Official Star Trek TNG-themed keyset/artisan from Roddenberry.com

[norbauer]

Hi all. I don't venture over here from GeekHack as often as I should, but I just wanted to share here a project I've been working on for a while with the folks over at GeekHack and Roddenberry Entertainment: an official Star Trek: The Next Generation keycap set! The set includes official Starfleet and United Federation of Planet logo keys and a custom Enterprise D artisan in bronze.

Roddenberry is running a group buy right on their site for the set, for all of November.

Manufacturing will be done in the USA by Signature Plastics, and the bronze artisan by a small traditional metal foundry in New England.

Adam Savage's popular Tested channel on YouTube even did a video on it!

If you have any questions, most of them could be answered at the Roddenberry page or the GeekHack GB thread, but feel free to post here or message me directly with any questions you may have. I mainly just wanted to make sure that folks over here knew what we were up to before the GB was over.

[webwit]

Hi all. I don't venture over here from GeekHack as often as I should, but I wanted to advertise this commercial product sale with pre-ordering, while marketing it as a "group buy".

FTFY

[norbauer]

Yeah, I wasn’t sure where to stick this. On GeekHack this fits in the GB forum. Where would be the appropriate spot here?

[chuckdee]

Hi all. I don't venture over here from GeekHack as often as I should, but I wanted to advertise this commercial product sale with pre-ordering, while marketing it as a "group buy".

FTFY

Why is this not considered a group buy? It was going to go on MD as such, but there wasn't enough in the margin to include them. It has a MOQ that must be met in order for it to go into production, so it's not a pre-order.

[webwit]

I'm just grumpy, ignore me. GB used to mean that per banana 1 banana is more expensive than getting some people you know together to buy 100 bananas, as you can haggle for discounts. What it now means is that companies like SP (and MD) smartly target specific demographics with "alternative" product placement (the "group buy") and marketing (no ads but "community" content), with high-margin profits up the chain.

[seebart]

I'm just grumpy,...

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[wobbled]

How the fuck do you have a meme for everything?

[seebart]

How the fuck do you have a meme for everything?

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[webwit]

In my book if participating means ordering on the website of the selling company, it ain't a group buy, but it's a product for sale. Not much wrong with that, except for naming it a group buy. But it's a lost battle. Nowadays probably 9 out of 10 "group buys" are just product sales I guess.

[seebart]

Nowadays probably 9 out of 10 "group buys" are just product sales I guess.

True.

[norbauer]

I'm just grumpy, ignore me. GB used to mean that per banana 1 banana is more expensive than getting some people you know together to buy 100 bananas, as you can haggle for discounts. What it now means is that companies like SP (and MD) smartly target specific demographics with "alternative" product placement (the "group buy") and marketing (no ads but "community" content), with high-margin profits up the chain.

The idea is that GBs enable people to pool together to make a niche product possible that would otherwise not happen due to factory MOQs (or in this case, Hollywood studio licensing). I can say confidently that this product would absolutely never happen if it weren't being offered in a GB format. The markup is too low, meaning over-ordering would be a big risk for a company, and it's too hard to know how many people would want them without actually asking people to put up money. It took some significant convincing on my part to make this GB happen, and it was only feasible after I walked Roddenberry through the process of actually installing a group buy mechanism in their online store. It's asking a lot of a company like that to take a risk on a niche hobby like ours when the product is so expensive, the markup so low, and it's not clear what the demand is going to be.

I can't speak to SP's profits, but I know that Roddenberry's margins on this are razor-thin on this; they're just doing it to help make this community-driven product possible (perhaps primarily because I asked them). This project has a long history on GeekHack (reaching backing years) of community development and feedback. I appreciate the broader point you're making, but I'm just not sure it applies here.

[webwit]

Yeah but you gave GB a new meaning: A product sale that won't happen without pre-orders.

I'll cope. I'm just over that crackers are now called hackers, but hackers are also called hackers. Just took me a decade or two.

[zslane]

Grumpy cats don't like group buys run by companies rather than by individuals.

[seebart]

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[andrewjoy]

DId we not already have a very similar set . Cool case tho i like it.

WIll you sell just the case ?

Also that tested vid.... come on a real keybaord nerd would have the guts of a novatouch in there ... or a filco zero with blue alps and alps to MX adaptors .

[norbauer]

Norm is a relatively newly self-discovered keyboard nerd, I think, but what he may lack in expertise in the area, he makes up for enthusiasm. Anyway, he said he wanted browns, so I sent him browns.

Sure, I hook you up with just the case, either for the CM MasterKeys S PBT, the Rapid-i, Novatouch, or Master Keys Pro S. Feel free to PM me, or if you need the keyboard and case together, you can check here.

[seebart]

DId we not already have a very similar set.

Yeah we did I can't find it now. Somewhere in the photo section.

[norbauer]

DId we not already have a very similar set.

Yeah we did I can't find it now. Somewhere in the photo section.

Yes, there was an un-branded (no Star Trek logos or references) version of this keyset that I designed along with input from GeekHack members quite a few years ago.

[chuckdee]

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/galaxy-keycaps-set

[norbauer]

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/galaxy-keycaps-set

The original first round was actually on Pimp My Keyboard; it was like maybe the second or third GB they ever ran.

[TuxKey]

Wouw looks good.
Better than the one on Massdrop because that one had those ugly windows keys.. As a non windblows user i don't care for those keys. prefer a bit more originality and looks like it's all in here..

But alas i'm waiting on the k-type to get in from Massdrop and expecting an extra $70 customs fees so there goes the budget for this awesome looking keycap set.. btw that's the last time i'm going to buy from the US whiteout a proxy it's just to expensive..

Ohh my god it's so hard saying no !! it's nice PBT dy-sub set what's not to like..

[Daniel Beardsmore]

No energise key :(

Though I don't know where I'd put it if there was one.

[norbauer]

No energise key

Though I don't know where I'd put it if there was one.

Heh. The closest is "pattern enhance," on the Shift key, which is definitely a transporter-related term.

[codemonkeymike]

Needs a "He's dead Jim" key

[depletedvespene]

Needs a "He's dead Jim" key

Shouldn't that be the reviled "Power off" button?

[Chimp3rd]

You got a nice keyboard there but don't you think that putting a LED backlight in there is so much better?
I'm not so sure if this is right but some of the keyboard with backlight or with lights on it are dimmer and plus some of it are blurry and easy to fade so right now I'm asking if its okay to use LEd since They last around 20 times longer and consume up to 90% less energy when compared to halogen or incandescent lighting and plus they don't emit UV rays.
According to this article https://www.sompor.com/led-basic/ you can achieve a great look to your application

[AdrianMan]

Any idea how much shipping would be to Europe ? (ex: Romania) Thanks !

[norbauer]

You should be able to add it to your cart on the Roddenberry site and get an estimate of the cost without having to go all the way through the checkout process.

[InvidiousIgnoramus]

Needs a "He's dead Jim" key

TOS quotes on a TNG themed set? Blasphemy!

[depletedvespene]

Needs a "He's dead Jim" key

TOS quotes on a TNG themed set? Blasphemy!

Wellllllll... McCoy DID appear in TNG, didn't he? DIDN'T HE?