Keyboard Builders' Digest / Review
KiiBOOM Meow Pudding PC keycap set review
A combined review of the cute KiiBOOM Meow Pudding PC keycap set and the blue KiiBOOM Phantom 81 Lite keyboard.
Published January 23, 2026
Yeah, this is a somewhat offbeat review combining the KiiBOOM Meow Pudding PC keycap set and the blue KiiBOOM Phantom 81 Lite, with the main emphasis on the former.
- Check out my previous KiiBOOM Phantom 81 Lite review for details of the keyboard. That was the green froggy themed one, and the blue version in this article is simply a color variant of the same model with different but similarly cute cake-themed keycaps. To recap: the board is a gasket-mounted 75% wireless keyboard supporting QMK/VIA, coming in a hefty molded ABS housing. Price starting at just
$90$86 – with the KBDNEWS coupon code.
- What I wanted to write more about this time is the KiiBOOM Meow Pudding PC keycap set. This is a cat and candy themed jelly-like translucent MAO profile variant with 134 caps in the set – for just $29.
TLDR; The cake-themed blue Phantom 81 Lite is just as adorable as the first green one was. Tri-mode wireless 75% with 79 keys. Hefty ABS case, gasket mounting, hotswap, MX compatible switches with VIA support. I replaced the original thick dye-sub MOA keycaps to try out the Meow PC set: a huge set with translucent milky ("pudding") PC caps, with UV-fixed legends featuring cats with candies. :) Broad layout support, great colors, cozy feel. And it costs just $29. The swap turned the sound just a little bit higher, but basically the same loud sound.
Disclaimer
As always: I received both the keyboard and the keycap set for free which may introduce all kinds of biases – both negative and positive in my experience. Take everything I write with a grain of salt.
I had the green Phantom with the silly froggy keycaps, but the Meow set doesn't really match that base color in my opinion, so KiiBOOM was kind enought to send me a blue one too. (The white variant, featuring the Meow caps in most official photos, has been out of stock for some time.)
Unboxing & Contents
The Meow set comes in a girlish, light pink packaging, even with a light pink ribbon, mimicing a hand bag. (The KiiBOOM Phantom 81 Lite came in the usual, very nice cardboard box.)
Contents: Just the keycaps in nice trays. So no keycap puller.
Packaging
The keycap set came in these nice three-level trays that appeared on my radar last year. Light pink tinted this time, frosted, but the MoeeTech caps came in very similar trays as well, almost identical.
All in all, I prefer these kind of trays over the probably much cheaper thin and fully translucent old solution. They protect the keycaps and also keep them in their intended place.
The best thing? These new trays are infinitely stackable.
Although not exactly identical, the KiiBOOM one seems to be the improved version, they snap into each other after removing the lids.
First impressions, design language
My family is completely uninterested in my 150 strong keyboard collection, and the only exception so far was my first, froggy themed green KiiBOOM Phantom 81 Lite. For context, I haven’t seen it since my review as it was instantly confiscated by my older daughter.
Unboxing the KiiBOOM Meow keycaps and the cake themed blue Phantom 81 Lite was perhaps only the second time my wife and little daughter smiled while watching me do boring keyboard things.
The original MOA caps look fantastic too, very detailed 5-side printing, and their profile matches the round edges of the case well. Just like the Meow MAO ones – at first glance MOA with kitty ears.
These jelly-like PC caps give the keyboard setup a whole different look and mood though.
Keyboard specs
I covered my first Phantom 81 Lite in detail, for my opinion, the board's technical specs, structure, etc. please check out that review.
The blue one is simply a color variant with a blue ABS housing, and the matching cake-themed keycap set.
Keyset specs
- Number of keycaps: 134
- Profile: MAO
- Stem: MX
- Material: PC, UV tech legends
- Homing: nothing
- Layout compatibility: 60%, 65%, 75%, TKL, 96%, 100%
Layout
With 134 keycaps, this relatively large set supports a lot of form factors and layouts.
In addition, the profile is uniform, meaning you can freely jumble your alphas as you like. If you are one of the legendary keymap wizards rockin Colemak, Dvorak or something even more exotic, the keyboard can easily match your logical arrangement even if the letters end up in different rows.
