Editing The Pen Addict 672/transcript (section)

== Montegrappa's storytelling pens ==

* You know, Montegrappa is one of our favorite custom pen makers, I guess, the storytelling pen makers. When they get an idea or a collaboration or a license to make interesting pens, like in the past, you know, we've talked about Frankenstein. We've talked about the James Bond pen. We've covered many, many pens, including the one that started us all off was the Chaos pen.
* They continue to delight me in making this stuff because it is so specifically weird. Truly incredible. In, like, every way. So, this pen, you just, you literally, like, our words aren't going to handle this, but it's basically, they've taken Harry Houdini.
* Some of the concepts of him basically tied up in chains in a straight jacket. So, this pen could be for other reasons. But it has leather and it has chains in it, Myke. And it also has a mirror box for him to, you know, disappear into, unlock himself from the chains and somehow make it out unscathed. So, it's kind of a riot. The best part about these pens from Montegrappa is the more you look at them, the more little details you see. Yeah. And this is one of those, for sure. Like, I have no interest in Houdini whatsoever. But this pen is just rad. And then they go as far as making the little, like, disappearing box. I don't even know what you call this thing. Yeah. It's hilarious. It's incredible. Yeah. But, again, it's like, I don't know when I made this. Like, I love it. Like, what is the mark? Like, I get the Lord of the Rings stuff or the Game of Thrones stuff or even, like, some of the general.
* Yeah. Frankenstein. General. Like, that's, the Houdini is very specific. Very specific.
* So, one of the things I was looking at when I looked at the Houdini, I was like, have we missed some of these? Like, I feel like this is the first one I've seen in a while. And it turns out we have. We're not going to go through all this. But I put in a link to their current limited editions page. I couldn't believe how many were on here. There's, like, an entire Michelangelo pin on here, which looks more extreme than the Houdini pin. The Year of the Snake pin, I'm surprised, hasn't popped up before. That's actually pretty cool. Like, I'm into the Year of the Snake pin. Like, it's like a Chaos Light type of design.
* It's not as extreme. It looks pretty cool. The Flash pin looks horrible. Yeah, that one's straight up just a branded one. Like, it's not really that. Because, like, because then when you look at the Lord of the Rings pin, that is sick. So, this is, like, the number one one. And I'm not even a Lord of the Rings fan. But they make one called, what's the name of this? Ode to Bag End.
* Unbelievable pin. Like, this is worth going to see outside of the Houdini pin. Like, you should go look at this pin. This is my expectation. They have set the expectation and the bar so high, and they just keep, like, raising it. This pin is unreal. Like, if you're into Lord of the Rings and have, who knows? I'm not even going to click through to see how much this is. I'm sure it's several thousand dollars. It is unreal. It is unreal.
* Okay. That's not... Because it doesn't have all the... Like, it's the pen in a nice box. It hasn't got, like, something else going on. It's a simpler barrel, but executed just perfectly. That, yeah. It's unbelievable. So, anyway, there's a bunch more. I'm not going to go read them all. You did want to shout out the Goldfinger. The Goldfinger pen is unbelievable. It's not as cool as the original one. Like, again, this is, like, 1300 because it's just the pen in a box. Like, you haven't got, like, the bullet refill system. But it's made of brass. Yeah. I mean, I'm not going to make it out of solid gold. But it's, like, this... Yeah, I just think this pen looks fantastic, too. It's, like... Yeah. And they're just... I tell you, Brad, it feels like a good job to work at Montegrappa. But, like, to design... They really... Like, the pen designers at Montegrappa, they have a great job. Because it genuinely feels like they could literally do whatever they want. They could do anything. Like, anything. Right. Like, oh, we're going to make... Not only are we going to make a Harry Houdini celebration pen, we're going to make a box to put it in.
* And we're going to let you do a magic trick with it. Like, you can put the pen in the box and do the magic trick. Just incredible stuff. It took me probably, like, 10 or 12 pens to scroll down to find the last one we talked about, which is the Scrabble. Scrabble, yeah. Yeah, Scarabio, the Italian Scrabble game. So, that was a neat pen. But that's the last one we talked about. That only feels like a year ago at the most. And they've done, like, what, 10 or 12 more that are on this limited edition list? It's outrageous. They are an outrageous brand, and I love them for it. Completely on the opposite end of the spectrum. I got advertised the Montegrappa Armonia. And I don't know if this is a new or old pen. This one, there's, like, an orange. It's called the Dueto Orange. It's, like, a silver barrel with some, like, orange trim. Orange looks like a resin grip section and a resin cap. This one, I keep looking at this one pen. I want to see this when I go to a pen show this summer, either in D.C. or at the Atlas Stationery sidewalk sale. This is, it's very, it looks kind of expensive for, like, what it is. I've seen pens that look like this for much cheaper. But I'm curious if this has any. You said it looks expensive. What do you mean it is expensive? No, it looks, it looks, it doesn't look that expensive. Yes. It looks like it should be, you know, like, half the price. I get the impression this is a very slim pen. Because, they say, greatness starts small, classic design, balanced proportions. Like, this feels like a very thin pen. Yeah. And they even have this model in a mini size. So, they're taking, this is the, I put the link to the standard one. There's actually one that's even smaller, but it's only, like, $10 cheaper. Okay. So, I'm curious if this is a newer or older release. I've never seen it before. But it actually has me compelled because I like Montegrappa pens. I just don't know if I like this for the price. And that's what I want to decide. Like, I want to get one of these in hand and see, oh, is this worth, you know, $250 or whatever it would cost me. But it's, it's, it's, looks like they're entry-level pen. And Montegrappa's always had a very high entry-level point.
* You know, consistently. They don't really have many, like, $100 pens, right? They're mostly started, like, back in the day. When I was buying, like, the Elmo, they were, like, $180 to $200. And that was their entry-level pen. And now the Elmo's closer to $300, I believe. So, now this is, like, maybe, like, a newer entry-level pen. So, anyway, they got to get you in the Houdini pen somehow, Myke. And it, greatness starts small, as they say, for the Armonia. What's it going to take to get you in a Houdini today?
* That was, like, at the Montblanc start. What's it going to take you to get into this Van Gogh today? Yeah. I mean, yes, that is, that's the scenario you were in.
* It's like, yeah, I'm going to go back over here to the Coral Baby. Yeah, we're going to keep it under four digits, under four figures here, allegedly.