Cyborg snail artisan keycaps - Jelly Key

Cyborg snail artisan keycaps

This is not your ordinary slimy animal with a shell. This is certainly also not something you often see in the garden during rainy days.

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Colours : Aqua
Types : 1u Keycaps
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Quick link: jump to Christmas gift | How the snail is born | Gallery

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Who is Jack?

Jack was born into a wealthy family in the south of England. Being the only child, he is loved, not to say overly spoiled, by every member of his extended family as one of their ways to convince him to take over their massive family business. Showing a genius talent and phenomenal intelligence ever since he was a little boy, Jack seems to be an excellent heir to this business empire. Needless to say, the whole family has great hopes for him. He can absolutely follow his family tradition and say yes to this future path that’s been laid straight for him. But that would have been so easy.

Jack got a snail fever

Despite all of their efforts, the boy shows his interest in animals, especially molluscs. He has been started self-studying this kind of animal when he barely enters junior high school, while all the other fellow friends of his age still play video games and read comics. Jack likes spending his free time wandering in a small forest near his family castle to collect shell samples and even alive exotic snails for his research. One day, an extremely large snail with incredibly beautiful spiral patterns catches his eye and this is all that he’s ever needed. This snail is not something he would just use to study. He has an instant bond with this snail the moment it slowly crawls into his palm and stays there for 2 minutes straight. Now it’s safe to that Jack has found his pet friend.

Jack takes him home and decides to name him Malcolm. Jack and Malcolm spend every day together, gradually becoming an inseparable pair in the house. His parents often find Malcolm on Jack’s shoulder, just like his longtime sidekick in any hero movies or stories you’ve known. However, an unexpected turn of events emerges, and it changes Jack and Malcolm’s life forever.

Where did Malcolm go?

Jack has his own laboratory in the basement where there are all the necessary books and tools for his research. It was a rainy day, so heavily that the roof leaked and let the water drip all over the place in the house, making its way to the basement. The leak was so severe that at one point, it damaged the electrical circuits and caused a terrible explosion. Awaken by the loud noise, Jack immediately looked everywhere in his room to find Malcolm first. But little did he know, Malcolm had crawled out of the room and went to the basement laboratory while Jack was still sleeping.

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It’s time the legend came out

The explosion had destroyed Malcolm’s shell and badly injured him. Devastated by the damage of his most beloved pet friend, Jack was determined to revive Malcolm. He wanted to create an artificial shell and internal cyborg parts for the snail’s body, using the intelligence of a genius he’s always been. After countless experiments that risked his own life, Jack finally succeeded in building a fully functional robotic machine inside Malcolm and helped him recover from the explosive damage.

Powering up the cyborg

A mechanically upgraded Malcolm has an energy core that works like a heart in the human body, providing the essence through the snail so that he can operate. It also helps maintain the function of his organs. Or even in some cases, significantly improve them so that Malcolm can travel at a sonic speed. Perhaps when something is “at a snail’s pace”, it’s not so slow anymore! That is not all, Malcolm’s lower body is made from a magnetic layer to reduce friction, advancing his mobility even more.

Jack even enlarged Malcolm’s size, making him one of the biggest snails on Earth. Paired with a foldable seat and microcontroller, Malcolm became a dauntless swing animal that Jack can ride on like a true hero story. They often wander around the nearby forest to collect different snails and other types of mollusks to study. With the help of Jack, Malcolm has made a comeback of the century.

Jack definitely will not stop his journey to innovate his upgrades and help his buddy – Malcolm, live his best life. The world can prepare for more wonder from this ultimate duo Jack & Malcolm for their most amazing cyborg and mechanically implanted animal creation.

jelly key chistmas

To celebrate this magical holiday of the year, Jelly Key is thrilled to introduce special gifts you will receive when purchasing Cyborg snail artisan keycaps – our upcoming groupbuy. The gifts are limited editions of Retro TV – Xmas theme and Jingle pine artisan keycaps.

Christmas 2021 gift giving terms:

  • For 6 Cyborg snail keycaps, you will be given 1 out of 3 Jingle pine designs. 
  • For a full set of Cyborg snail, your order will be shipped free of charge and you will be given 1 out of 3 Retro TV – Xmas theme designs. 
  • There are 20 keycaps available in total for all designs, and the rule is the same “Whoever is early gets it”. See more photos of this gift here.
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cyborg snail custom keycaps 009
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In this special Cyborg Snail artisan keycap collection, there are two main parts that require different ways to make. Let’s find out how we produce the keycap itself and the stand to display the snails with a movement mechanism.

