My keys arrived a couple of days ago, so the transit time from China to here in western Canada was right around 1 month.
The box was a tad crushed:
But the keys were okay:
They're thick PBT and feel quite solid. There were some casting flaws:
...but very few were like that, and it was nothing some fine sandpaper wouldn't fix, if it bothered you (I don't care, personally).
No one would ever mistake these for double-shots (which would also cost a lot more). They're definitely dye-subbed, and the printing isn't particularly crisp:
But it's not nearly as grainy as it looks here, where my phone's camera picked up every reflection from the PBT's texture—which, as you know, isn't glassy-smooth like ABS. Many people prefer it over ABS for that reason.
The overall effect is, well, retro-y. I don't find it unpleasant at all, just different. I like the unusually big text legends, too. They're an exaggerated version of usual SA legends, and wouldn't look out-of-place in a '50s sci-fi movie.
I'd like to show you how they look on a board. Unfortunately, I don't have one available with a standard Cherry layout. (I'm still remodeling our place since we moved in, and most of my keebs are still packed up.) The closest I had was a Cherry MX 3000—which ironically wouldn't work because of its irregularly centered (stepped) Caps Lock. I realized this after I'd already swapped a dozen or so keys (sigh).
However, I did notice these keys fit quite well, and felt great. They were also
considerably higher than the MX 3000 keys; they made the whole board seem more substantial.
Here's the profile:
As you can see, there's a curve at the top, but not the bottom. Also, though the vendor refers to them as "spherical", I always thought keys like these were more like what's considered "spherical":
The set I have here seems more "two-way cylindrical"—curved like regular cylindrical keys, but horizontally as well as vertically. Anyone know about this?
To sum up, at only around $40 shipped, I'm glad I got them. They look even more "retro" to me than the sets modeled on actual vintage keys. If you want something really different, I recommend them.
