Editing The Pen Addict 566/transcript (section)

== Presentation box and pen design ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's a boat. It's like the, your desk holder for this pen is a literal boat where the pen rests on the tray of like on the top level of the boat along with the bottle of the ink. It's so ridiculous. They do such a good job at this stuff, right? Like this is not for us. This is never for us other than to talk about and fawn over. I thought the, how would you describe the fish on the barrel? Like it's not cut out, right? But it's shaped to where like, if you hold it up, it looks like, I don't know, it's like it kind of integrates into the background of like your, your room or something. I don't know. It looks, it looks realistic. Not, I mean, not really, but you know what I'm trying to say. I don't, I don't know the right words to use here, but it's kind of like wavy and it's not just like a lacquered over round barrel with like artwork underneath, like the lacquer. It's like all built into the barrel. It's got all kinds of shapes and curves and cutouts and stuff. Um, the clip is the fishing pole. Like it's got a reel on it. And I wonder if the reel works, like knowing, um, knowing Montegrappa, that reel probably like spins around or something like that. Um, I don't know if it does.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't think it does. It looks pretty set to me, but.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I will say this, the low end model, which we're looking at right now, the, the 5,000 euro model is infinitely better than the gold inlay model, which is 6,500 euros. Yeah. The gold doesn't work for this one. The gold does not work at all for this one. So like the, the less expensive one is just a stunning pin. I actually, I really want to see, see this pin in person. Like I have no like interest in it. I have no, like I'm not a Hemingway person. I don't need this, but I think this is one of the neater ones that they've ever made in a long line of neat pins that we rave about. Um, the boat pin tray is just sick. Like I am, it's, it's just knocking my socks off. This whole, this whole thing is good. Like this is, this is one of those Myke where I'm like the price, eh, that seems about right. You know, like these are all like a ridiculously priced.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It looks like a 5,000 euro pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It looks like a 5,000 euro pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' For what a 5,000 euro pen can be, it looks like one. Yeah. Yeah. You can argue if any pen should cost 5,000 euros, right? And I think it would be a good argument, but if there are such a things that exist, which they do, this one looks like it does.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Exactly. Yeah. That's, that's kind of my point. So, I mean the, the grip section with the waves, I don't know, like little, every little detail is, is done up correctly on this pen. It's just kind of wild. And then you get a boat on your desk.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So that's my quote for, for you Montegrappa. If you want to update, if you want to update your page, you get a boat on your desk. So there you go. Add that to your marketing. All right. Kind of staying in the sea. I did want to mention the new Novelure Horizon pens because I wanted to get your feedback on these because when they first popped up on my screen last week, I was like, huh, this is weird in like a good way. Like I felt like very confused at first. And the more I looked at them because there's, there's a unique design element that I would like to get your, your thoughts on. And that is a non, you know, not a linear design on the edge of the cap band. And I'm wondering what you think about this. So we'll, we'll have a link in the show notes to these pens, but I wanted to get like, not just a materials perspective, because that's one thing about these pens, but I thought this was a unique design element and I wanted what your thoughts were.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think it's interesting. I, I, I mixed feelings on the material choices. I think the gray one is really cool, but the rest of them maybe don't do it for me so much. Sure. The cap band, you know, usually on a, on a cap, like the, the metal band that goes around the outside is flat on the bottom, but this one's got a kind of wavy aesthetic, which I think would be kind of interesting to demonstrate the ink window that they've put on this pen. So even when the pen is capped, you would still see the ink in the ink window in theory. I think it's interesting. I, what my question would be is like, is this just different for different sake, which I think it might be, which is fine, but I'm not like blown away by it, but maybe it would be an interesting design element for some, but I don't, it doesn't grab me particularly as something that I would therefore be interested in.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So my initial reaction was hesitancy, which I think was kind of like what yours is. But the more I looked at it, the more I was like, yeah, why not? Like, like I wouldn't want all my pens to have this right. But why not?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't think realistically it causes a usability difference for people. No. Like I bet it was, if you were someone who for whatever reason is like, but I stand by caps on the desk. Like you could probably still do that with this, but yeah, it's an interesting design choice, but it does kind of, I don't know, like it feels, it feels a little bit like just let's just try this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And they did, it's a little bit different shape for, for them as a design. The top finial is also metal, which I actually think works with the cap band, with the metal of the cap band and it's matching color. So like there's four material colors and then there's one with rhodium trim, one with gold trim, one with rose gold trim, and one with kind of like a brownish, I don't even know what you would call that color of that trim. What do they call it? Gun metal. So it's a gun metal trim, but it kind