When I first announced the Elvish and Dwarvish sets I got inevitably asked about a Black Speech version. That is something that I always wanted to do and in my mind there was only one color way for such a nefarious incarnation: black-on-black.

This is probably one of the most important updates I’m going to do about MTNU (excluding the final release announcement of course). There’s a lot to cover so buckle up and let’s get started!

Last week I’ve finally met with the GMK guys in Germany to review the first injected MTNU prototypes and to decide on the next steps. I was expecting “corporate courtesy” and instead I got sincere kindness and a lot of fun.

Time flies when you are designing keycaps! 3 months have already passed since the announcement of my collaboration with GMK and MTNU has already gone through multiple revisions. I think it’s time for a well due update.

The main shapes and physiology of the profile are defined but small adjustments can still be done. We had a few prototypes 3D printed to check the overall look’n’feel and GMK is working on the tooling as we speak. The first batch of injected proto-keycaps should be manufactured in about a month, that will give us a better sense of what this profile will actually be. I don’t hide that I’m a bit scared but mostly excited :)

By now the news is out but it’s time to make it official.

If you follow my Discord you know that MTNU (pronounced emty-new) is the code name of the new profile I’m working on since a few months. You haven’t heard much about it since the initial announcement because I was busy finding the right manufacturer.

I’m happy to announce that I not only found a manufacturer but also the perfect partner with years of experience in the keycap industry. The moment I reached out GMK they showed great interest in my new profile and I feel incredibly honored that they are willing to take this project under their wing.

After 5 years from MT3 I’m finally working on a new keycap profile. It’s still spherical top and sculpted but medium height. In many ways it’s an evolution of the MT3 design but they are different enough to coexist. I’m still early in the development process but I want to show you the current state of thing so to get feedback and suggestions.

In perfect telenovela style after the big drama event… everything’s back to normal. You probably read the latest Drop update and I’m here to give you more juicy unadulterated details, because I know you all love some conspiracy theories.

Let’s start from the main announcement and reason for this post: I am not collaborating with Drop anymore. You’ll still see some of my products on their website, that’s because they are already produced, but they will slowly fade over time. That means that there won’t be any new product designed by me for Drop. So no Dark Speech Tolkien keycaps, no Elven dices, no full brown Retro, no MT2 set designed by me (in contrast to what I announced few hours ago).

Of course it’s hard to stay objective but I’ll try to stick to facts, things that I can prove and have documentation for (emails/chats/whatever).

What the hell is MT2? Great question, thanks for asking.

Drop announced a fancy new keycap profile, truth is that I don’t have a clue what that is! My guess is as good as yours because Drop dropped this bomb out of nowhere.

I tried to have SA Retro re-run with Signature Plastics since forever but apparently that is not going to happen any day soon… fortunately we have a far superior keycaps profile, I’m talking about MT3 of course! A slot opened in the production pipeline and we jumped straight into it with MT3 Retro!

This is the video I wanted to do since a long time. The Tolkien sets are not just fancy gimmicks, they can be actually used to write in Sindarin and Khuzdul. All you need is to install the right font and a little reference material.

In the following video I show you how easy it is to write in Sindaring and show off your Tolkien nerdom to the normies! It’s just an introduction, but should give you an idea.