Editing The Pen Addict 453/transcript (section)

== Edition Two Notebook Review ==


'''Brad:''' They did a bad job shipping them. Yeah. So, there was a, whatchamacallit, like a distributor shipping, right? Say, I don't know that this is the case. Let's just say, it was like an Amazon warehouse type of situation, right? Like, these weren't packed, like, by a writer in the bullet journal offices. You know what I'm saying? Sure. So, they came, so I ordered three, one for me, one for you, and one to give away. And that's a lot of bulk in notebooks for one. And then they were in, like, a two foot by 18 inch envelope just flying around in there. Like, they weren't in a box. There was no, they weren't wrapped together. The envelope was destroyed because they're basically, you know, they're throwing around like a five pounds worth of notebooks in a bubble wrapper and they were just thrashed.

'''Brad:''' So, I mean, that was, there were some shipping issues with those. I wasn't the only one that had that problem. I saw some other people mentioning that. I was like, yeah, me too. I raised my hand on that one. So, that was a, they did a bad job with that. The paper's weird, too. Why is the paper weird? I don't know that one. I was going to comment on the notebook itself, though.

'''Myke:''' But I feel like the texture of it, it's smoother than I would have expected. But also, throughout the book, it feels like the texture changes.

'''Brad:''' Oh, I'll have to check that out.

'''Myke:''' To my touch, right? So, some pages feel smoother and some feel like they have more of a texture on them. But there isn't a reason that that should be the case.

'''Brad:''' Gotcha. You understand? Yep. So, I'll have to look at that. But I thought the same thing when I opened it. I was like, oh, this is literally just a gigantic notebook.

'''Myke:''' It's huge. Which is great. Which is fine. You know, because this is obviously like, they have understood that to effectively bullet journal, you need more pages. Trust me, I understand that. If anyone understands that kind of stuff, right? Like, I feel like I've gone through that journey, right? Yeah. That's why I wanted to send you this. I was expecting more in the notebook than just what is put inside the notebook. In a sense, like, I thought there was going to be more printed on the pages rather than just the guide itself. So, I was just a little bit surprised by it. But I could imagine it being the product that bullet journalers want. But I just thought there was going to be more to it.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. So, like, think about the end destination for this, right? This is going to be on retail shelves, like at Barnes & Noble and bookstores and all kinds of different places, right? It's going to be, it's like perfect for that. Just having this big, oh, I've heard of, like, I want to try bullet journaling. And here's a little guide and here's a notebook.

'''Brad:''' So, yeah. The, I just thought the entire, the overall package was like A plus. But then, like, when you open it up, it's like, oh, okay. It's like, it's just a big Leuch term, which is, it's cool too. Yeah. I think they did change the paper, but I don't know about the consistency stuff.

'''Myke:''' It says on the page that they came up with, like, a new formulation. But I would be keen to know if you can feel what I can feel.

'''Brad:''' Okay. I'll check it out. I haven't had time to mess with it yet. Other than to just, like, open it up and kind of check it out. And it's certainly an impressive notebook. I think it's going to do extremely well. It's a big step up from the previous one.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. It's premium. It's premium as heck. It's premium. It is. And I love, like, I love the foil stamping. But they've done it. I just think it looks so fancy.

'''Brad:''' Yeah.

