Editing The Pen Addict 735/transcript (section)

== Kuru Toga ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Kuru Toga Black Mat and Gun Metal Dive has been launched in Japan. It looked like on September 16th, about a week ago. So, I only see this usually through Japanese sources. This was an Instagram that I wasn't even following. It just got fed to me. And I was like, that dive looks funny. Like, I was looking at the picture. I was like, it doesn't look like any of the ones I've seen, because they've done, the initial one was kind of a bright ocean blue. And then they did some different color ones, you know, green and purple and orange. And I was like, this looks different. So, as I was digging through the translation, it is a black mat barrel. And then it has the gun metal hardware. So, on the dive, if you're not familiar with the dive, you're going to have to go click a link to find it. I have my old review in there. It's this very complicated pencil that Uniball has made in the Kuru Toga lineup. It's the high-end, does-all-the-things pencil, which we'll talk about the pencil itself as we wrap this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I was, I guess, surprised to see it, because I really don't understand totally what the dive is for Uniball. Is this just some, you know, premium product that's just for Japan? And that's kind of, right now, that still seems like what it is. When it launched last year, I thought at some point, and I should probably stop putting this on companies. This is my, this is a me problem, where Uniball makes a cool thing. And I've talked about it with Platinum recently with the kimono fountain pen. They make a cool thing, and it's essentially region locked, right? And I want Uniball as a worldwide company to send this elsewhere, right? So, instead of making, like, more dives for the rest of the world, they've just done cooler dives for the environment that they're in. And I can't argue with that either, because that's probably the best market for it. Because this is a very unique pencil and a very expensive, all-things-considered pencil. So, there's no technical differences in this pen other than just the colors, right? So, the, it has a, these, the dive has a few trim, metal trim pieces, like, more like cap rings and things like that. And those are, have been gun metal instead of shiny silver. And the clip is the same way. And the barrel is a matte finish instead of a shiny finish. What's interesting in all of the dive drama we had a couple years ago when it first came out is that it's still, in Japan, only 5,500 yen, which the current conversion rate is $35.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's a deal if you're in the Japanese market. For the standard one, the black matte one, the point I'm bringing that up, the black matte one is 7,700 yen. The yen? So, it's $49.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Is the yen still weak against the dollar? Yes. I think it is, right? So, I don't think it's as simple as that, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like... I agree. I agree. Yeah. So, like... So, to my point, yeah, I was going to continue this. This, in the US market, so the base one should be like 49, and then the black one like 59 or 64 or whatever, you know, price points they would go in. And that's fine, but it never gets that way because if you're going to get them outside of Japan, even in Europe or in the US, those companies that do sell them are importing them. So, they're paying a premium on the front end. So, the cheapest, like... If you look at a retailer like JetPens in the US, it's $83 for the standard one. If you look at Uniball's own North America site, it's $99, which still enrages me to this day. Yeah. You shouldn't... That's a bit much. You shouldn't pay more than like $50 for this pencil, right? Because at the end of the day, it's not that good of pencil, in my opinion. And again, I'll get to that. We'll revisit that here in a minute. But, this is something, as a stationery fan, you should want companies to be doing, right? This is a very extreme product to where they threw everything they could into a single pencil. And it's not for everyone. And I am trying to like it, but I mostly actively dislike it.