Editing The Pen Addict 451/transcript (section)

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'''Brad:''' I think I'm excited about this next topic, Myke, but I'm not totally sure. And I'm definitely interested in what you have to say about the launch of the Pilot Custom Heritage SE. Okay. So we started getting links for this last week, right? Some of our friends were sending these links. Hey, this is, you know, what you've been looking for from Pilot or look at this new pin from Pilot. And we've been seeing it, you know, around the internet. And just full disclosure, the Tokyo Inklings podcast, episode 26, they have this pin in hand and did a full breakdown of awesomeness on this pin. And you should go listen to CY, Jacob, and their special guest this week, Elisa, who has the pin in hand. And they've been able to check these out in Japan because that's the only place they're at right now, which we'll talk about later. But what is the Pilot Custom Heritage SE? It is a special edition styled in Pilot's traditional. It looks like the miniature version of the 912. I don't want to call it the 91 because it has like the 912 clip, but it has the smaller nib, like on the 91 or the 74, if you're familiar with those Pilot models. And what they did was kind of a marbled resin barrel with black grip section, black finial. And then they have five different colors, like an orange, red, blue, green, and gray. Basically swirled marble patterns. It's kind of not exactly like a Pelican type of swirl, but that kind of look. Like I get that like in the blues and greens. I see kind of, okay, I could see a Pelican making this kind of swirl. It is approximately $300 to purchase this, you know, which I'll talk about that a little bit more in a second. But I'm a little delimited, right? This is what I've been asking for for Pilot for I don't know how many years, right? I want to see Pilot. I don't want to see them copy Sailor, right? And what Sailor has done as far as custom editions, special editions, limited editions. We'll have a conversation about that later. I almost think Sailor might have gone too far in it or maybe, you know, making a path that I don't know that they can recover from. But I want to see Pilot do more with what they have because what they have is really good. Like a pin like the Pilot Custom Heritage 912 is an amazing pin that I recommend a lot. But, Myke, it comes in black with rhodium trim. Like the end. Like there's no annual special edition for that.

'''Brad:''' You know, they'll mix in new barrel colors for different product lines here and there. Like the Falcon had two barrel colors this year, like a purple barrel and a blue barrel, and those did very well. But it's still standard-ish. So this is a dedicated special edition to a certain pin lineup, and it's a little bit different design. So what do you think about this pin just as a pin from Pilot and kind of the pricing and just kind of the whole bigger picture? Because I have a few more thoughts on it.

'''Myke:''' So the pricing is kind of around $300 or so, right?

'''Brad:''' Mm-hmm.

'''Myke:''' Hmm. I don't know, Brad. Honestly, I really, I'm struggling with this one. I think that's it, yeah. Like our friend Thomas sent this to us, and Thomas said kind of what other people have said. It was like, this is what you wanted, right? And my answer is kind of like, no?

'''Brad:''' Right. My final takeaway is I think this is a half measure.

'''Myke:''' Yeah, I... It's like just regular-ish looking swirls. And they're nice. It's like a nice acrylic. It's nice. And it's a thing to do, right? They did a thing, yes. But I just... Especially having a small nib, like it looks like a kind of Progear slim size nib. It is. And it doesn't look like it's a particularly small-bodied pen, right? Like it's so... I can't tell.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. It's kind of... This is basically the Progear slim model of Pilot. This is the Custom 91, Custom 74 sizing of Pilot with the Pilot's 5 nib. I hesitate to call it a number 5 nib. It's not. Pilot has their own nib sizing. Where the Pilot 912 is the 1911 large or the Progear standard with the larger nib. And in Pilot, it'd be the 10 nib. Right? So this is the smaller category of the pen. I think I can tell you why this bothers me.

'''Myke:''' I think I've bottled it now. I want to see, like you do as well, Pilot do more exciting things to dig into their back catalog as well. You know, like we talk about some of the incredible pen designs they have in their history that they are not doing anything with. You know, like all of the Mayu, the Murex and all that. It's like a whole thing. And then another is...

'''Brad:''' I'll ask you a question about that later.

'''Myke:''' Okay. And then the other thing is like, by and large, the stuff that is a kind of regular bread and butter is mostly like solid color, acrylic, whatever. Right? Yeah. For reasons I can't explain. When I see this Heritage SE with its marble-like texture and its fun... And very Pelican-like, to be honest. I think maybe that's part of my problem. Because I feel like I've seen this pen before and it's a Pelican. I look at this and it's like, for a reason I can't explain, I feel like this is as far as they're willing to go.

'''Myke:''' And that's not exciting enough for me.