[GB] ePBT Superstar | Fulfillment in progress, extras up

[marshmellohs]

Group Buy: February 12th - March 12, 2022

Estimated delivery from ePBT was Q1 2023. Real delivery is ~Q3 2023

ePBT Superstar is inspired by one of my favorite video game monsters. The novelties pay homage to the game and elements of a true musical superstar. Hangul sublegends are included to reference the game’s Korean origin.

Discord for Updates
Sign up for email updates
Final email update has been sent as of 7/21/23
I will provide regular updates here as well - on a monthly basis per GB forum rules.

Vendors
NA: Mekibo
CA: Ashkeebs
EU: MyKeyboard
KR: Swagkeys
OCE: SwitchKeys
SEA: iLumkb
UK: Proto[Typist]
Global: KBDfans

Colors:
Pantone 700c - Modifiers, Sublegends
Pantone 701c - Latin Alphas
Pantone 7678c - Accents

I took a lot of time after the initial IC to reassess the colors and overall legibility. Latin alphas are now a slightly darker shade of pink than the modifiers.



These chips have been sent to ePBT to match to from the beginning. I have a second set of these chips (+ many more of other colors) to directly compare samples to.


Kits:
Click for larger images.

$99 - BASE KIT - 200 MOQ

$33 - LATIN ALPHAS

$22 - NUMPAD

$28 - NOVELTIES

$34 - 40s

The above render shows an incorrect size for the second accent enter key and lock key.
Lock should be 1.75u; Enter should be 1.5u

$20 - SPACEBARS

Renders by Izeri:
Click for larger images

Mr. Suit by OwLabs


Calliope by Yoot


Aella by Alchemist Keyboards


Austin by DriftMechanics



$20 -Deskmat by Phil Dragash:

iPhone photo - A bit more saturated than in person, refer to video preview below.


Deskmat Sample Album - More Photos

Video Preview - Watch on Youtube

Renders





Pricing


Collabs

Hibi x ePBT Superstar

More

Melonkeys x ePBT Superstar


Namong Art x ePBT Superstar


GEEKKEEY x ePBT Superstar

More

Aumipon
GEEKKEEY
Keyzen
Kiyokaps
Klaykaps
Latrialum
Namong Art
Melonkeys
Okeydokey Studio
Sandun

If you are interested in a collaboration with Superstar, please feel free to drop me a DM on Discord! marshmellohs#3648

Members of my Discord server will receive a direct ping as raffles go live. Please feel free to follow these awesome makers directly if you want notifications from them



Signature

Code: [Select]

[url=https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=111190.0][img width=331 height=120]https://i.imgur.com/SmYm4tm.png[/img][/url]



Thank Yous (ღ˘⌣˘ღ)
You for making it all the way here <3 Everyone who has supported me since posting the original IC last year.
Alan, Sen, Snowed, Izeri, Tom, Jenni

[marshmellohs]

tl;dr status

• Deskmat-only orders fulfilled - Jul 2022
• Hibi-only orders fulfilled - Jul 2022
• R1 samples made, on the way to me - Sept 2022
• R1 samples rejected for modifiers, accent -Oct 2022
• R2 samples arrived, rejected - Oct 2022
  
• R3 match for 700c accepted, R3 match for 7678c rejected. ePBT says that R3 match for 7678c is below their delta E threshold for resampling. R2 match for 7678c accepted instead - April 2023
• Photos of samples with all approved colors posted here

[kight]

bean.

Great set! GLWGB

[Bub]

lets gooooooooooo glwgb

[andromache]

Love this set!!! Super cute, love the HIBI, excited for the artisan collabs. <3

[HungHingDaiLo]

GLWGB, marshmellohearthstone!

[marshmellohs]

lets gooooooooooo glwgb

Love this set!!! Super cute, love the HIBI, excited for the artisan collabs. <3

bean.

Great set! GLWGB

GLWGB, marshmellohearthstone!

