Someone has beaten me to it: a fidget toy make of clicky keyboard switches. Clickeybits is a polyhedron into which six keycaps will go, and you can peck away at them individually or just roll it around for an orgasmic deluge of clicks.
(Update: At least one almost identical toy is already available hand-made on Etsy)
My son and I are mechanical keyboard enthusiasts. We envisioned a mechanical keyboard switch tester as a cube or sphere, with six different switches for the six sides. With the arrival of our 3D printer, we were able to turn our design into reality.
But when we handed the prototype to people most said “Oh, it’s a fidget thing”. They aren’t wrong – it’s a fun and fidgety desktop toy! Listening to user input, we’ve refocused CLICKEYbits as both a fidget toy and a great keyboard switch tester.
Like the classic SNL skit from 1976 – “It’s a floor wax and a dessert topping!”
I wonder how hard it would be to make this into the world’s worst (best?) keyboard? Some USB controllers are very small indeed! Has anyone made a console-style gamepad out of mechanical keys? Hey, I know it’s stupid, I’m just wondering.
