Summary and Conclusion

Price

• The Jelly Keys 8-bit series: Pipeline City group buy closed last year, and the 2u backspace keycap cost $56 at the time in any of the available designs. A more recent 8-bit series II: Pipeline Bots group buy introduced more designs, and the same keycap there cost $59.
• The Jelly Keys Zen Pond III: Cherry Circle of Life group buy ended only recently, with manufacturing ongoing and shipping to take place soon after. The 6.25u space bar keycap in either of the available designs cost $72. As per usual with such products, all prices are before shipping.

This is meant to be more of an introduction to the wonderful, wacky, expensive, and confusing world of artisan keyboard products, which is also why I titled the page a summary rather than a discussion on value. There is at least one more planned, and future Jelly Key products will go through a quick-look article route if applicable. My aim here was to get a better appreciation for artisan keycaps, having already covered a few different custom keycap sets by themselves or as part of themed keyboards thus far. Jelly Key was the first brand that came to mind, which goes to show that the brand has enjoyed a good word-of-mouth reputation and has good marketing behind the products. The latter comes in the form of routinely involving the mechanical keyboard community in design interest checks and giveaways, and it took a few years to get the former up and running.

Now enjoying a position of inevitably sold-out group buys of products, getting hands on a Jelly Key keycap from a limited edition series is easier said than done. The limited nature also keeps the allure of the brand alive, which is part of the reason why these keycaps cost $50–$80, mostly depending on the size. It comes with a lot of detail and hard work, however. The thought put into the packaging alone is more than what some keyboards get these days, and this is before we get to the keycaps themselves. I had my hands on two very different designs, one heavy on appliques and the other going with cast models and a mesmerizing "Eden Effect" using a specific alcohol-based ink and resin formulation. Ultimately, these are resin keycaps that have a tiny world inside, and you are paying for the sum of all involved parts.

The group buy model has never been one I like, especially with some specific keycap sets taking seemingly forever with little to no liability for the companies in charge. Jelly Key has not been spared by this either, having become a victim of its own success to where recent group buys, including the very Zen Pond III covered here, have undergone more delays than anyone would like. To its credit, the company has a very active blog with weekly updates on how everything is going, which goes a long way in retaining consumer trust. The website as a whole also benefits from a talented team of writers who enrapture curious reader with the tales of inspirations that led to the various designs. Ultimately, there are many real-world inspirations too, so much so that there is a funny copyright section on the 8-bit Pipeline City page, clearly as a legal barrier for Nintendo's trigger-happy lawyers. Jelly Key says it tried contacting Nintendo about obtaining a legal means to use any copyrighted material but had no luck so far.

The website and blog also detail at great lengths how these artisan keycaps are made, taking advantage of the brand's experience in making handcrafted headphones before, as well as their early start in the mechanical keyboard market giving them a market presence that allowed for more resources to be put into expanding the portfolio and developing the use of more materials and techniques. The Eden Effect from before is one such technique others have since recreated, but it still looks amazing on the original (as claimed by Jelly Key). The brand is made of craftsmen, designers, and artists, all of whom seemingly love tech and are fans of their own work. This work is a result of imagination put to paper, and in turn the very keycaps you see. Are they worth the money? There are enough who clearly think so even if I think these are the equivalent of an RGB-responsive coolant in a DIY watercooling loop—excess on top of an already hard-to-justify field that I do adore so much anyway. I do appreciate the innovation in techniques and material use here, so credit is given where it is due, and I look forward to seeing what Jelly Key will do next!