The Pen Addict 715/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	715
Title:	Aliens From Mechanical Pencil Land
Release Date:	May 7th, 2026
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 715
Audio File:	Audio Episode 715
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 715
Length:	5353 min <br />0.883 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 715. Today's show is brought to you by Factor and Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad.
What?
I'm so distracted. I'm playing, I'm, okay, like, I'm already ruining the show. My apologies.
Okay.
I'm playing with the product we're talking about later, and I'm not going to spoil it now, but I'm, like, ignoring you because I'm fidgeting so, so hard with the stationery.
Okay. Well, luckily, you would have a good sense of what I said, because it's the same thing that I say every week.
Well, so let me tell you, Myke, I'm coming to you from the past right now, because I've already recorded next week's episode.
Yes.
And I think I locked into the intro. I don't think I have to write it down anymore.
Okay.
I think, as I was, I was leaning into it, it's like, oh, I forgot to think about the intro, introing next week's episode. So we'll have a guest next week. Mike's out. So I've already got that in the can. And I was thinking, it's like, oh, I see how Mike does it now. Like, I think I have this. Like, it's just like this straight up format and go.
Well, bravo. I look forward to it. So, yeah.
And I really hope that you're, you got it as correct as you think you did.
Yeah. That could very well be true.
Because we may, you may have like set yourself up now and like you've just made a hilarious error in the intro that you don't even know.
When you have to, when you have to do official things like intros and ad reads, you kind of black out, right? You don't know actually what you said because it's kind of like just like a default setting, right? So you can kind of just black out on these things.
The best thing to do in these scenarios is actually not to think about them.
Exactly. Exactly.
That is why I still have a fidget spinner on my desk.
Yeah. Well, I'm clearly fidgeting with something on my desk too, which we'll talk about in a minute.
Because I use the fidget spinner basically the whole time when I, when I read the ads.
Oh, now that's a good call because I should do that because one of my flaws, I think, in podcasting when I have to read the ads is I tend to speed read.
Yeah. You see, you don't want to do that.
Yeah. And I catch myself just like jamming through the text where it's like if we're talking about a topic, I can just talk about the topic like passively and it's, you know, nothing's like written down, right?
I'm just thinking and speaking, which is also a problem.
Because I do find the faster I try to read, the more likely I am to make mistakes.
A hundred percent.
Then you end up just kind of like tripling back on yourself.
I know. There was one, there was one, I did one of the reads next week.
I did trip over myself, but it's fine. We'll live. We are. It makes it a joyous ad.
I'm really enjoying this like future review of next week's episode.
Yeah. Yeah. Y'all should listen. Should I say who it's with?
Why wouldn't you?
Yeah. It's with April Wu from Design Phil.
So we have, needless to say, when I have April on, this was her second time.
We have a lot to cover. A lot of bases to cover.
A lot of Design Phil and MD product talk trying to sort out what's going on.
It was a very fun episode, so.
I'm going to put April's previous episode in the show notes because it was really good.
Yep. Yep.
So I have that. That was number 632. I can't believe that was like 2024, so.
Anyway, that's next week. This week, we're going to talk about the past few weeks in my belaboring.
We're going to do just a typical Brad pen addict thing.
This Safari, Lamy Safari Neon Colors thing is driving me up the wall.
Okay.
The partial, sort of, kind of release, no news from Lamy thing is bugging me.
Like, it's been bugging me.
For absolutely no reason. It literally doesn't matter, right?
I wrote in the notes, like, I feel like I'm losing my mind over something silly like this.
And I was like, well, that's kind of my job.
Um, so, if you've listened to the last few episodes, the new Lamy Safari, we always talk
about the new Lamy Safari release. And this time it is Neon Pink and Neon Yellow. I'm assuming
those are the official names because Lamy has yet to announce these things yet. But a couple
of European retailers have them. Um, Mike, I put on my capital J journalism hat.
Yes.
And emailed one of these retailers.
Wow.
And said, Hey, so, uh, our friend, uh, Frank over at, uh, Fanta Plumo, he's had these in
stock and we're going to talk about that in a second because one of our listeners has
these pins. Um, I said, what, what's the, what's going on, Frank? Like you've had these
pins for like two weeks and Lamy has yet to release them except Lamy was also in your
mentions as I talked about on a previous episode. Hey, we love this picture. Can we use it in
our feed? I'm like, what is, what is happening here? Can you officially release these
products? Um, and I talked, I emailed, I like, I was like, you know what, I'm just going to
email Frank. Frank and I are friends. And I was like, what's the deal? And I didn't consider
this, but he was very direct. And I didn't say I was going to mention this. I'm not going
to, you know, blow up our email or anything like that. But he's like, yeah, there's been
confusion ever since the Mitsubishi requirement with the way the distribution flows. And I was
like, Oh, I guess that makes sense.
What does that mean?
Like he, well, it's an ownership change. So things might be going through different
distributorships, um, at least like different stages, like in manufacturing, where things
are shipped from, where things arrived and how that's communicated. Right. It could be
different paths of organization from, um, manufacturing to distribution and sales.
Okay. Right. So what that sounds like to me is like the, like the European Lamy
distribution is kind of being ignored a little bit. They're kind of like out there on their
own.
