[IC] DCS Estate- PRICING ANNOUNCED - GB APRIL 18th - MAY 20th

[s8erdude]

DCS Estate - GB APRIL 18th - MAY 20th

RECENT UPDATE

PRICING
I am very excited to announce the pricing for DCS Estate! I am also excited to announce that ThocKeys will be offering a fantastic deal. With the purchase of a Base Kit, any other kit you purchase will be discounted at 15%. This promotion will only be running for the first 72 hours - so make sure you get your purchase in quickly!


IC Form
TLDR; Beige ABS DCS set with centered legends, colorful front printing, and a focus on 40s support, to pay homage to a vintage keyboard found in someone's basement.

Source/Inspiration
I came across a vintage keyboard replacement at an estate sale. To my despair, the keycaps on this board were not MX compatible.

Images:


More

That's it - no story, just cool old tech.

Choices
ABS DCS was chosen to minimize lead-time, while also leveraging the superb quality keycaps that Signature Plastics puts out. This keyset is designed to be as close as possible to the original source. To do so, this set is intended to be run with centered legends. Additionally, SP will use pad printing for the colored front legends/symbols.

Colors
As these are stock SP colors, there should be no issue with color matching. The colors are as follows:
o Legends - GTA
o Caps - TGG
o Alphas front legends & FCTN front circles - BED
o ALPHA LOCK front circles - RDA
o CTRL front circles - RA Removed as of 01/04/2022
o SYS front circles - VV
o ENTER front circles - YCH

Kits
Don't want to look at the renders and try to figure out keycap sizes? Here's a KLE (Last updated 01/04/2022).

Base - Target: 150 MoQ


Numpad - Target: 50 MoQ


40s&Ortho - Target: 50 MoQ
Minibars - Target: 50 MoQ
Big Bar - Target: 25 MoQ


Extended Alpha Kit - Target: 50 MoQ


Renders
MB44 by MelonBred


Bear65 by jacky


KBD19x


Fjell by Mekanisk


Garbage Truck by Trashman


40rmie by KuroTheCrazy


Mech27 TKL


Vendors
o US: ThocKeys
o UK: proto[Typist]
o EU: MyKeyboard.eu
o OC: DailyClack
o Asia: ZFrontier


Collabs

Milled Knobs


As was teased in the last render that was released, I am very very excited to announce that I am collaborating with P3D Store to offer milled knobs! There will be four solid color knobs (in various sizes) available: Blue, Green, Purple, and Yellow. Additionally, there will be a mixed color knob available in the Wild Flower colorway.

IMGUR Album of the knobs that will be offered.

Artisan Minibars
One of the biggest challenges with running DCS (and DSS) is the lack of convex minibars in the profile. Because of this, I am partnering with Pseudoku over at Asymplex to offer some artisan minibars! Further details will be made available as we get closer to the GB date, but I am excited to partner with a 40s lover (as myself) to offer these lovely minibars!

Resin Artisans
o Winkeys
o PSYCHOKeycaps
o Alpha Keycaps
o Mastonon Kaps

Links
IC Form v2
Imgur Render Album
Imgur Source Images Album

Todo List
o Gather feedback from community
o Finalize kitting
o Awaiting a quote
o Talk to vendors
o Explore possible collaborations

Thanks
Thanks to anyone and everyone that has given feedback - but thanks in particular to ferda, alas, matthewdias, dededecline, and nopun for kitting advice and manzel for the renders.

Version History:
v1 IC Form:

[s8erdude]

Change Log

• 01/04/2022: Received quote back from Signature Plastics. Updated kitting to reduce overall cost to produce set. This entailed removing alphas/CTRL front printing from the base kit and extension kit. Added a separate alphas kit with just those keys that had front printing, for those people that may want to have the keys produced. Unfortunately, this will likely be a rather expensive kit due to the front printing costs. Getting updated renders for these changes.
• 01/04/2022: Updated KLE Old KLE
• 01/05/2022: Added updated renders for base kit, 40s/ortho kit, and all boards. Added new extension alphas kit. Renders have reduced surface texture.
• 01/24/2022: Vendors announced. GB Month announced. New IC Form created. Target MoQs announced.
• 02/16/2022: Some collabs announced.
• 02/25/2022: Artisan Minibars announced.
• 03/22/2022: GB Date announced.
• 04/14/2022: Pricing announced.

[Fredington]

Do you really intend to make new molds for almost every key?

[s8erdude]

Do you really intend to make new molds for almost every key?

Good question - most of these keys actually already exist. They've been used in older sets (see DCS Purple Rain). Of course, there will have to be some molds made to support the set, but I don't expect it to be for a "majority" of the set.

[Alejo1707]

I would drop the 10u tbh. Thanks for mentioning DCS Purple Rain, was not aware of the Roadkit, but I like it!

Sent from my GM1917 using Tapatalk

[ZavaZ86]

Vintage and 40's, those 2 things don't go together. Otherwise seems decent somewhat.

