The Pen Addict 593/transcript
| The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript | |
|---|---|
| Episode: | 593 |
| Title: | You know, Wisky |
| Release Date: | December 5th, 2023 |
| Hosts: | Brad Dowdy |
| Guests: | No guests this episode |
| Additional Information | |
| Official page: | Episode 593 |
| Audio File: | Audio Episode 593 |
| Podcast page: | The Pen Addict 593 |
| Length: | 5252 min <br />0.867 h <br /> minutes |
| Previous Transcript | Next Transcript |
From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 593. Today's show is brought to you by Ooni Pizza Ovens and Enigma Stationery. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm joined by Brad Dowdy.
Hi, Brad. Hey, Myke. How are you doing? I'm good. How are you? I'm pretty good. Like, I'm excited to talk pens with you. I guess it's been a couple of weeks and, you know, that's how it always goes. You know, we always have, you know, a small break if one of us is going here and the other one is going there and then we need to, like, do some recordings.
But this one was perfectly timed with our annual gift guide episode where I could spend some time talking to our good friend, Anna. Did you get a chance to listen to that? Of course. Of course. I always say that. I always say that knowing that you do listen, but I worry, like, every now and then, like, I'm going to catch Myke off guard.
It's like, I haven't had time to listen yet. I decided not to bother. No, of course. I listened while I was in the airport. Nice. Getting ready to leave for home, so.
Nice. Were you pleased that we didn't drag you through the mud like we have done in previous years? Yeah, I feel like I got off pretty easy this year. Maybe everybody forgot about me. I'm not sure. I was going there.
But we had fun talking about products and I was, I don't know, I was super excited to talk to Anna this year. I don't know. I guess there's been some different stationery in like the, in the fall release season that I felt was like really, really good or like through the summer into the fall that I've been really amped up about several products.
And most of them, I would say, fall into that more gifty category, say from like, you know, $10 to like maybe up to like $200, like on the very high end. But mostly like in the, you know, below $100, like gifty type range. And I was glad to talk with Anna about that.
I did follow up this week. It wasn't really planned this way when I was going to do my Kaweco Perkyo infrared review, but I just happened to do it this Monday. And that's one of the big products that I talked about for the gift guide. One of my like top picks, like I had a handful of very, very, top picks that I wanted to make during that show.
And that was one of them because it's like, it's $29 fountain pen. It looks wild. Like it's a super giftable type of pen. Plus just a really cool, fun pen that I wanted to use and I enjoyed using it. So got that up this week.
If y'all listened to last week's gift guide episode and wanted to read more about that pen, I posted that on Monday. So yeah, that, that was that. And, it was always a great time talking with Anna. Always a good time.
So that color, by the way, on that Perkyo was incredible. It's ridiculous. It's next level. Yeah. So one of my favorite color combinations in stationery is when you can get like the 3d, 3d glasses color, like the traditional red, blue colors of 3d glasses in combination. So I have a few pens that way, or like a red pen that I'll ink with blue ink.
So I wanted to get that red of this Perkyo inked up with a really bright, bright blue. And that combination is just one of my favorites, right? I talk about orange all the time and purples and things like that. But if I can get a really like hot pink and a really bright blue, like I'm way in.
And that's what I was able to do with this. And it's got a, it's got one of those clear feeds in it. So it just looks ridiculous. They did a good job on it.
Yeah. That was, that was the one you were having the issue with, with the ink, right? Where the number five nib was too small. So yeah, so let's talk. Yeah. Let's talk about that real quick.
So it's in the review. I discussed it in the review. And it's one of those things that I think probably a lot of us who dabble in various stationeries, like I don't, I don't stick with one product all the time, right? Or to stick with one thing.
So I'm always testing and trying new things. And it's a product of me getting overly excited about stationery. I was like, oh, I have this great pen. And oh, look at this ink.
It's going to be a perfect match for it. And then I ink it up. And I was like, huh, this is the, yeah, it's not really working like how I intended, right? I'm not really getting the ink flow.
It's fussy. I'm like having to mess around with it. And as someone who normally uses shimmer inks, like I usually consider like what pens I put shimmer inks in because I want them to have the best flow possible. But I didn't even consider it. This one, I was just like, oh, this is perfect.
Like I'm going to make this like this. I didn't even consider, you know, what could happen. But as it turns out, I think having a smaller nib platform and a number five size nib, which if you're not familiar with that terminology, the number six size nib is kind of like your standard.
Like if you look at a picture of a fountain pen, that's the size of nib that you see. And this is a smaller one. So I think the shimmer ink had trouble flowing through that smaller area, if you will. It didn't have enough room to roam and spread out.
And the ink and the shimmer kind of mix and match and get through the feed and the nib as well as I thought. And I didn't even consider that before I inked it up. And the more I used it, the more I was like, oh, well, this probably makes sense.
I set myself up for failure without even thinking about it just due to my excitement. So it's good to get excited about stationery. Always. I mean, this whole thing is about. Yeah, except I caused myself a problem.