So to his point and not to just blow everyone up, but I'm going to, he said, normally we're
last, right? Normally the U S launches first on like the Safari, the Safari limiteds. And
then we get them last. And, you know, you would think proximity based reasons, they would be
at least on time as the same, the same. And he's like, you know, there's, there's just like,
you know, we just had them and we felt like there was no, there was nothing that's, we just thought
it was ready to go. Like, you know, we got the pens and, you know, normally there's a lot of
companies will just deal with dates and, you know, schedules and things like that. So anyway, it was,
it kind of made sense. I didn't consider that they've had the kind of a shakeup over the last
couple of years and maybe they're still ironing out like the, the workflow of products. But
anyway, um, May, May 12th, Mike looks to be the, uh, maybe Lamy global will actually announce
this allegedly on May 12th for the official launch day of this pen for them. You know,
I'm looking for Lamy's launch, right? Lamy has technically not launched this product that's
on sale. Okay. So where's May, where's, where's the 12th come from? Uh, Frank from official
channels. Okay. Huh? So, um, so apparently it's not a big deal. It doesn't seem like a
big deal, like at least to Lamy, but it is confusing. It was like seeing a product a couple
of weeks ahead of time is a little bit strange. So yeah, not a big deal. Like again, this is
absolutely meaningless to anyone except me who watches this stuff. And like, it's literally
my favorite pen. So of course I'm, I'm paying attention to it. Yeah. Friend of the show,
Rob ordered the pens from Fanta Pluma and put some pictures up and some thoughts on it. Looking
at Rob's pictures, I like these even better. Um, there's something funky about the yellow.
Well, it's like true safety yellow. Yeah. Yeah. Which I like. Yeah. Um, it makes me want
it even more. I was already on board with the yellow pink, you know, I'm still like, whatever.
It's pink. I love pink. It's, it's fine. But the yellows, um, looks, looks great. So if
you want, um, some real people photos, as opposed to like marketing photos, I think Rob did a good
job here representing the pens. And like, I'm seeing like, I really anxious to get the yellow
in the hand because it, I don't know, it seems the, the finish is a little bit different. These
are both glossy. Neither one of them are matte, which I prefer matte, but I am kind of compelled
by the way this yellow photographed in Rob's picture. So we'll put a link in the show notes
to take a look at these. And of course the, the pink is great. I, they, to your point last
week, why didn't they just do the black, the black trim on it? It would just make a lot
more sense if they did that. Like as a, as a release, as a release, these just look like
separate products. So anyway, just me, I'll be getting the yellow. I'll be getting them
both to check them out, but I'm really, really looking forward to the yellow. So, um, that's
one bit of follow-up. Second bit of follow-up is from the Kukuyo auxiliary notebook we tackled
in last week's as TPA. And I've been, I was pretty like compelled by this notebook and
just the design. And if it's like fountain pen friendly and the way it's like a hardcover
build and how many specific formats they make this in for just like business use, like business
frog probably has like a stack of these notebooks I'm assuming. Um, just, you know, for all the
different accounting. Um, yeah. So Trevor replied on your advice, I contacted the paper
mine. Blake indicated that a restock is expected soon. He also mentioned a couple of other options
and that prices will be going up on the auxiliary after this restock. The other options are from
life. He said, it's not as good in the Borum and peace. He said he hasn't tested. So that
is being the, this auxiliary format, which for lack of a better term, it's, it's like an accounting
ledger. It's like a ledger format, right? It's got different columns and, and things. It's
not a traditional like line notebook or graph notebook. So, um, price going up because of
course, like all the things go up and actually they seemed relatively inexpensive for what
they are. So I'll keep my eye on it. And, uh, I had some other people reach out, you know,
they were finding them pretty available in just different channels, you know, like Alex,
AliExpress, Amazon, Japan, things like that. You can acquire them if you jump through enough
hoops, but like, I'm not, I don't know that I would use this on it like a day to day, but
I still want it. So I'll just wait and, and see. Um, the second comment, I have literally
never heard of Borum and peace, which Trevor just mentioned that Blake mentioned and Vanessa
has chimed in Borum and peace, Borum and peace. I don't know if I'm even saying that
correctly. I would say Borum because it's two O's. Borum. Yep. Borum, Borum, B-O-O-R-U-M
and peace, P-E-A-S-E. Um, they essentially make a record book, like an accounting column
records book. Um, and it looks like it is under the Tops, uh, brand, which is a main line, like
office supply supplier, right? Yeah. This is who I would think would have this notebook
for the rare people who are looking to have this type of product for like literal business,
right? And I don't know who's still using this for like their literal, literal accounting
ledger. Um, we use these at the bank and they were like the backup to the computer. Okay.
Right. So someone, someone would also write some stuff down, like certain things kind of
had to be recorded by hand and then they would be kind of digitized as well. Yeah. So this
seems to be like the common office notebook that like, if you're at a place of business
that would have these types of things you're ordering from Tops, right? This is like your
corporate, um, corporate office supply thing. And the, the Borum and peace is the, is the
brand under that that you would, you know, when you're ordering your boxes full of pens, you
would order the, the Borum and peace record books and things like that. So I'll, I'll hold
out for the, um, uh, for the Kukuyo, but Vanessa says they're fountain pen friendly and they're
hardcover and they're nice. So who knows? Maybe, maybe it's, it is worth trying. It's that
one's, that one's interesting. So good shout out there, Vanessa. So, um, I appreciate everyone
reaching out. This is something again, like I said, I'll just wait, like I'll get one
eventually. I'm not going to, you know, rush and go try to, you know, find one, but I bet
the Borum and peace is probably pretty easy to get if they're coming through like
a big, um, like a big office supply supplier, like Tops is, which is something I'm familiar
with from like office work. Right. So just one of those things. So, all right. That's
our followup. We got, uh, we got a lot of other fun stuff to, uh, to talk about this
week, uh, including our first sponsor this week, Mike, I have things to say.
