GoblinTechKeys 60% Custom Mechanical Keyboard Review

When undergoing a journey into the land of mechanical keyboards, most folks get their feet wet by selecting a prebuilt keyboard and calling it a day. The next step to fully customizing one’s desk involves selecting a case, switches, and keycaps. These types of decisions tend to be difficult because of the sheer number options available on the market. On my own journey, I got lost attempting to find the best set of keycaps to compliment my keyboard’s aesthetic while also including things that I personally wanted, meaning color and font. I spent hours poring through website after website looking at options for my keebs because I wanted to make my keyboard mine.

If I had known about GoblinTechKeys sooner, my mechanical keyboard journey would have been made far simpler. GoblinTechKeys is a small independent business that has been making custom keycaps, keyboards, and desk mats since 2022. I came across them earlier this year when I was going deep down the rabbit hole that was my own mechanical keyboard journey. They gave me the opportunity to create my own custom mechanical keyboard for this review.

Before I continue on, this review will read slightly differently from my previous mechanical keyboard reviews because of the individuality of the keyboard.

As part of the process, I was to use GoblinTechKeys’ website that let me customize every inch of my keyboard, from the colors of individual keycaps to the font of the legends on the caps. If I wanted, I could move the legends from the tops to the sides of the keycaps so the keyboard’s aesthetic wasn’t cluttered by letters and symbols! Nifty, huh?

I wanted something that looked amazing and less like a keyboard. I’ve been on a marble kick recently, so I generated an image of black marble with gold, blue, and white veins and upscaled it so I could cover the entire keyboard in the image. I didn’t have to go this route – I could have uploaded a smaller picture and have it cover a few keys, but I wanted the full visual effect of having a marble-looking keyboard. I went ahead and pushed the legends to the side so that I could enjoy the keyboard without concerns of text impacting the image quality.

After I customized my keyboard to my liking, I clicked the big and shiny SUBMIT button and waited patiently for GoblinTechKeys to do their magic. Admittedly, I was a smidge worried that the image of the marble I had submitted to them would come out blurry and make the keycaps look subpar. A few weeks later, a box was waiting for me on my front doorstep. I rushed inside and opened up the box to find the keyboard below…

Ain’t that a stunner? I snapped some pictures of it and uploaded it to my personal Instagram story. Some of my friends immediately DM’d me: “Is that a bar of chocolate?” “What IS that?” “Wait, that’s a KEYBOARD?!” I received a waterfall of 😮emojis, too.

Somehow, some way, GoblinTechKeys created a sight to behold just from me uploading an image and clicking some buttons on their website.

There’s something about the keycaps that look magical, some of which can be explained by the image I chose. The PBT material has a slight sheen to it, making the blacks give off a subtle sparkle in the light and leaning into the allusion of marble keycaps. While the gold might not be shiny, the image was printed on the keycaps in such a way to minimize gaps between the keys can create a uniform design.

For science, I popped off some of the keycaps just to see their undersides and test the stability of their stems. The keycaps have a Cherry MX profile – pretty standard stuff for the mechanical keyboard space. My fingers naturally rested in their little pouches while being moderately ergonomic. I love Cherry MX profile keycaps because of how they naturally curve and make them easy to reach with my fingers. No complaints from me.

When lit, the lights make the keyboard come alive with color. Unfortunately, I wasn’t given the option to make the legends passthrough so that I could see the side-printed legends. As a result, a good 60% of the legends were unreadable because of how I chose black legends on a mostly dark image. This was my fault, honestly, but I would have liked the opportunity to make it so that the lights could remind me where I should position my hands on this 60% keyboard.

I’m still unsure about which brand my keyboard ended up being. The unit lacked a clear branding, and the little instruction booklet that came with the keyboard lacked information about the unit, too. There wasn’t a driver for my keyboard, so I was left with simply using the function keys to customize the lighting as I saw fit. When I used the keyboard, it felt sort of hollow when typing. I attribute this to the construction of the keyboard and the lack of insulation to absorb sound. But, the keyboard’s switches were clacky enough to keep me satisfied.

