lived up to the hype, thanks!

[danielucf]

Wow, looks great. Now I am regretting not buying a blue Zephyr. Looking forward to my set arriving and my daughter's reaction to it.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[THRILLHOIAF]

I just received mine. It's amazing and really lived up to the hype, thanks!
(Attachment Link) (Attachment Link)

Wow that looka incredible!

Thanks for joining and happy clacking

[lovetree]

I just received mine. It's amazing and really lived up to the hype, thanks!
(Attachment Link) (Attachment Link)

Looks nice. Hope my invoice to come soon.

[Lady Sirloin]

So sad I missed this! I'll be keeping an* eye out for that raffle

Edit: Spelling without these caps is hard

[sl70309]

Anyone selling base, non-standard and/or Novelties?
Please PM

[frvhide]

The color is too fine!!!!!!

Thank you for making these items.

Can I buy Non standard adapterkey one more set?

[THRILLHOIAF]

The color is too fine!!!!!!

Thank you for making these items.

Can I buy Non standard adapterkey one more set?

ayyy that looks fantastic!

Unfortunately there was a purchasing error on our end, so I ended up being shorted on my extra Non-Standard Adapter sets, sorry

[Kokaloo]

will there be extras?

hey, unfortunately I only was able to buy a couple extra sets that a lot of people have message me about, once I know how many I can part with I'll probably do a raffle for those that are intereseted. obviously with how many people who've inquired I want to be able to make it fair for everyone across timezones, so when the time comes I'll post something here about being included in a raffle

Sad I got into this hobby late and just discovered this keyset, but this is awesome news!
Thanks so much!

[Nigolski]

will there be extras?

hey, unfortunately I only was able to buy a couple extra sets that a lot of people have message me about, once I know how many I can part with I'll probably do a raffle for those that are intereseted. obviously with how many people who've inquired I want to be able to make it fair for everyone across timezones, so when the time comes I'll post something here about being included in a raffle

Sad I got into this hobby late and just discovered this keyset, but this is awesome news!
Thanks so much!

You could try your luck on mechmarket

[grizzly_teddy]

will there be extras?

hey, unfortunately I only was able to buy a couple extra sets that a lot of people have message me about, once I know how many I can part with I'll probably do a raffle for those that are intereseted. obviously with how many people who've inquired I want to be able to make it fair for everyone across timezones, so when the time comes I'll post something here about being included in a raffle

Sad I got into this hobby late and just discovered this keyset, but this is awesome news!
Thanks so much!

You could try your luck on mechmarket

Oh man I feel you. I got this set in the mail and it looks really really good. I just don't have any keyboards to put it on right now. I was considering selling it, but I dunno. It's too nice haha

[idlemao]

Really want the base, adaptive and the novelties. 

[TooCool]

I'm in Australia and haven't gotten my set yet (using Canada Post Small Packet International Air), hopefully this week though

[aldoxzx]

Bought everything but the novelties and regretting it now.. if anyone happen to get a spare novelty set I'd love to buy.

[w0odyallen]

those original renders sold me on the set and the cyan blue espectro

https://imgur.com/a/jJjYyML

[idlemao]

Anyone have any sets they'd be willing to sell? 

[THRILLHOIAF]

Alright guys, I'm sorry to have kept everyone waiting on extras,


Here's the mechmarket post

unfrotunately due to a purchasing error during the GB I didnt get nearly as many extras as I'd hoped. so unfortunately

I only have 2 base kits, 2 numpads, and 4 novelty kits to go around,


https://old.reddit.com/r/mechmarket/comments/b5dfh8/cabc_h_sa_by_the_sea_extras_w_gateron_blacks_x120/

[Capsy]

R2 please

[NathanielGoodtimes]

R2 please

Seconded!

[Agilr]

Grail set for me, would really love a R2

[THRILLHOIAF]

R2 please

Grail set for me, would really love a R2

R2 please

Seconded!

Thanks for your interest guys,

Unfortunately, I would need to see some serious interest in order to get an R2 going

I personally lost a hefty chunk of change arranging the shipping to the vendor during R1, and that left a sour taste in my mouth in wanting to get involved in this stuff in the future