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We have honey butter, chicken breast. Wouldn't mind it. We have barot salmon and chickpea rice.
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I, I'm, I have a well-fed thief in the house. That's my son who I will have to, uh, stash away
my particular ones, which I've mentioned many times when, um, we talk about Factor, that, uh,
my son is as big of a Factor fan as I am. And, um, so I'll have to, like, you know, pick out my
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All right, Mike, we have our shout-out of the week.
What now?
The same product. I looked at it again and I saw something else.
Oh, okay.
We're getting there, but it's literally the same thing. Just, I happen to, I'm not paying attention
to the show document. I'm looking at my desk and then I saw something else that I have to talk about
and it made me giggle. Shout-out of the week, Mike.
Shout-out of the week.
Wander and Write on YouTube. So, I've been checking out a bunch of YouTube travel videos
for people going to Japan. And this is Jen from the UK. But Jen seems to travel a lot to Japan
and is a mega traveler's fan and goes to all the traveler's shops and makes it all the traveler's
goods. Really cool stuff over there. I really like her channel. She does a good job and then does
general stationery tours. She's got a London stationery tour, Mike, and a walking tour.
Nice.
So, maybe you can test out that walking tour one day. Maybe we may get Tessa's new store in the list
there once it opens up and that'll be part of the walking tour. So, yeah. Really good channel.
One I've really enjoyed watching their videos. They're just well put together and very informational
and very fun. I'm starting to look at all the things in Japan that we'll be going to later this year.
So, I'm trying to make some plans. So, all right. Next up, I wanted to talk about the Fountain
Telling Willow Fountain Pen, which we probably mentioned when I got back from the Atlanta Pen
Show. It's something I picked up, but it was one that I wanted to spend some time with before I did
my review. And this was given to me by Kristen at Fountain Telling at the show. And it's such a
uniquely shaped pen that I wanted to talk about it. And that's why I wanted to, you know,
take a minute to actually review it on the blog. And it's kind of, not this pen in particular has
opened my eyes, but this more curved, shaped, geometric, not just this pen, but in general,
this style of pen that's not, I'm mostly a traditional shape pen person, right? Like a
cigar shape or a straight line barrel or slight tapers, not too much going on in the shape of a
pen. Like there was an Enigma one a few years ago that I, that was like, I don't know if I'm
going to like this. It's got a little bit of taper and it turned out I loved it. And then, yeah. And
the Fountain Telling Willow is that same kind of thing. It's just, it's a little bit more of an
extreme version. And I think we're starting to see more of this type of experimentation,
which is what I wanted to call out. So. You're familiar with dazzle camouflage?
Yeah. Of course. So the image of the Fountain Telling Willow on your blog,
it's like dazzle camouflage to me. Yeah. Okay. Because like the pixel art is.
No, it's, it's all of the swirls in kind of the end of the pen.
Oh, yes. It's making it hard for me to understand the shape of the pen.
So this is a point I'm going to make at, as we talk about this, because I've made more
options and I'm going to tell you why I'm fine. I think to your point, especially like
if you look at the handheld bit, like compared to like it sitting on the desk, I know exactly
what you mean. And I'm going to actually have a specific point to make about that as we
go through this. But yeah, this one's shaped very uniquely. It's, it's shaped after
Willow, which is Kristen's dog, an Australian shepherd. And it's just a cute little dog
with the, with the head and the stub tail. And she put these elements into the concept
of making a pen, right? The shape's not going to be for everyone. It's, you know, it's odd,
right? It's, it's funky. It's fun. It's unique. And as a pen product, does it work? Like that's
the big question, you know, and for me it does because it's right sized for my hands. You
know, my hands very standard and the way the pen is shaped, the curves, you know, fall
right into the cusp of my hand. Like there's a concave where it hits my hand as opposed
to just like a bulge out of the hand and makes it more uncomfortable to write with. And everyone's
going to be different in how they want a pen to feel in their hand when they're writing.
And this one just kind of sets in there. And that's what I always look for in a pen. Does
it just sit into my hand and I don't notice the pen? I just write. So this one does.
So I was thinking about this as, you know, just a commentary on my own likes about pens
and thinking how many just, you know, traditionally shaped pens I have and where I'm looking,
you know, not to just go wild and change everything I enjoy about pens and start buying all kinds
of odd shapes and things like that, but trying to understand myself why I find these certain
things compelling. And it's not just the shape, it's a little bit the material, which gets
to your point here. So what's happening where you're talking about the dazzle cam piece of
this and where the end shape is kind of like a very aggressive swirl. What happens when you have
these pens, let's just call them like curvy pens, right? Just kind of like in and out shapes,
thin areas, wider areas, you get into the depths of the acrylic. And so you're seeing different like
layouts of how the material forms. Like you're seeing like the, the inside of the rod of material
when it's make, you're getting deeper in instead of to have a universal like exterior where everything's
kind of the same layer, but things still pop, right? You still have all these different colors,
but it hits a little bit different when you're getting into that interior piece and you can have
it very drastic styles from the exterior pieces. Does that make sense? Am I saying that correctly?
