Editing The Pen Addict 406/transcript (section)

== Transitioning from ACNH to Stationery Recommendations ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So, there is your Animal Crossing segment of this week's show. It may not be the last Animal Crossing segment because I'm building a writing room. So, I have, like, people have been giving me all the different writing sets that are available in the game. So, we'll have to do it right now.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, I have a good one called the essay, which is, like, what looks like a bottle of sailor ink. Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I got that one. I don't know what pen it is. Yeah. I got the essay set, the homework set, the painting set.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I need a desk. All these things. Anyway, let's not do this. All of my Apple podcasts are turning into Animal Crossing podcasts.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I just need furniture. All my stuff's on the floor. So, anyway, well, this falls into the category of what are we using this week. I didn't say what stationery we're using in this header, right? So, I'm also using my Nintendo Switch playing Animal Crossing. So, there you have it. So, there. It is now officially on topic. But let's talk about other things.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We need to arrange a joint stream on your channel where I come on and we play together. Yeah. And we go around each other's islands. Easy peasy. People will enjoy that. I will enjoy that. We need to watch that one. I will enjoy that. Today, I am using two pens. They're fancy special pens to me. The Platinum 3776 Arushi Riding Galaxy Starlight, which is its full name. Because I keep picking... I pick this pen up every day. Yes. I try and find a use for it every single day. Because it is absolutely stunning in its weird mix of subtlety and garishness. I don't have another pen that's like this, right? Where, like... That's fair. I like how you put that. Take away the Raden. It is the most boring of looking pens, right? Where it is just like a black Arushi pen with gold furniture. So, like... Yes. At a distance, kind of, maybe, if you're not looking at it in the right way, you could dismiss it as just like, I've seen these pens a million times. But then you pick it up and it's like more Roden Flake than you've ever seen. Your entire life. The pen is just covered in it, right? So, like... That... Yeah. That makes it very... Makes it very special. And I adore it. It's a Platinum, right? And it's 18 karat gold nib. Like, it's just... Is it 18? I don't know if it's 18, actually. It might be 24.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think we do this every time. It is. Because we've talked so much about this nib.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, I know it. We still don't know what it is. It is a gold nib. I know that much.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm trying to find it now. Nib. Nib. Who knows? It is 18. Yeah. 18 karat gold nib.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mark your nibs, people. Yep. Size and material.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mm-hmm. And I've also been using today the Japan Steel Pro Gear. Yeah. The one that's like... Got the little marks in it. Like the hammered marks in it. Yep. So, they're the two pens that I've been using today. Going up market. Luxury today.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That... Sailor is such a unique pen. Mm-hmm. Like I'm not regretting not getting on it. And I could probably source one if I...

'''Myke Hurley:''' I actually think... Wanted to. They are still available.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's so unique. It's better... Even better in person than it looked on the screen. And I was fascinated by its style. But it's just like I really don't need that pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, on Wunch's website right now, they are saying that the fine nib is still available.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Hmm. Yeah. I mean, I'm not going to buy it. Like I don't need to spend... Yeah. So... That seems... Honestly, that's more reasonable than some of their other stuff. To be perfect. Having held and used that pen, that's a more reasonable price than some of the other things that I bought. I promise you that. I will say as well,