And I cleaned it out, cleaned out perfectly, put a different ink in there, and it works flawlessly now. So I was like, oh, yeah, that was I was just being a big dumb at that particular moment. And it was a good learning experience. I was like, oh, yes, let's probably not do that again.
So not a big deal. Let's talk about a few new products that have kind of crossed my desk over the past couple of weeks since we've last spoken. And this first one is pilot's latest Vanishing Point release for Japan. So this looks like the Japanese exclusive.
So my friend's Jacob at Fooday fan and also Addicted Planner Stickers. I saw both of these. You'll notice the link, Myke. Threads. There were threads links.
I'm on threads all the time. And see the images. And see all the content on threads. But I'm not necessarily posting my own stuff there.
So I did see them over there. I heard the end of the episode. You and Anna were talking about it. And I actually would really like to hear the two of you talk about your approach to this in the future.
But I think for you, threads is the place you should be because you have such a large Instagram following. Probably. I don't disagree with that. Because that's your largest social media following, right? So I feel like that tie together makes the most sense.
And I think you should be putting some effort into threads specifically. I agree. I agree. Because those two things tie together so well. Yeah. And it's just like the ultimate crossover potential there, right? With the content and the things that I talk about.
It's a big overlap with the people that are there. So I think Anna and I will explore that maybe early next year or something. We'll do an episode where we talk about stationery social media. Because that's actually for a very visual hobby that we're in.
And it's kind of important. It's where I get most of my news, which is why you see me putting in links to threads today of this new Pilot Vanishing Point, a.k.a. Capilus. This is the 2023 Japan. I don't want to say Japan only, but this is the Japanese exclusive release.
It's called Whiskey, Myke. And I have a question for you. Interesting spelling. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're a worldly man. And, you know, I feel like I'm up to date on a lot of things.
And I know there's definitely some spelling differences regionally with whiskey. Sometimes you can have it W-H-I-S-K-E-Y. Or sometimes you can have it without the E. W-H-I-S-K-E-Y. Both of those, I'd say, pretty interchangeable, right?
Yeah. Yeah. And so Pilot has made this image with definitely, you know, it's whiskey. Like, there's a decanter, there's a nice glass, you know, it's a whiskey. And the whiskey is spelled W-I-S-K-E-Y. Yeah. And so no H and no E. They made an interesting decision.
So I Googled this. I Googled this. And I couldn't find, like, this doesn't, it's like, well, maybe, you know, Japan is very big on their whiskeys. And it's a big, you know, whiskey community over there. And I thought it was generally just, you know, like, no E. Whiskey was, you know, pretty popular in Japan.
And then they come up, Pilot comes up with this. I was like, this has to be, like, a real thing. And it's like, I couldn't really find it. So I would be interesting.
I'd be interested to know, have you ever seen this spelling, like, in anything? No. I just think it's a mistake because putting a H in that word is weird, right? Like, if you're not maybe native in English and someone asks you to spell the word whiskey, you're not putting a H in there.
Right. So I just think this is a spelling mistake or a simplification to help the Japanese market. I don't know. Maybe, maybe. But, I mean, like I said, they're just such a big whiskey community over there that I thought would be pretty normalized. The spelling would be pretty normalized.
And this one, we're sitting here not talking about the pen because this is driving me nuts. Because I thought, I was like, I'm going to go learn something today, Myke. I'm going to go find out why we actually have a third spelling of whiskey. And I was like, nope, couldn't find anything.
Yeah. I mean, I was going to say maybe they don't call it whiskey. But, like, I'm looking at all the bottles and all the bottles say whiskey on them. Like, I'm looking at, like, Hibiki and Nikko Coffee. Like, the kind of the famous Japanese brands.
And they, I mean, they're written in English. I don't know if maybe, like, the Japanese labels are in Japanese. But I expect they probably still have English on them as well. Yeah. I think they just messed up, right?
Genuinely. We'll see. So, this is just, like, so, this is just, like, the postcard promotional or, like, the marketing, like, header image, right? Like, I don't have pictures of the pen. And looking at the two images that I shared, they're kind of different. The pen looks very difficult to sort out via the two images that I've shared.
And we'll have these links in the show notes for y'all. Yeah. It looks like a brown gradient on one picture. Then the other one looks a little bit more purplish. Purple. Yeah. None of this says whiskey to me.
I want to see the actual pen. Yeah. I mean, maybe it's because it's something else. W-I-S-K-Y is a different thing. You know what I mean?
Maybe. Maybe. But, you know, it looks like it's going to be a golden brown, like, the gold trim brown gradient, probably. And it's going to look sharp. Like, I mean, like, you know, I really just wanted to bring this up. Because I wasn't even thinking that there was a Japanese exclusive vanishing point, per se.
More that there were Japanese store exclusive vanishing points. You know, just, like, a ton of those. So, I wasn't really used to this. But it's pretty. I'm sure it'll do well.
And it's about, what is it? 38,000 yen. So, it's like $260, something like that. Which is a pretty good price. Like, really good price.
