[IC] DCS Lil' Lav v2 - Received final quotes and artwork

[Piperaceae]

A cute and fun lavender and blue set, featuring a smol novelty blobby guy.

Sorry for using Imgur! I'm still working on UK-friendly hosting. I was attempting to use PostImage but it just isn't stable enough.

FEEDBACK FORM
(As of January 2026, the form is out of date, and closed.)

News
January 2, 2026 - Updated images to reflect final colors and novelty artwork.
December 18, 2025 - Added Geon as KR vendor.
December 17, 2025 - Toro Studio added as AUS vendor and ProtoTypist for the UK.
December 16, 2025 - Divinikey added as US vendor.
November 26, 2025: TypistClub added as CN vendor.
October 24, 2025: Ktechs added as SG vendor.
October 21, 2025: New IC launched.

Caution - outdated renders ahead!

More

J-03 by ProtoTypist


Capy60 by Bowl


Glare TKL by Glare and Geon

•••

Vendors
SG: KTechs
CN: TypistClub
US: Divinikey
AUS: Toro Studio
UK: ProtoTypist
KR: GeonWorks

More TBD. If you've a vendor and would be interested in carrying this set, reach out to me here, or message me (piperaceae_) on Discord.

•••

Dates
Targeting Q1 2026. Shipping probably ~3-4 months after the GB ends.

•••

Colors and Materials
RDZ light lavender alphas, REK lavender mods, BBJ (Dancer) blue alpha legends and accents, RDN pink mod legends.

All colors are stock ABS resins.




•••

Kitting
The only new plate needed is the 1u Lil' Lav character novelty. All others already exist in SP's archives, including the large function key row, and "Hjälp."

I had originally intended to add a "Help" key by popular request, but then discovered its Swedish counterpart, which felt much more fun. You can literally make a cry for hjälp by hitting it. In this final kitting, it's in the base rather than the extension kit.

Pursed Caps, because it's the best Caps Lock. Sorry, deal with it!

Base Kit


Extension Kit


Numpad Kit


UK Kit


•••

Caution - outdated renders ahead!

More

Board Renders

Dalco 959 Mini by Hand Engineering


Petrichor by Alchemist


Paragon by Artemis


V4nag0n by Trash Man


Vulcan by Maja


Piggy by Jacky

[madmax13]

Looks great!

[ZavaZ86]

If you insist on only one iso enter then i suggest changing it so it isnt accent (blue)

[Piperaceae]

If you insist on only one iso enter then i suggest changing it so it isnt accent (blue)

I don't insist on anything. But if people don't want to pay several dollars more per base kit, it needs to be one or the other. Given the teal accents imo are part of the look and go with the teal lettering, it felt like the better choice of the two. I did the same with the big Enter key. But if people strongly prefer lavender, say so in the feedback form.

I'm an ISO user myself, but it doesn't feel fair to make 90% of the likely buyers pay for that, when there's already physical coverage. This has gone through so many rounds of quotes and revisions to try to get the cost manageable, certain compromises needed to be made.

[Piperaceae]

New renders! I'm going to begin promoting this IC in earnest next week; this has been an unexpectedly hectic few days since relaunching it.

Feedback so far:
- A request to move Hjälp to base, which is something I'd be open to. That's where it was until the last couple rounds of quotes.

- Keys in Spacebars and 40s are duplicates. Yep! I wanted to avoid having most 40s users need to buy base PLUS 40s PLUS spacebars. The separate spacebars kit is aimed at larger boards with split bars or people who need 6u. There's a lot of interest in the spacebars kit so far, so I'm hesitant to change it. I'd be open to stripping bars from 40s, but only if 40s folks tell me that needing to buy three different kits isn't too much of a hassle.

[nebulazy]

I am so stoked for this one! There aren't enough purple sets!!!! 

[Sionecom]

This purple version is so beautiful.

[Piperaceae]

Thanks for your support, everyone! Here's some new renders on a lavender Minimi40 by Keebibi, which had its own group buy begin yesterday!

  .

Remember to fill out the feedback form if you're interested in seeing this get made! We have one interested vendor so far (Ktechs) but we need more responses still.

[Piperaceae]

I have heard the complaints about pricing from Blacksimon and others, but unfortunately there's not a ton I can do - SP's pricing is what it is. MOQ is the biggest driver of cost, so hopefully getting more vendors onboard and helping to promote this and offer it globally will help with that. We have KTechs interested, but need more. And to attract more vendors, I need more feedback responses. A lot of folks filled out the original IC, but haven't chimed in about the new kitting yet.

