Editing The Pen Addict 550/transcript (section)

== Updating the top five pens page ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, Myke, so I have been working for a few months on updating the top five pens page from top to bottom. Like, you know, I started probably like last fall, last winter, doing some of like the really challenging like fountain pen categories. Like I think those are super challenging because of the variance in those categories. There's a lot of change. And so as the months have gone, I have been updating all kinds of lists on here. And we're pretty much down to the last batch that I wanted to do, even though I'm going to have a couple more updates. But these are probably kind of the last ones that are worth maybe like discussing individually. So the multi pens top five list, the ballpoint pens top five list, and the mechanical pencils top five list. All categories that I enjoy using, working with. I find the multi pens list to be interesting when I went to go update this. That unlike the ballpoint list or unlike the mechanical pencil list, there hasn't been a lot of change in here. There hasn't been a lot of innovation. It's been mostly re skins of existing products, right? Hey, this product's good. Let's make another color. Hey, this product's good. Let's do another collaboration. And so on and so forth. There are there were a couple of new ones on the list.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And a new kind of ranking. And I guess, long story short, I'm rethinking how I think about recommending multi pens, I guess, is the best way to say it. So in the past, like I've had the Hitec C Colito at the top of the list. And it's just uniquely great. It's a great multi pen. It's a little bit more specific than what I now have at the top of the list, which is the Jetstream 3 color. So what the Jetstream 3 color offers is ease of use. It is simple and extremely high quality for a great price. I think it's like under $10. You get blue ink, black ink, and a pencil refill, right? And it's the Jetstream ink. And the Jetstream ink is awesome. And you get the options to have, you know, the two ink colors and the one pencil. Insert. It's built really well. And it just works. Like you just pick it up and go, right? So it's, I found that it's probably a better recommendation to make than the Colito, which requires a little bit more work. So the Colito is still on the list. Don't get me wrong. But I think I was, the more I thought about this, the more I thought about how just classic, like the classic Bic 4 color is. And people like the ease of use of a multi-pen. So I even went simpler with the number two choice, which is the Tombow Monograph Multi 2.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Just like the Jetstream 3 color, this one has two colors. So you get like a black ballpoint and a .5 millimeter pencil. And it's even cheaper than the Jetstream. And it's just built so well. And it's so enjoyable to use to just have a pen and a pencil in one barrel that looks cool, feels great, is going to be durable, is high quality writer. And, you know, that's kind of new for how I'm thinking about this multi-pen category, right? I just think, like, ease of use has really kind of ramped up for my thought process behind these. Third on the list is the Colito. The Colito might be the coolest one on this list. Because you can get, I don't know, there's 20 different barrel options from three color to five color, you know, different plastics, different styles. You can really customize it, you know, to your style. And, you know, whether you want, like, an all-black stealth look or a hot pink translucent look, you know, you can do all kinds of things. And then they have, I don't know, another 20 or 30 refill options, right? This is the build-your-own style of Colito, where the first two pens, you just get what you get. This one you build. Which is fun. You buy a barrel, you buy your inks, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, they have so many colors, too. Like, I remember doing one of these back in the day. Like, and you can buy a ton of extras and swap them out really easily yourself. Like, the Colito is my favorite in this category for that reason. Just because it's, like, you can really kind of go wild with it. Yeah. Even though, you know, and I also think that, like, it's the most comfortable high-tech C, like, to hold and use. Because they make the barrel a bit chunkier and stuff.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's probably still my personal favorite. Like, in my old IT job, I lived off the Colito, right? Because I would have, like, my notebook. And then I would have, like, a three-color pen where I would color coordinate my notes. And I could pick whatever colors I want. And, you know, I could get, like, a blue-black and a sky blue and a pink. And, like, that would be my colors. And then I'd have a different three-color with, like, lime green and yellow and regular blue or something like that. So, yeah. Like, it's really cool. Like, it's definitely the most unique multi-pen. And it's a little bit difficult to recommend because you have to say, hey, here's all the things you need to think about when you go buy a Pilot High-Tech C Colito. If you're down with that, awesome. And you should also buy extra refills because you will burn through them like nobody's business, right? These gel ink refills, you just fire through these smaller capacity refills. So, it's still great. The fourth item on the list is the Rotring 600. This one is a little bit different. So, multi-pens have this kind of entry-level price point like these two that I mentioned up top, the Jetstream and the Tombow Mono. The Colito is not overly expensive. Like, you can get into a Colito for probably less than $10. Like, if you just bought the least expensive barrel and three refills, probably $10 or $12. And then you have companies that like to make the larger metal barrel multi-pens. You know, Lamy has a great one. And there's some other companies that have, you know, your $50 to $100 higher-end style of multi-pen. And the Rotring is up in that category for quality. But price-wise, it's $46 when I reviewed it. And, like, I thought that was extremely low for, like, the quality of the pen and what you get. And compared to