Editing The Pen Addict 181/transcript (section)

== Mechanical Pencils ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' And managed to find mechanical pencil versions of the hexamatic with the Apple logo on. Now I really want one of those.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And there was no pens. I think, I think we, uh, maybe cleared them out.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No more pens, but they've replaced them with pencils.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I want one of the pencils more than the pens, to be honest.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, these barrels are great. You know that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. And, and I don't like the refills, right? That you can put in the pen versions. So it's the pencil that I want now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So do you already have those on the way too?

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, I don't. Oh, I do not. I haven't asked anybody. You're slacking.

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

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But that's cool. I mean, gosh, they're, they're awesome. I love that. Hexamatic barrel is just a really legitimately good design by Retro 51. And I mean, they can put anything in there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And, um, you know, I'd be all over it. So that's cool. Yeah. The pencil, you, you got to get the pencil now that you're, uh, you're the, you're the pencil nerd of the show.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I am indeed. That is me. I love that fact, by the way. That I'm the pencil nerd. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I'm, I'm slacking though in the amount that I have, you know, I feel like I need to really like to burn up a little bit more on it, but.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I mean, I love a good, I love a good drafting pencil, um, mechanical pencil. That's kind of your realm, but I, I am kind of, uh, drifting off into the, to the woodcase pencils a little bit more. So, uh, we, we've got our bases covered.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Good.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So you saw the real version of the Apple pencil. I have, right. Did you see this before? I have seen. Yeah. Yeah. It's been like a month or two ago. Um, but I wanted to put that in the show notes. One of our listeners. And of course I forget the name cause I didn't put it in the show notes, sent me the wood case, Apple pencil. He said he found them when he was cleaning out his desk. Um, he had been to some event years and years ago and they gave him a, a batch of pencils, um, at the event from, um, from Apple. And it's, uh, just a, a nice red round barrel wood pencil with the Apple logo on it and a white eraser. They're really neat. Um, um, my kids keep trying to steal those, but I don't let them.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Somewhere I have a plastic ballpoint with an Apple logo on that Patrick Ryan sent to me. Nice. Yeah. He sent it to me one time. Um, you've put this real interesting link in our, uh, follow up this week. Um, and I took a look at these today and I'm very perplexed. So these are from Leica, right? The camera maker.

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

'''Myke Hurley:''' Now they have some pens for sale.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So one of, uh, my followers on Twitter sent this to me, um, in, you know, around the conversation, I don't know if the conversation was around the Apple pen or around, um, maybe some Mont Blanc. I can't, I can't remember who it was. It was actually almost like a sub tweet to me that I got this link and, you know, I knew the, the Leica stuff is super beautiful, super high end, super expensive. Um, their design is our classic, you know, I think of like the Lamy 2000 and like some of the, and the Leica camera could be in the same, you know, museum side by side together, right there. That kind of thought about that kind of type of design. Um, I'm certainly not a camera aficionado.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, they're like held up as like the, the prime designs in their industries. Right. Like cause the Lamy Safari is, is. I meant the 2000. The 2000. Okay. Well, both then. Well, same, same. I actually do agree with the Safari to be honest. Yeah. I would say, I mean, the 2000 is more beautiful, but I think the Safari is more iconic a design. Sure. Um, it stands, it way more stands out. There's nothing else that looks like it and anything else that comes close to it just looks like a Lamy Safari. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so they have their own pen line now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So it looks like they, they collaborated with ST DuPont, which, um, I've never used any of their products before any of their fountain pens. Um, but they make fountain pens, roller balls, lighters. You see them in, you see them. Um, I've seen them in like luggage stores before.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Um, like, uh, I can't think of that store. Um, that's in all the malls, but they have like these high end stuff, the, the places that carry like the to me luggage and things like that. You'll see these, these, these, uh, types of products next to them. And the prices are just stupid. I mean, for, I don't know enough about these ST DuPont pens, but for the, the fountain pen for the, the like a fountain pen is $840. I mean, the ballpoint is $540, which is just kind of berserk. I mean, I'm, I'm, you know, I guess they have a few customers that are just like the hardcore, um, will they, where they will be able to get this, you know, they'll sell a handful of these pens.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Um, they're trying to pivot the like a brand into selling extremely expensive things like Montblanc. That's what they're trying to do.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Into a lifestyle brand instead of a camera brand. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because there's only so many cameras you can sell.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. And the like a name does have some pull. I mean, it's got some big time pull, right. When, uh, in a certain subset of people, but just from a pen perspective, it's like, it doesn't, it doesn't make sense. I mean, Montblanc pens wake make way more sense than looking at something like this from, uh, like an, an ST DuPont. So.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And this does not look like an $840 pen. I, for one, I'm not a big fan of the design in general. I don't think it looks that great, but the worst part of it is if you look at the image on the website and you blow it up and you see the ST DuPont stamp around the set around the grip section. It's like, no, I don't pay you $840 to put that brand all the way around the edge of this pen. Like no way.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think the worst part is the 0.95 on the, on the cap finial.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I, I let that go because that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, that's part of the branding.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's the Leica branding.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But like, if I'm buying this, I'm not buying it for ST DuPont.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right. Yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Don't put that around the edge of the pen. And in all honesty, like whilst they are a big brand, they, I don't think I can get away with that. Like their net, their brand name is so great that you'd stamp it around the outside of an $840 pen. Sure. Mont Blanc don't even do this, that like grotesquely. Right. Right. They're very understated with that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that's fair. Yep. I completely buy that. And just the, the location and the size of the, the name, it, it, it's pretty, uh, obtrusive in, in what you're looking at. And if you're spending $840 on a pen, I mean, this isn't the style that I'm going for.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. Completely.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. But I thought you would enjoy that. I thought it was worth a little, a little mention here. Um, just because of the, the branding, you know, the, the Leica's just so well-respected and thought of, I thought it was interesting that they're doing the pen, but then, you know, you look at what it actually is in the price and it's like, wow, you know, I'd rather just go ahead and overpay for one of their cameras than one of the pens.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I mean, I think it's interesting that they're doing it. Um, and I, and I hope that they do more in the future though, you know, cause you never know, they might really knock it out of the park, but I think potentially they need a different partner.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. Maybe so.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because that's not, I mean, the design just in general isn't that great, but hey, yeah. Hey ho. Should we take a break? Let's do it. Because we've got something big on the other side.

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