(´ ε ` )♡♡♡ Thank you guys!!

Still waiting on a few vendors to go live, but I'm quite pleased with the early numbers.

57/200 base kits on day 1 with 4 vendors reporting! Above 70% attach rate with the novelties too. Full Dvorcol graph with the breakdown to come soon.

I'm also pleased to announce we will have another artisan collab with Klaykaps, will be running in March.

Thank you to everyone who has already picked up a set and those waiting for pay day around the corner to get theirs. I cannot thank you all enough and how touched I am at the support and love for this little set (♡˙︶˙♡)

[dvorcol]

Edit: revised scale

[catamscott]

in for a base kit and novelties! so stoked this is finally running, q1 '23 can't come soon enough 

[marshmellohs]

All vendors are now LIVE

Full pricing table has been updated!

The GEEKKEEY raffle for The Man will take place on their Discord server within the next day or so. 20 caps are up for grabs, plus 1 special edition colorway.

[dvorcol]

Edit: revised scale

[marshmellohs]

The Kiyokaps collab has gone live early - featuring a Pengyu and their new Mimi sculpt! Raffle form

Raffle will be open for 36 hours and will close on February 23rd at 3 AM ET / 12 AM PT.

[PotatoTM]

Thought I was done getting new kits but I came across this one... MS is a great theme, GLWGB!

[dvorcol]

Edit: revised scale

[marshmellohs]

Thought I was done getting new kits but I came across this one... MS is a great theme, GLWGB!

Thanks for the support <3

We're a little under two weeks until the GB closes. MOQ on base kit and the deskmat is going well - we should hit MOQ naturally if we keep up with the current pace (maybe even by next week).

Most artisan raffles will take place in March. Here's the schedule I can share with you right now:

• Aumipon - 2nd Raffle on 3/4
• Namong - 3/5
• Keyzen - 3/6

[marshmellohs]

Deskmat sample is in! The colors came out super vibrant and true to the original artwork. My iPhone photo below is a bit more saturated/vibrant than real life, so I did a quick video preview to showcase of the mat.



Deskmat Sample Album - More Photos

Video Preview - Watch on Youtube directly

[marshmellohs]

As we head into the last week, I'm pleased to announce that we've reached MOQ! Base kit and all child kits will be made.

The only thing looking questionable is the Hibi enter, but we'll see how this last week pans out.

Thank you everyone for your support in getting us this far (´ ε ` )♡

Keyzen raffle will go live later today, featuring the Lemi and Gaon sculpts.

[dvorcol]

Edit: revised scale

[marshmellohs]

2 more days until GB ends!

Excited to share the protos of 2 more Superstar collabs with you all - some of the most exciting ones yet!

Okeydokey Studio collab will start tomorrow on 3/11 on their Instagram page.



Tiny hammers will not be included sadly. So cute tho

Latrialum has also put together these dreamy Empyrean caps for Superstar. Sale date has not been announced yet.

[marshmellohs]

╰(*´︶`*)╯♡ Last day to get your orders in!

[marshmellohs]

GB is over. Waiting on vendors to provide final numbers. Kits and deskmat have all made MOQ naturally - just waiting to determine status of the Hibi.

As promised, Pantone codes have been updated in the main post.



If you don't want to join another server for updates, I have opened up a form for those that prefer email updates here.

Emails will only go out for MAJOR updates like:

• Samples approved
• Production completed
• Sets begin shipping out to vendors

Iterative updates will be posted here on Geekhack and on my server. I will not be emailing for when extras go live at each vendor - please sign up for their newsletter/social media alerts for that.

[dvorcol]

[Keyboard Lab]

so pinky!

[marshmellohs]

Everything will be made!

Extras numbers from all vendors are confirmed - final graph will be coming soon (°◡°♡)

Thank you again to everyone for the support and love for this set.

