Packaging and Accessories

Themed keyboards typically come with matching packaging, and the Drop + LOTR Elvish keyboard is no different. The product box uses a two-piece packaging with an external sleeve that uses a map of middle-earth printed on the front and sides. I won't claim it's authentic to the time, but it calls out the relevant locations people who have read the books or watched the movies are familiar with. In that regard it does the job of associating this keyboard as a product come about from the officially licensed IP. This gets confirmed on the back with the Middle-earth Enterprises logo, so you know this is not a rip-off or clone of any sort. The Drop logos show up on the inner box itself where we also see a sticker with more details about the exact SKU inside.


The inner box is all black without much to see outside of the thicker cardboard employed for further protection and the various aforementioned Drop logos. There's a single seal and a double flap on the side to help keep the contents in place during transit. Open the box to see the keyboard placed inside a cardboard layer and a quick instruction guide above it to let you know of the pre-programmed functions on the keyboard. The accessories are found in a bottom layer snugly packed in a foam sheet with machined cutouts.


Drop includes here the expected detached USB Type-C cable itself, in addition to a metal wire-style keycap puller. The absence of a switch remover tool suggests the lack of hot-swappable switches on the keyboard. Rounding off the unboxing section is a set of replacement keycaps for space bar, enter, and the arrow keys. These are some of the "Autumn in Rivendell" add-on kit that was part of the original Drop + LOTR Elvish keycap set release from last year. The keycaps are made of thick PBT plastic in a brown base color, and the legends/designs are dye-sublimed in black so as to not fade over time.