How the snail is born

This is by far the most complicated keycap for Jelly Key to create, with many brand new and different makings from all the collections that we have done before. They are a combination of casting pieces at the bottom, colouring the upper body parts, and clear resin casting in certain parts.

These tiny pieces of a cyborg snail such as helmet, goggles, mechanical parts, power wires, etc. are cast in 8-10 hours and condensed to an incredibly small size. In particular, the casting process in this collection gives out low transparency, resembling a snail’s body.

When we have the solid pieces, it’s time to colour them. All of the details are hand-painted with extreme care and meticulousness in order to guarantee the most realistic illustration of a mechanical snail. Some distinct works in this step are the internal electricity lines, metal armour that protects the snail’s energy core, and screws that help secure the armour.

But the tricky part is not here. We have to admit that the most unique and complex stage is transmitting light from inside the keycap to the upper part of the machine parts. This step is crucial as it helps us to easily see the snail’s energy core – which plays an important role in this design because it functions as the heart of the snail.

The final casting of clear resin layers is as much challenging since we need to separate the body and neck parts. In total, we have 4 sculpting layers and the time it takes to finish them is four times longer than the previous collections. Given the complicated craftsmanship and the number of efforts that Jelly Key artists put in this collection, the Cyborg Snails are expected to bring you loads of satisfaction, especially when you hold them in your hands!

The stand is another important detail

Making its first appearance in the Retro TV collection, the stand of 1u keycap has a modern interior style that is easily loved by any customer. For the Cyborg Snail artisan keycap, we want to take your experience to a whole new level, especially with an internal movement mechanism to keep the keycaps in a secured position.

You can see the snails in your hands in a vision of a 360-degree field without having to touch the keycap and compromise the shiny finish of the resin layer. Like the parts of snail, every piece of the stand is 100% cast and hand-painted, with no signs of machine production whatsoever. The connection between the parts in the stand is also very intricate because we want to make sure it is monolithic without having to assemble it piece by piece except for the moving gears.

Are you excited about all of this? For us, we can already feel the hype of our unique Cyborg Snail that brings a whole new level of artisan keycap. These are just several descriptions that might help you picture the process of making this magical series and how much effort that Jelly Key has put into it. Now please enjoy!

Cyborg Snail’s gallery

Cyborg snail keycap under UV light – Image shown is for illustration purposes only. (Actual product may vary depending on the UV LED light intensity)

Magenta Cybersnail – Violet

Sunshine Automollusk – Golden

Obsidian Snailbot – Black

Cyborg Kale-eater – Green

Marmalade Mechanicshell – Orange

Bloody Bioshell – Red

Titanium Gastropodinator – Metal

Gastrobot Baby Blue – Aqua

Americana Champ – Glory Red & Blue

Ultra Pivot Roller

x77 Art toy

specs

  • MX stem
  • Profile: 1u keycaps
  • Big keycaps x77: 74mm x 74mm x 63.5mm (216,8cm3)
  • Backlit & UV light support
  • Design and Handcrafted by Jelly Key

shipping

1u keycaps

  • $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.

Big keycaps (art toy)

  • $16 per keycaps
  • Free shipping for 2 big keycaps or more.

group-buy information

  • Close time: 12/21/2021
  • Starting to Deliver after Groupbuy close: early than 80 days.
  • We could close the GB sooner than expected. So take your chance as soon as you can.

what is in the box?

  • 1 keycap by Jelly Key.
  • 01 Medal dog-tag with engraved unique series number.
  • 01 Wooden box (big keycaps will have big 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 an acceptable aspect. We would love to ask you to tolerate any reasonable differences.
  • With each artisan keycap from Jelly Key, we offer you a one-on-one replacement if there is a fault that causes by our artisan team. Feel free to contact us.
Weight N/A
Colours

Violet, Golden, Black, Green, Orange, Red, Metal, Aqua, Glory Red & Blue, All colour (9)

Types

1u Keycaps, Art toy x77, Ultra Pivot Roller, All types (3)

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