Editing The Pen Addict 611/transcript (section)

== Lamy All-Star pen critique ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So continuing the theme for today in thinking about stationery. I have for years, given the Lamy All-Star, a very difficult time. Why is that? Mostly because of the colors. It's not necessarily a technical problem with it. And it's fun to pick a side between the Lamy Safari and Lamy All-Star. But contrary to popular belief, I do not hate the All-Star. My hang-up with the All-Star versus the Safari has always been the aluminum barrel versus the plastic barrel. So the aluminum barrel and the All-Star versus the plastic barrel and the Safari. Well, you know what I haven't done, Myke? I haven't given the All-Star a proper go in years. So as someone who's constantly picking its stablemate as the best Lamy, maybe I should spend some quality time with the All-Star and make sure that what I'm saying is actually something I believe in instead of just a bit or just something to have fun with as a joke. So the new colors came out. We've talked about them a bunch on the show, Fiery and Aquatic. And I picked them up at the Atlanta Pen Show. And I have inked up Fiery, the red one, with Lamy Blue Black ink. And I'm going to give myself a 30-day challenge to use the All-Star as my daily pen. Now, that doesn't exclude me from using other pens, right? But my idea is to use it every day.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's going to be your main.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, it'll be my main pen, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' You're going steady with the Lamy All-Star.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, we got prom this weekend here. So I'm going to get a little bouquet. Maybe, you know, the little O-ring that they ship it with.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I look forward to the photos that Mary Beth will take of you and the Lamy All-Star getting ready to go. Yeah, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know she will. So I've kept the little cardboard O-ring that they ship with it. I'm going to put that, you know, on my finger. Beautiful. It's going to be my commitment ring for the month. Yeah. So, no. But this is just one of those things, you know, being in the stationery world like I am. Like you want to be like consistent and thoughtful and knowledgeable about products. And there's just too many products to be able to do that for all products, right? But one that I talk about so much that we focus on at least once a year for about a month, it seems like, is the Lamy Safari and the Lamy All-Star. So, I never, ever, ever use the All-Star. Ever. Like, I don't even know if I own one besides this one. You know, maybe I could find one in the closet. I never ink it up. It's never in the rotation. So, I've done that. And so, what's today? I just did this this morning. And so, by May 17th, I'll have, you know, over a month with this pen. And, you know, I'll come back with my thoughts. Maybe write up a little article. And see, you know, what I really think on a more user technical type of level other than just like the aesthetics, which is usually what I'm picking the differences is. And see if I really, like, don't get along with this aluminum barrel versus the plastic barrel just from a feel tactile perspective. Like, some things just don't feel the same in the hand. So, yeah, I want to give this a try. And this also comes about, again, threading this through the whole topic that we're talking about today. Someone asked recently, I said that I'm going to review the All-Star for the blog. And someone asked, well, why would you do that? You've already done that. And it's because experiences change. And context changes. And even though the pen necessarily doesn't change over time, right? It's technically the same pen, same design. A lot can change with that. Aside from the easy answer is, and this is something I consider all the time and something we've talked about a bunch here, is there's someone new reading the blog today, right? Or there's someone new listening to the podcast today. So, I do, I don't, I never have a problem, like, rehashing reviews from pens if I have something new to say, right? I'm not going to review every Kaweco sport that comes out, right? I don't have that much to say about lime green versus cyan blue. But if they come out with something new and interesting, you know, I'm going to bring it back up. Or if I haven't done a Kaweco sport review in two or three years, yeah, I might bring that out, say, hey, how has my experience been over these past few years? Has the product stayed consistent? Has there been any changes with the build quality, nib quality, things of that nature? So, it's always good to review the basics in a reasonable time frame from each other, right? Like, I'm not going to review every All-Star Safari or every product that comes out five times a year or 500 times a year in the case of Sailor. But, you know, when something new or interesting comes out or there's been a big enough gap in between the previous review, yeah, yeah, we're going to give an update on these products. So, it's weird how, like, sometimes I just want to dig into, like, these basic topics because it still gets me really, really excited to get ready to spend all this time with Alami All-Star. It's kind of fun. So, that's the way I think about these things, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But then again, like you're saying, like, oh, you know, I've done this before. Like, it's been reviewed before. I should do it again. Taste change. Yep. And preferences change over time. You know, it's like we think about back to when we started. It was like, ah, Vanishing Point. That's where it ends, man. That's the end. If I'm part of Vanishing Point, what more do you need? So, taste change experience continues to, like, twist that over time. And so, yeah, I would love to know for you what it's like to use this pen on the daily long term because I expect the first couple of days, you know, you might have a thing about the weight of the pen, whether it's heavy or light or whatever, like, for what your preference would be. But you'd get used to that, you know? Right. So, stuff like that would change over time. Because I would expect for a metal pen, the All-Star is pretty light.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, that's my preconceived notion going in, right? Yeah. But my choice between the Safari and All-Star is, in my preference, is mostly tactile, right? I like how the plastic of the Safari feels versus the aluminum of the All-Star.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, I actually just think visually, too, the plastic is better looking. Like, you know, like, it's not reflective. And I think that that helps them produce more colors and the colors look nicer. Like, you know, these are some of my preferences anyway for why I prefer it over the All-Star. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, if I'm taking this tactile feel and actually, you know, using it every day and putting it in my hand every day and having different thoughts about it and actually just using it blindly and not thinking about it, like, what is it really like? You know? Yeah. So, it's this opportunity for me to kind of, you know, expand my horizons, which is funny for, you know, a pen that I've known about for forever.