'''Myke Hurley:''' I absolutely adore the Bunglebox 4B. Right? We said it on the video that we did. That is a mic pen through and through. It is. Those pens are about the same price. And the Japan Steel is a better like price. Like it's a better value, I think. Because that pen, it is undeniable that somebody handled that. Right? Like and you know, it just is full of all of these little elements to it and the way it is made, which makes it feel like it was artisan made. Yeah. Like you can't get away from it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We'll see like by this summer, like if I'm not able to go to any pen shows and I need to purchase a pen, I'll keep that one on the radar. Like if I need to make a new add to the Brad's accumulation of pens.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Thoroughly recommended. Cool. Talking about recommendations.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I have something to thoroughly recommend. Go on. We're not going to do this every week because we could. But I wanted to give a shout out to Tokyo Inklings podcast. Now that I've actually listened to the first two episodes, we mentioned them last week and the podcast had just dropped and I hadn't had a chance to listen. I had a chance to listen to CY and Jacob through their first two episodes and I have a couple of things I want to talk about. But really, I wanted to know, did you download and listen to this show?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I haven't downloaded, not listened yet.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. You should probably keep it that way.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And that's what I was afraid of with the first episode. It's the second episode. It's going to cause you a real problem because they really get into like some shopping stuff. You know, the first episode was laying some groundwork and it's fascinating. Like I learned, you know, get to hear CY and Jacob talk about what Western brands are big in Japan, right? So it's cool. Like we have all this Japanese stationary fascination and we know about all the other brands and all around the world. But how does Japanese handle, how does the Japanese market handle, you know, non-Japanese pens? Like what is that market like and what are the popular ones? And they mentioned Mont Blanc, which makes sense. I mean, they're probably popular anywhere just because it's a luxury brand and a recognizable name. But good though. Like a good luxury brand.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Quality, you know. Pelican, they mentioned, might be the biggest of all of the non-Japanese brands, which kind of caught me by surprise. Like I get it because there has to be an appreciation for what Pelican manufactures, right? I think probably that level of respect for Pelican in their manufacturing quality and the style of pen that they make, I imagine is, plays very well in Japan. And then Lamy, which also surprised me. And they were mentioned, you know, mostly the lower end Lamy's and they, but they made a point to specifically say that the Lamy 2000 is not popular at all in Japan. And I found that to be interesting. And their reasoning behind it was that that price point is when you get into all the traditional Japanese brand gold nib pens, right? And if you're living in Japan or from Japan and you're shopping in that mid-range, you know, $150 US, I don't know what the conversion is off the top of my head, but that price range over there, well, that's when you're landing on all your platinums and sailors and pilots and that's just what you're going to buy, right? And if you're from Japan and you have hundreds, you know, centuries worth of history behind these brands from your country, that plays up more than something like the Lamy 2000 despite the uniqueness of something like the 2000. So I thought that was super interesting.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And then episode two, I did want to make a quick point of how the stationary world is so different in Japan. And this is why I'm glad that CY and Jacob are doing this because Jacob had this quote. I wrote down this quote of Jacob's in my William Hanna notebook with my Kaweco Ocean Blue and Midnight Blue, Inc. I wrote this down. I went to Morazon on a Wednesday after lunch.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' There's a lot to take in with that statement. And I think that kind of summarizes the Japanese market and why we're so fascinated with it, right? Like, I never will get to say that in my lifetime. Yes. Living where I do. I will never get to say that. And he's like, basically, it's like, I was on my lunch break and swung into, like, one of the most respected pen shops in the world.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And, like, I do this every Wednesday, you know? Like, I took so much from just that little statement. And I just grinned and smiled. And I was like, yeah, yeah, that's, that's, that's the place to be, man. So, one of these years, one of these years, we'll, we will get over there and we too will go to Morazon after lunch, Myke. We will do that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' One day.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, anyway, I, we won't, we won't replay every episode of Tokyo Inklings every week, but props to them. Good job on them and making really good and interesting content. And, I hope they keep it up. And y'all should go listen because I want them to keep it up and they need listeners and downloads. So, go do it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We have an important Kickstarter update. Do we? We do. Because we've, we got the, we got a prototype of the pen. So, it's, it's been updated. I'll put a link in the show notes to the update, but anybody that's back to Kickstarter should have gotten a notification of this. But we have finally got to look at what this thing is going to be and I'm super excited because sometimes you can like, you can design something, you can think you know what it's going to look like. But now I've seen how this pen is going to be presented. It just looks so much better than I'd ever imagined it to be. You know, like at this point, if I would have, if anybody would have made this pen, I would have bought it, you know? Right. So, I'm super excited.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The thing I've learned from working with Retro 51 over all these years is that their execution is really good. You know, and sometimes there's mistakes, right, made through like the prototyping process, but they know how to fix them. Like, they see the things, they see the problems, they're on it before.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, like this whole way I've been working with them and they forward me images or documents or artwork or whatever and they see the problem before I see it and give me a solution before we have to discuss the problem. And it's really good. It's fun to work with someone who operates in that manner, right? Where I don't have to question everything. I say, what about this? What about this? They're pointing about, they'll point out and say, look at this, look at this, look at this and then we need to decide what to do and here are my ideas on what I think we should do. And you have this trust in them to build the product with like the same vision that you have in your head, right? And it's really good. So like this prototype, they're, when they tell me they're very happy with it, like I tend to just totally believe them. Which is like, you know, I'm getting this pen in my hands later this week and I'll get to see it for myself and you know, if I have anything to say, but I already know that if they're happy with it, it's going to be good. Like there was one little thing that they pointed out on this entire pen that they said they will have fixed for production. Like the snowflake has some very thin arms in it, like the white of the snowflake in the red background bleeds a little bit and he's like, we already know how to fix that in production so don't even sweat that. I was like, cool. Like these are the things like I need to know. It's like, hey, I'm pointing this out and hey, I already have the solution and I know how it's going to be when it's done. It's like, being able to work with someone like that is just great. Like I really, really enjoy that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They're very good. Like I love the pen. Like I said, I'll have it in hand. I'll have my copy so they make two, like you see two in these images so they get one and I get one so we can talk about them in conjunction, you know, and have these discussions so we're seeing the same things and it's good. It's really good. I don't know what else to say. The packaging is great. I like that. Some people were asking in the replies to that commentary, how are we going to know what all those finials are? Well, that's part of the campaign is we're making a poster with Skylab Letterpress that you're going to get that's going to index these and Anna and Bob are already working on that and they've shared some layouts with me and we're just figuring out how to lay it all out and get all the names. I actually owe her some names. I just reminded myself there. Make sure you write that down. Yeah, I'm going to write that down. I'll use the Uniball for that one. Let me write that down. I mean,

'''Myke Hurley:''' that feels like a good use for it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's how I use my Curitas all the time.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Speaking of which, I don't have mine yet but they've started to hit the US. Have they? Everyone's starting to get them. Yeah. Okay. Hopefully I'll have my thoughts in the next week or two once I have it in hand.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, but this, I'm very happy with this. I will,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I posted that I'll update once I sign off on something next, right? Because I'll have the same pen that's in these pictures already so I don't need to post another picture. So I'll post when I've signed off on it and paid the bill, right? I'm still waiting for the Kickstarter funds to transfer but I have the invoice from Retro 51 and so that will be paid like hopefully within within the week we'll get this all wrapped up and then we'll can kind of get in the production queue and I'll have a better idea on ship dates and that kind of thing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Nice. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I'm very happy with it. The feedback seems really good. Retro is very happy with it which I always find to be very important and we're rolling. It's looking good.