'''Myke:''' Yep. All right. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. You can make your next move with Squarespace because they will let you easily create a website for your next idea or project. You can register a unique domain name. You can customize beautiful award-winning templates and so much more. It really is an all-in-one platform that will let you build just about any website that you want to make. If you want to make a blog, a portfolio, a site for your business, maybe a site for your band, a site for an upcoming event that you're hosting online. What about an online store of physical digital goods? You can sell them all on Squarespace. It's so easy to do. You can build everything on the web, but you can also manage and customize on iPads and iPhones and stuff. Now they have fantastic apps. They have great inbuilt analytics. It really is an all-in-one platform. Everything that you're going to need to build your website is available to you to Squarespace. There's nothing to install or patch or upgrade, and they have award-winning 24-7 customer support to help you out if you do have any questions. They have everything covered for you over at Squarespace. This is one of the reasons that I have been an incredibly happy customer for 10 years and more, I think, at this point. If I want to put something online, I don't want to have to think about all the hoops that I need to jump to. I go to squarespace.com and I sign up right there. And you can too. In fact, if you go to squarespace.com slash penaddict, you can sign up for a trial today with no credit card required and build your entire website. And then when you're ready to show the world, you sign up for one of their plans. They start at just $12 a month, but you can get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain and show your support for this show by using the offer code penaddict. That's squarespace.com slash penaddict. And the code penaddict for 10% off your first purchase. So thanks to Squarespace for the continued support of this show and RelayFM. Squarespace, make your next move, make your next website.

'''Brad:''' So let's talk about some very penaddict-y podcast brands and some of their new products. What do you think?

'''Myke:''' I love it.

'''Brad:''' It's kind of what we do. The first one's a surprise, even though it kind of shouldn't be. And we'll get into that in a second. But Pilot, one of my favorite punching bags recently. I do it out of love. I love Pilot to death. They released, and thank you to CY from Tokyo Station Pens for sending this to me, a dark blue translucent Pilot 823, which is a store exclusive. So CY sent this over to me because he knows that I'm super interested in these types of things. And he gave us a shout out in the Tokyo Station's podcast this week. I think mostly he gave us the shout out because we agreed with him on the Pilot Custom, the one that we discussed, you know, the color limited edition Pilot Custom SE. In that, it was just kind of fell flat. So I think that's really why he wanted some support on the podcast from us at What You Got. But this pen he brought up, so the store is called Shoshikan, Shosaikan. And the way they explain it on Tokyo Inklings is like, this is like a high-end type of store that's like just really nice, really beautiful. You know, it's been around for a long time. It's well-respected in Japan. And, you know, they do a lot of premium, premium stuff. So, of course, for their 20th anniversary, they were able to work with Pilot to make 100 custom 823s in this dark blue translucent material, which looks great, right? But no one's really going to be able to get these. They're only making 100 of them. They're charging almost $500 US for it when it's normally like $280 for the standard ones. And, like, this is cool. Like, Pilot does this for stores they partner with, right? And the way CY put it is Pilot will do this for... They like to do... Pilot loves the big anniversary dates, right? They'll do it for the 1st, for the 5th, for the 10th, for the 20th anniversary. They'll work with these shops and make something special. Now, this one's really special, right? But it's kind of like the Lamy 2000 in blue to where, like, it's one of the flagship pen models of the line. It's something normal users have been clamoring for. You know, like your regular everyday users of the Lamy 2000 or Pilot 823 as, like, their workhorse writing pens to have something more special than the stock versions that they've kept the same for 10 years or so or more in the 823 and forever in the 2000.

'''Brad:''' You know, we want something more for the regular customers to, you know, we'd like to see a little bit of change and a little bit of the brand seeing the value in their day-to-day customers, you know, even though they're obviously, you know, loyal to their high-end, high-volume customers like this. So, I think it's cool.

'''Brad:''' I would love to see something like this come normally. I would love to see not this color. Like, I think the color is awesome, but it's not that far from the black that they have already. You know, if they did this in their standard translucent blue that they use in the 74 and the 92 that's a bright blue, I would actually jump through the screen and try to acquire one of these even for $500. But this one looks like the basic black one, pretty much. But if they did like a purple one or heaven forbid an orange one or something like that, I would actually try. I would pay that much of a premium to have a different 823. But I like seeing this, but I am resigned to the fact that I might never see this pen in real life, right?

'''Myke:''' Yeah, of course.

'''Brad:''' So, like, I'm even hesitant to talk about it. It's like, I want Pilot to do these things, but I want them to do them for the mass market. And same with Lamy and same with, you know, every other company except Sailor. Sailor does it for the mass market. Or at least has options of access for the mass market. So, anyway. Yeah, I like it. And, like, if this was a certain color, I might try to get one, even at that exorbitant price. But, you know, it's a thing. I just want the customer base that listens to this show to be able to play as well. Right? That's all.