Speaking of switches, my review unit came with Gateron Milky Pro Reds. I didn’t get a choice when customizing my keyboard. All I was able to see on my end was that I would be getting Gaterons, but no idea as to which type. After confirming with them after I had received my unit, I was informed that these were the Milky Pro Reds. I appreciate Gateron switches because of how they are all-around good switches for both typing and gaming. I consider them the “Mario from Mario Kart” of the keyswitch world – they sound pretty good, they feel pretty good, relatively middle-of-the-road switches that don’t excel in any specific direction while also not failing at any. Gateron Milky Pro Red keyswitches are linear, require a decent operating force (around 45gf or so), with a standard pre-travel of around 2.0mm.

For a custom keyboard, Gateron Milky Pros are great for those who are still new to the switch space. The only difference between the Reds and the Yellows is their operating force – they’re linear switches and great for gaming and working, hence the all-rounder metaphor I use to describe them. My only personal complaint about Gaterons is that once you try some of their other linear switches (mechanical or magnetic) or even switches from the likes of Meletrix, Leobog, GoPolar, and Cherry, Gateron red/yellows feel too basic.

This is where I think that if you’re opting to go the route of fully customizing your workstation, you’re better off going the route of simply buying GoblinTechKeys’ custom keycaps to suit your preferences. The keyboard and switches that come in the custom order are okay, but I would be hard pressed to believe that a keeb customer may have their own switches and keyboard case in mind while shopping for the perfect keycaps.

All right, with all of this out of the way, how does it feel and function a gaming keyboard? I’ve tested this keyboard for office work and gaming just to see how it functioned. I know that the stars of this keyboard are the keycaps, but hey – we’re a gaming outlet. Let’s chat gaming.

My opinions on 60% keyboards have been documented prior to today (check out my thoughts on the RECCAZR R66 for a more thorough review). It’s tough to work with a smaller set of keys, no arrow keys, no function keys, and a restricted space. Coming from larger keyboards, having to retrain my hands for a smaller surface area is tough. It’s equally tough to recommend 60% (or even 65%) keyboards for those wanting to play any game outside of casual games. I was able to get by playing Stardew Valley and Civilization, but outside of that proved tough.

In testing higher-intensity games like platformers and FPS titles, the number of mistakes I made in pressing incorrect keys made me lose quite a bit of progress. I trudged through it, albeit frustrated with my giant hands, but I was able to manage.

The custom keyboard from GoblinTechKeys was just fine for gaming. My gut recommendation would be to start with a 75% keyboard rather than missing out on usable real estate and extra keys that can be used for custom keybinds.

Customizing a 60% keyboard like I did will run you anywhere from $179.99 (on sale) to $229.99. Should you want a bigger keyboard, the price goes up to $309.99 for a full 100%-er. For those who are new to the mechanical keyboard space – you shouldn’t be surprised by this pricetag. Most of the mechanical keyboards I have reviewed this year have been anywhere from $99 to $200, and none of them gave me the degree of creative freedom that I had with GoblinTechKeys’ process.

Here’s what sold me on GoblinTechKeys’ custom keyboard, though: The keycaps. Sure, I couldn’t see through the legends when/if I lit the keyboard’s LEDs. It was hard to see what I was pressing from time to time – but this was by my own design. The keycaps themselves were of high quality PBT – thicker than other PBT-based keycaps I have tested recently. The image on my keyboard was crisp and lacked blurriness. The colors – outstanding. It’s tough to ignore that this keyboard looks out-of-this-world because of how well their dye-sublimation ensured that all five-sides of the keyboard were properly covered while also being a treat for the eyes.

This is all to say that this specific custom keyboard was not for me, but those keycaps…those keycaps are for me. Seeing as I’m already familiar with the keeb space, I’ve aggregated my own collection of favorite switches, so the Gateron Milky Pro Reds feel too standardized for my liking. Also, after coming from other prebuilts, I’ve grown attached to the feeling and acoustic profiles of keyboards with gasket mounts and layers of foam to absorb sound. The keycaps will find a home on another keyboard of mine, that’s for sure.

I’m thrilled with GoblinTechKeys’ custom keycaps on my nifty lil’ 60% custom keyboard. The degree of creative freedom that GoblinTechKeys provided me as well as the beauty of the finished product makes me want to customize more keycaps for the rest of my favorite keyboards!

A custom mechanical keyboard that was designed by Will and provided by GoblinTechKeys for the purpose of this DigitalChumps review.