Editing The Pen Addict 485/transcript (section)

== Gel Pens Discussion ==


'''Brad:''' It's interesting that you say that, right? Like, where does the innovation come from? And the innovation we saw in the past year, or a little bit more than a year, in the gel ink category were these highly pigmented, saturated inks. The Uni-1 and the Zebra Saracic R. But they weren't that compelling to me. Like, they were fine. But, like, it was not. I'll stick with the regular pens. Like, what you're selling me isn't really getting there. But then in the ballpoints, what happens is you're allowed to have a much wider range of options for the refill. So companies are building different things, like be it a pressurized barrel or a rough and tough barrel, like they call the zebra wet knee. Or the ultra micro tips, like in the Jetstream Edge and the Tombow. Yeah. Or the classics, like the Parker Jotter. There's no range like this in the gel pink pen category. And we'll find in the past, I want to say Jetstream, like this classic Jetstream Sport won last year. Like the standard Jetstream. I'd have to look back. I think it was like number one and the blend was number two. Like those are the type of pens that end up winning. And then all of this other stuff kind of just kind of lumps together in the middle. But the interesting thing in the rollerball, it's kind of an outlier. The Lamy Safari Rollerball just appears out of thin air. And it's been in there for a couple of years now. And it always finishes like in the top, you know, 10 or 15 pens.

'''Myke:''' And that's always surprised me. The better looking. Oh, yeah. The entire competition. It's great. I think that really helps it.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. But the gel pen category, it's almost like the manufacturers think that they like this is their most popular category probably outside of maybe the ballpoints just from a bulk purchasing perspective. Yeah. But they're like, we're covered here. People love these pens. Let's just leave them alone. Right. Where they play around with some of the ballpoint pens, it seems. So since I got to vote, Myke, I got to pick five pens this year. The first time I've ever voted. I want to give you my five choices in no particular order. Then I'll give you my top choice at the end. So I picked the Tombow Mono Graph Light. And I have links to some reviews of mine at the Pen Addict for some of these pens. Some are newer. Some are older. Tombow Mono Graph Light was a new one this year. That was in the new category. And I find it to be just an excellent, ultra-fine ballpoint pen. It's a needle tip. It's a great barrel. It's a classic Tombow design. They have the classic Tombow flag design, which is my preference. Or they have like standard, like almost kind of like metallic barrels, like lime green and blue and pink and things like that. It's just a... I was impressed by that pen. It's a great pen. Mitsubishi Uni Jetstream Edge. So I picked the Edge model over the standard model because I like the needle tip design. I like the ultra-fine. I like the barrel clip. The one downfall with that is the refill is much smaller than a traditional Jetstream. So I have a feeling like when we see the results in January, like the traditional Jetstream is still gonna, like, should be ahead of this. But we'll see. The Pentel Energel Euro has been around for a few years. It's one of those extremely underrated pens that I constantly praise, but that Pentel has never expanded on. They launched it. It's a great capped Energel with a needle tip at .35 millimeters. It's absolutely fantastic. One of the great pens. And they launched it years ago. I'd have to even see what my review was. It's gotta be three, four, five years, if not more. And then that's it. Like, that's one I would like them to lean into more and do some different things with because I think they did such a good job with that design. And it's obviously still very popular in Japan because it keeps making this list and rates pretty highly. And then, like, in other markets, it's nonexistent, right? The fourth one I picked was the Zebra Saracic Clip. I think that's just a classic all-around great gel pen, along with the Uniball Signo DX. So, like, I would have liked to have picked about ten pens, but the Signo DX and Saracic Clip are just those great classics that never do me wrong and I think are just, like, universally loved. So, those were my primary picks. My winner. I don't... So, the one thing I didn't see when I was surprised when, okay, go to the next page, pick your one out of the five. I was trying to see if they weighted that pick differently, right? So, what's the point of me picking the single one? Are they weighing that in the calculus differently? Or is there some tiebreaker thing? That's what I didn't get to see. So, I don't know if that particular page on the forum, does it get flagged differently and gets two points instead of one point like these other ones. So, who knows? So, I picked the Mitsubishi Uni Jetstream Edge. I think this is just... In this type of list, I want to see a pen like that win. And I think last year, I looked it up. I think last year was 11th because it was a new pen last year. I think last year was 11th. I'm not sure. Which is higher than I thought it would be, to be perfectly honest, right? This is a weird pen. It's very expensive. Oh, it's awesome. But it's $15 compared to like $2 for the regular Jetstream. But I think for a list like this, I think that's like a good choice, right? It's not going to ever make like my top... It's probably not going to be like a top five anything for my recommendations. But for a list of what I think is interesting, useful, high quality, you know, kind of pushes the boundaries a little bit. Like that gets my vote, right? It's never going to be the Signo DX, even though that pen will get recommended by me number one almost more than anything, right? But I don't think it should be at the top of this list. I think something like the Jetstream Edge gets some extra bump just for the uniqueness of it, the design. It's a little bit... It's a risky pen for them to make at the price point that it is. And it does have a flaw in it with the refill that they use being very, very small. But overall, I think this is the kind of pen I want to see win a thing like this. So I'll be interested to see... I could see it being higher than last year. I don't know if it will win because, you know, the regular gels, the Jetstream, the Blend, the ones that were at the top five last year, they're probably going to stay in that range just because that's the categories that are the most popular for the people who are, you know, voting in this. But, yeah, I would like to see something like the Jetstream Edge. If the Jetstream Edge finishes top three, I think that would be huge, huge for that pen. I think it's really, really good. So we'll see. I love this stuff. Again, this is my favorite type of thing to break down, more so than, like, fountain pens. Because fountain pens are a little bit more infinite than this. And, you know, you look at, hey, this is a list of 48, and Brad could rattle on about all 48 of these pens forever. But there are some limitations and some kind of fixed designs where, like, a single fountain pen can have all different nib sizes and what ink are you putting in it and have all these variables that make it infinite, whereas this is a little bit more fixed, and I enjoy picking these things apart. Because, again, these are the types of pens that got the Pen Addict blog started, and I still probably use the most and love the most, despite me having all these crazy fountain pens. So, yeah, I love this, and I'll be looking forward to the results in January.