Like, the recent American, the red and black vanishing point, I'm forgetting the name offhand, was like $400 in the U.S. So, you know, that seems like a pretty good price. So, sticking with Pilot, but changing the price point greatly and more into the realm of the things I was talking about for the gift guide.
I've kind of... So, this is a new Pilot Explorer color. And there's really not much to say about it other than I find the colors interesting, which I'll get to in a minute. But when Pilot came out with this Explorer, I had a real problem with it. Just as far as the design and the price point.
So, Pilot was making another entry-level pen after the Metropolitans already existed and the Praeras already existed and the Kakunos already existed. And I was like, what are we... Like, I was just questioning, like, what are we doing here? And then taking a classic rollerball design.
So, the Pilot Explorer was originally this needlepoint, very, very popular pen that ended up being, like, the Pilot Precise V5 later in life. And... That's where I knew the design. Yeah, so it's the... Like, what pen does this remind me of?
Yeah, it's the porthole barrel design of the current Pilot Precise, but it was originally the Explorer when it came out, like, the ivory barrel. So, I was like... Which I think is called the high-tech point here. Yes. Yes. So, the high-tech point.
Yes. Not to be confused with the high-tech C, which is called the GTEC C here in the US. But, you know, whatever. You know, whiskey. Whiskey or whiskey. Whatever. Who are we to say, Myke? That could just be, like, a code word now for, like, difference in the regions.
You know, whiskey. Yeah. You know how it goes. It's just whiskey. So, anyway, I was like, whatever with this Explorer fountain pen. It's fine. It was, like, $28. It was, like, in this no-man's land of more expensive than the Metropolitan, which I'm going to recommend every time.
Or upgrade you to the Pereira, which I just think is a cool pen. But, it turns out this pen's pretty good. So, it's pretty good. It's just weirdly priced.
And now they came out. I was looking, again, on Instagram. And we had talked about, last time we talked, two weeks ago, about these new Uni Jetstream collaborations with a, it was the Jetstream 4 Plus 1 multi-pin with a shop called Karimoku. And they had these orange and blue, kind of flat colors, like, almost like a matte, satiny finish.
And now, guess what we have in these Pilot Explorers, Myke? The orange and the blue in this matte. Very outdoorsy looking. And then they have, like, an olive green and almost, like, a taupe tan type of situation. And it just made me think, right after seeing this Uni-ball colors release and seeing these releases, is this going to be, like, the theme?
Like, are all the brands coming with these blue and orange kind of flat colors this year? Which, I'll say, I am for. Like, I think these look spectacular. What is the light of?
I can't figure that out. Have they changed the name? That must be the series. That must be the series.
No. Because it says light hand. Well, okay. Light handling and active fountain pen for your beautiful life. I think they've rebranded it, bro. They might have. This might be a longer show when I go into this.
I see that they are. Wow. I just thought this was the series. But the way the descriptor is makes me think that they're changing the name. Which I have a huge.
We have to rewind to the beginning. That look great in outdoor scenes. New color is now available in limited quantities from the easy to use adult fountain pen Lightiv. For outdoor style colors.
I think they've changed. I think this is actually called the Pilot Lightiv. Now I'm really going to be upset. Now we have a whole new show.
Now we have a whole new show. The high tech 7.5 in the UK and the Lightiv in Japan. We probably just need to move on because I'm going to get really upset about what they've done to my Explorer. Like I was already mad that they stole the Explorer for this and now they're keeping the same design and calling it the Lightiv.
Maybe. No, maybe they're sorting your problem out. They're going to keep the Explorer the Explorer and now the Explorer is called the Lightiv. Right when they had me convinced that it was okay, Myke, they go and do this. Just when you, you know, they just snatch it away from you.
Right from right under your nose. The Lightiv. That's a terrible name. It's not a good name, no. Pilot Explorer. That's a nice product name.
What fountain pen is that? It's the Pilot Lightiv. It's like, no, I don't have a lighter. I'm sorry, but this is a...
Lightiv. L-I-G-H-T-I-V-E. Lightiv. Lightive? Lightiv. They're just... I don't get it. I mean, it's a lightweight fountain pen. Okay. It's a portmanteau of light and active.
That's what they're doing. Yeah, let's not do that. How about we don't do that? That would be cool.
Light handling and active fountain pen. So it's the Lightiv. Okay. This now... Granted, this is coming from the company that named a product line, I love me, I love you. So I guess Lightiv is probably we're getting off easy, I guess, right?
Like, if you put it in that context, they are not going in the right direction on product names, so we probably got off easy. This could have been something much worse, I guess. Lightiv. Lightiv. Pilot Lightiv. See, I could at least call the other one the Barney pens, and it was easier.
I'm just going to call it... If it has a porthole, it's an Explorer. That's the end. The end of the conversation. If it has a porthole, it's a Lightiv.
I don't know what your problem is, you know? The porthole makes it both lighter and more active. I regret adding this to the show notes, because now I'm just mad. I'm just happy that I brought this to you, you know?