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' You got one, right? I have one. And as a pink pen aficionado, I am not sure it gets much better than this. This is one of those, like Dan said he's sending it to me. I'm like, okay, cool. And like I never get my hopes up when people say they're going to send me stuff, right? Like I'm just going to take it as it is when it comes. And it's one of those products that I unboxed and giggled, right? It's like too good. It's too good. The material. I can't explain the material. It's got a lot of shimmer in it, but in the way it like shines when you rotate it. Yeah. But not in a glittery kind of way, if that makes sense. It's more of like our favorite word, chatoyance kind of way, even though it's technically like the shimmer is just in it and that makes it shine. But it's the color of shimmer is blue-ish. And along with the pink barrel, it's hard to explain. I'll try to take a picture of it later and see if I can show it. Yeah. It's wicked cool. So, yeah. And it's like my kind of shape. It's, you know, your standard like acrylic barrel pen. And the ends are flat, which I really enjoy, as something different. And I wanted to point this out that I'm trying to explain. Let's see if I can explain this without visuals. So, you look at the length of the pen you're holding in your hand. And you're looking at the pictures on enigmastationery.com. And you see this beautiful pink, kind of swirly, kind of iridescent pen. And it's just like, man, it's just banging. This material is awesome. And being experienced with like these acrylic pen materials, usually you get the same experience on the ends of the pen, right? So, say the top end and the bottom and like where a finial would go. There's no finials on these. Or, you know, whether they're flat ends, rounded ends, tapered ends. There's like a continuation of the material. But something I'm seeing in this pen, and it hasn't stopped fascinating me yet. And I love this aspect of it because I have to keep looking at it. But imagine if you had a taffy, Myke. Okay. Work with me here.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm working with you, baby.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, you're going to the candy store, and they have lots of different types of taffies. And you know how they have kind of the two-layer taffies? Maybe at a Christmas time, there's a white exterior and a red interior. And if like you cut it, like if you cut it, you like have the outside as white and the interior is red. So, like the end of these pens are a more solid pink than the iridescence throughout the pen, which is a fascinating look to me. It's like I'm getting to see the innards of the material, which I like. Like this is a pro for me. Like I'm saying this in a very positive fashion. So, I'm going to try to take a picture of what I'm seeing here. It's a very subtle difference in material on the ends, but all it is is the interior of the material. So, for example, if you had like a swirly acrylic, right, you're going to see the continuation of the swirl through the ends of the pen. That would be my expectation. In this one, I get much more solid pink ends, and I kind of like it that way. So, it's really, really neat. I love this material. It's ridiculously cool. So, I love it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Love it. Look, you can go and check this out for yourself right now by going to enigmastationery.com slash penaddict. And if you use the code penaddict24, then you're going to get yourself free US shipping or discounted international shipping on orders of over $50 or more plus a free gift. That is enigmastationery.com slash penaddict to get your hands on a limited edition Mystic Magenta Magic plus a free gift and free US shipping on orders of over $50 or more with the code penaddict24. Our thanks to Enigma Stationary for their support of this show and RelayFM.