Editing The Pen Addict 330/transcript (section)

== Pencil Gift Exchange ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's not the only thing I sent you, Myke. I sent you something I've been threatening to for, like, a year.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I'm still not 100% sure why, but I have a – it's a Hightower, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So this is a chimney top. Chimney top. That's it. It's the long, pencil-y length, full-winked, black-winged-length pencil case because it contains, what, like 13 pencils, maybe? 14? I don't remember.

'''Myke Hurley:''' A bunch of wood pencil, a bunch of black wings and stuff.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So what I did for you was, since I talk about pencils all the time and how much I enjoy them, and especially the black-winged volumes when they come out, and you do not partake in the lead, which is fine. Like, that's just not your thing. You're more of a sailor man, and I understand that. But I do enjoy a good pencil quite occasionally. And I wanted to get some in your hands, just if nothing else, for reference. And I couldn't stop myself at just sending you a sampling. I sent you literally one of each of all the black-winged volumes releases to this point. I did recognize some of them.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Like, there were some that I recognized were from that, but, like, I don't remember enough of them to assume that they all were. That's very kind of you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so I think I didn't have the 33 and a third, which is the most recent one that they released. I think I'd already shipped the package. And, yeah, you don't need that one. Like, you're good. You're covered. You're covered. But there are a couple in there to make special note of. Number one, the other all-black one, the real all-black one, is probably the one you might like the most because it has the firmest core. So that one's called the 24. So it's the all-black one in there. Then the all-wood one in there is the one that sold out the most. That's like the butcher orange or the butcher blue of the black-winged volumes. The 211. Yeah. Yeah. So those are kind of... Which you can probably hear. Yeah. Yeah. So that's kind of... That was the most popular one. And then, like, some of the more recent ones have been my favorite. Like, the pinkish-looking one is the 54. And then the 16.2 is the Ada Lovelace one. So, yeah. There's some really cool ones. Yeah. Tony in the chat room saying that single 211, you could sell it for like $40. It's not that expensive. But still, they've gone for stupid, stupid amounts. It's literally like the butcher blue of the field notes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I like the way that one feels. It feels really nice. Like, I can tell a real difference, actually, between the 211 and the 24. Like, when I'm writing with them, I can feel a difference.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. The issue with the 211 was that it was the second edition. So they hadn't totally ramped up the quantities. Just like the same thing stored with field notes, right? You start small. Hopefully, your service goes well. And then you continue to grow it. And then people discover it late in the game. And those are long gone. That's what happened to the 211. So it was the second one to ever be released and never had the quantities that they wish they had now. So that's why, you know, the later releases have much more quantities available and things like that. So play around with them. There's probably like four different cores between them. You know, most of it with pencils, with those black wings, is the exteriors are different. But there are four different types of cores in there. Basically goes from soft, medium, firm, and extra firm. So, and I can point out, if you have a certain one that you end up saying, oh, this one feels different, I can tell you which they are. So anyway, I wanted you to have those, if nothing else, for reference for when I talk about a pencil and you go, oh, Brad has just gone overboard with these pencils. And now you can see why.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, thank you very much. That's very kind of you. Sure, sure.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So yeah, enjoy. And like I said, use, probably give the 24 and the 211 a shot. Just to see what you think. Okay. Just to see what you think. You know, play with them a little bit. Write with them. Sharpen them. See what you think. I will say, almost none of the erasers are like, really knock your socks off good. They adjusted them later in the game, made them a little bit better, but they're more for looks in my book. So don't get turned off by the lack of erasability of the racers. They do a fine job, not a great job. So there you have it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. We got a lot more things to talk about, Myke. And as much as I enjoyed our King of Pen conversation, which we've been waiting to have, as much as I enjoyed sending you all the pencils, I really wanted to talk about the Lamy 2019 Special Editions question mark. And I'm saying question mark because when these links started showing up on Twitter on the 12th, thanks to my good friend Cindy in the chat room for sending these my way, that's where I saw them first was her retweets. I