You’re absolutely right. It should be 412mm. Just fixed that in the product page. Thanks for pointing this out!
Agree, also my favorite. I had to import them from Japan to get my last set. BTW, you can get them in an R2 ANSI pretty easily (imported) R2TL-US3-IV and R2TL-US3-BK.
I hope you’re happy, the act of typing this response convinced me to preorder a FC980C from mk even though I don’t like those black on black keycaps. (Can’t imagine we’ll ever see alternate keycaps for the numpad.)
Now to decide on the White or Black Heavy-9
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EC 2020 and Extended 2048 both have support for numpad. And there are probably other options coming. Managed to pick up one of both sets, but they are usually sold out within a day or two.
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Thanks, I have a set of the EC 9009, but I hadn’t seen these.
Might there be someone working on a topre-compatible keycap set who can sprinkle in a few details to help ease anyone in the “I don’t like black on black keycaps, but that’s the only model I can find” camp? 
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Put simply: I expect this to be a solved problem by (or in) 2021.
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which did you go with?
K2 with the dampener.
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Arg! I want those Asian subs 
And we’re fairly sure the 980M will not fit in this case? I know that 660m/660c are quite different but, looking at pictures online of plate and daughterboard placement, 980m and 980c are quite similar.
(980c is on right)
Is the plate the same color on both the white and black FC980C?
The rear cover plate will match the housing.
@jhambone9190 Re the FC980M, let me closer into this. Anybody have any better pictures of the switch plate on an FC980M? If it looks plausible, I’m happy to order an FC980M to test, but I assumed from having done with the the FC660M that it would be a dead end. Maybe this one is a different situation.
Not sure if this was replying to me. If so, I was asking about the plate on the stock FC980C, wonder if it is different between the FC980C with white keycaps and the FC980C with black keycaps.
(The plate on my RGB R2 is white, whereas the plate on my 87U is black. I would compare against my other 87U, but it inaccessible at my locked down office building.)
@norbauer Would be nice for some pictures actually for the purpose of verifying the outer dimensions of the plates are the same. In the interim, this pic is about the best i could find online of the plates.
Curious to hear what you think but it looks promising to me… 
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OK, you convinced me. 
I just ordered one and should have it early next week. Will post my findings here.
OK, sorry. Rear cover plate vs switch plate is a frequent confusion on my boards. I’ve only ever seen switch plates on these in black (my ivory-keys board, for example, has a black switch plate). White switch plates are fairly rare in my experience on OEM keyboards. I’ve ever only seen them on the Realforce RGB and the CM Rapid-i, though I’m sure there are other examples.
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Fingers crossed. I’m optimistic.
I’m going to love my stainless steel heavy-9 regardless of the outcome.
I’ve never made this statement when referring to enthusiast mechanical keyboards. That statement is, I hope cost-savings was a factor in the creation of this keyboard. From business point of view it would certainly be in Leopold’s best interest to of designed as many interchangeable parts between the 980c and 980m as possible.
Agreed, but whenever Topre is involved, you can expect arcane and counterintuitive engineering choices that are likely sub-optimal from a business perspective–for better or worse.
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to increase the suspense, I found a couple more pictures of fc980m internals off geekhack. The exterior proportions of the plates look the same between 980c and 980m. I guess we will see soon enough.
Assuming the plates are interchangeable and the gods shine upon us, then the question will be if there is enough clearance for that weird socket board to plug into the PCB. If not then maybe a custom ribbon cable using crimped JST 2.0 and a little creativity may work.
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Correct. Another deal breaker would be if those LED sit flush or below the plate or if they sit slightly proud (can’t tell from the photos). If the latter, it would be a deal-breaker, unless folks don’t mind de-soldering the LEDs.