I didn't... It was because I had to go find another picture, so this technically is your fault. Yeah, I'm fine with that. Remind me, by the way, I love me, I love you. Is it ILMIOY? Like, is that the name?
Yeah, it's ILMIOY. I actually think that's a pretty interesting name. Like, it's fine. For what they did, it's fine. Yeah. Like, for how they presented it, it's fine. Yeah. Like, it has definitely grown on me, because they actually...
They have really made some cool stuff as part of that lineup. I think that branding, while a little... Maybe a little cringy to me and you, like, fits with the products that they've produced under that umbrella. Well, then you can't really be upset at Light of, because... I'm not.
I'm not upset. You're upset. I am upset. I'm just, like... I'm surprised they went there, but I'm not upset about it. No, I respect it, I think. You know? I'm not sure I do. I'm not sure I do.
Light of. Two years from now, it'll grow on me, and then they'll change it again. Like, I'll come all the way around, and I was like, fine. Light of. It's great. It's a good pen. It's cool colors. And then they'll change it back to the Explorer. Yeah. Yeah.
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All right, we got a shout-out of the week this week, Myke. Shout-out of the week. My friends over at Juicy Broads. So it's not actually...
Juicy Broads is not the channel, but my friends, Lori Tata and Vanessa Langton, they have been chatting recently on YouTube on Lori's Time With Tata YouTube channel. They've been doing pen talk and they've been doing these videos where they get together every week and they finally swapped it up, put a name to it.
A very awesome name. So y'all should go check that out. They do this. It's recently been on Mondays. I don't know if it's always on Mondays, but I've missed out on some of the previous episodes.
I've just caught up with them here recently, so I wanted to give them a shout-out, tell them great job, and keep it up. So y'all go follow the Juicy Broads over there on YouTube. All right. Do you mind if I mention something real quick? Yeah, yeah. We got some more products to talk about and I'm actually interested and I'm glad you put this in here.
So we have a new product over at Cortex Brand called the Sidekick Calendar Companion. It is the same construction as the Sidekick Notepad. So it's basically the same book. We have a couple of slight tweaks.
The cover is a slightly different color and the foil stamping is a matte silver, which is just so good. But the main difference here is instead of it being a notepad of a checklist on the side, this is a weekly kind of calendar agenda that you can write in.
So you've got Monday to Sunday, Monday to Friday in big boxes, Saturday and Sunday in smaller boxes. So you can kind of write down what you've got going on in your week. This was a product that was created because my wife, Adina, I gave her a Sidekick Notepad and she was doing this on the Sidekick Notepad.
And I was like, well, that doesn't look right. Let me make something for you. And so I made it for my wife and now you can buy it too. But this is quite a popular product type for a desk pad is to have some kind of agenda that you could write down.
And so we've got it here for the Sidekick Notepad just because it fits. It makes a lot of sense as well for if you're going to keep it in front of you all the time, which is what the Sidekick Notepad is made for. And so the Sidekick Calendar companion benefits from that construction and the sizing of it all.
So you're very easy. You can keep on track with your events or tasks that you want to complete on each day in a handy dandy format, which very easily can be taken and put in your bag, taken with you. 60 pages, so it will last you an entire year if you use one a week.
So yeah, really, really happy with this product. I'm actually really happy that we've been able to take all of the hard work that we did through creating the Sidekick Notepad and bring another product into the family that makes equal sense and is a nice little format for people that I think maybe you're going to dig.
You know, maybe if you weren't keen on the Sidekick Notepad, maybe that wasn't your use case or you didn't want something where you'd be tearing a page off every day, one of these will last you an entire year and you'll be able to stay on track of what you're working on every single day.
Yeah, this is my kind of layout and my kind of design. You know, I like to have a single week in one view, right? That's the way I lay out my weeks. So this is a great design.
So good job on this one. I really, really like this one a lot. It's kind of funny to me, really like how, just how quickly this came together considering how long it took to get the Sidekick Notepad to come together. Like this was a very fast turnaround to this product.
Yeah, yeah. But that's because all the hard work was done. Because you did all the work before. 100%. 100%. But yeah, I really like it. Like I've been playing around with it.
This isn't something that I naturally gravitate towards, this product type, but I have been using it and I really like it. it works very well. But most importantly, it got the seal of approval from Adina. So it works and I think people will dig it. So you can go check it out at closexbrand.com.
Totally. All right, Myke. I consider ourselves, you know, if you look at the first topics we covered, I consider ourselves like a breaking news podcast or stationery. You know, we're on the cusp, the bleeding edge of stationery content. And, you know, we like to be timely with, you know, the things we cover.
You know, we'll break the important stationery news when we can. And it was last, when we last recorded two weeks ago, this information hadn't come out. And then all of a sudden, I think the day we recorded, the Wednesday we recorded two weeks ago, you came to me with a link.
It's like, have you seen this? We have to discuss this. And I've had to sit on this for two weeks, Myke. And it's been killing me because I wanted this information out in the world.
