tl;dr: KAM Command group buy kicks off October 4th; GMK Diner group buy wasn't smooth, but it made it thanks to the help of all vendors involved (all kits and collaborations will be made, pour one out for NorDe though); I received the second set of samples for Elements (they're ok, but not yet at the level I want them to be); trying to figure out which set to run after that.

KAM Command (Oct 4 - Nov 4)

This one is coming up fast, I'm really curious to see how it'll do since it's a bit out there (LOL which one of my sets isn't). It's the first set I run with an exhaustive collection of international kits (UK, Norde, France, Belgium, Spain, Latin America, Italy and Japan). Over the past couple of weeks I've been tweaking the kitting a bit based on the feedback I got from the IC.

Theme

The theme for this set has evolved over the past couple of months. Scifi set → Robot alien overlord space ship controls → Toy from the 80's which never sold too well and is now on sale at pawn shops. It's weird, but I think it works. Most importantly: It looks badass.

Deskmats

Nothing crazy, they're both clean. One uses the grill artwork and some alien characters, the other one is a grid of alien characters. Should work well no matter what your desk setup looks like.

Collaborations

Sadly I don't have any renders or prototypes to share yet, but I can confirm these collaborations:

• 2 aluminium artisans by Asero

• A knob by Protozoa

• A keyboard by Protozoa

• 2 different cables by 2 different cable makers

We're still going over the designs, but these are all going to look dope.

Vendors

Working with some old and new vendors for this one!

• CandyKeys for Europe

• Protozoa for United States and United Kingdom (shipping from their local warehouses as usual)

• Ashkeebs for Canada

• zFrontier for China and most of Asia

• Basekeys for Japan

• Hex Keyboards operate out of Singapore

• Daily Clack down under (Oceania)

GMK Diner Group Buy Report

I am ecstatic to share that Diner and all of the collaborations will go into production. We had to get creative with MOQ's, and I ended up not taking any profits from the sales, but I'm just happy to see this set become a reality. Sadly we couldn't save the NorDe kit (if you purchased it, you should've heard back from the vendor you went through; if not, contact them and they'll refund the kit). Now the wait begins, but I'm optimistic since I haven't seen any new GMK set go beyond Q4 2022 (which in theory means they're increasing capacity).

Here are some photos of samples for the artisans, they look stunning.

Elements cont'd

I received the second round of samples for Elements. More rounds are needed, and the timeline isn't very clear, but here's some more information about what Elements will actually be:

A PBT set of keycaps, affordable, in-stock (ping me if you're a vendor interested in more information), available in multiple (8) colors, perfect for designing your own sets (by combining 2 or more colors).

Still a lot of work to do, but feeling cautiously optimistic.

(Elements purple on a Crushed Orchid Pneuma)

What's next?

No clue. I was thinking about running either Eraser or Scanner, but still need to figure out which manufacturer I want to use. Which one would you like to see?