'''Myke:''' I feel like I never have any prediction as to which pen is going to win this list, because I will say, like, a lot of this is completely out of my experience anyway, you know, like these pens. But also, it's always just a surprise to me. Because, again, like, I just don't even know some of these pens. Like, neither of us do, right?

'''Brad:''' Yeah, that's what happened last year with the Zebra Blend. When we talked about it, I was like, I have no idea what this is, because at the time, it hadn't really made it into the U.S., and I had multiple listeners say, hey, I'm in Japan, let me send you some, and they did, right? Like, so I ended up getting some blends. I'm like, I don't know what this is. How is this the number two pen on this list? How was it voted the number two pen on this list? And it's never even crossed my mind, which, you know, is another reason why I love doing this, right? Because we get to learn so much about, you know, what's popular in other areas of the world and try to understand, like, some of the products and some of the marketing. And I just, I'm endlessly fascinated by this list and especially the results, which we will certainly dig apart once they come out. I'm sure I will be surprised probably by everything but number one. We'll see. If the blend is number one, I will be surprised. But if, like, the Jetstream is number one or, you know, one of the Signos or the Sarasa, that wouldn't be a surprise. But anything else, we'll see.

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'''Brad:''' You know how you know products are good, Myke? It's when you miss them, when you don't get to use them. And this is one of those products for me. I honestly can't believe it. I didn't think that this would be a thing for me. And now it's like I'm addicted to it. If I have to sleep without it, all I do is think about sleeping with it. It's a real problem. So I should get back to pens before I really go down the deep end into the HoloPillow. So I saw the Lamy Special Edition Safari in white pop up across all the retailers here in the U.S. I'm sure it's worldwide. I don't even know.

