"Artisan" keys you can't type on?

[ander]

Will someone please explain the point of these?:

ZOMO Heavy Artillery Aluminum Keycaps (Massdrop)





Flat keys with little monster faces are one thing—but how could you possibly type on any but the 2nd one of these? Am I missing something, or is there an actual reason to render some of your keys useless?

[fanpeople]

You can't escape if you can't press escape.

[theseusanime]

It all happens along the steps of a ladder that brings to greediness and stupidity, and after a while you suddenly ask yourself when things started to go to sh*t.
It happened with keycaps, where the object lost all its functionality to trasform the keyboard in a simple tray, and it happened with pizza, where the most exotic and stupid ingredients are served (ananas???), annihilating history and tradition, and transforming a product into a simple media,  asserved to the purpose (money) of the "artist", be it an "artisan" maker or a stupid and embarassing chef. So the cause is money, stupidity, and 13 years old buyers.

[suicidal_orange]

They look good for num lock, a key you never want to press? (assuming the board has a proper numberpad)

[ander]

You can't escape if you can't press escape.

Yep, there's that, too.

It all happens along the steps of a ladder that brings to greediness and stupidity, and after a while you suddenly ask yourself when things started to go to sh*t... It happened with keycaps, where the object lost all its functionality to trasform the keyboard in a simple tray, and it happened with pizza, where the most exotic and stupid ingredients are served (ananas???), annihilating history and tradition, and transforming a product into a simple media,  asserved to the purpose (money) of the "artist", be it an "artisan" maker or a stupid and embarassing chef. So the cause is money, stupidity, and 13 years old buyers.

Interesting (and I think I'll have one of whatever you're having), but I still don't get it. It's like buying a car with square wheels.

They look good for num lock, a key you never want to press?

Oh, okay. I'm starting to catch on. You don't actually use them; they're just decorative. No one ever mentions that, though—how are we supposed to know?

[Coreda]

The second keycap looks usable, and fairly neat but yeah for some designs it crosses the line over decorative yet functional and they can become purely decorative miniature keyboard sculptures. Each to their own, I don't particularly care much.

Late edit: should clarify the last bit. Meant that I don't have any strong opinion either way on this, since I don't collect caps in general.

[ander]

The second keycap looks usable...

Yup—as I said: "...but how could you possibly type on any but the 2nd one of these?"

...but yeah for some designs it crosses the line over decorative yet functional and they can become purely decorative miniature keyboard sculptures. Each to their own, I don't particularly care much.

Well, till this thread, I had no idea you'd put them only on keys you didn't plan to use. If I didn't know, how many people actually order these and try to type on them? They're not all as un-ergonomic-looking as these... Some of them you probably could type on, but it wouldn't be very comfortable.

[livewirerc]

Will someone please explain the point of these?:

Flat keys with little monster faces are one thing—but how could you possibly type on any but the 2nd one of these? Am I missing something, or is there an actual reason to render some of your keys useless?

Per the Massdrop page, the bomb, mask and frying pan are magnetized, and can be removed for actual typing. An interesting way of making them fancy and garish while still somewhat functional.

[jamster]

Oh, okay. I'm starting to catch on. You don't actually use them; they're just decorative. No one ever mentions that, though—how are we supposed to know?

I thought everyone knew this- artisans are for gluing the the casing, not for replacing functional keycaps and rendering the key useless or painful to use

Really, nothing screams "I don't really use my keyboard very much" like weirdly-shaped artisans.