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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: ckar on Mon, 07 July 2014, 19:03:18

Title: Where to buy different color Topre keycaps?
Post by: ckar on Mon, 07 July 2014, 19:03:18
I currently have a red esc key and I would like to get some more different colors for different keys (like the enter key or the backspace key or the keys like Ctrl and Cmd) for my keyboard. I mostly see different keycaps for MX switches, are there stores where I can buy PBT topre keycaps? There are just so many MX caps so it is hard to find the topre ones (if they exist).

edit: I am not looking for blank ones.
Title: Re: Where to buy different Topre color keycaps?
Post by: rowdy on Mon, 07 July 2014, 19:26:37
Sadly there are very few, if any, Topre keycap sets available these days.

EK used to sell them - not any more.
Title: Re: Where to buy different color Topre keycaps?
Post by: ckar on Tue, 08 July 2014, 07:12:11
No, that can't be! Companies need to make keycaps for Topre keybaords, I am sure there are plenty of people who are willing to pay good money for topre keycaps
Title: Re: Where to buy different color Topre keycaps?
Post by: luisbg on Tue, 08 July 2014, 09:00:38
It's interesting. If one website that sells Cherry keycaps would also offer Topre, they would have all the market. People with HHKB would love to spend the money on some cool keycaps.
Title: Re: Where to buy different color Topre keycaps?
Post by: EvillePanda on Tue, 08 July 2014, 09:09:20
I've found some fun colors on Amazon.  Be prepared to pay 100 bucks or more though.
Title: Re: Where to buy different color Topre keycaps?
Post by: Monokuma on Tue, 08 July 2014, 12:36:14
Those ones are all Japanese sets with Japanese characters beneath the English, though. 

It's a shame because when I bought my first Realforce 87u a couple of years ago there were plenty of sets on EK.  I thought they were overly expensive since I didn't yet understand the key cap differences and the market forces, so I never bothered.  This year I needed spare money and I sold my Realforce and brought out my old Filco MJ1 with blues.

Then this week I started looking to replace the Filco with a lighter switch.  After tons of deliberation and consideration of various MX keyboards, I ended up just getting another Realforce (45g this time instead of variable though).  And now I'd pay a decent penny for a set of those keycaps I ignored before.  :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Where to buy different color Topre keycaps?
Post by: iLLucionist on Tue, 08 July 2014, 13:35:16
I've found some fun colors on Amazon.  Be prepared to pay 100 bucks or more though.

Got link?
Title: Re: Where to buy different color Topre keycaps?
Post by: Monokuma on Tue, 08 July 2014, 13:40:32
These are the only ones I see, for my part (all JP key sets -- fine if you don't mind the Japanese characters, but I'd prefer a proper English key set): http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=topre+key+caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Atopre+key+caps (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=topre+key+caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Atopre+key+caps)
Title: Re: Where to buy different color Topre keycaps?
Post by: EvillePanda on Tue, 08 July 2014, 14:46:20
Yeah, those are the ones I found.  I don't know if I would mind the Japanese characters so much as I type with Dvorak anyways and what's on the keys seldom matters.
Title: Re: Where to buy different color Topre keycaps?
Post by: Monokuma on Tue, 08 July 2014, 15:28:51
I was tempted to get them anyway, yeah, but I figure if I'm paying that much then I would rather get them "proper." I wouldn't blame anyone for pulling the trigger, though.
Title: Re: Where to buy different color Topre keycaps?
Post by: rowdy on Tue, 08 July 2014, 17:46:23
Do note that the Japanese layout is different to the US layout - the Japanese space bar is tiny, and there are extra modifiers.
Title: Re: Where to buy different color Topre keycaps?
Post by: Monokuma on Tue, 08 July 2014, 19:34:40
That's the main reason I've firmly decided against it, on top of the other considerations.

Oh well.  I see in other threads that some people seem to think there may be another distribution at some point when there's enough demand, and I'll monitor eBay and classifieds. ;P