These artisan keycaps from S-Craft Studio are meticulously crafted from resin to capture your favorite Pokèmon inside the keys of your keyboard.
The world of novelty artisan keycaps is one of the many aspects of the mechanical keyboard hobby that makes the process of building a custom keyboard fun but also expensive.
Most keycap sets and artisan keycaps, unless custom like my resin Kermit the Frog keycap, are sold as part of what is called a Group Buy. A Group Buy is similar to a Kickstarter project. You pay upfront to help produce the product and then have a long wait that can sometimes drag on as long as two years to receive your keyboard products.
S-Craft Studio is about to release its eighth batch of Pokémon keycaps, and you can catch your own on June 10. Each batch is a selection of Pokémon and Pokéballs in a limited run that will never be manufactured again. The guys over at S-Craft Studio handmake every aspect of the keycap to showcase Pokémon in their natural habitats with odes to the original GameBoy at the base of the cap.
To be a master, Pokémon master
S-Craft Studio sent over some keycaps for me to check out, and I’m incredibly impressed with the craftsmanship of these tiny sculptures. Out of the eight keycaps releasing on June 10th, I received a Mew (one of my favorite Pokémon) and a Master Ball.
The Mew is gorgeous. It has speckles of glitter and a vibrant pink color that makes the whole keycap pop. The base has an ancient vibe that reminds me of seeing Pokémon: The First Movie over 20 years ago and receiving an Ancient Mew Pokémon card.
To go alongside the Mew, I also got a Master Ball. The keycap lights up when the lighting of my keyboard is switched on and captures the legendary status of the most powerful Pokéball of them all.
I’ve decided to place both novelty keycaps on my keyboard to replace the Delete and Home keys. As I rarely ever use these, they finally feel like they have a reason to exist!
Alongside these two, S-Craft Studio’s 8th batch has Arbok, Arcanine, Mega Gengar, Meowth, Weezing, and Wobbufett.
Novelty keycaps make tech fun
As a big Pokémon fan, these keycaps allow me to customize my keyboards in ways I never thought possible. It’s dangerously addictive, and I’ve thought about putting together a full keyboard of just novelty caps, although I don’t think it would be very practical.
The S-Craft Studio keycaps range from $38 to $44 depending on the design, but be quick because once the Group Buy sells out, there’s no way to get them again unless you pay crazy money on eBay.
I know I talk about mechanical keyboards a lot on iMore, and I know it’s just a keyboard. But I can’t emphasize enough how satisfying it is to see my Mew and Master Ball keycaps light up from the bright RGB lighting in my Keychron Q1 Pro. In a world of tech where customization and personalization is so rare, mechanical keyboards and novelty keycaps are a breath of fresh air.
S-Craft Studio batch 8 is available directly from S-Craft on June 10th at 10 am ET and the sale will go from 24 to 72 hours (depending on stock availability).