of comes off brown in the pictures, but I think it is the material of that pin has brown in it. So it makes it a little brown, but I think it's actually gray of the gun metal. That's my, that's my favorite one. Like if I'm going to order one of these to review, I actually prefer the gun metal one, which is weird. I, you, we picked the two tamer ones for, if you can call any of these pins tame, because there's two like really bright ones that those are going to be the sellout ones, right? Like those are going to go like really, really fast. So, um, dawn and dusk are both, you know, bright, vibrant. Um, one is the rose gold, one is the standard gold trim. Um, and then you like the Aurora and then I like the twilight. So, which I think is kind of funny. So, um, yeah, I want to, to get one of these, like, it's just this. Um, it's interesting to me when I think about products, how one slight little variation for that makes me want to talk about this pin more than if it was just a standard cat band design pin, what I've even mentioned it. But it's just that one little thing that honestly, I mean, to be very clear, it doesn't make a difference, right? Like there's no, there's no like, Oh, crazy innovation type of situation here, but it's just different. It's kind of cool. So it made me talk about this pin, right? Where, you know, I may not have, if it was just, you know, the next novel or in these cool materials, Hey, great. I love those pins. So like, they're very cool. I like them. So, um, now this one, like, okay, yeah, nice. You made me like show more interest in this pin and I'll probably pick one up for review down the line. Like I'm not rushing out to get one or, you know, maybe they sell out, but I, I, I like it. Um, yeah, I like it. I'm probably going to end up with one of these and, um, and then I'll just fidget with the cap band as it, as I'm holding the cap in my hand, you know, fidgeting with the pin instead of, or trying to balance it on the desk like you were talking about. So anyway, I just wanted your, I was curious what you had to say, even though there's probably not a lot to say, I ended up saying a lot of words about a little scalloped, uh, scalloped cap band. So there you go.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'd be intrigued to know what you think about it when you get it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I'll probably do that soon. Um, probably between the Lamy Balloon and the Narwhal Horizon, I should probably just head over to penchalet.com and pick them both up, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, let me tell you all about it, Brad. Just, you can, you know, run and rush all the way over there because over at penchalet, you can get 10% off anything at any time just because you listen to this show. Go to penchalet.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password penaddict. That is where you'll get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at penchalet. Penchalet have products from your favorite brands with fast and reliable customer service. They add new styles of pens every month and every couple of weeks, you'll find a whole range of new discounts over at penchalet. They also sell, you know, as well as rollables and fountain pens and ball points and pencils. They also have carrying cases and pen holders, refills, fountain pen converters, and more. You have everything available to you. They do free shipping on orders of over $75 in the United States. They also sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates. Penchalet has low prices and high quality pens and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go to penchalet.com, that is penchalet.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website and to the password penaddict to get that code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time and to find a whole host of special offers just because you listen to this show like what we're at.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We're going to get to those special offers, Myke. This might be a little bit of an extended moment because I'm going in. So we have added the balloon to the cart. So there are three colors of the Lamy balloon. There's translucent blue, green, and pink. Which color did I put into my cart? Pink.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That would be the obvious choice. Blue. No. Green. Exactly. Nailed it. Nailed it. The reason why I picked the green is because I have enough blue and pink stuff. You know I love blue and you know I love pink. Pink is actually just going in, just not knowing anything. Pink would be my first choice. And when I review products, I try to mix it up a little bit, not be so obvious. Like, hey, Brad's going to do the orange thing. You know, so if there was an orange one of these, I would have bought that first though. But I'm going to go with lime.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So that is in my cart. So now we're going over to the Narwhal Horizons. Which color is the one that I like? It is called Twilight. So the one thing with Narwhal that I hope we're going to get one day is an extra fine nib choice. So they tend to do just fine, medium, and broad. There are actually stub nibs available that are on special order, which means it's probably like a pre-order thing. So I'm going to do that. We're going to do Twilight stub nib. We have added to the cart. And let's go over to our fun and amazing discounts for Pen Addict listeners. Okay.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You're building up quite a cart over there today.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, that's two things. Two things.