Editing The Pen Addict 515/transcript (section)

== Brad’s Toyoka Crafts Box ==


'''Brad:''' Yeah. Brad. Brad. This is your baby right now. Brad. You sent this to me, so you have to talk about it.

'''Myke:''' What is Sailor doing, man? You told me. So, this thing just popped up a couple of days ago. Out of the ether. The Sailor Pro Gear or Sailor Professional Gear Knight to E4 Fountain Pen. The first in the Checkmate series by Sailor. So, I love this. It's like, here's two things that apparently exist in the world that I didn't know anything about. I didn't know this pen was coming. I didn't know it was a Checkmate series. This is a chess-themed pen. I don't care about that, right? Like, whatever. You know what I mean? Like, I don't care about it being chess-themed. The design of this pen is one of the best-looking Sailor pens I've ever seen.

'''Brad:''' This is what I've been looking for, like, from Sailor North America. This is where it's coming from. This is a North American exclusive. I've banged the drum for metal sections for a long time.

'''Brad:''' And hopefully, you like to see them kind of get mixed into any, like, the limited release. And then, you know, not everything has to be metal section. Not everything has to be standard. But, like, getting them mixed in. Because I like the metal section Sailor pens the best. They just, they're a good feel. You know, a good balance in the hand when you're writing with them. It's some of my most enjoyable Sailor pens have the metal section. So, I was glad to see that this was finding its way into the more limited edition series that they release pretty frequently. So, yeah. I guess there will be more in this series. Again, like, I'm not a chess person. You know, the pen design doesn't do it for me personally. But, like, I get, like, why people are agog over this pen. I think it's really good execution of an idea. And I love the colors. And I love the gray. And I love the gold. Like, everything about this pen works really, really well together.

'''Myke:''' This is an absolute knockout. This is a knockout. Yeah. Because it's not black, right? It's, like, brown. They call it charcoal. But the addition of the gold shimmer adds a kind of brownish hue to it. But then going all in on the gold is what I like.

'''Brad:''' I do, too. I love the gold section, right? Yes. Any of my gold sections, I have, like, the either rhodium plated or ionized sections. I don't know which is called which. I guess they've done gold sections before. I'm not sure. Like, I don't even have seen them. But this one looks amazing, right? Like, I'm totally into what they built here and what they designed. And I think they kind of knocked it out of the park. So, yeah, it's really great.

'''Myke:''' Because, like, we said it before. Like, the weighted section, like, the weighted grip section on a Pro Gear really elevates that pen. Makes it very special. And they've not done gold before, to my knowledge. Yeah. They've done different colors of silver, darker colors, that kind of stuff. I've not seen a gold before. Yeah. I love this pen. I love it. I'm not going to be adding it to my collection. Right. Yeah. But I, maybe at a different time, I would have. Right. You know what I mean? Like, if I was in peak, like, sailor frenzy, like I was a number of years ago, this would have been an instant purchase for me. Because I love it. Right. But I do have enough pens that give me what I want out of it right now. But, yeah, I think this is, there's 500 of them. I mean, really, honestly, the biggest thing, the biggest reason for me is it's $575. Sure. Sure. Knowing sailor now, I understand, right? Like, I know why it's that price. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But that's not an amount that I want to pay for it right now.

'''Brad:''' Correct. Yeah. Yeah. We're on the same page. Yeah. And we talk about this a lot. It's like, I love it. It's awesome. They did a great job. I'm not going to buy it. Like, we just can't buy all the things. And this is one you just, like, maybe you, in your case, you know, you wait and see, you know, does something crop up down the line that maybe allows you to buy this? Or it fits a need that you have or a desire or a want that you have, you know, later down the line. Yeah. There's going to be more in the series, too. I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued to see what happens.

'''Myke:''' It's very strange to me a thing to be like, we're making a series of pens themed around chess. Yeah. I mean, you know, whatever. Like, you can make a theme of anything, but it just comes out of left field a little bit for me. But maybe I'm missing something.

'''Brad:''' No. I mean, Sailor North America tends to roll with the popular tides, if you will. Like, when The Matrix came out, they did a Matrix theme. Like, they did, like, an all-black pen. And they just try to kind of, like, follow the popular trends as far as what I've seen from their releases. So, yeah. Like, it's just, like, you know, part of the bigger overall uptick in the chess world.

'''Myke:''' I mean, they made a pen themed around chili peppers. I mean, I have one. You know what I mean? No, but they, you know, so it's like, it's just whatever they think they can make a fun thing out of, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's cool. And I have no criticism of that. It's just, like, a funny thing.

'''Brad:''' No, not at all. Like, I bought one of the pepper pens, right? Like, I mean, I bought it because it's orange, not because it was a pepper pen. It didn't have to be a pepper pen. Is that it? That's a TV show, isn't it? Pepper pen?

'''Myke:''' Peter Piper picked a pen of peppered something.

'''Brad:''' All right, let's talk about another pen, Myke. A pen that neither of us will ever own, nor should we, because it was a custom-made Jonathan Brooks Carolina Pen Company made, Myke, for fountain pen user extraordinaire Neil Gaiman. Man. Did you see this on the Instagrams?

'''Myke:''' I saw it this morning. I loved it. I loved this. I mean, we don't know the story. Like, I don't know if anyone will find out the full story of why this occurred.

'''Brad:''' Maybe I've talked to Jonathan in the background for the last month or so about this. He knows. But, you know, it's not my information to share. It's not my information to share.

'''Myke:''' But Jonathan was nevertheless commissioned to produce one of his masterpieces for Neil Gaiman and posted on his Instagram about his experience of being able to deliver this pen. And honestly, the absolute joy on Neil Gaiman's face is so good because he made a special pen for him, too, right? So, like, he was commissioned to make, you know, like a Jonathan Brooks special, right? And there's images of that on his Instagram, you know, like those beautiful acrylics. But then he also bought a Pilot 823, which is Neil Gaiman's favorite pen and did some custom Arushi work to that, too. Which is that's the thing that seems to have elicited the larger response from him. But, like, understandably, right? Because that's like knowing him and stuff like that. But then also giving him a special gift of something that he already adores. Like, oh, man, it's so good. So good. Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad:''' And just the pure joy that whoever took these photos captured from Neil's face. It just how can you just not smile from ear to ear when you see this? You can tell he's going like, whoa, wow. It's like, this is unbelievable. And it's like, yeah, it's really, really crazy. I'm glad Jonathan got to do this and be part of this. And it worked out like he was down at Drumgools and went to Neil's show that he, you know, an evening with, you know, where he does like a speaking thing. And then got to go hand deliver the pens after the show or maybe before the show. But how cool is this that we've known, like, Fig Boot, we should probably put in the chat, like, Fig Boot has done some big interviews, like, with some of the big popular fountain pen people in the broader world, like Neil deGrasse Tyson. So it's fun to see, like, someone like Neil Gaiman, you know, as part of this world as well. So it's cool when you have, like, these big crossovers of people with, like, big profiles in the real world, like Neil deGrasse Tyson, or in this case, Neil Gaiman, and have this little crossover in our world. It's really fun to see their passion about the things that we're passionate about as well. It's just, it's really fun. So congratulations, Jonathan. This is just such a treat. And thank you for sharing it with us. It's really, really cool.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. This makes me feel really good. Like, this just makes me feel really good. I know, right? It's like, I imagine that makes him feel like. This is great.

'''Brad:''' Yep, it's great.