Editing The Pen Addict 414/transcript (section)

== Sailor Manio Inks Availability ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I don't talk about the limited edition stuff as much as we used to, like religiously. It was like every release, every field notes release, every retro release, every Blackwing release. This one's a stunner. I just wanted to point this out because wow, is it good looking. And it's music based. I mean, Ravi Shankar, if you haven't heard the name or the music of Ravi Shankar, you would maybe know him by his affiliation with George Harrison of the Beatles, whom George learned to play the sitar from Ravi Shankar. And Ravi lived until like his 90s. Like he played music from when he was young to when he was very old. He's like a Hall of Fame level creator. And he's just amazing. And the way they made this pencil, I think it's one of the best looking pencils. Like I'm not going to order it. I'm like, I'm trying to be good. Like I don't need another dozen pencils. But this one's pretty hard not to order just by the way they created the design and the story around the pencil is right up my alley. So I just wanted to point this out for you, Myke, not being a pencil guy. They even did some music releases with these and printed some vinyl with these. Oh, that's really good looking. It's a really like exceptional release from Blackwing. And I just think the design is really of the pencil. If you just took out the story completely and just had the pencil, it would be like a knockout. But then to have the story on top of it, I think it's pretty cool. So I just wanted to point that out as one of the most recent releases in the limited edition area of our stationary world. Well, this one came out sometime this week yesterday or something like that. But very cool. I'm not going to buy it. I might eat my words on that one. This one, I might need to see that one on my desk eventually.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think it looks great.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, it does. It does. But I know you're not the pencil guy. Yeah. It's fair. There's nothing wrong with that. I will not dog you for not liking wooden pencils. Good. I will dog you about other things. That's fine. I got to save my ammo. All right. So last new product, Myke. And I want your opinion on this, even though this is not totally your thing, but it's more understandable than a pencil. It's the Pilot Vanishing Point 2020 limited edition. So every year Pilot releases one limited edition. Last year was the turquoise. I forget the name of it, but you know which one I'm talking about, like the turquoise swirly one. This one's called Black Lynx. It's an all black vanishing point with a guilloche finish or a guilloche pattern on the majority of the barrel. What are your thoughts on this pen before I get into it?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I feel like I've seen this pen before.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, you have. Okay, good.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So it's a combination of the standard black mat, right? So the very first vanishing point, my first gold nib fountain pen was the Pilot Vanishing Point black mat, which they still manufacture today. It's probably one of their single most popular sellers, best sellers. It's an all black barrel with full black trim and a black nib unit. So it's completely blacked out. And then in 2016, the limited edition version that year was a guilloche barrel with silver trim. So you had the guilloche pattern, even though it was a shinier pattern, the new one, the black Lynx one looks more of a little bit matte finish. The guilloche in 2016 had silver trim. So silver clip, silver belly band, silver nose cone, silver nib. And I bought that one. I ended up selling it because I didn't end up using it. And it was great looking, right? It was a very popular, cool design. This, the 2020 one is a combination of that guilloche barrel and the black mat furniture and to make it just a full black stealth with a pattern on it, basically. Um, uh, it kind of, um, looks like the black carbon S like it, it relates to a lot in the vanishing points history, a lot of design cues and in vanishing points history. So it's obviously going to sell out like anything that's all black is going to sell out. But this I wanted to point out is what we're seeing with this simplicity in style versus last year's turquoise is what we talked about. I don't know in an episode last year about how the design of pilots of annual vanishing point limited edition alternates between the office, the pilots office in France and the pilots pilots office in the U S. So this is the French version. And so if you take every other year, Myke, so last year, uh, so this year is the black links two years ago, 2018 is the cross lines. A lot of people call it the Burberry pin. Um, you, if you saw it, you would realize what it is. It's an all black, it's a black barrel with white lines kind of crisscrossing over it. The 2016 was the guilloche as, uh, the chat room would like me to say. Um, so you can sell that's the theme like the France office is definitely hitting this, uh, black base theme. And then pilot USA goes completely opposite. Like last year was the turquoise. And then they've done those various, like the crimson sunrise and the, and the twilight, all these wild gradient colors and really bright colors. So I'm glad there's an alternating because I don't know that I'd want the France to do it every year. They're fine, but I like the bright colors and the vanishing points, um, much more than I like the dark ones, even though this, I think this one looks awesome. Um, again, I like, I'm not going to buy this one. I don't need this one. I like my orange vanishing points better than this one. Like if I bought this one, I wouldn't use it. So it wouldn't be smart for me to buy it, even though it's like a limited edition thing, but this will sell out immediately. Don't you think?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, yeah, because they all do, but I don't, for me personally, I don't see it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, cross lines did not sell out immediately.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That was the worst one that has been made in probably a decade. And worse is relative, right? Worse is relative. It's completely fine and good looking. It's just not special enough to be a limited edition. I feel this one's borderline. If I'm using saying special enough to be at a limited edition, it will a hundred percent sell out for quickly.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Looking at the cross lines on again. Oh yeah. That one was just ugly though.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Like I called it the Burberry.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Yeah. You're right. I, I, I was thinking of something different. I wasn't remembering. Like it was black with the white lines. When you said Burberry, I started thinking about Burberry pattern and then got lost in the idea of how I think I would kind of like that pen. But the, the thing about the cross lines when I think is that it took a very strong design position that some people would be turned off by. Like, I don't like it. But the, the, this new one, the, what is it? Just black links. Yeah. It's, it's way more subtle, which I think would therefore appeal to more people. But for me personally, it's super boring and I wouldn't like it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So these, these last three releases by, uh, the, the office in France seem like mainline releases to me, not like limited edition releases. Yes. The 2016 Guillaume, the 2018 cross lines and the 2020 black links. I could see all of those in the standard lineup, even at a higher price point than, you know, your basic, your basic color, you know, the next, like a next price point. Just main release. They don't feel like limited edition-y enough for me, but that's just, that's personal preference and taste, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, exactly.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like I said, this one will a hundred percent sell out on like the first week or two of being available because you, you can't, you can't not sell all black pens. Like they just fly off the shelf.

'''Myke Hurley:''' People love their black pens, I guess. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. Is that, is that a wrap for today? Should we hit some Ask TPA? What are you, what are you feeling, Myke? I think that might be a wrap for today. I think that might be a wrap. We have a few Ask TPA, but not a huge amount. There's some really interesting questions. So I think we'll just tease those for next week. What do you think?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. And we need to ask people to send them in. So you can send in tweets with the hashtag Ask TPA. If you have any questions you'd like to hear us ask on the show, you can send them by email to Brad at hello at penaddict.fm. No. Dot com. Dot com. Ah. I'm so used to dot fms as my. Yeah, it's a disease. I wouldn't say, I wouldn't go that far. Mm-hmm. But yeah, sure. If you want to find Brad online, you can go to penaddict.com. He streams live on Twitch every Tuesday and Thursday at 10 a.m. Eastern at twitch.tv slash penaddict. You can also find Brad on Twitter. He is at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. And penaddict on Instagram. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E. Thank you so much to the Canalea Pen Company and Squarespace for supporting the show. And also to all of our RelayFM members. Thank you so much for your continued support of the Penaddict and RelayFM as well. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Goodbye, Brad.

[[Category:Podcast Transcripts]]
[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]