the rest of the market, I thought it was pretty cool. So, I've enjoyed using that one, like, pretty continuously. It's just a neat pen. You know, I love Rotrings. And, like, the 600 style is just great. And to see that translated into, like, a pen like this is pretty cool. It's a classic. Yeah, it's a classic. And, like, Rotring is doing, like, they're on this, like, I don't know, this modernization kick where not everything is just silver or black anymore. So, like, the one I reviewed was blue with the red markings. So, like, they did the original 600 mechanical pencil and that blue with red. And they did the red one and they did the green one. And now they're transferring those colorways into these products. And I think it looks fantastic. So, last one is one that I need to review. And it's the Pilot Juice Up 3. So, this is more in line with the first two, the Jetstream 3 color and the Tombow Monograph, where you just buy, like, a preset type of pen. But this has the great Pilot Juice Drink, Juice Gel Ink refills. Also, Juice Drinks don't drink the ink. I'll probably not do that. But, yeah, like, it doesn't have the broad options like the Colito. Again, like, no one's going to beat the Colito. Like, there's the Uni Style Fit, which I just don't think is as good as the Colito. But you get the Juice Up. It's a thinner barrel, right? So, one of the challenges that I always have with the multi-pens is if the barrel gets too wide, right? There's a balance, right? You have to give up some of the barrel diameter to fit the multitude of refills you want to put in there. But there is a tipping point where it gets too wide. So, the Juice Up just does a good job of keeping a narrower barrel than some of these other pens. So, yeah. That is my multi-pin breakdown.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Ballpoint pens. I say that the multi-pin didn't have that much, like, you know, new technology in there. Even though it kind of does. There's, like, some new shapes and designs. You can kind of say that with the ballpoint pen, too. There's, like, a little bit of change in there that I like to see. But the ballpoints are really, like, it's your stalwarts are here, right? The Jetstream is number one. Like, and there should just be, like, a line of demarcation after that, right? It's Jetstream's number one, and there's everything else. The Pilot Acroball is Pilot's attempt at the Jetstream, and it's good. Like, I really like how the Acroball writes. You just have way more options in the Jetstream, and I think the ink performance is a little bit better, even though I thoroughly enjoy the Acroball. Well, the Zebra Blend is Zebra's Jetstream idea, these hybrid ballpoint inks. And it's a newer pen. I shockingly like the barrel marketing that they're putting out there for this. I'm like, okay, fine. It works. It's very nice. It's very comfortable. It is very limited in options, even less so than the Acroball. So, if Zebra leans into this over the next few years, like, it could be up there in number two. They have a long – anyone has a long way to go to compete with the Jetstream. This is – out of all the lists, I'd have to go look at them all. Like, this is one of the biggest outliers from number one to number two around. Number four, I have to have the Big Crystal. Like, we talked about it last week in that Pick'em game that we played. It's uniquely great. Like, it's great. Like, I just love the Big Crystal. I love using it. I love the looking at it. I love the idea of it. I love the simplicity of it. I love the ubiquitousness of it. And I would recommend it. You know, it's the first ballpoint ink on this list that's not a hybrid ballpoint, which is what most people don't really care about that stuff if they're just grabbing a pen. But that's how good this pen is, right? If you're not in the hybrid ink category, I think you're picking the Big Crystal. It's that good. And then I capped off the fifth selection with the Fisher Space Pen. I think it has to be there, almost on a technicality, right? It's so good at what it does. It's like the jet stream of the pressure refills, right? Like, if you need the pressurized refill for certain writing situations, there's nothing that's better than the Fisher Space Pen. And I think it makes the list because once you get out of these top five ballpoint pens, everything else is the same, right? It's just like, okay, do I like this design of this pen? Because the refill is just going to be the same as literally everything. Like, I love the Caran D'Ache 849. If I was making my own list, it would probably be number two behind the jet stream, right? If I was making Brad's list, but this isn't my list. But I love that pen. But, you know, it's in the same category as everything else. The Parker Jotter is another one, right? It's a classic, great ballpoint pen. And super awesome click, Myke, as we very well know. And it's a great pen. Like, that could be someone's number one pen. Just like the Caran D'Ache 849 could be my number one pen, right? It just doesn't make a recommendations list. Like, the Caran D'Ache is like $25 for like a base one, right? That's, it's just not going to make my list over, you know, when someone's saying, hey, give me a good ballpoint pen that I can just use every day. Hey, you know, I'm a student or, you know, I just need to take notes in the office. But if they say, hey, I like ballpoints. I want something with a nicer barrel. Then we start getting into, hey, take a look at the Caran D'Ache 849, things like that, right? That's not what I'm trying to solve here. So, those are good. Last one, Myke.