[AASH]

Vintage and 40's, those 2 things don't go together. Otherwise seems decent somewhat.

Why wouldn't they? There's been a few small layouts at the beginning of computing.

Set looks great, hype & glwic s8er!

[dingusxmcgee]

Love the look of this. GLWIC!

[Diggidy]

I love the idea of DCS beige and the front-legends, but the large centered legends just ruins it for me TBH.

[Puddsy]

centered legends DCS? what year is it

i'd say i'm not sure if your renders are accurate to the legend size but i don't think i've actually looked at a centered legends DCS set in like... 5 years or so

[Ella]

40s are cursed but this is cool

[PixelPlays__]

The renders look overtextured, like the normal map or whatever it is has too much depth applied to it. Also, what are the mod legends?

Edit:

In case anybody is wondering - The inspiration keyboard is a (yellowed) Beige TI99/4A keyboard module.

So this is why there are "Alpha Lock" and "Fctn" keys, but I'm still not really liking those legends. Any chance you could also kit standard "Caps Lock" and "Fn" keys too?

The front print is a nice touch, though.

[mk]

In case anybody is wondering - The inspiration keyboard is a (yellowed) Beige TI99/4A keyboard module.

[s8erdude]

In case anybody is wondering - The inspiration keyboard is a (yellowed) Beige TI99/4A keyboard module.

See I knew that someone on here would be able to tell me where this board was used. Thanks for this information - I have to work on my googling  )

[s8erdude]

i'd say i'm not sure if your renders are accurate to the legend size but i don't think i've actually looked at a centered legends DCS set in like... 5 years or so

Also, what are the mod legends?

Thanks for these questions! You can take a look at DCS Purple Rain as an example of what I had manzel base these renders on for legend font/size.

[Kokaloo]

This is so fun and unique. Haven't seen a centered sculpted keyset in a long time, and love the fun keys like alpha lock. Really great concept that you took an original inspo and ran with it, great stuff

[PixelPlays__]

In case anybody is wondering - The inspiration keyboard is a (yellowed) Beige TI99/4A keyboard module.

See I knew that someone on here would be able to tell me where this board was used. Thanks for this information - I have to work on my googling  )

Why would you base your inspo off of a board that you're not familiar with? In my experience, you would do this with a board that you are personally invested in and passionate about, i.e. NuTypes with 6085.

[treeleaf64]

upper left legends and white would be awesome   - like a DCS sandstorm

[kinglokchung2000]

Will you consider an ergo kit as well?

[s8erdude]

Will you consider an ergo kit as well?

Probably will not be putting an ergo kit together, but feel free to put it in the IC form and I will revisit it if there is enough interest!

[s8erdude]

Why would you base your inspo off of a board that you're not familiar with? In my experience, you would do this with a board that you are personally invested in and passionate about, i.e. NuTypes with 6085.

Thanks for your concern here! As I said in the Source/Inspiration section, I was generally focused on how cool the caps are, and just wanted to create something that I could use on a modern board that was as close to the source as possible. Not "personally invested" in the board itself - just think that source is really interesting and I'd like to use it on a daily basis.

[s8erdude]

Update post-SP quote.

Change Log

• 01/04/2022: Received quote back from Signature Plastics. Updated kitting to reduce overall cost to produce set. This entailed removing alphas/CTRL front printing from the base kit and extension kit. Added a separate alphas kit with just those keys that had front printing, for those people that may want to have the keys produced. Unfortunately, this will likely be a rather expensive kit due to the front printing costs. Getting updated renders for these changes.
• 01/04/2022: Updated KLE Old KLE

[s8erdude]

01/05/2022: Added updated renders for base kit, 40s/ortho kit, and all boards. Added new extension alphas kit.

[FatefulStranger]

Really dig the set, but wish the extension alphas was part of the main base kit like in the previous renders.

[s8erdude]

Really dig the set, but wish the extension alphas was part of the main base kit like in the previous renders.

Completely understand your concern here - unfortunately, the cost would have made the base kit too expensive.

[paperassgasket]

front printed legends make my wallet feel funny.

I agree that I wish the alt alphas were in base, but I also understand how much it increases the cost.

I like how you rolled 40's / ortho / accents all into one kit.

[s8erdude]

• 02/16/2022: Some collabs announced.

[s8erdude]

02/16/2022: Some collabs announced.

EDIT: Not sure why GeekHack decided to double post this, sorry y'all

[vkeycaps]

Full size, or 120 render would look better with this kit. Otherwise looks nice

[s8erdude]

02/25/2022: Artisan Minibars announced.

[moyu.studio]

Reserved

[s8erdude]

Bumping for GB Date Announcement!!!

[s8erdude]

Bumping for last collab announcement!

[s8erdude]

Final Bump for Pricing!

[paperassgasket]

NE Link to GB post avail?

[menuhin]

That vintage look - as if it needs some. Retrobright...glwgb!

[TheNeonKnight]

Are the 10u bars 7u stabbed or normal 10u stabbed?