I think so.
So there in, in the case of the willow, where the curvature by where the neck is, what I call it,
that the taper in part, you're getting a different layers of the acrylic in there and you're seeing
it differently, right? As opposed to if that piece was straight, it would look more like what's in
the middle of the pen, right? It would be that continuation of what's in the middle of the pen.
And in this case, it's getting a shape of a pattern change by cutting into the depths of the pen,
if that makes sense. So, um, to a degree. So I was thinking, I was like, I've been very kind of drawn
to a few of these pens in the last couple of years from different makers. And, you know, I listed a few
that are kind of like at the top of my list. Um, I always joke with Bart at Zodiac pen that his Pisces
model, I think is his most popular model. And I, I always tell him, I was like, I will never have
this pen. This is not for me, but like, I get it. Right. I, I get why people like this pen. So we'll
have links in the show notes of the products I'm going to talk about, not just the willow, which
you can, you can see in my review and you can see on Kristen's page on Instagram, but the Pisces I
think is, is Bart's maybe favorite or bestselling pen because it's so uniquely shaped, right? It does.
It definitely leans into the Pisces aspect to where it's more of like a fishtail at the end,
as opposed to the willow. When you compare something like this, when you're holding in your hand,
when you're writing it, you're not resting the narrowest piece of the pen in your hand, you're
resting the widest. And that's where I have a challenge, right? So you have that width in the
barrel at the part where it hits your hand, but it also tapers more towards the front end. So
there's a balance on how you like to have, um, the pen feel in your hand based on the different shapes
that people are now making. So that's a really cool pen. If you're, you know, looking for like a
pen with like some curvature in the barrel, um, the Pisces is a super, super popular, uh, model that
every, everyone's, uh, seems to love. D squared arts is a new one to me as of about a year and a half,
two years ago, I've gotten to try some friends pens that, um, they've gotten and they do some
really unique things. It's hard to see in the pictures on some of these Mike, but there's like
twists in the barrel that you can see from some of these, you know, not just like a curve or shape
or a convex or concave. Yeah. So there's just like some creativity going on in the shaping of the pen.
There's some standard pens in here, some standard, you know, cigar, cigar shaped pens, but the ones
I've tried have been really fun. Then they, they like, they're comfortable to hold. They have that
tactile feel where you get a little bit extra, right? Instead of just straight barrel, concave
or tapered grip section and go part of the reason why we like, well, let me speak for myself. Why I
like different stationery so much is the tactile feel, which is the hardest thing to describe
because it's an individual thing. Like what I like to have in a pen that's fitting in my hand
and love how it feels might feel just very different to you. Right. And that's a super,
super individual thing, which is why we love this whole stationery thing so much. So this is one,
like what D squared makes in the different shapes I've gotten to try and feel from them. I'm like
super compelled by, um, just the creativity and just trying something different, right?
Doing some, some little different things when these small makers are making pens.
Last one may be my favorite, Mike. And I think this is probably like on my shopping list.
So, uh, Dennis over at Den's Pens makes a ton of different shapes, all kinds of, of wild shapes.
But my favorite is the Batalus. I don't know if I'm saying that right. B-A-E-T-Y-L-U-S.
This is just an absolute riot of a pen. And I mean that in just like, I don't know that there's any
two that are alike. Dennis just gets in there and makes these shapes that are so wild. Like I'm
putting a link into the page. There's one called Primary the Fifth, which is, it's sold out. Um,
these are like one of ones, right? Because each one of them is a little bit different. And he's just
like shaping all these different angles and curves and just, I don't know. I just find these to be
fascinating to look at. I've almost bought one a couple of times. I, I will eventually buy one.
Um, but like, this is a style that's not for everyone, admittedly, right? It's a very odd
shape. And I don't even know how you would describe it to someone or even attempt to other
than you just have to look at it and, and, and check it out. So yeah, I'm kind of getting into
just these kind of like off kilter shapes. And like, I don't know how to describe them. Um,
other than like non-standard is probably just the easiest way, but they still look like fountain
pens. They still act like fountain pens. They still work like fountain pens, but they have a
little bit more to them. Um, like this, I'm flipping through all these while I'm talking to you and I'm
just like stopping in my tracks. Like this one, one called Dreams, which I think is his most recent
one. It's just kind of like fascinating to look at as unique it is, as it would be to use. I think
so I am, I haven't avoided this space. Also like I, these ones, these, these Beatles pens, I can't
imagine how they would feel in my hand. Like the red handed one, it's got those notches in it and it
looks like a, like a twig. Yeah. Like I just, I just, I can't conceive of like how that would feel
to use. I'm not saying it's bad. I just looking at it, it's like, I have no idea. Oh no. It's very
clear that these are not for everyone. Yeah. Like these are, this is a pen that is not for everyone,
but then he has like a million other shapes, right? Lots of standard shapes and things like that.