The set contains plenty of extra caps over the base 100% set, with various sizes for mods or additional 1U caps for e.g. all-1U splits, Tsangan bottom row, etc.
The only thing you won't find in this set is the ISO Enter, split spacebar, and caps with arrows.
While you can find something for some split spacebar arrangements, there are no dedicated split spacebar keys in the extras, not even mentioning convex variants.
And there are no dedicated arrow keys either, although there are plenty of 1U "leftovers".
Quality
Solid build quality. I haven't found any issues.
Material
Made of high-grade PC material – said to be durable, impact-resistant, and promising no yellowing. Unlike other keycaps that may wear/fade, these PC caps will stay smooth and colorful according to KiiBOOM.
The UV-cured ink makes the legends clear (tiny symbols easy to read), scratch-resistant (no fading/peeling under heavy use), and color-stable – keeping cute cat-themed designs long-lasting.
Color-stability is hard to test in such a short time frame, but I've stried scratching, and the set performed as expected: no damage to the legends.
Colors
A nice and calm palette consisting of pastel colors – yellow, light pink/red, purple, and light blue –, distributed randomly across keys and key groups.
Legends
The legends are tiny, alphas positioned in the lower center part of the keycaps.
Otherwise almost every keycap features these cute kitty ears, with the alphas and most mods featuring also various facial expressions.
Legend quality is great, especially given the very fine lines, dots and whatnot.
Keycaps touch & feel
I suppose that the MAO is a close relative of the MOA profile: the uniform, rounded shape was kept, and extended a bit to form the kitty ears. Maybe the top dish is a bit larger? I'm not sure. It's hard to confirm. However, the footprint/skirt of the MAO (kitty) caps seems definitely larger – with a fraction of a mm though. In exchange, the MAO is a tiny bit lower, but again, we are talking about fractions of a millimeter.
The overall shape being very similar, it shouldn't cause any difficulty to get used to if you're familiar with MOA or even XDA.
However, the touch and feel is very different.
I probably tried five-side printed MOA caps first while testing the wooden Akko MU01. That set, just like the original Phantom sets, are dye-sublimated PBT: pretty thick, relatively high, with characteristic feel to the touch. I'd say smooth and almost silky, but there's definitely a fine texture to them.
In contrast, these PC MAO profile caps are absolutely smooth and shiny, the only palpatable parts being the UV-fixed legends and design elements.
Weight
For years, I haven't considered how crucial keycap weight can be – until trying the super-heavy Awekeys metal caps, especially mods. Experiencing that some switches and springs are simply too weak to even lift and reset heavier caps after a keypress tought me that this is an important factor too.
These MAO caps are of average weight, and won't cause similar issues.
That said, keycap weight alters how you experience switch actuation force: a heavier keycap makes the spring feel weaker.
Effect on sound
PC is not the most common material for keycaps, and these MAO profile caps are relatively high, thick, and their shape is dome-like, so I was curious about their sound.
All in all, they make the original loud and clacky Phantom 81 sound just a tiny bit higher pitched. That said, the sound is still loud and still closer to thocky than clacky I'd say.
Effect on lights
As you may guess, the translucent material combined with the seemingly randomly selected individual colors for the keys result in both improved and limited RGB characteristics.
On the first hand, per-key LEDs can beautifully illuminate these keycaps. On the other hand, even if per-key RGB is not really limited with high brightness settings, the keycap colors interfere with the RGB LED colors.
As you can see, even green light (nonexistent in the keycap palette) can shine through:
Conclusion
The KiiBOOM Meow Pudding PC keycap set is a relatively large keycap set with lovely colors, cute design, and nice PC material. The 134 keycaps ensure an almost universal compatibility with keyboards of various form factors, bar split spacebars and ISO Enter. If you're into this aesthetics, I can recommend this cute and affordable set without hesitation. That said, the original caps coming with the Phantom are just as cute and high quality.
Price & Availability
The KiiBOOM Meow Pudding PC keycap set is available starting at $29, and the KiiBOOM Phantom 81 Lite is for $90 $86. Don't forget to use the KBDNEWS coupon code to claim your 5% discount!
Published on Fri 23rd Jan 2026. Featured in KBD #205.
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