saved some of the links. I was like, oh, cool. The 2019 AL Star and Safari Limited Edition pictures are starting to release, you know, like the press release type of pictures. So I saved some of these links and so I could have them for the show notes. And then I went back yesterday to try to go through creating the show notes and I was going to put the link to these tweets in there and they were gone. The ones that I had saved had been pulled down. And these were all Japanese stores that all tweeted at about the same time. So like a group of Japanese stores all tweeted very similar images all around the same time and almost all of them vanished. I spent like an hour trying to hunt down an actual link. Like I could find the picture of the safaris, you know, on the various message boards and on Reddit. And I did reverse Google image search so I could find like a source tweet and you'd click on the link and it'd be gone. So I finally ran across one. So I put that in the show notes so you could see what they look like. The kicker was I could never find the all-star bronze picture again because that's one of the limited editions and it has a special edition ink. I was spending my time trying to find these pictures. I was asking everyone in Slack. But of course Cindy came through because she's awesome. And she sent me the image to the AL star bronze. So we have the pictures of the safari and in a link to where it came from and the pictures of the bronze. I'm assuming these are real. So many pin stores tweeted these out and so many of them took them down that I'm wondering if they got, you know, got hand slapped or something for releasing something too early. But with that story out of the way, what do you think about the products these sell themselves assuming that these are the real releases for next year's special editions?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, the safari's running away with this one. Like, I'm surprised they're doing three limited editions. I'm intrigued to see what the story is. I mean, it's like pastel colors, like a pastel blue, pink and green. So it's very 80s style. But I mean, I'm all over these. These are excellent, excellent colors. The bronze, it's a little orangey, a little browny. I could get on board with it. I think, right? Like, I'm interested to see what the ink ends up looking like. It's not a bad one. Like, I think the A.L. Star Bronze is better than the Black Safari, right? Of 2018. Absolutely. But these safaris are a real return to form. Like, a real return. I think that they're awesome.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So almost irregardless of what you think about, you know, personally, whether you like these colors or like the styles of these pens, it's what Lamy needed to do to show that they've still got something left in the tank, right? They have been kind of having a design letdown over, or creativity letdown over the past couple of years with the Safari leases, like releasing an all black last year, or releasing the Pacific Blue A.L. Star with an ink they've already released. And just doing, making really weird decisions over and over again that just made us shake our heads. Like, we all still love the products. We'll still buy them. We'll still support them. But we're like, well, why are you doing this? I'm willing to throw money at you, but can I, can it like look like you're trying? And they did that on this time around. You know, the Safari look like those Easter candy shells that you get, you know, probably get your Cadbury's or M&M's around Easter time. The little coated chocolates, they're exactly like those blue and green and pink colors. I think they look fantastic. I definitely don't need all three. I'll probably end up with one of them. I definitely won't have to have all three of them. The bronze A.L. Star, I definitely don't need. But I think the ink might do pretty well. It's a kind of an interesting ink color to match along with the, with the pen itself. And the pen is fine. Like, I think it'll probably sell well. It fits in with some of their other metallic all stars. I mean, that's what that aluminum barrel pen should look like, right? It's got character. It's got the shine. It's got the metal. It may not be the best color in the world. And that's okay. They at least did something where they're not repurposing something they've already done or doing something super boring. And I applaud them for that because I've given them as hard a time as anyone over the last couple of years. And I really like seeing this. I'm assuming it's real because they, most of the pictures got taken down. That's when you know it's real. It's when a bunch of people, you know, unless there's a problem with them or something. But I have a feeling that these will be the ones for next year. We'll know maybe in November, I think, I can probably start reaching out to some European retailers, see if this is something that they'll have on order for like the spring, just to make sure that they're real. But I would wager so many stores were tweeting out about these that I bet you it's real. And they just blew the embargo date, like the chat room's saying. So we'll see. But I think it's cool. It's a good look for Lamy. And hey, by making it dramatic, they have us talking about it, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, exactly. But I don't care about any of this compared to what else.