But I don't know. I'm getting drawn to a little bit of the, I don't know, unique shapes that I'm
seeing. And maybe that's something I'm going to experiment more with down the line and the Willow
and that previous Enigma pen, you know, they're kind of outliers in the pens that I've used
compared to like the rest of my pens. Like they just, and it's just a little bit of shape and a
little bit of difference and a little bit of uniqueness and a little bit of fun. And I don't
know, it's something I've found myself being drawn to a little bit more over the last couple
of years. Plus we're getting some really cool makers in the space that are doing neat things
like, you know, Zodiac and D squared and dens and fountain telling. So I like, I like seeing
this type, I'm not even going to call it experimentation. It's just more of an expression. Again, it's
an expression of the art of the maker. And I like that. And I like the story and I like
the, you know, the competences that they have to just like make something they want to
make and put it out there. Like it's impressive to me. So anyway, I just, the, the Willow made
me think of this, that I've caught myself looking at more and more of this type of pen
and I'll probably end up buying, you know, a couple of things like this in the future just
to experiment with it. And, and in the end, maybe it doesn't work for me either. Right.
But this is where I'm kind of finding my interest right now.
Yeah. I mean, it's one of the benefits of the hobby that it can support all these small
makers. And because it supports so many small makers, it forces them to be inventive so
that they stand out from the crowd. And so creating completely different shapes is, is how you do
that. Right. Cause that is how new things are found anyway. It's like, it's a, you know, you've
got to force people to try new stuff and it isn't all going to work, but there will just
inevitably be new invention that occurs based on the, the, the constraint of if I'm not different
enough, no one will care.
Yeah. And whether like I personally like it or you personally like it or not, it's almost,
it's necessary in like this hobby to see this type of innovation and experimentation. Um, whether
it's for you or not for you, you want to, you want to be in a, I want to be in a hobby
that supports this. Yes. Yes. Right. Yeah. Even if it's not for me, because there will be something
there will be something that is for me and is supported by the fact that people can get weird
with it. Yep. Totally. Totally. Oh, Mike, we can get weird with this next one. I promise. It doesn't
sound like, you know, our, our good friends over at Pen Chalet who are sponsoring this, but let me
tell you, I've got something I've been waiting for this. I'm actually kind of excited to talk about
it. So hit me with, uh, hit me with what's up over at Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet, I've got the
products that you want from the brands that you love, whether you're looking for a new, amazing
rollerball, fountain pen, ballpoint, mechanical pencil, maybe a bottle of ink, accessory, a carrying
case, it doesn't matter what you want. You can go and get something there and you have the
selection of all of the brands that you love over at Pen Chalet, a list that grows forever
and ever. Like if I go to the brands page now, pick some out. Endless, we've got field notes
in here. We've got Parker, Platinum in here, Rotaring and Sailor. Uh, we've got Stipula,
we've got Y Studio, Waterman, uh, we've got Pen Chalet themselves. Uh, it goes on and on
and on and on and on. This brand list is huge. You're always going to find new stuff being
added over at Pen Chalet. They're adding new products every month and they're also doing
discounts every couple of weeks as well. Pen Chalet, so internationally with great shipping
rates and do free shipping on orders of over a hundred dollars in the U.S. Pen Chalet
has low prices on high quality pens and they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Because
you listen to this show, you can get 10% off anything at Pen Chalet just by going to
pennchalet.com slash penaddict and you'll also see a list of exclusive offers because you
listen to this show. So we're going to get to those offers, Mike, but I've been waiting
for this pen to pop up on Pen Chalet because I've seen pictures of it floating around.
Um, it's called the Delta DV original midsize orange primary manipulation 4.5 fountain pen.
So that's a big title. That's a, yeah, that's a name. Well, you know what? It's a name befitting
of this pen. So I sent you a link in the chat. Um, you seem nonplussed by it because this pen
is a hot mess express. I don't like, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm excited about it.
I'm so into this. So it's an orange barrel. So Deltas, I don't own any Deltas, but they're
known for this orange acrylic material. They'll either do mostly they do like the barrel section,
which is what they've done here. And then they've added in the primary manipulation,
uh, from Jonathan Brooks and the, in the cap and the finials, everything about this pen
screams Brad. Like this is a weird, wild pen. We're trying to figure out like, it's so wild.
What pen am I looking at here? I think I'll be looking at the wrong one.
Oh yeah. So it's called the midsize orange primary, orange primary manipulation 4.5
is what's in the dropdown. And I sent the link, but maybe it just copied wrong or something.
Yeah. You put the wrong link in the show notes, but it's the right title. Um, there's an orange
one. So it's on their main page. Um, yeah, you need to pull this up because I'm like super
fascinated by it. I don't know how to make the link, uh, work for you here. Yeah. It's the exact
same link. Oh, hello. You got a different one. Oh, I see it now. Whoa, this thing's mad.
So we decided, cause I've been looking at it. I love it. Yeah. I've been, I've been looking at
this pen and considering it, right. Considering buying it. And it's just so weird and wonderful.
And I was like, it looks, I like, I don't know what to call this. And we were like brainstorming
names. We decided that this pen should be called the tiger King of pens. Yes. I feel like this is
the tiger King of pens pen. I, I, this is so out there. This is one of the weirdest looking
pens I've ever seen. This is crazy. I love it. Yeah. I legitimately love this pen. So
I'll probably end up buying one soon. It's cause they do the regular orange midsize and
they have full primary manipulation midsize. And so they were like, por que no los dos?
Why not both? You know? Why not both? I mean, and they've, you know what, Brad, they've done
it. I'll say that much for them. I, yeah, it's crazy how much I like this pen, this, this
pen, like this, when they were making this, they have to go like, this is a bad idea, right?