'''Brad:''' And yeah, like that's my thoughts on this. It's like I couldn't order it fast enough because I'm a Lamy Safari lover. I love the glossy white with the red clip and it has an extra red ring around the barrel instead of their normal sealing ring, which is black. But I don't know why this pen exists. And these are the kind of things that bug me a little bit. Hey, Lamy Safari Special Edition, go. Okay, tell me why. What's the story here? Is it just like a classic cool thing that, you know, you've done, you know, like the Lamy Joy with a white barrel and a red clip before and people are, you know, hammering you wanting that treatment in the Safari? Cool. Like, tell me that. Like, this is not a unique color or design in the history of the Safari, right? Except that they added the red ring, you know, the roach ring, if you will, in where the barrel unscrews. So why does this exist? So I started poking around. I was like, all right, I'm gonna go to Lamy, you know, the mothership page. And okay, can they tell me why this pen exists? No, it doesn't exist there. So I went through all of the retailers in the U.S. I was like, hey, maybe they got some copy from Lamy on why this pen exists. And it was random. Like, several of the companies, several retailers are shipping this with a bottle of Lamy Vibrant Pink ink. Okay? But not everyone.

'''Myke:''' That's a fun pairing.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Oh, it's great. And then some sites listed as a portion of the proceeds are going to breast cancer awareness funds because October is breast cancer awareness month. But not all sites have this copy, right? And some aren't giving the ink away with the purchase at all. And it's like this inconsistent thing. And this is like, why do I care about this? Like, I honestly, I don't. But these are the questions I ask when I see special edition. Like, tell me, what are we doing here? I would just like to know. Like, it doesn't affect what I think about the pen. Like, this was an insta-buy for me, right? But like, one company has free ink with purchase. One doesn't. One says a portion of the proceeds go to breast cancer charities. Others don't. And like, I'm trying to, is this a Lamy USA program that's doing this? Is, is just this inconsistency in marketing that it, as someone who, like me, who wants to be able to tell you why I can't. I can't. So, I'm just going to take this as a cool pen and I'm going to buy it and I'm going to enjoy the pen for what it is. And I'm going to stop caring where it came from or why it exists. But it just bugs me.

'''Myke:''' Like, I'm trying to find like a press release or something. Yeah. I can't find anything. Yeah.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Like, and like literally every site that I went to, all the major retailers all have different copy and different statements on, you know, what comes with the pen or things like that. Like, you just go from site to site to site and they all say something different about what this pen is. Other than really why it's special. But I don't care. I got a new Lamy Safari. I will use it instantly when I get it back. Probably with not the Vibrant Pink ink. Like, I'll save that for like Valentine's Day or something. In this combo, I'll use the pink ink in a different pen than this pen. Even though I do think I'm with you. It is a good pairing. But I will use a darker ink with this pen and use the pink ink in a different pen, like a green pen or a purple pen or something like that. That's kind of more of my pink inky pens. So, anyway. I just wanted to bring that out because don't ask me why it exists, but if you like it, you should buy it. I did.

'''Myke:''' I think I would be more excited if the red was pink, too.

'''Brad:''' Oh, man. I don't know why. Right? Like, if we're going to do this, again. Well, but here's the thing. You're going to make me start up again, Myke. You're going to make me do it all over again. If we're going to do this, right? If we're going to do Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

'''Myke:''' I don't know. It almost feels like... I don't believe this is happening, but it almost feels like a bunch of retailers have just gone rogue.

'''Brad:''' Well, they had to get the pen from somewhere, and those pens usually come with copy, right? Usually come with sales marketing copy. And apparently not this time. Is the U.S. Lamy distributor the same as the Kaweco distributor? Because they're a mess. I don't know if they are or not, but it wouldn't surprise me because it's just weird. It's just weird. So, who knows? All right. Speaking of other things I bought, Myke. We've talked about this pen years ago. The Rind pen. We talked about it because it's this big bulky pen with the oddest, wildest clip on here. That is a design decision, right? It is a love-hate decision with this clip. And I love that type of idea, right? Where you're making a decision in your design process to say, this is what we're going to do, and here's why we're going to do it. It's okay if you don't like it. You know, like, that's cool. But here's what we're doing and why we're doing it. And that's what the Rind pen originally launched behind. So, now they've come around with a second Kickstarter, which I just backed, for a more compact version of the big original pen. So, the original Rind was a large pen with a large clip, and it fit the Pilot G2 refill. So, they've actually shortened the pen, narrowed it up, and made it to fit the Parker-style refills, right? It's kind of like the path of a lot of Kickstarters go, hey, make the big pen.

'''Myke:''' What refill does it have before?

'''Brad:''' Pilot G2.

'''Myke:''' Pilot G2, okay.