{"id":12529,"date":"2022-08-17T15:18:54","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T15:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/17\/drops-latest-mechanical-keyboards-are-love-letters-to-the-lord-of-the-rings\/"},"modified":"2022-08-17T15:18:56","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T15:18:56","slug":"drops-latest-mechanical-keyboards-are-love-letters-to-the-lord-of-the-rings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/17\/drops-latest-mechanical-keyboards-are-love-letters-to-the-lord-of-the-rings\/","title":{"rendered":"Drop\u2019s latest mechanical keyboards are love letters to The Lord of the Rings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/23306117\/drop-lord-of-the-rings-keyboards-mt3-keycaps-entr-holy-panda-x-switches-price<\/a>
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A little under a year after Drop released a pair of keycap sets themed around the Elvish and Dwarvish languages<\/a> from J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s The Lord of the Rings<\/em>, the mechanical keyboard retailer is following it up with two full-on keyboards<\/a>. There\u2019s a gray Dwarvish board and a green Elvish counterpart, both of which are available fully assembled and ready to go out of the box. Both retail for $169, with preorders opening today, and Drop hopes to ship both by early October. I\u2019ve been testing out the Elvish version over the last couple of days.<\/p>\n

Aside from the keycaps themselves, which feature regular Latin characters alongside their fantasy equivalents, both keyboards also include small Tolkien-esque illustrations above their arrow clusters. But I like the fact that there are no visible logos or obnoxious Lord of the Rings<\/em> branding. Instead, there are a simple pair of wordmarks visible on the underside of the keyboard (next to a pair of flip-out feet for height adjustment) but nothing you\u2019re going to see during regular use.<\/p>\n

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Select keys feature illustrations rather than Elvish.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

The keycaps themselves use the so-called \u201cTraining\u201d designs, which explains the presence of traditional Latin legends. That means you won\u2019t have to literally learn Dwarvish or Elvish to use these keyboards, but the bad news is that the fantasy symbols replace the secondary legends most keyboards use. So it\u2019s easy enough to tell the \u201c4\u201d key from the \u201c3\u201d key, but I sometimes forgot which I needed for \u201c#\u201d and which was \u201c$.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as the lettering, the keycaps also include a couple of illustrations on some of the larger keys. On the Elvish model, this includes an Eye of Sauron on the escape key, the broken sword Narsil on the enter key, and a small Ring of Power in place of the left Windows Key. In the box with the keyboard, you also get a couple of extra complimentary brown keycaps, including a spacebar with Elvish lettering (it\u2019s the inscription from the One Ring<\/a>, in case you were wondering). <\/p>\n

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Additional keycaps that come in the box.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The keyboard in its stock configuration.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Incidentally, the designer of the keycaps, Matt3o, outlined what the lettering on the other keys translates to in a blog post<\/a> last year. Here are a couple of highlights:<\/p>\n