'''Brad:''' Which brings us to Sailor.

'''Brad:''' I want you to lead this one.

'''Myke:''' Sailor has a new North American edition. It is called Too Hot Habanero. It is an orange, all-orange pen with a translucent demonstrator body. It has an orange grip section. It has a two-tone nib, which is cool, in 14 or 21-carat gold. And it also has the grip section, which is a non-translucent. What would you call that? Just, like, regular acrylic? Yeah, it matches the cap. Which matches the cap. With a custom, unique finial of a chili pepper.

'''Brad:''' It's a habanero, Myke. It's a habanero pen.

'''Myke:''' I know. But habaneros are chili peppers, aren't they?

'''Brad:''' Yeah, that's not a habanero. The one thing, people knew I was going to talk about this today. The only thing people cared about was to tell me to make sure you say that's not a habanero on the top of the pen. And I'm like, I know it's not a habanero, but it would look like a turd if they used a habanero on there.

'''Myke:''' Yeah, because the thing is, like, that, it, it, it.

'''Brad:''' I had to mention that. That was the only thing of importance that people wanted to talk about because they know I'm going to love this pen. And I want to know what you think about this pen, though. It's not. It looks awesome. It looks great. The pepper looks like a pen.

'''Myke:''' It is like the universally recognized symbol for pepper. Yes.

'''Brad:''' Right? Mm-hmm.

'''Myke:''' People get too upset about too many things.

'''Brad:''' They weren't upset. They just wanted to be clear. Very clear, Myke.

'''Myke:''' Yes, definitely needed. The clarity is definitely needed because nobody would understand it otherwise, right?

'''Myke:''' Anyway, this is fantastic. This is just a fantastic pen. They knocked this one right out of the park, right? Like, this is a great idea, fantastically executed. I love it.

'''Brad:''' Completely agree. It's awesome. Like, this is what I would make if I was, if I was allowed to make, like, a sailor pen, right? Yeah. For, like, the pen addict. Like, this, I would choose, like, some part of it would be translucent. Some part of it would be solid. We'd mix and match a couple things. We'd do a little finial. I wouldn't have chosen the two-tone nib, but that's picking knits. I think it looks better on some pens than others. Like, Lucky Charm. I like the two-tone nib. I do. It's a cool nib.

'''Myke:''' It matches with the theme of, like, this two-tone plastic, basically. Yeah.

'''Brad:''' You know, so, like... I don't dislike it. But this is, like, the 4AM black ion trim rhodium nib thing. It's just, like, it's kind of their thing to kind of, like, mix and match nibs.

'''Myke:''' And then doing a slim and standard.

'''Brad:''' Yes. Which is cool. So, the thing people wanted was, like, a Pro Gear limited edition because they've mostly done 1911 limited editions because the 1911s sell better. Well, it's because there's no Pro Gears that look like this to have a chance to sell. Right? So, I think this will do better than the pen of the 1911, pen of the year, cranberry sauce with no name pen.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. But there's 800 of these. They're going to sell out super fast.

'''Brad:''' Is it 800 of both sizes? That's what I haven't, like, clarified.

'''Myke:''' I don't know. Is it 800 of both sizes? I think it might be... They're not clear. They're saying it's 800 pieces. Correct. I think it's split across both.

'''Brad:''' I agree with that statement. I agree with that statement. This will sell out, and even at the higher price. So, this is the new pricing. So, the Pro Gear regular is $392. Pro Gear slim is $280. I will not be buying this pen. Right? Like, I have no interest in purchasing this pen.

'''Myke:''' $392 is too much.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. It just is. Like, you know, I've got to be really kind of blown away to spend a lot of money on a pen these days. And, like, I have... Like, I'm covered on Sailor's.

'''Myke:''' Is this just the new standard pricing or the new limited edition pricing?

