Great keyboard - Doesn't equal the sum of its parts - literally
This is a fine keyboard with very interesting and fun keycaps and decorative case combination.
However, if you buy the keyboard, keycaps and decorative case separately, you will save a non-insignificant amount of money.
This keyboard was $199 when I purchased presale, which made sense at the time. But at the current price of $249, it just doesn't add up.
If I had to do it again, I'd buy each of these seperatly:
CSTM80 full-built with Gateron Yellow switches = $119
Space Whale DCD TKL Keycap Set = $49
Space Whale Decorative Case = $35
Total for the three of these products = $203 - plus you'd have the black deco case ($25) and DCL Shadow keycaps ($39) that come with the full-built; an additional $64 value.
If you'd like a better sense of each of those products, I highly suggest checking those product pages.
Factoring all of this, the keyboard should only cost $139
I simply don't get how this adds up - am I missing something?
Due to this price discrepancy, I cannot suggest anybody buy this product as a standalone product and therefore rating 3-stars. If not for the price, this would be an easy 5-star.
Things I like:
CTM80 - as a platform, I like what it's offering. It's a decent price-to-value keyboard with good sound. It works well and feels good out of the box and has tons of potential for customization both inside and out.
Space Whale Decorative Case - I'm extremely impressed with this case. It's not just paint splatter on plastic, the plastic is actually molded (raised) where the paint detail is. This includes all of the stars, planets on the sides, and the astronaut and whale. I was frankly surprised to see this level of detail and it's this that makes this case and in fact the whole keyboard truly unique.
Things I don't like:
Space Whale DCD Keycaps - probably my least favorite part of this build. The black reverse dye-sub is not uniform around the whole keycap as the lowest edges are slightly faded compared to the top. In brighter lighting, I can see this, and it's unfortunate that it takes away from the quality look and feel of the rest of the keyboard. Additionally, the font and spacing of legends in right-most punctuation keys seems off. Additionally, the black of the keycaps is just so slightly off from the black of the decorative case, again taking away from the feel of quality that a perfectly matched set would provide. Lastly, they just don't sound as good as DCX, which has become my preferred keycap. I like that the speckled star theme from the case nearly seamlessly flows in the keycaps, but I'd rather be typing on DCX day-in and day-out.