And the world has seen this pen because believe me, I got messages about it. Yeah, me too. And what we're talking about, what we're talking about today is the latest release for Montegrappa, The Warriors. Yep. And why, Myke, did you send this to me? Because this pen's got abs.
This pen has abs. Spectacular, glorious warrior abs. All right, so we need to give a quick refresher. So back on episode 386 of The Pen Addict, which I actually can't believe is not called This Pen Has Abs. It makes it really hard for me to find which podcast this was on because that's all I was searching for.
Wow. And that's the phrase that we say all the time now and we didn't call it that. But it's in the description here. Yeah. But episode 386, we talk about the Graf von Faber-Castell Pen of the Year 2020, which was called Sparta and it was a Roman soldier and the pen has abs on the grip section.
And we just found this to be absolutely hilarious as an idea that a pen could have abs. But our friends over at Montegrapo decided... You like abs? Oh boy, have we got some abs for you. Not only do we have abs for you, what about opposable arms on a pen?
Do you want opposable arms on a pen? We got it. Do you want a mask on a pen? What about a face on a pen? We got that too.
Do you want a sword to come along with a pen? What about some feet? Actual human feet on a pen. They did it, Brad.
They did it. They did all of it. Yeah. So Montegrapo has been doing this series for, at least that I know of, for like five or six years. So there was a samurai, which I actually got to hold and use one time when I was at Dromghouls several years ago.
They did a samurai and then they did a viking. And now we have the warrior here. And it's this, you know, it's a very Montegrapo pen, right? Like there's no doubt.
It's over the top in every way, shape or form. It's practically unusable as a writing instrument, right? Because you basically, it's kind of like a doll where you like pull the legs out from the body and the pen is like up under the abs, right? So you pull the legs out and then you see the actual writing part.
But if you're buying this, you're not necessarily buying it for writing right there. But this is for a specific client, a specific customer that wants to spend, you know, like 18 grand on a pen. It comes with a coliseum. Did you see that? It's pretty sick. It's completely unnecessary.
I love it. It comes with a coliseum. Like the stand for the pen is at the front of this little, like, so you got, okay. The pen is like three things. It's like three things, right?
You've got the pen itself, which is just like waist down. Yes. From the little figure, right? And then it's, okay, I'm going to try and describe this again. For people that are listening, the pen with the cap on, like when capped, is an action figure of a gladiator.
Right? It is a full body with armor and the arms move. The arms move, which is, you can move them up and down, like opposable, like a kind of action figure would be. Yeah. If you remove the cap, you have essentially taken from the waist up of the action figure away, and that's where the grip section of the pen will be and the nib or the refill or whatever.
But from the, like, so you've got the grip section, but past the grip section is the waist, the legs, the feet. Like, that's all still there. So you kind of just like decapitate the guy from the way. Anyway, so in the stand, you get this huge coliseum and you have these two places to put each part of the pen, which is also funny that you leave the pen uncapped when in the stand, but don't worry about that.
There's also a sword, which I'm not sure what the sword is for, but there is one. There's a letter opener, but it's sick. But there's just, there's a sword, you get a sword. That all lives at the front.
And then, like, maybe 75% of the stand is just a little structure of the coliseum, like a little model of the coliseum. This thing is excess in every single possible way, and I love it. It's amazing. I love this. Like, it's amazing. At a certain point, I do believe that Monte Grappa is making these pens just to be on the shelf.
You know? I think at a certain point, they just want us to talk about them because we keep doing it. Yeah. I will say, they're really good. What I noticed about this pen is I don't recall as much marketing behind this series as this particular pen. Like, I've, like I said, I've been following this one since the Samurai came out, and it wasn't, like, pushed as hard as this one.
Like, they have, I'll put a link to their Instagram, where they have a bunch of behind the scenes of, like, making the mask and, like, how they make all those figures. They also have a full 3D animated trailer. Yeah. Have you seen the 3D animated trailer? I haven't.
I missed that. Oh, it's on the webpage. They did, like, a full 3D animation of, like, there's, like, a gladiator walking towards a gate, and the gate opens, and the pen comes out, and the gladiator surrenders. Because who could, who could not surrender to this pen? You know what I mean?
I'm watching, I'm watching it now. It is, it is dominant. It is the dominant pen. Yeah. So, let's, you know, I think we've avoided the major question that's remaining.
Brad, I've just had the thought. Why? I just think that maybe they just couldn't stop thinking about the Roman Empire, so they made the pen, you know? Yeah, yeah. You know that meme, right? The men. Yes. And Roman. Like, do you, like, what does it say?
Do you know the Roman Empire? What is, how does it go? The meme is along the lines of, like, men only think about, like, men think about the Roman Empire once a day, or something like that. Yes, something like that.
It's got twisted so much now, I can't even remember the original thing. But yeah, they just couldn't get the Roman Empire out of their heads and they made a whole pen for it. So, if you are a man, this pen is for you. I mean, you've clearly, you've arrived.
This thing, again, I gotta say, like, I know these pens are so expensive, right? This is like 18,000 euros. Yeah. But I feel like they are making these, like, it feels like the prices aren't changing too much to my memory, but they're adding more and more stuff. Yeah, this is crazy detail.
