Editing The Pen Addict 606/transcript (section)

== Uniball pin bracket and voting process ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, yeah, that's good. I am about to force a path, though, Myke, and that is with the Uniball pin bracket. It is bracket season, of course, with March Madness taking place in the U.S. Every company has to do a bracket. Last year, we covered Lamy's bracket and told them how wrong they were in many of their choices. So this year, we're going to talk about Uniball's bracket and tell them how wrong they are in their bracket choices. So what I want to do, Myke, is I'm going to go through, I'm going to give my entire bracket here. So what Uniball has done, they've released this on their Instagram. You vote on their Instagram stories, which is, you know, whatever. It seems like a challenge.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's a way to take votes, you know?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It is. It's a way to take votes. It's fine. And the good thing that I like about this bracket, it's only 16 pins, right? So we have eight pins on one side of the bracket, eight pins on the other. You know, we'll go through all the entrants here. They have already done the first vote, which I have not looked at the results yet. So we're going to do that in a minute. I have not pulled that up to look at. But we're going to take their initial bracket, which we'll put a link in the show notes, to Instagram. You will have to embiggen this in any way that you can. And it is not very legible in the standard size. So we're going to start on the top left of the bracket, Myke. And this is Uniball, obviously, with Uniball products. And it should come as the shock to no one that I have a lot to say about this bracket. So we're going to go first. The first one, they went easy on me. So they did a good job of doing comparable products in the first round matchup. So we have the Uniball Vision in other parts of the world, like in the UK, where you are, Myke. This is the Uniball Eye, E-Y-E. And it's going up against the Vision Elite. This is a no contest walkover Vision Elite win. Even though I think the Vision is a very popular pin, it's one of the worst pins that Uniball makes because the ink, the rollerball ink, and I've been on my rollerball kick here recently. This is the one rollerball pin I do not like because it is just a straight up flood of ink on the page. For some people, that's a pro, right? Like artists really like the Vision because the amount of ink it puts on the page, right? I do not like it from a writing perspective because it's just a flood. The Vision Elite, for some reason, is a completely different flow of ink. It's very much more metered. It's a lot nicer to use. And I think the Vision Elite is a great pin. So that's easy. The second one going down the left side of the bracket here is the Uniball Onyx, which is their classic rollerball office pin, right? This is a pin you would buy by the dozen, throw them in the office supply cabinet, and that is going against the Uniball Deluxe, which is kind of the same type of refill but in a more premium barrel. So the regular workers would get the Onyx and then the C-Suite gets the Deluxe. Like that's kind of how it operates, right? Because they're fancier people. I like both of these pins. The Deluxe is a pin I used a bunch like back in the 90s over the Onyx, even though I use the Onyx similarly. So I'm going to have to pick the Deluxe here. So we have the Vision Elite moving on and then the Deluxe moving on. So the next category, they start to lose me a little bit. So the next matchup is the Jetstream versus the Jetstream 101. Now there's a million different versions of Jetstream. So the Jetstream in this scenario is the classic capped Jetstream pin, one of the original styles. And then the Jetstream 101 is kind of the stick pin version, more like the Onyx version of the Jetstream, right? It's just supposed to be streamlined, much less expensive. And, you know, even though it's got the same refill, same refill, same ink type, this was not an easy one because both of these pins suck. I just want to be clear. So we're going to take the classic Jetstream on this one and hope it gets knocked out here pretty soon in a future bracket.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because the bottom of the left side of the bracket is the Jetstream RT, which is the follow-up to the regular Jetstream in the previous bracket, but just the click version, against the Jetstream BLX, which is also a click version, but has the BLX ink, which is, in this case, I'm going to assume it's blue-black. That's what the picture looks like. But there's actually some other really cool colors in here. And I'm going to take the BLX because of the ink color options. So we have the Elite versus the Deluxe in the final eight. And then we have the Jetstream versus the Jetstream BLX. So let's switch over to the other side of the bracket here. Myke, is this as thrilling for you as it is for me?