Bootleg zen pond review

Video of the caps, as well as some close up photos.

I bought some artisan Koi Fish Zen Pond keycaps from some person on Reddit. u/ckeeb. After a few months I got my caps from China (presumably because packaging was Hong Kong.)

I paid 30 USD for each cap. Overall it was an alright purchase because I got a full macropad’s worth of zen pond fishies, without having to pay 50 USD per cap from Jelly Key in Vietnam.

I have 4 colored baby blue. 4 colored mint green. 7 colored blue teal. And 1 colored red.

I did appreciate the different placement of the fish and different colorings. It takes away the monotony of having multiple keys next to eachother. Thats one thing Jelly Key could take away.

The caps also hold onto switches better, so I don’t have to worry about one getting bumped off if my board is being transported. I do have this worry with my Jelly Key caps.

I got these in 5 months if I remember correct. And I’m going on 6 months waiting for my JK zen pond III.

In this bunch of 16, I got one cap that seemed to be a different size of SA profile that I ordered. Maybe it got thrown in accidentally. Some of them have a variance in sizing due to polishing I think. That is one thing I don’t like because it makes playing music a bit harder when the caps are different heights.

So far I’ve taken them on and off a few times, no broken stems or switches.

The caps have bubbles on the bottom side. I don’t know if that shows a structural weakness or if its only cosmetic, not a big deal to me. But I do see a few fill lines from the acrylic on a few.

Overall you get what you pay for. They’re cheaper but not as high quality as the Zen Pond that Jelly Key makes.