Like, the James Bond one, right? Like, they keep, like, adding more stuff, which I appreciate. I think that's cool. Yeah, like, I think it's spectacular.
What I was going to say earlier is, like, the big unanswered question is, which pen has better abs? Like, I think we need a vote here. Oh, I don't think there is a question. I mean, the Gladiator crushes it.
I mean, the Gladiator has pretty legit abs. These are actual abs on this pen. What I will say, they are on the cap. So, like, the Faber-Castell, it's on the grip section.
Like, you're gripping them abs, you know? It's amazing. Yeah, it's amazing. But I think it's got to go to the Gladiator, though. I feel like it has to go to the Gladiator. I go back and look at the Sparta and I never just don't giggle.
That pen makes me giggle. This Gladiator is like, yeah, it's something special, too. So, yeah. Thank you for sharing that. What I like about the Gladiator, now specifically, having looked at this one, is how understated this pen looks compared to the Warrior pen.
And that actually kind of makes it funnier that there's abs on that pen. Because those abs are like a surprise. Yeah. You know? Like, you see just a hint of the Gladiator and you're like, come on, where are the abs? Show me the abs.
You know? But the Gladiator pen, it's like, oh, hidden abs. Yeah, I question like the historical, like, you know, design of armor back in the day. That seems like a very exposed area. Yeah, not great, right?
Like, this isn't good. the armor exists only on the right arm and the head, which is like, probably not awesome if you're going to be going to battle, but yeah. Like, his back is very exposed. Maybe that's how good this guy is. You know? He doesn't even need it.
That's right. His champion. He doesn't even need it. What? Maybe you could get the Colosseum with this pen and then get the Sparta pen and you could have like your own battles like at home. You could do that. Yeah, that would be cool.
I think the Gladiator would win. I think the Gladiator, well, I mean, the Gladiator's got a sword. It does have a sword. I don't know, but when you uncap the Sparta, I mean, I think you might just be knocked over that the abs come out.
That's true, but the Gladiator has feet, so, you know, I don't know what to do. True, true, true, true. This pen has got to feel uncomfortable to use. Like, it's bad. The weight balance on this pen would be astronomically bad.
The three designs, if you go pull up all three designs, the Samurai, the Viking, and the Warrior, they're all the same like footprint, right? For lack of a better term. Yeah. They're the same base. And I got to hold the Samurai, and when you take out the pen, part of it, it's just like this huge chunk of metal, like on your hand, and then you're trying to like grip it.
Like, it's not really, like, they know what they're making this for, and it's not for like the ultimate writing experience, right? No. Who's buying this? I really want to know. They only make like a little, I think, what'd they say, like 115 or something like that? Yeah. I'd have to go back and look.
They don't make a ton of these. There's 105 in silver with an 18 karat gold nib, and there's five in all gold. Yeah. Request a price. The all gold one is incredible. Yeah. So that's probably like 50, $60,000.
Yeah. I would imagine. They will sell all of these. Like, y'all think we're, like, we are making fun of this, like, to a degree. They don't make this for show. Oh, yeah. They will literally sell every one of these pens.
They know exactly what they're doing and what their customer base is. When I ask, I want to know who buys this, I actually ask a question, because I know people do, right? So like, I'm just wondering, like, who's buying it. You know, sometimes when I see the gold ones, I do wonder, like, are they actually selling those, are they gifts?
Gifts. I don't know if they sell those gold ones. Sometimes I wonder if like, they may can sell the silver ones to also fund the cost of the gold ones and then they're just like, giving away or whatever. Amazing stuff. Bravo. Amazing stuff. Like, bravo once again. Like, legit.
Like, it's great. Like, it's ridiculous, but it's great. Like, I love it. You keep making them, we'll keep talking about them. All right, should we take a break?
Yeah, let's do it. And then, I'm going to go on vacation, Myke, and I'm going to tell you what I'm going to bring. Amazing. This episode is brought to you by Enigma Stationery. Enigma Stationery offer unique items made from in-house designs along with top brands and hard-to-find imports.
Some of their new in-products include an exclusive desk mat featuring a psychedelic design by Enigma co-founder Michelle. I'm going to stop right there. I've got more to talk about, but I'm going to stop right there. I was sent a lovely care package from the folks over at Enigma, and they sent me their ink-fant calendar, but they also sent me the desk mat, which is absolutely sick.
It is like a desk mat for a desk computer that looks like a blank of your favorite acrylic pen. It is so good, Brad. So, I didn't know which product we were going to talk about today, right? I know we have the Enigma Stationery ad, and they provide you the ad copy because you're managing that.
And sometimes you'll say, hey, this is what we're doing. I pulled up the site while you started to read, and I saw that. I almost yelled to stop you, to completely interrupt you in the beginning, and I was like, oh, I wonder if that's what we're going to talk about today.
