Editing The Pen Addict 46/transcript (section)

== Pin Testing ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Myke and I had the opportunity. I want to say it was late summer into the fall last year. Would you say that's accurate timeline? Sounds about right. Sounds about right. Where Retro 51 included Myke and I in a product testing of a new product they were releasing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And they sent us each a pin to use. Basically, the premise was, here's this pin we're considering bringing to market. And Myke and I weren't the only ones in this, obviously. But there was, I don't know how many people were involved in it. But I liken it to like a focus group. It wasn't necessarily a product review. It was basically a product focus group where they're wanting legitimate feedback. Use the product. Give us feedback on this product. And we're going to decide how we're going to bring this to market.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So they sent Myke and I each a pin. Asked us to use it for a month.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And then they would send us out an online survey where Myke and I, you know, I can't even remember the questions now. Myke and I were talking about it. It was an online survey. So we don't have documentation of what the specific questions were and, you know, what our exact feedback was. Because it's been six or eight months at this point since we've done it. But what they sent us ended up being released here recently. And they're calling it the Retro 51 Snapper Tornado.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They actually, they did. I don't think they gave us the name at the time. No, they did give us the name at the time. They did call it the Snapper. It's basically the Retro 51 Tornado that we've talked about.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, the standard Tornado with the rollerball ink cartridge. They've made essentially a retractable Tornado with the ballpark ink cartridge. That's the nuts and bolts of the Snapper. It's generally the same body shape, body style, body dimensions as the regular 51 Tornado. But it's retractable. And it's ballpoint instead of rollerball.

'''Myke Hurley:''' See, this is the thing. On their website, it says at the bottom they have the refills like they always do. And they have rollable conversion. And they have the refills on there. But I think that that's incorrect. Because when, or at least when we spoke to them, they said that it wasn't going to be available in the rollable version. And I had a tweet from Retro 51 the other day confirming that. Well, that I said, somebody asked me, are they available in the rollerball? And I said I believed it was the ballpoint. And they said yes. Now, this was my initial issue. And this is what I told them. Do you mind if I jump in first?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Well, yeah. So let's each give our feedback. And we have never discussed this pin amongst each other other than the pin arrived. And we're going to do our submission for Retro 51. We never discussed the pin until right now. So you go first. And then I'll go.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So they are as beautiful as you would expect. They look just like the Tornadoes. And the colors that are on offer. So they have a chrome, a blue, a very bright yellow, and a confetti, like a multicolored one. They look fantastic. Me and Brad had a version which hasn't actually been released. It was like a yellow striped, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No. Mine's different. Mine was solid white. So the ones that we got, neither of them have been released in the color.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I have a two-tone yellow striped version. I wish I had it here. I actually have it at work with the rest of my collection. So I haven't got a picture for people. So I apologize.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I didn't break mine out either. Mine's sitting in the other room. I don't have it in front of me. But, yeah, mine's a solid white lacquer.