Yeah. But it's great. It turned out so good because it's just so out there. It's completely
out there. None of this should be happening, but I'm way, I'm way in on this. So yeah. I'm
calling this the tiger King of pens. And I think at this point, like, I'm just going to,
I'm just going to have to commit to the bit and buy one of these. You have to own one
of these. You kidding me? And that's pretty great. Pretty great price too. Over at Pen
Chile. Yeah. Totally great price. Go check it out over Pen Chile. Yep. Yep. And, uh, over
there on, Oh, a couple other things. Uh, well, one random thing completely off like
any relation to the previous Delta. They have the new platinum, uh, preppies, black
barrel, special edition fountain pens, which is the other end of the spectrum.
Absolutely. Spectrum. Yeah. But preppy, we've talked about this before. Preppy's
doing some just new all black barrel colors, which look good. So they have those. And then
over there on our specials page, they have some, uh, 10 milliliter bottles of Ferris
wheel press inks, uh, which look interesting probably because even the 10 milliliter
bottle probably has a better top opening than their full size, full size
bottles. So this might be the way to go with Ferris wheel press inks. They have a crazy
Aurora Oceani fountain pen in here, which is a super expensive pen. Just, it's got a lot
of silver, uh, on it and it's just a gorgeous, gorgeous pen at a great price. So yeah, go
check out everything's going on essentially. Yeah. It's a, it's a straight up like OG
Aurora, but like gorgeous, gorgeous. Um, last one. Um, and this isn't on our deals
page, but this one's coming soon. This one dropped like yesterday or a couple of days
ago. It's called the Laban 326 midnight mirage. So this is another Brooks material
in a Laban pen. I saw this picture and I was like, Whoa, this might be my, I've, I've
reviewed several Labans and they're always great. I don't own one particularly.
Oh, that's a good looking acrylic. Yeah. So really nice. Yeah. Really nice. And these
are, these are great pens just like it's in that, um, you know, one 50 to $200 price
range steel nib pen, but really good quality. I've, I've always enjoyed all, all the
pens I've reviewed from Laban. They just feel solid and feel good. And this is a really
fun material. Yeah. So go check it out over at pinch light. Lots of great things going
on over there right now. I will say, you know, speaking of, of, uh, Tiger King, uh, someone
also put in the discord, you know, in relation to that and, and on the Delta TV, I'm never
going to financially recover from this. But let me tell you with the 10% off and the
great prices over a pen, you will be able to financially recover from that pen.
That's right. That's right. That's penshalay.com slash pen addict. Thank you, Ron. Please love
us. Uh, thanks to Pen Chalet for their support of this show and relay.
I had to do it to a man. I love that pen. It's, it's so good. Like I'm, I'm going to end
up with it. The only reason I haven't bought it yet, Mike is because of this next topic.
I've bought other pens. So, um, you know, we gotta, we gotta manage ourself here. You know,
I didn't go to the Chicago pen show this past weekend, which seemed to be like really, really
popping off. Um, but I did do some shopping of my own online and, uh, the Instagram got
me, Mike, which has happened once or twice before I bought a Scogsy pen, um, from like,
you know, seeing it just basically not even a drop, you know, on Instagram, but just showing
someone showing small makers again, showing, Hey, here's a pen I made. And then they'll have
like a bunch of pens that they've made in all their posts. And this one kind of stopped
me in my tracks. It's called shepherd's warning from pens by Casey. So pens by Casey and Australian
pen maker, um, posted this one on Instagram. Number one, I like the colors it's black and
then has the bright blue and pink or like hot pink acrylics, um, mixed in there. And then
I was reading this description. So the black barrel is actually Gabon ebony wood.
So this is beautiful. Yeah. So that popped up and I was like, do I send him a message? Like
this is, I like, this is, this is a Brad pen. Like if I've ever seen a pen, that's a Brad
pen. This is a Brad pen. I love this pen. Yeah. Yeah. So like hemmed and hawed and I was
like, let me just shoot him a DM. He's like, yeah, it's available. Here's the price. I was
like, okay, I'll take it. And that was it. Um, straight from Australia. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
it's, so it's a model. So this model is the Tashokuno model. Yeah. Um, so yeah, like, you
know, just like all of his pens are one of one, right? A lot of makers will, will do things
like, like Casey, if you go through his Instagram, it's a lot of wood, full wood barrel pens,
and then a lot of a full acrylic barrel pens and some like experimentation with like cat
band designs and some things, some really unique stuff. Wow. These pens are so beautiful.
Yeah. So that one came in. I'm very happy with that one. So, um, oh, I'm going to follow this
account cause I can see a purchase in my future. Yeah. These are really nice. Really, really
good. Yeah. And I had been following them. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah. Really good. So yeah. Shout out
super helpful. Very nice. Um, hadn't really, I hadn't talked to Casey before, uh, before this.
Um, but just really easy to work with and, um, I'm enjoying the pen so far. I inked it
up with a, I like a purplish pink ink. It's called a pilot or Roshizuku Ito Murasaki, which
is a Tokyo limited edition that, uh, friend of the show Jacob sent me. It's kind of like a
good, good match to the pen. Um, it was only going to be pink or purple or something going
into this pen for sure. Brad, I'm dying over here. What have you done to me? Sorry. They're
really good. These are some of the most beautiful pens I've seen in a long time. Yeah. Like
this person, Casey, right? Is that a name? Yeah. They are incredibly talented. Yeah. Like
there is some masterworks going on over here. What are we doing? Wow. I know. Yeah. I do
like the, um, so I've seen, uh, like, uh, Sean Newton who does like some of these, like
these cat band treatments. And I think a lot of people have do these cat band treatments.