It is so good. I have one. And it's amazing. It's so good. Yeah, it's sick. I love it because it is like this beautiful crossover of my favorite things, you know? And yeah, I think it's super good. And it's really high quality as well for a product like this, so I'm really happy with it.
Yeah, and the popular way the desk mats are made now is they're made to cover almost your whole desk, at least length-wise, maybe not depth-wise, right? So they're long. So this is 90 by 40 centimeters, so 35 inches by 15 inches, which is great, which is the kind that I use on my desk.
Yeah, this is cool. Yeah. Like I said, I almost yelled at your intro because I saw this. This is like perfect for you, for your desk. Yep. Like when you're streaming.
100%. You need one of these. So let me go back to it. Plus, it helps me. I spill stuff on my desk mat all the time.
You'll never see it. You'll never see it. Oh, and also, you can machine wash these. Yes, I've been washing mine.
I spill ink and wash it so that the chat always laughs at me because I'll have desktop or desk mat, depending on how much I've spilled. As well as this incredible desk mat, there are seasonal cards from Pike Street Press, fresh imports from Japan, including a Mofusan plush, notepads, pouches, a mouse pad, and even socks, blind boxes, and capsule toys featuring Mofusan, Spy Family, and Genshin Impact.
They also have brand new Kusuguru handbags, which are also really nice looking bags. I don't know if you saw these, Brad. Not yet. I'm looking at other stuff. These are really cool bags.
They're like a cross between a bag and a tote. They have like a fluffy tote bag, which is just adorable. I love this. This is more like, as well as your regular stationery items that you'll find at Enigma, including inks and pens and pencils and the whole shebang, journals and much more.
These are also some great gifts for people in your life over the holiday season, which is good. It is sold out now, but Dan also sent me the inkvent calendar that they did with the stand. Yep. So good. So good. Sitting on our little kitchen island. It looks great.
Yeah. They do a great job of that. They do a really, really good job of it. They do a good job of everything. And you should go and check out their products.
You'll get discounted shipping on orders of $40 or more, plus a free gift by going to enigmastationery.com slash penaddict and using penaddict to check out. Order by December 15th if you want your delivery before Christmas. Go there now and check out all of the new stock that Enigma have at enigmastationery.com slash penaddict.
Plus you'll get discounted shipping on orders of $40 or more and a free gift with the code penaddict to check out. If anything, do yourself a favor, go there and just look at this, Matt. It's excellent work. And I genuinely can't believe nobody's done this before now. Bravo to Enigma.
Because smart move. Thanks to Enigma Stationary for their support of this show and RelayFM. All right, Myke. I am going on a trip. Where are you going? Going on a trip.
Taking a little break. Taking a little vacay with my wife. So, spoiler, we're recording this a day early. Yes, I've forgotten that.
I thought it was Wednesday. Yeah, I will be gone. Like, you were just back from a trip. So, I don't... I wouldn't be surprised if you did not know what day it was.
But I definitely know what day it was because I have to catch a plane tomorrow. So, always on these trips. Like, when I just go to do, like, my stationery trips. Going to a pen show.
Things like that. You know, I'm packing the fountain pens and the stationery. And, you know, having a very, you know, stationery focused type of trip. But when I'm more going on, like, just like a pure vacation. Like, I'm going on this trip with my wife.
You know, I bring very little because we're usually just doing stuff. But I always want to have something to capture things while we're out. And I don't know if you remember this. But I took a road trip through Florida with the kids.
I don't know, four or five years ago. Where we did a driving trip. I took a notebook and just kind of wrote, you know, my trip notes as we went. You know, you're able to kind of keep it like a little journal or a little sketchbook.
And, you know, like, I would put the tickets. Like, we went to, like, you know, we went to, like, the Kennedy Space Center. So, I'd paste my tickets in there. So, it's just, I would basically build out, like, a specific travel journal for the trip.
And I did that in a field notes last time. And I am going to do that again. Just take it, like, a small pocket field notes. No fountain pens. And I grabbed, I didn't know which one I was going to use.
I kind of think about it a little bit, kind of a theme-wise. Like, I had the coastal edition for the Florida trip. And the coastal edition also had a California one. I think I gave that away.
So, I didn't, it would have been nice if I could think, you know, like, five years ahead. And save this for a California trip. Because that's where we're going this time. To San Clemente and just that area and hanging around.
And it would have been nice to have that field notes coastal edition. To have the west coast to match my east coast. But since I didn't have that anymore, I grabbed kind of a holiday theme one. Which, it's not holiday on purpose.
But it was a winter edition. So, it was a winter 2019 group 11. Which was the, kind of like the, a lot of people call it the elemental edition. So, like, the one I have has, like, copper and copper gilding and, you know, copper dot grid.
It's just a really neat, kind of seasonal looking one. So, it's a white cover. I will have this destroyed probably by the time we get back. Which is good. Like, that's the goal, right?
You want to destroy these things and have a good reminder of the trip. So, I have my little notebook. What pen or pens am I going to bring? If I'm not bringing fountain pens, what am I going to bring?