Design file to ePBT should be finalized this week. I ordered a second set of Pantone chips that I'm having shipped over as well. Once those have been received + vendor invoices have been paid, we'll join the sample waiting room lobby.

[dvorcol]

[marshmellohs]

April 2022 Update:

• Vendors have been invoiced
• Design file has been submitted
• Slight delay in getting the plastic chips sent out. DHL has halted operations from the US into the region I need to send them to. Will be sending through FedEx later this week if nothing improves.

[marshmellohs]

May 2022 Update:

• FedEx and DHL isn't sending into KBDfans' shipping area - can't send out the Pantone chips TT_TT Will match with the paper Pantones first if things don't improve when it's time
• Design file has been accepted

[dvorcol]

Wow, I'm surprised KBDfans doesn't have a set of Pantone chips.

Then again, perhaps complete sets of both Pantone and RAL chips sets would be outrageously expensive.

[marshmellohs]

Wow, I'm surprised KBDfans doesn't have a set of Pantone chips.

Then again, perhaps complete sets of both Pantone and RAL chips sets would be outrageously expensive.

Even GMK doesn't have a set of them! I heard recently from other designers that they have to ship them over.

Anyways June update time:

• Deskmats are starting to make their way towards vendors
• Hibi Enters are starting to get shipped out
• No updates from ePBT

[marshmellohs]

July Update

• Pantone chips sent out to KBDfans/ePBT
• Hibis have arrived at vendors and started delivering to Hibi-only orders
• Deskmats still OTW to vendors

Pic from one of my server members

[marshmellohs]

August Update

• KBDfans confirmed receipt of the chips; samples... TBD 
• Hibis + Deskmats should have been fulfilled/in fulfillment

Please join me in the prayer circle for samples

[marshmellohs]

September update:

See you next month ‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚

[marshmellohs]

September update:

See you next month ‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚

Great September surprise - R1 samples are on the way to me! Should be here in the next week, 2 weeks tops.

[marshmellohs]

R1 samples are here, and I feel comfortable sharing this photo from KBDfans. This is very close to how the set appears in real life.



I will take photos of my own later today/this week and compare them directly to the Pantone plastic chips. At first pass, they are very close to the chips, and I am extremely pleased with 3/4 of the colors.

i will also compare the accent color with the Hibi enter.

[marshmellohs]

After discussing and reviewing with Popkorn/Mekibo, we will be asking for R2 samples (；⌣̀_⌣́)

R1 is close enough that if R2 takes a horrendous amount of time and comes out horrific, then I would feel somewhat okay accepting it rather than spending eons in color-matching squalor. We'll see though.

I have collected all images here in an Imgur album and also on a Google Drive because Imgur compression hurts me.

• Purple sample is too dark compared to 7678c and the render. When mounted on a board and looking at it from a regular angle, it looks even darker.
  
• Modifier pink sample is peachier and warmer than both chip and render. It's close, but getting the right tone of pink is very important to me. It honestly matches the inspiration of the set quite well, but in keycaps, it's all about the renders IYKYK
  
  • I forgot to take the comparison photo, but the pink sample looks very close to NicePBT Noel R1 pink.
• Color of the Latin alphas and the white alphas themselves are fine to me.
• Quality of the reverse dyesub looks pretty good to me. I don't see any noticeable fading or warping. Texture feels similar to CRP.

[marshmellohs]

R2 samples came just 2 weeks after I rejected R1, so we will be proceeding with requesting R3 samples.

The purple is still too dark and cool-toned. The pink is much better on R2, but it's still warmer than the chip.

[marshmellohs]

Still waiting on R3 samples. The COVID outbreak in China is causing a delay and CNY fast approaches...

[marshmellohs]

R3 samples are OTW to me, just received the tracking number.

[marshmellohs]

R3 samples are here. Will post my thoughts later after discussing with Mekibo. Uncompressed images can be viewed here.