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm on the edge of my seat, Brad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, good, good, good, good. So we flip it over to the other side and we get quite a range of pins. The first, like the first matchup on the other side, on the left side of the bracket, the right side of the bracket is the Gel Impact versus the Signo DX. Again, this is a walkover. That's the DX all day long and twice on Sundays. I don't even know what that means. But the Gel Impact is basically your wider barrel Signo refills, like your 0.7s and your 1.0 millimeters. And the DX just has way more variety. And it's just a flat out better pin. One of my favorite pins of all time. So the DX goes. Next up, Myke, we have two pins. I literally had to Google search, which is astonishing to me. And I figured out what they are. So they're calling this. I wonder if this is like an introduction of this new naming convention here. So we have the Elements versus the Spectrum. I have never heard of either of these pins. But what the Elements is, is the classic Jetstream Sport. And that's my favorite Jetstream of all time. And I don't know why it's called the Elements now. But if you look at it, it's literally what the Jetstream Sport is and used to be. Maybe this is just its new name. The Spectrum is similar. I've never heard of the Spectrum. And if you look at the picture, it's the Signo RT1, which is another awesome pin. These are two great pins. I've just literally never heard them called these names. So maybe they're just switching up the marketing a little bit on these. This was a top tier selection here. Both of these were very, very difficult to pick from. They're both two of my favorite pins. And we're going to take the Spectrum, which is the Signo RT1 model, just because there's more ink color variety in the Spectrum. And it's a really good pin. And it's one I highly recommend. Next up, we head into the pencil bracket. We head into the oddities bracket here, except for one standout, which you'll see in a second. The Chroma mechanical pencil, which I've never used, versus the Kuro Togo. Again, the Uni Kuro Togo, easy and a walkover. That is not even close. Not even a fair fight here. I would be shocked if the Chroma won, unless there was a BTS uprising in the votes to pull the Chroma through for some reason.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Do you think that the BTS fans are lined around the Chroma?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We're going to find out here in a minute. We're going to find out. We're going to find out. And then the last one is the Emote. And it looks like they're using the Emote marker for this, because the Emote also comes in a mechanical pencil version, a colored pencil version. We're going to go with the Emote marker versus the Uni Pen Fineliner. This is a tough decision, and I think I have to go with the Pen, which is the standard Fineliner. Even though the Emotes are really, really good, and they have a lot of cool colors, I think the Fineliner is the way to go. All right. So before I continue the bracket, and we have the Elite Eight left, I'm going to go over to Uniball's feed, and I'm going to look at who has won this round, their first round here, because I'm pretty sure it's on there. Let's see here. So, yeah, we're on to round two. Let's see here. Okay. So the Vision Elite, whoops, won that bracket.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I feel like there's a pen missing, Brad. That, like, that, like, and I'm trying to Google it, and I can't find the name of it. Like, the very standard Uniball pen. Like, the Click one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So we're going to get to it. I actually have a note. Okay, good. There's two that are missing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay, good. Because I feel like I'm losing my mind here. I'm like, where is the pen that I think should win this? Hold on that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes, hold on that. Because there's actually a perfect matchup that would have been better in one of these categories. Probably, like, over the emote and fineliner that we didn't get. All right. So the Vision Elite and the Deluxe, which is what I picked. Then we have the Jetstream, which is what I picked, and the Jetstream BLX. So I was 100% right on the first one. So I was thinking what I would pick, not what the fans would pick. But we are exactly lined up on the left side of the bracket. The Gel Impact beat the Signo DX.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's a travesty.