Celebrating the Chinese New Year in fitting spirit, this limited-edition mechanical keyboard comes with both QWERTY and the Standard Chinese Script… but what we love more is the fitting red and gold color scheme, and those beautiful majestic fire-breathing beasts found on the special keys! The special keycaps sit on Drop’s CSTM80 keyboard, and are designed as a collaboration between Drop and designer Boba.Types. “Adorned with fiery reds and rich golds (a dragon’s favorite colors, we’d hazard a guess), this set is nothing if not ornate,” mention the folks at Drop.
Designers: Drop & Boba.Types
While most keyboards are designed to be comfortable enough to use without looking at, this one makes it hard to look away. The keycaps are just gorgeous, and make for a great collector’s edition for people celebrating the Lunar New Year… or anyone with a fascination for the great “lóng” (dragon) of Chinese mythology.
The keycaps come as a base set, but also feature novelty and accent caps for adding a little more flavor to your already Sichuan-spicy keyboard. The accents come in the form of golden keys that stand out against the otherwise red keyboard, allowing you to easily spot keys you’re more likely to use frequently. The novelty keys add gorgeous mythological imagery to your keyboard, including a special numeric row that’s adorned with the 12 Chinese zodiac signs. Even special keys like the escape, shift, control, alt, etc. are jazzed up with symbolism… and while memorizing all the key types will probably be a bit of a headache, it’s absolutely worth it in the long run. Also, your friends will have a tough time figuring out how to snoop around on your computer!
The keycaps come in a special DCD profile (Drop Cylindrical Dye-Sub) developed by Drop. It’s designed to deliver a “classic feel with a unique, grit-free PBT texture for a finish as smooth—and strong—as dragons’ scales,” say the folks at Drop. The keycaps are compatible with Cherry MX switches and similar clones, and the base kit sets you back $49, while an additional $35 gets you the novelty keycap set.
