A garden full of cherry in the 8-bit yard
What drives us to produce a sequel to this pixelated 8-bit collection is entirely your love and cherished feedback when you receive the previous keycaps. Those who owned and loved the 8-bit series keycap have sent many requests about making cherry profile keycaps, and for that, we’re much appreciated it. We have 5 primary colors with lots of shades. There’s been an upgrade in this 2nd version that we guess you might like to add another positive note. Back in the 1st 8-bit series, most of the sizes were SA profile, leaving only 2 cherry sizes. With the Pipeline Bots comeback, we have made a full cherry profile for this series, including 7 sizes (1u / 1.25u ctrl,alt / 1,5u tab, \ / 2u / 2.25u Enter / 2.75u right shift / 6.25u Spacebar ), 4 game scenes, and 5 colors!
Among 5 sets of colors available, When you purchase a set “all profiles” 7 keycaps, you’ll be gifted a special spacebar, featuring a very interesting feature. It is not covered by a crystal resin layer as usual, but the whole scene itself. How cool is it!
8-bit series II – Pipeline Bots
“TRESPASSING ALERT! TRESPASSING ALERT!” – that was what can be heard, extremely loud and clear, from inside The Organization tower together with the frightening siren noise ringing every two seconds. This had signaled the most dangerous alert in the tower, as JK05 – the microchip that has the power to transform the world’s military system – was stolen.
What actually happened?
After this highly threatening heist took place, an advanced cyborg crew of special forces from the Organization was immediately called for. These soldiers are named Mika, Louie, and Black, all of whom were intensively trained and equipped with the most updated robot technology so that they can serve the city just when needed. Now they carried a mission of saving the microchip and the fate of the whole Pipeline City and every single living creature in it.
This is no easy game
After being taken away, JK05 was heavily guarded by the Mafia army. They traveled as a massive convoy, with a battle tank containing the microchip in the middle, as well as followed and led by bullet-proof cars armed with advanced droid weapons. The people inside this troop are also by no means ordinary: they are among the most powerful mafia families that have long been established in Pipeline City, causing a lasting fear for all citizens here as the city government hasn’t been able to destroy this criminal line. Different from other families, this particular mafia group always wanted to develop an ultimate army with the most ultramodern technology possible. That’s it; that’s their plan of taking over Pipeline City.
Let’s the battle begin
Since the streets in the city are mostly made from pipes, it’s very difficult for the rescuing crew to complete their mission. As they planted explosives on one of the cars in the mafia convoy, Mika dropped one of his when trying to avoid a golden coin as this will cost him more time to go back to his crew’s vehicle.
“BOOM!”. This ear-splitting bursting sound alerted the guards. Soon enough, many armed members in the mafia group rushed to the back of their troop to attack the cyborg crew. Realising they had to defend, and they had to do it quickly or else the whole mission would be put in great jeopardy, Black opened cover fire to make way for Louie to move in to deal with the turrets. Louie finally had a clear sight of the microchip – placed in a hypercube that’s heavily encrypted with malicious code that can take years to crack if you are a rookie in this business.
Casualty is inevitable …
“There it is!” Louie shouted in his head with excitement, “I’m gonna get you back. It’s time to go home, baby!”. But just as he’s about to reach the cube, he was blindsided and ambushed by a massive defence bot. It attacked Louie right in the main circuit, destroying him instantly. Mika and Black’s hearts fell after witnessing the scene of their best buddy being killed like that, but no matter what happened, they had to put their mission first. They both shared a thought, “Let’s not let him die in vain.”
Using the distraction, Mika knocked the bot off the convoy, but it quickly changed into vehicle mode and started chasing them, trying to crush him and Black. At this point, they had to lean onto the surface of the tank to dodge this killer bot, shooting out laser rays at the same time to attack it. Aiming with his eyes opened, Mika had shot the defence bot in its CPU and gradually destroyed the whole mafia convoy.
Quickly decoding the hypercube, the duo hurried to get the JK05 microchip and brought it back to the Organization for takeover.
But robots don’t die, and they’re recreated!