Asides from a high MOQ, I can try to reconfigure the base to cut it down smaller, but with too many cuts we're back to the minimalist kitting of the original IC. If you want the bigger kitting retained, speak up!

Here's a concept for a base where I've moved the 1.5u Supers and other keys to the extension kit, and moved all accents to their own separate kit. The 6u bar moves into the extension kit so HHKB users don't need to buy base + extension + bars. The separate bars kit goes away. The extension kit would be more expensive, but the base would cost less for the majority of buyers as a result.

More

Base with HHKB moved out to extensions, and accents removed. UK alphas move from extension to base, because keeping the alphas together makes them cheaper. Hjälp replaces F13.


Extension with HHKB and basic Alice added, and accent arrows removed.


Numpad with accent removed.


40s without forced accent, to match the base.


New accent kit, keeping all the teal keys together to reduce cost.


BAE is no longer accented, to match the base.


No changes to the 10u bar.

I do not have new quotes for this yet. I'd much rather offer the current base, but if this can help with the pricing, it's an option. Please fill out the form and speak up if you like the current kitting, are okay with the kitting concept I just laid out, or would prefer the hyper-minimalist kitting of the original IC. Thank you!

[tunb]

The change is reasonable

[Piperaceae]

It's been a busy week but it's time to sort through the feedback again:

- Right now, 100% want the base, 38% want the extension kit, 31% want spacebars, and 37% want the numpad. 31% want 40's, 19% want 10u, and 19% want BAE.
- Besides Ktechs, which is already interested, SP themselves and Divinikey are leading as vendor requests.
- 69% of respondents are from the US, with other regions represented pretty evenly at around 6% each.
- People are fairly indifferent about alternate kitting to reduce the base size/cost, so I'll likely leave it as-is.
- Sorry, but purse caps is an integral part of the design; it's not going anywhere.

If the extension kit doesn't make it, I'll roll Hjälp into the base, don't worry.

Have something to say? Fill out the Feedback Form and let me know! Once I get enough responses to merit it, I'll take this to the vendors with the most requests. Thank you!

[Piperaceae]

Thank you all for the feedback so far! Lil' Lav has been picking up steam in terms of feedback responses over this past week, and even though I do have another IC running, getting this made is my primary focus for right now. Please continue to fill out the feedback form, even if you filled it out for the original kitting, and I'll be whipping up another batch of renders soon and going over the feedback thus far to see if there are any reasonable changes that can be made to address that.

With Lav,
Piperaceae

[Piperaceae]

Someone suggested lightening the teal to make the colorway more "Lavenderfuse." I like it, but I don't know if's to everyone's tastes. Here's what that would look like with BBQ (Pulse) blue:



Kitting here is just me playing around with a GMK-style base. Would it be expensive? Yes - SP will never compete key-for-key with GMK on price; their advantages are an enormous stock color palette, boutique vintage profiles, and 400k+ legends in their archive.

Would it be simpler all around? Also yes. There's a reason GMK's bases are built like this.

[Rob27shred]

Someone suggested lightening the teal to make the colorway more "Lavenderfuse." I like it, but I don't know if's to everyone's tastes. Here's what that would look like with BBQ (Pulse) blue:

Show Image

Kitting here is just me playing around with a GMK-style base. Would it be expensive? Yes - SP will never compete key-for-key with GMK on price; their advantages are an enormous stock color palette, boutique vintage profiles, and 400k+ legends in their archive.

Would it be simpler all around? Also yes. There's a reason GMK's bases are built like this.

I personally prefer this compared to the darker blue TBH!

[pixelpusher]

I like the new color 👍

[m202307]

I would pass on it with the lighter blue, I think.  From the render it definitely moves it into the "questionably low contrast" zone.  It's more of a turquoise than a teal now.

[pixelpusher]

I would pass on it with the lighter blue, I think.  From the render it definitely moves it into the "questionably low contrast" zone.  It's more of a turquoise than a teal now.

Pretty valid.  Honestly, I didn't look closely at the alphas. I was just looking at the base kit renders and considering the accent colors.  I do prefer higher contrast.  The OG render has certainly grown on me since first posted.  They have differing "vibes," and I prefer the new one, but that's not to say I don't like the original as well.

[Piperaceae]

Ahoy! I've been a bit lax with pushing this, as I've been dealing with a sick pet recently. But she's on the mend now, and I've got another vendor onboard, so it's time to get back to pushing to make this set happen for Q1.

