Happy 67th Merdeka! To celebrate our nation’s independence, we thought it would be nice to look back at two prominent Malaysians in the custom keyboard hobby. These two individuals make some of the most sought-after keyboards in the scene, and they keep quite a low profile too.

Of course, we’re talking about Elaine Lim of SINGAKBD, as well as Yuktsi, the rather mysterious figure behind the hugely popular line of TGR custom keyboards. Not many know that some of the best custom keyboards are made by these two Malaysians, so we thought we’d do our part and spread the good word about them.

Let’s start with SINGAKBD. One of the brand’s most iconic custom keyboards is easily the Unikorn, a 60% keyboard that uses a simple tray O-ring mount. First released in 2019, the original version of the keyboard is actually a collaboration between SINGAKBD and TGR – talk about unity among Malaysians!

More recently, there’s the SINGAKBD Kohaku R2, which is returning for another sale in two new colours: Berry Maroon and Yale Blue. This is a 65% keyboard utilising a gasket mount, and only 400 units (200 for each colour) will be up for grabs via a raffle come 4 September next week. Yes, you’ll need quite a bit of luck to be one of the 400 winners.

If you want to get the latest updates from SINGAKBD, join its Discord channel and follow the brand on Instagram.

As for TGR, it is the brand that popularised the Alice layout we know and love today; after all, the name of the layout itself is taken from the TGR Alice keyboard. The staggered, split layout is a personal favourite of ours, which provides a unique typing experience that does feel noticeably more comfortable than a traditional layout, though it does take some practice to get accustomed to.

Anyway, TGR has actually gotten more active in recent years. It has been working closely with South Korea’s KLC for the TGR Jane V3, which we tried out for ourselves back at Computex 2024 in June. From our discussion with KLC at the trade show, TGR may have more exciting releases planned for the future.

To get updates from TGR, you can follow the brand on its Discord channel and Instagram page.

As Malaysians, there’s a sense of pride in knowing that our fellow citizens have contributed quite a bit to the custom mechanical keyboard industry behind the scenes. Even more so if you’re a lucky, lucky owner of a SINGAKBD or TGR keyboard – we’re still trying to get a board from either brands through the various raffles ourselves.