The colors in the renderings are a bit off, we don't have a full set yet to take decent pictures but you can get an idea of how the colors will be from the following
Good on you folks for replacing the renders with photos once they were available (and good on @matt3o for posting the samples before). [thumbs-up emoji]
The IRL set's colors are very different from the original images, but also nice to look at in their own way. While I may have preferred the rich dark blacks in the renders, the IRL warm-and-cool ash-greys will look great on a black aluminum keeb - and besides, it's pretty hard to go wrong with MT3.
I'm a bit disappointed in this one. It isn't a Black Speech set, it is Sindarin elvish. I understand Tengwar is used on the One Ring inscription as there does not appear to be unique script for Black Speech. But all of the words on the keys are just the same words on the Elvish keyboard but a little bit more italic. I understand there's not a lot of Black Speech to pull from, but Khuzdul has the same issue yet the Dwarvish keycap set is a banger.
It just seems odd to market it as a "Black Speech" keyboard when it really is a dark scheme of the Elvish keyboard. So far as I can tell, the only Black Speech is the special space bar with the ring inscription. The Elvish set has that space bar too on the accent color sets. Maybe the Elvish set is really Black Speech?
I think the numbers on the training/hardcore base kit are intentional. There are more characters in the Elvish and Dwarvish scripts than in the alphabet, and the keysets are designed to be used with some fonts that aren't a 1:1 match for the corresponding QWERTY layout keys as there aren't enough alpha keys on a standard keyboard layout. I believe while the top number row Elvish legends look similar to the ones below them, they are distinct characters without which you wouldn't be able to type all possible Elvish characters (using an appropriate font). The numpad isn't needed to cover the key deficit, so they get the actual characters for numbers. The Dwarvish set is the same way.
I am still disappointed that the legends on the non-alpha keys aren't based on a fan-made expanded Black Speech or anything else used to flesh it out in other LotR media. Not that I'm certain such things exist, but I assume they must.
SavoryBiscuitsAfter doing some digging, it seems like they used the words one, two, three... on the base kit and numerals 1, 2, 3 on the numpad. It makes more sense when looking at the f keys.
They could have definitely used a more fan based font, at least making it look a little more rugged and aggressive.
One thing though.
Drop's "early bird" discount is a bunch of baloney.
All early bird items I saw sooner or later were going on discount again and again. And some of them even bigger than "early bird".
Drop X switches for example.