Editing The Pen Addict 434/transcript (section)

== Zine Discussion ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' No, that was a really interesting discussion. Yeah. Did you mention the, because we got into the weeds. Did you mention the three that you put in the links here?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. Okay. So, um, useful journaling is, uh, less is from comfortable shoes studio. Uh, that I have that one on order. She shipped the first one, uh, or is about to ship the first one and already had of issue number one and is doing a second print run. It went so well. So I'm happy to see that Johnny's pencil revolution. He has several in the works. Um, and we'll have links to all these in the show notes and then the word distribution, um, as well. So we'll have links in the show notes as well. So, all right. So I want to hit a few product things that have crossed, uh, my screen here. If that's cool by you, I'm actually very interested in this first one, not from my perspective, but from your perspective, because I don't recall if we've talked about this specifically before. Um, we've had a picture. I know we've seen, we saw a picture months ago of the TWSBI VAC 700R iris, but I don't think it ever made the show notes. Because with TWSBI, as we found, they used to be really good or really bad, depending on, on how you want to put it at showing off their prototypes of amazing stuff. And it never come into fruition. And this looked like it was one of those things. It was like, well, let me see. Let's wait and see how this happens. But this is coming to pre-orders. It's starting to be able to pre-order. So it's coming into existence. I want to know what your thoughts are on this pin in general, because I have my own thoughts. Yeah. And as, as a TWSBI fan and, and, you know, TWSBI VAC 700 previous user, but I'm not sure that you're familiar with this model at all.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I never had a VAC. Uh, I always wanted one. I've always wanted one, but never found one that I wanted to go for. And plus this was back when TWSBI was a lot less, um, reliable. And so I, I, I ended up just not going for it because also to really make the most of it, you want to get their bottle as well. Uh, they have a really, they have a very cool bottle, right. That they use for their VAC filling system. Yes. Which is, if you have that, you're, you're kind of good to go and you can put anything you want in that bottle, but the bottles for the system. Um, I don't like this pen. Uh, so. I don't know. So the way that it looks, it, it's kind of a weird look where parts of the pen, the metal parts and the end of the nib, they have a kind of oil in water effect. So they're kind of like this metally rainbow effect. And I have not found a picture of it that I like. I think it's, I think it looks.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They are trying to emulate something that they are not doing a good enough job with. Like what they are trying to emulate is something we're going to talk about in a little bit, which is when you take, uh, like heat to a stainless steel. I think that's what they're trying to emulate here. I don't believe that they are doing that. I think that this is some kind of coloring. They are adding on top of metal is what it looks like to me. I don't know if you know exactly how this is made. Um, I don't. So it says chrome plated. That's the way it's described. And yeah, it just doesn't do it for me, Brad. It really looks like a fake version of something, which is what it is.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. So I'm putting in a link in the show notes for you. I don't know if you've seen this, but it's the same, uh, way that Visconti, uh, made the watermark. It's like this iridescent rainbow, but this is the, this is the premium version of what you're talking about and will sear your eyeballs if you're not careful. Yeah, I hate this too.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So we'll put that link in the show notes just so y'all can see it. It is a wild outrageous pin.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It has a kind of look of like when I was a teenager in like the 2000s, you would go on vacation somewhere and you would go to like a market. And there would be like sunglasses with this kind of treatment on them. Yeah. It looks so tacky to me. Like I don't, I don't like it. And I would not want to spend $1,596 on a Visconti that looks like this. Yeah. Especially this specific thing because of the way they styled it with all these go faster stripes all over it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Get some. So the, the, the radical, radical, gnarly. So the VAC 700 is only 80 bucks. I, I love how this looks.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I just do. But I dislike this pin. The VAC 700, I thought they were going to change this at some point and maybe they've had some minor tweaks to the original VAC 700. It is one of the most disconnected engineered pins I've ever tested out. What does that mean? Like it doesn't, it doesn't fit my hand. It's like these, like the clip doesn't go with the section and the, the piston filler, the, the VAC plunger mechanism doesn't go with the rest of the design. I don't know. It was just kind of, it seemed like a very broken apart design.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I remember people saying it's big. Right. And when you filled it with ink, it's like, it's a weirdly beast.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It is. It is. But for what it is, it, and that's a TWSBI, that's TWSBI thing, right? For what it is, like, it's pretty darn good and it's pretty well priced. I kind of like it. I'm going to go against you there. I, but I couldn't never, I will not own one of these. I kind of want to give it another shot though. And you like get one maybe to give away, but like test it out first and see. But like, I don't need to add this to, to my collection. Did you see the nib? Like I got to find you. The nib also has, it's like a half and half coating. It's like the worst part. The nib is actually a little bit. I will kind of be on your side with the nib.