Like if you're doing like a single barrel, single color barrel and then mixing in like
a different line or two of a different material in case he does that really well as well, you
know, have like a wooden pen and have like a turquoise bit. There's some Brooks stuff in
here too. Yep. That he's used. Man, oh man. Yep. So that's a great one. I just got that
in. I'm enjoying that. This is, this is why I don't have, yeah, sorry, Mike, but this is
why I don't have a Tiger King of pens yet because I bought that. And then I also picked up the
gold spot Edison Newark fountain pen. It's called Magellanic Clouds, which I have a hard time
saying that word. And, uh, chat got mad at me because they're like, yeah, you don't know
what Magellanic Clouds are. It's this whole space thing. I'm like, no, I just don't like saying
Magellanic. So yeah, it's, it's a, it's a space thing or a galaxy or some star formation.
Two irregular dwarf galaxies in the Southern celestial hemisphere orbiting the Milky Way.
I just don't like saying that word. Like I'm down with it. Magellanic. Yeah. It's not great.
Magellanic. Magellanic. Oh, this pen is great though. It's this, I don't even, I don't know. How
would you describe this material? I don't, I'm, I'm failing. It looks kind of clear with
a swirl. It's definitely clear. It's like ghost blue sparkle. I really like the blue stamping
of Edison. Yep. I think that's a really great color. Like a cobalt kind of color. Really
nice looking. Yep. And then on the backside, they have a cloud like stamped onto it as well
or etched into it in the same blue. Right. You'll have to find the right picture, but on
the back of the cap, just like a little etching there. Why do they have a cloud on
it? It's Magellanic, Mike. But the, but it's not a cloud. Is that a cloud or is that just
like a space like explosion? I mean, that looks like a cloud to me, just like a cloud, but
it's Magellanic. Yeah, but they're not clouds. Says who? Says Google.
Um, so long time listeners will know I'm a super fan of the Edison Beaumont shape. It's one of their
smaller pins in their lineup. And the Newark is a shape that is, I'd say pretty closely related to
the Beaumont that they just make specifically for gold spot. Um, so I, I have one of my pins of the
year. The first year I did the pin of the year was the Edison Newark Orion, which was another space,
um, galaxy themed pin. And this one's kind of on the opposite end of that spectrum. It was a very
dark and moody, kind of like the, the pins by Casey pin we just talked about where this is very
light and cloudy, if you will, Mike, um, fantastic material, loving the material. So yeah, it looks like
there's like something going on inside the pen. Yeah. Well, it's just, it's all this iridescence
and what was, Ooh, I get to use that word. Is this chatoyance, Mike? I don't know, I don't know
that word. Sure. We're going to go with it. It's very chatoyance-y. Chatoyance or the cat's eye
effect is an optical reflectance phenomenon where a movable shimmering band of light appears
across the surface of a gemstone or material. I'm Googling like a, like a, like a mother lover today.
I'm just like all over this. Yeah. You're fast. You're fast. Quick, quick draw. Quick draw.
So anyway. Brad, you should have seen the way I spelled chatoyance because it wasn't right.
Yeah. No, that's a tough one. Yeah. Yeah. It was very Magellanic of you. Thank you. Use the word
in a sentence. I had a tough time figuring out what to ink this up with. Let me even grab the bottle
here. Like what would you, what would you, what would you ink up this? I mean, it's going to be
a bright blow. Yeah. Okay. That's what I went with, but it's, I didn't matchy matchy it enough. So
it's Sailor Manio Yamogi, which ended up being a little bit more teal than I wanted. Um, it's still
beautiful though. Like I'm still going to use it. Like I'm not unhappy with it, but like, you know,
you mentioned like the cobalt, the cobalt trim. Yeah. Yeah. Like the cobalt trim that you're
mentioning is like, it's really tough, but it's got to like a lot of sparkles in it. It doesn't,
this is another one. Honestly, the photographs are great. It's better in person. Um, the,
with all the chatoyance and pearlescence and Magellanic ness of the clouds on this is just
off the charts in person. So that one again, why I don't have a Tiger King of pins yet.
The last one I wanted to mention is so far off the beaten path. And this is the one that's been
cracking me up the entire episode because I had to like scoot it away because I kept looking at it and
fidgeting with it. So unrelated to everything we've been talking about. This is the pilot
air step mechanical pencil. So this is the reveal of what has been so exciting to you this whole
episode. Yeah, totally. You'll see why just, you just wait. Whoa, what's going on here? Okay.
Who's that little guy? So that's, that's, I'm going to, should we call him airy? I don't know.
Does he have a name or I shouldn't, I shouldn't gender the stickers. You're not gendered the air
step. I've learned. Yeah. Um, so I have a different sticker that came with mine. So the little air
step thing. Oh, there's a sticker. Yeah. So it comes with stickers. So this is, this is a brand new
product from pilot in their mechanical pencil lineup. We talked about it when it launched because we did
that. Do you remember when we did like the pilot? Um, you know, like the, the shareholder report
like last year and they had that whole PDF. This was one of the new products that they launched.