Little did Mika and Black know that the Organization member board had copied all of their brains before going on for this mission. Now all they have to do to bring Louie back is transfer his brain into a robot body, and the trio is back in the game!
How did these all become alive?
As the story of Pipeline Bots unfolds completely, it is time we tell you what our artisans did to make them all come to life, in a what that’s as dynamic as this. Before we start with the first step, there is an important note that you need to know: we entirely focus on making cherry profiles for this collection. Thrilled enough? Let’s go make it!
Cast, cast, and cast
The casting part is a bit different from the previous version of 8-bit. We cast the base in colour layers, each of which needs approximately 8-10 hours to dry and be ready for the next step. On average, there are 2-3 layers of colours for each keycap, so it requires an additional 60 minutes to craft each layer. Doing the math, it takes roughly 18-20 hours to have a finished base, in a total of 35 bases in this collection.
And all of that is just for the base. We still have the inside characters to deal with. These vital babies were also cast in 8-10 hours in 35 colours, and their size was incredibly condensed to just 0.9 – 4.6 mm. With such a small measurement, the success rate of having qualified pieces is also low.
When the bases and details were completed, it’s time to throw some shades on them!
But we need to remove them out of the moulds after drying first. They then underwent a thorough cleaning process so that we can start painting properly. For the bases, this would highlight the block for the colour layers that were previously cast. After that, we move on to colouring the characters. With the size as small as hair, the challenge here is real. Our craftsmen must also make sure that you can recognise many different city scenes.
The paints we used for this collection were extremely complicated as well. There are 8-9 primary coloured paints for the whole scene of the keycaps, not to mention many other combinations made by mixing colours from 2 among these to create a more diverse and interactive effect.
The number of characters in the 8-bit II collection is astonishing, reaching up to 74, with 4 game scenes and seven sizes for each scene. Securing these details requires absolute focus and attention as a single mistake in this step will distort the original design and cost the entire work before that.
After spending 30 hours finishing the bases and characters, we move on to pouring the outer resin layer to shape the keycaps and put them in the pressure cooker. At this point, we continue to wait 16-18 hours for them to complete.
The final touches were proper cleaning, quality control, and packaging. After this, they’re ready to be yours!
Among 5 sets of colors available, When you purchase a set “all profiles” 7 keycaps, you’ll be gifted a special spacebar, featuring a very interesting feature. It is not covered by a crystal resin layer as usual, but the whole scene itself. How cool is it!
All album collection
Green Town Hall
Oriental Quarter
Iris Station
Pipeline Portal
Monochrome
specs
- MX stem
- Profile:7 sizes (1u / 1.25u ctrl,alt / 1,5u tab, \ / 2u / 2.25u Enter / 2.75u right shift / 6.25u Spacebar )
- Design and Handcrafted by Jelly Key
shipping
1u / 1.25u ctrl,alt / 1,5u tab, \ / 2u / 2.25u Enter / 2.75u right shift
- $9 per keycaps if you buy one.
- $12 for 2 keycaps.
- $16 for 3 keycaps.
- $20 for 4 keycaps.
- $20 for 5 keycaps.
- Free shipping for 6 keycaps or more.
6.25u spacebar
- $12 per spacebar if you buy one.
- $16 for 2 spacebar.
- $20 for 3 spacebar.
- Free shipping for 4 spacebars or more.
group-buy information
- Open time: 5/7/2021
- Close time: 5/14/2021
- Starting to Deliver after Groupbuy close: early than 90 days (you can see our post about working time improve)
- We could close the GB sooner than expected. So take your chance as soon as you can.
what is in the box?
- 1 8-bit series ii: pipeline bots artisan keycaps by Jelly Key.
- 01 Medal dog-tag with engraved unique series number.
- 01 Wooden box.
- A unique serial number is on the bottom of the keycap as well.
sidenote
- The keycap was made entirely by hand and tool. The final product may vary from the original photos but at acceptable aspect. We would love to ask you to tolerate any reasonable differents.
- With each artisan keycap from Jelly Key, we offer you a one-on-one replacement if there is fault that causes by our artisan team. Feel free to contact us.
