Editing The Pen Addict 506/transcript (section)

== Pilot 912 Custom Edition ==


'''Brad:''' Yep. Yep. My excitement is tempered of the Pilot 912 Custom 2022 edition, right? But the design choice is not what I wanted. The idea that they're thinking about expanding the Pilot Custom 912 lineup into, like, annual editions that are different looking than the standard black Pilot 912, it makes me think that they're at least thinking about it. Right? So, what I want, so my big, my master plan for Pilot, if I was on the board, I want the 912 to be essentially the sailor pro gear of their product lineup, right? To where, like, every year you give me two or three or four kind of new stock barrel colors, right? Just solid orange, solid purple. You know, it's an acrylic pin. It's a good size. The 912 also allows for the best nib selection range, right? This is where you start getting into the posting nibs and the FA nibs and the stub nibs and things like that. So, this doesn't go that far. So, this is a, almost a throwback 912. But the way that they're wording the terminology of this is 2022, like, special edition release. Mm-hmm. It at least gives me some hope that there might be something more coming in the future for the 912 as a platform. So, these are your basic gold trim fountain pens. And these colors hark back to, like, the 60s and 70s. It's, like, blue and gold and green and gold and red and gold. You know, they're fine. Like, they're not my style, not my aesthetic. But the idea, like, this is the path, right? I'm seeing the light. Is Pilot seeing the light? I don't know. Because you can only get stock nibs with these. You can only get fine, medium, fine, or medium, which is lame. But, like, I am anxious now. I'm like, this is, like, do they see it? Is this going to happen one day?

'''Myke:''' Well, do they usually have an annual release?

'''Brad:''' No, not for the 912. Okay. They've done some other things. Like, they did, like, last year, they did the 91 with kind of those swirled marbly barrels. I don't know if we didn't talk about them that much because they, honestly, they weren't, like, super attractive. It was, again, kind of almost like a throwback design a little bit. I don't think they were, like, super modern. And they were okay. They were also priced much higher than these are. These are closer to regular price 912s, which is what I want to see, right? I just want, like, give me an orange 912, okay, as part of the stock lineup. And then give me, like, a special edition one, you know? Give me, you know, this is where I want to see your glitter finials or your translucent, you know, materials or your weirder materials. Things like that. I just think the 912 is such a great pin that is really held back by being available in black.

'''Myke:''' Okay.

'''Brad:''' So, I just think because it is priced, it's the size of a ProGear standard, right? Not the ProGear slim. It's the size of the bigger one. And it's priced so much more competitively and provides such a great experience from a fountain pen that's, you know, it's expensive, right? It's over $200. But for what it is, it really punches above its weight. Yeah. And I just think this is the one product lineup I want Pilot to, like, extremely lean into. And I doubt that we'll see it. Honestly, that's not Pilot's move. Like, they'll do one thing here, one thing there, and never really kind of change up the theory of, you know, what the product lineup is. But I'm holding out hope. This is my dream scenario. You know, we're now 1% into the dream scenario, but it's better than 0%.

'''Myke:''' Now, tell me what you've been up to here on your Instagram.

'''Brad:''' It was kind of like maybe to troll you a little bit.

'''Myke:''' Hey, I know you're not trolling me.

'''Brad:''' No, no, not really. And I'm even really trolling myself because, you know, as we know, we're not going to talk about F1 too much on this podcast because Myke has his own podcast to talk about F1 called The Backmarkers, which I enjoyed the first episode after the first race, the Bahrain race, which was extraordinarily interesting. Oh, so good. If not from an on-track perspective, but just from an everything perspective.

'''Myke:''' For you and for people that started, you know, started, got into Formula 1 this year, because talk about a season opener, my word. Yeah. What a fantastic race that was last weekend.

'''Brad:''' It was really, really great. Yeah.

'''Myke:''' Action to the very last second. It was just like, that's the best.

'''Brad:''' Well, that doesn't happen very much. It really peaked at the end, and that's not always the case. And it peaked in a very, I mean, negative is not the right word, but it wasn't like, ooh, this is great racing. It was like, oh, no, everything fell apart.

'''Myke:''' Oh, I mean, if you would have seen the view inside of Megastudio, someone got very excited.

'''Brad:''' I'm sure there was some running around.

'''Myke:''' Oh, there was some screaming and some pointing. Yeah. Yeah. Very happy boy.

'''Brad:''' So one of the benefits of me being involved with spoke design is the ability to have trays and trays of very colorful fountain pens right at my fingertips. So while it's a little bit, you know, self-absorbed to post my own pens in these very interesting ways, I get to make some cool colors. Like I made a McLaren pen the other day, you know, before the season started. We're going to have to retire that pen just like the McLaren cars for now.

'''Myke:''' Oh, it's fine. They're going to be fine.

'''Brad:''' It is fine. But it traded it in for a Ferrari pen. So I got to make a bright red Ferrari black and silver. And I just thought, you know, I'm going to do this. I could even go a little bit further. I can find a gold nib and maybe get some gold ink to like really go full Ferrari mode. And I was wondering about you. Like, would you ever want a pen to represent like any like fandom type of thing? Not even F1. Like I wrote it as an F1 thing because honestly, I think my general answer is no, because it's so specific thing. Right. Like I talk about, you know, my baseball fandom and my team won the World Series, the Atlanta Braves, and their colors are red, white and blue. I just don't need a red, white and blue pen to represent that. But there's sometimes it kind of looks cool when like I'm making these like McLaren and Ferrari based pens. I can make a really nice Aston Martin pen with some of the colors we have. But like, would that ever be a thing you're interested in? Because I think maybe the prevailing answer is no. It's like almost a bridge too far.