I almost always, exclusively this year, I have traveled with a spoke roadie. Pretty consistently. But I'm actually going to leave that at home in lieu of using a Fisher Space Pen. Because I actually want to review, like, the traditional bullet style Fisher Space Pen. Because they've made a bunch of new colors and materials this year.
And I know you've looked at these a lot. And, like, you've gifted us one from Relay years ago. But they have some Cerakote models now. And I bought a blue one.
It's like a navy blue Cerakote with a black clip. It's really nice. So, I actually want to put this to the test. So, it's kind of, like, two-fold. I'm going to take this and kind of use it for, like, its intended use.
Right? You know, travel out and about. See how it holds up. Things like that on this trip. So, it's a cool pocketable model.
You know, I'm not bringing anything. Like, I'm not bringing, like, a pen case or a larger hardbound notebook. I'm literally bringing something I can stick in my pocket and just go. Because that's pretty much all we're going to be doing on this trip.
So, I am also, I could just go with that pen and notebook and just be done with it. But I do always like to carry some type of fineliner with me. You know, a lot of times it's Secure Pigment Micron or a Copic Multiliner. I needed a refresh of the Kuretake Zig Cartoonist Mangaka pen.
Which is a pen that I rave about. It's one of my favorite kind of fineliner plastic tip pens. So, I got the 05 size. I usually keep the 02 size in purple.
Here is, like, my favorite one of all time. But I wanted a black one and a wider tip size. So, it has the 05 tip size, which is wider. And it's black ink.
And I just like to have it, I don't know, just as an alternate to, like, a ballpoint. It's just, like, I can sketch with it or just draw with it a little bit. Or just write with it. It's completely fine. And, like, these two pens and that notebook, like, that's gonna, like, that's it.
And it's gonna be, like, really good. Like, I'm excited to build this little travel journal when I go on these trips. We'll only be gone for, like, four days. But it's cool to just take this.
Keep track of your thoughts on this journey. Which, you know, it's a pretty long journey for us. Like, a five-hour flight. You know, nothing compared to you.
But, you know, and then you'll be going to, like, Joshua Terry National Park. And it's just spending a lot of time driving and traveling around. Like, we're gonna be busy, busy on this trip. So it's great to have these little small notebooks to capture ideas, to capture mementos from the trip.
You know, I'll go back at the end of the day. You know, like, when we get back home. You know, I'll just write a few notes on, like, you know, things that we did during the day. If I hadn't captured them already.
So, like, a good reflective. And then I'll keep this notebook as just, like, it won't be used for anything else. It'll be, that's this trip. It went in this notebook.
And here's a cool reminder. And it'll sit with, like, the other ones that I've made for other trips like this. Just on the shelf. Something to keep and enjoy later.
And it's a good reminder of the trip. So, yeah. That's what I'm bringing. And that's all I'm bringing, Myke. What do you expect to be using these for on this trip?
Just general, like, go into places we've never been before. So I'll write down, like, things that I think about it. Like, I've already started using it and put in, like, the travel plans. Like, the flight details and the place we're staying.
And, like, what the weather is going to be like. Because we'll be in different, like, climates, right, on the same day. We could be on the coast or we could be in the desert, right? Because that's California for you.
Like, and then I've started, like, a packing list. Like, I don't need a packing list for my pen show trips. Because it's just, like, almost, like, pre-built. Like, I kind of keep everything, like, there ready to go.
Well, this one I need more stuff or random stuff that I wouldn't normally bring. So I'm keeping that. So, like, that's what started in the notebook. And then, like, tomorrow when we're traveling, like, I'll write about that.
Like, I'll literally just kind of, like, recap the day or write down things as we go. So, you know, what maybe what I watched on the plane or what I read on the plane and things like that. So just kind of keep not really, like, an hour by hour detailing of the trip.
But a pretty decent trip log that I'll, like, check in with the notebook a few times a day. And then if I have, like, once we're going, like, if I have, like, different reminders or, like, you know, little loose sheets of papers, receipts or tickets or stickers or anything like that.
I'll put that in and talk about them. So, yeah. It'll just be, like, kind of a rolling conversation of things I wanted to remember during the trip. And that'll all go in here. Very nice. I look forward to hearing how it went.
I actually went because I'm away next week again for reasons I'll get into later. But on the episode on the 20th, I will have some discussion of stationery that I used in the week prior, which I think could be pretty interesting. So I'll talk about that. So I think you'll dig it.
Yeah, I can't wait. If you want to get the show notes for this week's episode, they should be in your podcast app of choice. But if not, you can find them online at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 593. If you want to find Brad online, he's penaddict at penaddict, P-E-N-A-D-D-I-C-T. Of course, you should know that by now.
Go to penaddict.com, spokedesign.com. You can find Brad at twitch.tv slash penaddict streaming three times a week over there. So go check out Brad's stationery streams. You can find me.
I'm at iMyke, I-M-Y-K-E. And you can find my work at cortexbrand.com. Thank you to Uni and Enigma Stationery for their support of this week's episode. But most of all, thank you for listening. Until next time, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.