[marshmellohs]

I'm happy to announce that we have approved the color samples from the following rounds:

• R1 - Darker Pink for Latin Alphas in Base and Child Kit - 701C
• R2 - Purple Accents - 7678C
• R3 - Modifier and Sublegend Pink - 700C

Photos of each are in this thread. The purple accent turned out to be the most difficult color to match, and ePBT did not want to proceed with further rounds based on their colorimeter readings on R3 (their pics below).



That being said, R3 purple ended up being darker than R2 purple. I sent all samples to Mekibo for additional review. We agreed that R2 purple fits the renders best, and we did not want to risk a further increased timeline by asking to match to a new color code.

With that, ePBT Superstar officially enters the production queue! KBDfans was not able to provide me with an updated timeline when I asked - it won't be Q1 2023. There are about 10 sets "ahead" of us in ePBT's queue from KBDFans alone with 7 of them in a seemingly active manufacturing status.

Another full sample set will be produced before Superstar enters production, and I likely won't have any updates until then.

brb box art time

[marshmellohs]

The March update was I had no update except for ePBT asking about a kitting clarification question on the 40s kit.

The April update is the full sample kit has been completed and will be OTW to me soon.

[surplusofchairs]

what size is the Lock in 40s kit- 1.75u or 1.50u?

[marshmellohs]

what size is the Lock in 40s kit- 1.75u or 1.50u?

1.5u, render has a slight mistake on that and the second largest accent enter key. Both should be 1.5u. I'll update the main post with this diagram.

See next post.

[surplusofchairs]

ah it’s not a 1.75u lock like in other epbt 40s kits? that’s too bad

[marshmellohs]

ah it’s not a 1.75u lock like in other epbt 40s kits? that’s too bad

Sorry for the additional confusion - it has been a while since the kits were designed, and the 40s kit was designed with help from other designers.

It should be 1.75u lock after all, and I've notified KBDfans to pass the update to ePBT ASAP that it should be.

The accent enter should still be 1.5u, lock should be 1.75u.

[surplusofchairs]

thank you! I only got alphas and 40s mods for a lot of sets so was going through my gb orders to make sure the kitting actually works on my intended boards. can’t wait for the set to come!!

[marshmellohs]

I've received a second full sample kit with the new mod color. The purple included in the sample kit did not match the purple sample I approved from R2, and looked more like it was using the R3 mix that I had rejected for being too dark. I did not get an explanation as to why - based on what I received in R3 (where I had no enter key sent, just 2 1u keys), it feels like they had it made already and threw it in the box.

KBDfans tried to get me to accept the R3 purple color for production again, but my vendors and I fought back against this. I also had previous messages communicating with KBDfans where I accepted the R2 purple, and there was never any indication from them that it would be an issue.

I was informed that ePBT will be making the purple with the R2 mix, but I will not be receiving another key sample to confirm before they start production. The box art has been completed and sent over.

Production on ePBT Superstar will be starting soon.

Next: I will be sending out the latest full sample + the 2 R2 purple keys I have to a professional photographer in the hobby so you guys can get some sample photos from Not Me.

[marshmellohs]

Here are some of the photos taken by Captain Sterling of the approved samples. A huge thank you to Tristan for lending his talents to showcase this little set.




No timeline updates to share beyond what I posted in April. Limited extras will be available at all vendors.

Anyone who is keen to get the earliest set of extras available should sign up for the KBDfans waiting list since they will get listed first.

I'd also recommend signing up for your regional vendor's newsletter in case KBDfans sells out their stock.

[marshmellohs]

I was informed that ePBT Superstar has completed production!!

KBDfans sent me this pic, which is the first time that I get to see the full novelty kit.

I want the box art to be revealed upon delivery. A big thank you to rayhhdailo for working on it~



prob a good time to update ur addresses

[marshmellohs]

I got a set of the production base kit and novelties from KBDfans!

Fulfillment should begin soon!