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But I've also put a picture on, on, uh, from TWSBI's Instagram, like their announcement.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I really don't, I don't, I don't know why, but this just, I think it's because it's like reminding me of something else, which is tacky. It's making me feel like it's tacky, but I'm interested to see what the, what our listeners think of this. But this one is, it's really not for me, man.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I like it and I think it's going to do well. Um, I, I don't need to own one personally. So I will, I will test someone's out when we, when we go back to pin shows next year, hopefully some point.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But I would like to see one, but I'm not going to put the money down to bring one to me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. Uh, keeping, keeping on the TWSBI front, someone sent me this link. Did like, did you see this? And I was like, no, I had no idea what this was. So it's called the TWSBI Eco Rose Gold Golden Horse Awards Edition Fountain Pen. Um, had you seen this before?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think I saw it on their Instagram. I think they've posted it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Did you? This, I have more questions about this pin than the VAC, to be perfectly honest. Because this is like a, they're calling it an Eco, right? So it's got the Eco front end, but I'm not used to, the back end looks like a 580 of where the, all the, the mechanics of the piston are. And to, I'm interested in what is going on here. I kind of want this pin for research purposes. Yeah. Because I think the mechanics are a kind of like a Frankenstein of the 580 and the Eco. And they're definitely charging, you know, a premium for that. And I'm just curious in what's going on here.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't even, I guess only really, to me, the cap looks like an Eco. Eco.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. But I'm sure, I'm guessing the, the grip section is the Eco grip section. So that's the same. It's got the little fins on it. It's got the, the kind of the molded grip section of the Eco. But then the back end is, like they even have a picture that doesn't even, the comparison drawing does not compare to the pin they have sitting right next to the drawing. Which I don't, are they trying to show me it's different or are they trying to show me it's the same? Because it's clearly different. And I, I want one of these because it looks like they were fidgeting with an Eco and throwing these parts together and then made a cool, a cool pin out of it. And I want to see what, what exactly is happening. I would, I would get one of these if I could, like they're sold out. It was, they probably made very few of them. It was very limited for the Academy of Taiwan. And these are the extras.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like they made these for the Academy Awards and then they just sold what they had left.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Which I can't imagine was that many. No. But I, I would like, at least if I don't get one, I would like someone, if someone in the community ever gets their hands on one, I want to see what the deal is because they have done something with this pin and I want to figure it out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. It's interesting.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's, it's interesting to me. So anyway, when someone, someone sent me that, I was like, Oh cool. Limited edition Eco. And then I looked at it more and I was like, there's a lot going on with this that they have never put together. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I saw it and didn't spot that, but you're totally right. There's there's, it's a bit of a mix, a mismatch of, of their product lines and makes me wonder like you, like, was this maybe the original design for the Eco or, you know, like it was a separate design for the Eco where it's like, it's a 580 mechanism, but with some kind of cheaper body and they ended up working out something that made more sense financially. I don't know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I was going to say it would have to be cheaper, right? The Eco, I don't want to say cheaper, but the, the Eco mechanism looks like it costs less and which is good because now we get a cool pin for like 25 bucks or whatever. So, you know, um, next one I am on, uh, I got some new Kaveco products email, like a PR email. And I, you know, it's probably in all the retailers that are getting all this and probably whoever signs up for it's getting all this, but I thought it was interesting, not Myke for what I want to talk about first, which is the Kaveco Supra in fire blue. Come on down, Michael Gubberle, get your blowtorch out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Is he actually still doing this?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' There's no way.

'''Myke Hurley:''' There's no way.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But it's the exact same style, right? Of torching to the pen. They did not say that he's doing these at his desk like he did with the original fire blue lily puts as the story goes. But I just can't help but bring that up anytime they do this, especially because I think the fire blue is really, really nice. Like it's one of my favorites.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This is what I'm talking about, right? This looks fantastic. The TWSBI is trying to do this and it, and it ain't it chief, right?