Just stumbled on this thread and it got me worked up a bit. For years I had insisted in separate conversions with different people about the original KI sticks and buttons being a lighter color blue than what we find today with Happ/iL parts. I tried to find these when I got my KI cab almost 5 years ago and found nothing that resembled what I had remembered from my childhood. So I bought 2 sets of buttons and sticks from Happ/iL for this cabinet along with a KI2 later on which I never ended up getting.
Fast forward to last year and a KI cab that my friend purchased. For the first time in 15 years I saw the buttons that I remembered seeing. After discovering these I consulted someone in this thread and he insisted that they were originally Happ/iL's even though I saw these lighter buttons that I remembered from my childhood.
Fast forward to today and PART NUMBER 20-9687-3 BLUE PUSHBUTTON!!!! These are without a doubt the buttons which were used in the original cabs and are the same ones that I saw on my friend's KI cabinet which I hadn't seen in a decade and a half.
Fast forward to 5 minutes ago and me TEARING MY F*CKING HAIR OUT because the listed supplier is out of stock. I imagine these will never be seen again of course.
And for the record, any KI's with black sticks were replaced by operators or the supply of blues simply ran out. I've never seen a KI with black sticks in my life. Also, there is no color difference between the iL and Happ sticks that Paradise Arcade is selling currently and the same holds true for the buttons. I have however seen a difference in Happ/iL colors from different time periods. Probably changed material suppliers at some point.
Damn, this post was way too long.