HardwareGaming KeyboardsThis Balrog spacebar is literal fire and has made me realise I need a full set of LOTR keycaps, ASAPWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
HardwareGaming KeyboardsThis Balrog spacebar is literal fire and has made me realise I need a full set of LOTR keycaps, ASAPWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Drop | Lord of the Rings)
Do you remember the first time you witnessed the Balrog? I do. First, a distant flicker, an orange hue cascading down the pillars deep within Moria. Then, a rumble, deep and guttural. A pan to Gandalf’s face as it dawns on him just what has awoken: “This foe is beyond any of you.”
It might sound silly to say about a keycap, but thisBalrog spacebar from Dropsomehow manages to capture and replicate a degree of the fearful awe thatI felt upon seeing the LOTR demon for the first time. Thanks to its 3D-esque design, it looks like the flame of Udûn is genuinely present inside the keycap.
Although, perhaps diminishing from the whole “awe” aspect, I suppose this would make for a miniaturised Balrog, which I might hesitatingly call kind of cute, in that angry-but-ineffectual small puppy kind of way.
The $49 (down from $65) purchase won’t just get you the glorious Artisan spacebar, however. You also get an Artisan Mithrandir (Gandalf) keycap, pipe in hand. The two make for quite a duo—light vs dark, and all that.
(Image credit: Drop | Lord of the Rings)
This isn’t the first time Drop’s traveled to Middle Earth for its keycaps, either. It’s previously designed and producedRohan-themed LOTR keycaps, for instance. At the time, our Andy called these “essentially little LOTR dioramas encased in resin”, and it looks like Drop’s taken this approach again with the Gandalf keycap, and the Balrog one has more than a hint of 3D resin, too.
I must say, too, there might be something incredibly cathartic about smashing the Balrog’s head in with my thumb. It might make up for some of the residual trauma of seven-year-old me witnessing, you know, what the Balrog did (I don’t even want to talk about it).
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I just worry that if I bought these I’d then have to deck out the rest of my keyboard with LOTR-inspired keycaps. I don’t know if I could go half-hog. Come to think of it, though, that doesn’t sound like such a bad idea at all. When’s pay day, again?
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