So I just got it. They have a mustard edition and a ketchup edition for limited editions. This
is like a $6 pencil, right? So weird. And they come with the sticker set of whatever this little
character is. I don't know what this character is. Can you pick out, he just looks like, like
it's the letter A pants. Okay. Right. Yeah. I guess. Yeah. I guess he's got the, where is
this little, I'm just going to say dude. I'm going to say dude because they're wearing a backwards
cap. Backwards hat. Yeah. Fair enough. We're going to call this little A a dude. Whatever, no
matter what the gender is of the little A, I'm going to say this little dude. Yeah. They
just call it the Airstep mascot. It's like wearing clothes that cover the dude's entire
body except eyes and also mouth. Yeah. Well, he has to make the A. I also very uncomfortable
where the mouth is on this character, but that's a problem for another time. So what I'm laughing
at to your point here is not shown on this product page. It comes with a sticker, right?
So I got the sticker set on the left where you can build the Airstep, right? I can build
my own Airstep with heads and hats and arms and things like that, like a Mr. Potato Head
type of situation. Then it comes with just a single sticker. Like that one has, you know,
Airstep holding, Airsteps, right? Yeah. Mine, if I'm going to have to put this on Instagram
or something so I can share it and take a picture of it. This is what got me giggling. Mine, so
picture Airstep with the Airstep pin jammed right into his face. Wait, what? Yeah. So
he's like leaning down on the Airstep and it's jammed into his head. And that's what
I turned, I turned my head and I saw that. I was like, oh, this is a little sticker. And
then I looked closely. It is hilarious. This is so weird. We haven't even talked about the
pencil yet. Um, so I'll, I'll put a, I'll put a picture in the, in, in Instagram after
the show later today. So you can see what sticker I got with it. So it's like a little
like mini gotcha type of thing. Like this, you don't see what stickers you get. So it's
like a little foil package on the back of the Airstep packaging, which is great by the
way, the packaging is fantastic, but these are supposed to be, you know, this should
be like, you know, you go into the convenience store, the 7-Eleven in Japan and you buy the Airstep
off the shelf, right? It's a $6 pencil. It has an auto advancing technology in it. So
this is not just the basic like click pencil. They designed it to make, uh, they designed
it Mike as a perfect choice for anyone who wants to spend less time clicking and more time
writing. I mean, I'm known for spending a lot of time clicking. So, so this is one of
those mechanisms that I don't love, but I wanted to try it right. Because it's their
new pencil. So what you do, you can advance it with the clip, right? It doesn't have a
traditional knock on the back of the pencil. Um, it does have an eraser under the cap,
but the cap is not the way you advance the lead. You can do it by the clip, right? So
a lot of ballpoint pens will have that clip mechanism. I think people are familiar with
that. Or you have the lead pipe and you just jam the lead pipe into the page and then it
retracts itself and then shoots out a properly length, um, writing lead. You with me? No. So
it's not auto advancing. You're basically just right. And as you're writing, you just push
down the tip and then it retracts itself and advances the lead. One clicks worth of lead.
Hmm. Yeah. So I will, I will literally never use that. I'll just click it. But oddly enough
for this price point, it has a fully retractable pipe, which is not a normal thing. So for a $6
pen, so the pipe completely retracts into the nose cone. So anyway, super compelling little entry
level pencil, but I'm more here for like the storytelling and character. I need to understand
why they felt it necessary to create a mascot for this product. I mean, that is only in the yellow
and red one. Well, that's the only ones I bought. Yeah. Why would you buy the blue or the purple?
Like, but they don't have the mascot, right? No. Uh-uh. So, but why? I don't know. Yeah. They
have worse, they have worse packaging. They don't have stickers and they're the exact same
price. I mean, I don't know why you would buy anything but a ketchup or mustard to be
quite honest. Um, even the logo, even the logo is different on the ketchup and mustard
air steps hanging off the air step word mark on ketchup and mustard. They're not on mustard.
He's not even on. And ketchup. Oh, ketchup. He's doing something different. Yeah. I'm using,
oh, so I'm using, I have both, but I'm using mustard. So I don't have ketchup right in front
of me. Ketchup, he's kind of behind it. He's like billboarding the air stuff. Yeah. Super
interesting. I'm going to put this sticker on here because I'm actually, I'm actually dying
here on this sticker. So that's great. Um, that's, what's keeping me busy, busy, Mike,
uh, pins, pins from space and, uh, apparently aliens, uh, from mechanical pencil land, wherever
air step is from, uh, I don't know this little dude. Yeah. Yeah. What's he doing?
A step. Fantastic. So, so we'll have, we'll have this out, uh, on the Instagram later and
y'all can all check out air step for yourselves. So if you would like to find those show notes,
you can, uh, find them in your podcast app of choice. So you can go on the web to relay.fm
slash pen addict slash seven one five. Um, as we mentioned, I'm not going to be here next
week. So Brad is going to be interviewing April. Whoa. So look forward to that. Um, if
you want to find Brad online, go to twitch.tv slash pen addict, pen addict.com and spoke
design.com. Uh, if you've got the new spoke pens ready yet, no, no delays, delays,
Mike tweaks, tweaks, self-inflicted, you got to tweak, always be tweaking, always be tweaking
ABT. So yeah. Um, we're probably now I was hoping we get some new stuff out in May. I
think we're probably looking at June. Okay. Okay. We're close. We're close. Like it's,
it's going to be a lot of stuff. Yeah. All right. I'll look forward to that then. If
you want to find me online, you can go to the enthusiast.net. You can also find me, uh,
at cortexbrown.com as well. Uh, thank you to Pen Chalet and Factor for their support of this show,
but most of all, thank you for listening until next time. Say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.