Here's some new renders. I've decided against making any major changes to the design, so no "LavenderFuse" teal or alternate profiles (folks on my Discord had a peek at a PBS version I was messing around with in the event DCS wasn't feasible). Though I might revert to the original IC's cream-pink mod legends for better contrast and a slightly warmer look, since reducing the color count had almost no effect on pricing, and that was the only reason for the change in v2.



As always, continue to fill out the IC form so we can demonstrate interest to vendors! TypistClub is now onboard along with Ktechs, so we have good coverage for eastern Asia now.

[five]

really happy to see a local vendor from China
looking forward to GB

[Piperaceae]

Someone suggested trying a middle ground teal/blue, in-between the darker original and the bright Hyperfuse-style one. There aren't a lot of stock colors in that range, but BBJ (Dancer) blue may provide enough alpha legend contrast, while still being brighter for the accents. Here's how that would look under various lighting:

   

Strong opinions on this? Wishy-washy opinions? Just want to say hi? Fill out the feedback form and let me know!

[treypop]

As a BAE enthusiast I love it

[Piperaceae]

Working on an idea to add a mascot novelty, Lil' Lav himself.



This depends on getting the artwork complaint with SP's doubleshot requirements for DCS, but I think it's almost there.

[pixelpusher]

I love Lil' Lav 

[Piperaceae]

Thank you, everyone!

Divinikey is onboard for the US now!

Updated kitting concepts below, using BBJ blue as it's the clear fav for the accents now, and with the Lil' Lav novelty. Switchbox.studio (who did the Violets violet, and novelties for Motorsport Selectric, Welles, and Distortion) is helping optimize it for DCS doubleshot.





4-key 40s, Alice bars, and 7u HHKB in base.

Extension kit includes accent arrows, improved 40s, 6u and split bars, and alternates. The "Compose Character" Wyse easter egg key can act as an extra 1.75u Shift, or a Lock key for 40s. The 1.5u Hyper (Fn) can sub for 1.5u Shift.

Not sure if the BAE, 10u, and UK kits will run or not, but I'd like to offer them if possible.

[five]

I think the BAE enter does need 1u R1 backspace

[Piperaceae]

I think the BAE enter does need 1u R1 backspace

Ok, in that case I can add it. Thanks!

[Piperaceae]

Keebaholics is in for AUS!

[five]

I think the BAE enter does need 1u R1 backspace

Ok, in that case I can add it. Thanks!

Show Image

Nice.
And btw, just notice the nub FJ has been change into bar FJ.
Any background to this change? Nub is unique for DCS.

[Poesjuh]

Unique doesn't make it good. Bar > nipple.


(Yes this is my opinion, the opinion of other people may be different. Obviously you're all wrong but I forgive everybody, we all make mistakes.)

[Piperaceae]

I don't have a strong preference either way. I used nubs in SMRT and had people complain, so I went with bars this time. I feel like either way, there are going to be people who hate it. But I don't know that I can justify including both.

[five]

I don't have a strong preference either way. I used nubs in SMRT and had people complain, so I went with bars this time. I feel like either way, there are going to be people who hate it. But I don't know that I can justify including both.

You're right. And can't agree more.
I understand your concern.
Usually, when facing two types of options, there are supporters on both sides.
This is also my personal preference, because I could only use bars for those GMK sets, so I prefer the DCS that are with nubs.

[Piperaceae]

Just a status update. I put together the final kitting and sent it to SP. It's a bit different than previously, based on a combination of interest check feedback, input from across various Discord servers, and efforts to reduce costs while simplifying things for vendors. SP gave me quotes on that, which I then relayed to the vendors.




For now, I'm omitting BAE and 10u. Should the set perform well enough, there's nothing to preclude another vendor that specializes in those, like Sneakbox, from doing a matching run. The 1u Backspace is in the base. But I don't want to make vendors carry two additional single-key kits that haven't drawn a lot of interest so far.

I settled on BBJ (Dancer) blue for the legends and accents, as it's a nice midway between the original dark teal and the more popular seafoam green that didn't offer enough contrast. It's a brighter set that's now more even in terms of color, while still being very legible and crisp.

Received the finished artwork for the Lil' Lav novelty mascot character, that complies with SP's doubleshotting requirements for DCS. Special thanks to Switchbox.studio for taking my initial design and managing to salvage it despite all the necessary tweaks!

That's where we're at now; all of this came just before the holiday break, so hopefully I'll have some more news for y'all soon now that that's wrapping up.