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Pretty, I don't know, pretty light turnover in the mechanical pencils, even though I do think there is some cool stuff happening in the mechanical pencil range. And this might actually be maybe even more over the next couple of years, some transition in and out of these lists. But it's really hard to beat the top three on this list, which is the Rotring 600, which we refer to in the multi-pin category. The pencil has been around longer. It is the mechanical pencil. It is the mechanical pencil, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But I get the fact that it may not be as far ahead as number two on the list as, like, I think the Jetstream is ahead of the Acroball because of the price, right? It's a $30-plus mechanical pencil. It's worth it. It's worth every penny. It has withstood the test of time. It has withstood everything. Like, it is really one of the best stationary products ever made. Number two on the list is the Pentel Sharp. And you could have the same arguments with that, except it's a plastic barrel pencil. It's about $7 or $8. It's been around for 50 years. It's just hard to beat these types of pencils, right? And, you know, ranking them one or two, I'm always going to recommend the 600 over pretty much anything else as far as a mechanical pencil. But I do have to consider, like, okay, maybe not everyone wants to spend $30 on a mechanical pencil. Like, I get that. Then you start to look at the Pentel Sharp. Number three is the Uniball Kuretoga, right? You can get the base-level Kuretogos for about $6. They're fantastic.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Did you consider the Dive?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I did not. Okay. I did not consider the Dive. I think it is one of the unwritten rules of the top five list is ease of acquisition. And I'm not going to recommend something that people just can't go out and click a button and arrive at their house, right? So, in the Dive, if I was making my list, right, that's kind of the breakdown. Okay, what's Brad's personal list versus what's Brad's recommendations, right? The top five pens page is a recommendations page. The Dive would not make my top five pencils either. So, it's just not that much of a game changer. It's interesting. I'm glad that it exists. And I hope they keep working on it. I don't need the Dive.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I rarely reach for the Dive. It's like sitting right here. And I like it. And every now and then, I'll grab it. But I just tend to go for like a skinnier pencil. Like, it's tough. But the base, Kuretogos, yeah, it's great. And if you want to argue that that's number one, sure. Like, I'm not going to argue. Like, these top three on the list, I think they're pretty interchangeable. Number four is the most underrated mechanical pencil. It's the Tombow Monograph Shaker. It feels so good to use. Like, it's just built like a tank. It's like $6. And it's got a shaker mechanism. It's got an oversized eraser. And it's just, it looks cool. It works great. I absolutely adore that pencil. And then I couldn't have a recommendations list. Kind of like the Fisher Space Pen for the ballpoint list. The Pentel Carry on the mechanical pencils list. I think it gets, I recommend it because I think people should be aware of it. Right? People will say, hey, I want to buy a nice mechanical pencil. Okay. Well, they're expecting to see something like the Rotring 600 or the Uniball Kuretoga. But, hey, this thing over here is just as good as all those. And it's really different. Right? It's a Captain Mechanical Pencil. It's a weird looking thing. It is. But I think it deserves it. So, it's just, it's a great, great pencil. And it's only like $15, $16. Like, it's not crazy expensive. Right? It's not like a $50 mechanical pencil or anything like that. Yeah. Yeah. This list, this, out of a lot of the lists on here, this one could be like a top 10 mechanical pencils because I think there's a bunch of good stuff. Like, I've left off the Pentel Graph Gear. There's actually two models of the Graph Gear that I like. I like the 500 and the 1000. I like the Pentel Smash is a personal favorite of mine. The Uni Shift Pipe Lock is a personal favorite of mine.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Some of these names, man. What is going on in mechanical pencils? You say the Uni Shift Pipe Lock?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. Great name. It's kind of like the, what's the friction I'm about? The Ball Knock Zone. Ball Knock Zone. Ball Knock Zone, baby. Yeah. Come on. That review's coming up. We'll talk about that one next week. I'm going to be reviewing that one next week. Ball Knock Zone? Ball Knock Zone. It's on the list. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's actually called, in English, Ball Knock Zone? Correct. Or such as a translation? That's what they called it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Correct.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Ball Knock Zone. All right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, that leaves, we should end it there. That leaves, I need to update the wooden pencils category. I need to make some, I need to work on that one a little bit more. I need to test out some more things. After that, I think I'm about done with this list. It's been a big, long, long project. And, like, it's one of those lists that as soon as you're done, you want to redo it again. So, well, we're not going to jump right into that immediately. But maybe not too long.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Ball Knock Zone.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. Coming soon.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. A couple of other news items. And then I want to get to, like, maybe one STPA this week. Shout out of the week, Myke. Yes. One of the goals, one of the goals with doing this was to broaden the scope outside of blogs, which was the original idea of this. So, you know, we can have YouTube channels. We can have podcasts. This time, I want to do, shout out an Instagram account. And this is from Clarissa. Many of you might know as the Snowy Studio. So, I got to meet Clarissa at the San Francisco Pen Show. She was just a joy to be around. And her Instagram feed is just drool-worthy, right? So, like, these are the kind of accounts and shout outs. Like, I want to give to people to go, hey, check this out if you haven't seen this before. And maybe give them a follow. In this case, it's Instagram. Some other cases, it might be a podcast. Sometimes it might be a blog. Sometimes it might be a YouTube channel. So, it's fun to be able to mix in and show, like, all of these great accounts. Like, all these great Instagram accounts that we talk about from some time. So, go check out the Snowy Studio on Instagram. And big shout out to Clarissa, who has been, like, super awesome to finally meet and get to talk to on occasion. So, she's great.