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It is a travesty. But I get it, because the DX is only recently, like in the past five to seven years, been a store shelf pen, right? This was not a worldwide release, like the Gel Impact. So less people are familiar with the DX than the Gel Impact. So I'm picking the DX every time. I'm not surprised at the Gel Impact. One, just from an awareness perspective, right? From a shelf space perspective, the Gel Impact has more shelf awareness than the DX. So I get that. The next up, I had no idea what would win here. They picked the Elements over the Spectrum, which the Elements is the Jetstream Sport, and the Spectrum is the Signo RT1. I'm not surprised that that won there. I love the Elements too. That was kind of like an unfair matchup, pretty much, because both of them are very, very good. And then the Kuretoga versus the Chroma. The Kuretoga won, and then the Fineliner won against the Emote. So I matched up with the Vote, except for the Gel Impact beating the DX and the Elements beating the Spectrum. So to your point,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' there are, before I finish out the bracket here, which now we're pretty much in the easy part, to your point, what is missing? And instead of the Emote and Fineliner matchup, we should have had a Uni Signo 207 versus a Uni 1R. And I don't understand why either of those pens, even one of those pens, should have made this bracket somewhere. The Signo 207 instead of the Gel Impact, this, the, I don't know, either of them over the Emote and the Fineliner. The 207 and 307 has to be one of their best sellers around the world. And I don't know why that's not in the bracket. And then the 1R, and the, or I should just say the 1, the Uni 1, should have been in here because that's their most popular current pin. So I'm guessing you were thinking of the Signo 207, which is the classic. I think so. That's the G2 competitor.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, this is what, yes. That is, this is exactly what I'm thinking of. Yes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So I had a note that the 207 and the Uni 1 should have been a matchup instead of the Emote instead of the, and Fineliner. That would have been a better competition because those pens are super popular. I don't understand why they're not in here. Or even the, the one of the Jetstream, like on the left side of the bracket where there's four Jetstreams, like two of those could have been removed. Like the BLX doesn't need to be here, even though it won. The BLX and the 101 don't need to be there, right? You can just have a Jetstream versus the Jetstream RT.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Obviously, I love it, but it doesn't make sense to me to have the Kuru Toga in this bracket. Like I don't, I don't get it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Spoiler alert, Kuru Toga is going to win the whole thing. Yeah, I know. I'm picking the Kuru Toga. I believe the Kuru Toga will win the whole thing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But that's why it doesn't make any sense. It's like, it's a different thing. Right. Why not put a notebook in it too?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They, well, and then they put it, they seeded it correctly to where it's going to have no competition through the whole, through the whole thing, which is why it's going to win. So real quick, my final four would be the Vision Elite and then the Jetstream BLX.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' With the Vision Elite making the final, right? That's a whole, that's a pretty weak left side of the bracket. If the Vision Elite, which is a pin that I love, makes it all the way through. And then the other side, I had the DX versus the Kuru Toga in the final four with the Kuru Toga getting through. And then the Kuru Toga, it's a walkover in the final against literally every other pin on the left side of the bracket. Right? Like it's, the Kuru Toga has to beat the Fineliner right now. And then the Kuru Toga has to beat the Gel Impact or the Elements, which it's going to do. And then against any other pin that's going to make it through on the left-hand side, the Kuru Toga is going to win very easily. I think so. We'll see how the bracket shakes out, but it's always fun to have a little bracket season and see how these companies do it. But like you, I'm just curious, more curious about the 207 and 1 Omission, given that those are the two, two of the most popular pins that they sell. So interesting stuff. Good times, bracket season.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Bracket season, indeed. If you decide that you want to buy up a bunch of pens of your own and make your own bracket, I have a great place for you to go. And that's Pen Chalet. Let's go. Thanks to Pen Chalet for the support of this episode. They sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have your favorite brands and they believe in giving you the best products they can at the best prices possible. Pen Chalet have faster, reliable customer service. They add new pens every single month and every two weeks you'll be able to find new deals over at Pen Chalet as well as the incredible deals that you get for being a listener of this show, which you can get to by going to penchalet.com that's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password PENADDICT for this week's special offers and to get the code you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Pen Chalet. What's catching your eye this week, Brad?