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The Stipula is nice. So Stipula has made some improvements over the last few years in their fountain pen, like the nibs and the quality, like their QC. You know, several, several years ago, people would like question the QC. Now, the ones that I've used from people that I've seen at pen shows, Stipula is one of those pens that I always pick up from people say, ooh, what is this? And a lot of times it's a Stipula. And this is a really beautiful color. It's like this tortoise shell Stipula. It's a very expensive pen, but it's at a very, very good price here. If you're into that type of design, you know, gold nib, beautiful, beautiful materials, that looks great. The Y Studio wooden notepad is something that I've always talked about. And they have that on sale here on our Panatic page. The Pelican M205 demonstrator. I mean, come on. That's like super popular. I don't know why those are still in stock. Is that like a permanent edition or limited edition? Ooh, this Panider Metropolis ballpoint. What color is this? Okay, I'm shopping here. You really are. You really, really are today. I told you this is going to take a minute. Everything's going in the clock. Ooh, there's a Schaefer Pop Star Wars gel pen, a Kylo Ren pen. What other one is this? There's a Kylo Ren. And what is this other one here? Is that like Rey maybe? Let's see. Where's the other one? Yeah, it's Rey.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So it's Rey. Oh, that is super ugly. Sorry, Rey. Kylo's pen is better.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The Rey pen is not doing it for me. I don't know what's happening there. We'll stick with Kylo on there. So back to this Panider Metropolis.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So you can go to penchalet.com. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Click the podcast link in the top of the website. Enter the password. Pen Addict for this week's special offer. To get lost in the offers. And to get the code that you need. The purple one's not available. To save 10% on anything at any time at Pen Chalet. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for their support of this show and Relay FM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I was going to order this Panider Metropolis, but there's only a white barrel level. The purple one is the one I want. You've been cut off. You've been cut off. Skip that one. I'm still scrolling.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Maybe you have, but we have the rest of the show to do.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, Platinum Mixable Inks. Brad Daldy. Okay. Let's do a show. I have to check out before the end of this show. Shout out of the week, Myke. We're keeping this one in-house. Great. And, you know, which is something I rarely do. So I wanted to give a shout out to Caroline Foti, who does the Meet Your Maker series on the Pen Addict, which has become a very popular series where Caroline spends some time interviewing makers in our space. So this week or this month, we do one article a month she puts out. And this one is with Jason Miller of Jason Neal Penworks. And it's really great. You get some insight on, you know, the people behind the things that we purchase, you know, people in our community and our industry that are making cool things. And you get to hear their stories, their, you know, their starting stories and what they're up to and see some of their wonderful artwork. So we've done, you know, materials makers, pen makers, and, you know, we're going to keep going down the list here of all types of different makers in our space. So I put in a link to the Meet Your Maker tag on the Pen Addict. If you're not familiar with this series, just go click that tag and scroll through and read about each of these makers. So we had Jason, we had Renee Meeks from Scriptorium last month. And like, I don't know, we've had Greg Hardy, we've had Brad Owens. So all of these wonderful people in our community, I wanted to give Caroline a special shout out for putting this together, putting in the work to do this once a month. That's like a lot of work and it does not go unnoticed. So I wanted to give Caroline a special shout out and tell them thank you for this. It's really good.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, we're going to keep it. We're going to keep it in house. Because we mentioned last week, like I had some new spoke things going on. And I said, well, let's just hold that for next week and do just like a quick check in. Like I don't have a really long, long segment planned here for like things we're working on. But I thought we'd do a quick check in because over at spoke, we have released some new colors of the Model 6 pencil, which have mostly sold out. That was always a popular, popular shape and design for us because we could do some mix and match of the colors. The Model 4s with all the different grip sections for the mechanical pencils, those have always done super well. So we have a new launch coming partially today, I think. And then either a continuation either Friday this week or late next week. So we have like a prototype shop on the spoke page. So Brian, we have a new product coming out and it's going to be called the Roadie XL. So it's going to be like our postable Roadie, but a full size barrel to fit your Pilot G2 style gel ink pens. Like we're going to ship it with the Pentel Energel Navy Blue ink. So it's going to be a longer, more traditional gel refill compatible pen. Postable as well. But up first we have, Brian wanted to experiment with like some cap manipulation. So he's done that for our prototype shop. Yeah. To see like what people think about those. So those will be up probably today or at least sometime this week on the Roadie XL model. And then next week we'll have the Roadie XL and the fun colors that we always do, right? The more traditional style, traditional colors of the product, you know, the grays and blues and oranges and all of those things. So yeah, that's what we have going on there. Over at the Pen Addict shop, I did something neat with Damien from All in the Nib. I had him do some nib grinds on my Bennu anniversary pens, which I thought was a really fun addition to that pen. So we took 30 nibs, 10 each of fine, medium and broad. And then five of those 10, I had Damien do cursive italic nibs and five I did stub nibs on them. So those have sold really well so far. So that was just kind of like a new fun addition I wanted to offer for the Bennu pen, which I thought was a really, really cool thing. And then you, Myke, you were just always cranking out new stuff over at the Cortex brand. So what you got going on?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, I'm constantly cranking away at things.