'''Brad:''' This will be the... I think it's going to be the new standard pricing, but that's one of my questions to Sailor is, do they actually have a standard pen lineup anymore?

'''Myke:''' Right, right, right. Okay.

'''Myke:''' Yeah, it's too much, man. I think it's too... I really love this pen, but I don't $400 love it.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Yeah. It's great. Like, if I didn't have other Sailors and other orange pens, like, I'd maybe consider it. Right? This will definitely sell better than the red one, I think. But, like, we'll never know the answer to that. Like, I could ask around, but, I mean, no one's really going to tell me. Nor does it matter. But I think this is going to do extremely well. I have basically the opposite of this pen.

'''Brad:''' Mm-hmm.

'''Myke:''' Do you know which one?

'''Brad:''' The chocolate dipped orange one.

'''Myke:''' The orangeette? The Bunga Box orangeette?

'''Brad:''' Orangeette. Yeah. So, if I haven't bought the orangeette, and if I haven't bought Tequila Sunrise, I would buy both of those before I bought this one, right? And, like, if I haven't bought those, there's no reason for me to go jump in and buy this one. And I could have gotten both of those for cheaper than this.

'''Myke:''' Mm-hmm.

'''Brad:''' Right? So, like, I'm trying to manage, like, some of my purchases. It has to be, like, it has to be, like, the right amount of hype for me, right? I can't get overhyped about something, like, immediately and start pressing buttons to buy something. And I can't be, well, if I'm underwhelmed by it, I'm obviously not going to buy it. It has to be the right amount. And that's usually a combination of a lot of factors. And that usually doesn't come, like, immediately, right? So, I got to figure out the right amount of hype for things. So, I think this pen will do very well. I think the design is great. And, yeah, like, I have nothing bad to say about it other than, like, I don't like the new pricing. But it is what it is. And that's what it's going to be now. And they're going to come out with, like, the unicorn barf one. And I'm going to pay $392. So, my feeling... It's just going to happen.

'''Myke:''' Yeah, like, I now will be way more picky about the Progears I buy. I think the right... Honestly, for me, the right Progear is worth that money. Yeah. Because it is, in my opinion, about as good as a fountain pen can be. But it's now $100 more than I would have expected to pay, in my mind, for a pen like this. And so, I'm not going to get ones that I really like. Which I do. I really like this one. But I don't... You know, I could go really like to love. But it's not a love level where I would be willing to buy this to make it my one, two, three, four, fifth orange Progear.

'''Brad:''' Right.

'''Myke:''' You know? Right.

'''Brad:''' And, like, the thing we have to consider is this is already the second one, just the North America release in 2021. Right? We're, you know, not quite three months in. We got two limited editions. Give me all your money. Right? You got to balance that, too. Because there's lots of other pens releasing out there. We're going to talk about another one in a second. So, you know, it's like you can't buy all the things. So, I wonder how these prices are going to affect things. I don't know. We'll see. We've had this discussion. We can link back to whenever I lost my head about it the first time.

'''Brad:''' This one will do well, though.

'''Myke:''' What did Twizby doing? When did they have two?

'''Brad:''' The first comment I got was very similar to what you're saying right here. Right here. I don't hate it that much.

'''Myke:''' I'm not saying I hate it all.

'''Brad:''' Cool. The comments I got were not positive on the new Twizby Draco. I don't hate it either.

'''Brad:''' It's interesting. It's weird. It's the follow-up. They're not saying it's the follow-up to the Aurora, which was the green one that we really enjoyed. Right? I got to test it at the Atlanta Pen Show from our friend Kat. I can't remember if you tested it that day or not, which I really liked. It's a good price point. It's a unique material. It's a different Twizby than we're used to, but in a classic Twizby shape that I like. This was the micarta pen that I love. It kind of had this shape.

'''Brad:''' This one, there is a shocking amount going on with this pen. And I don't even know where to go with it. Where the Aurora had a lot going on with it too.

'''Brad:''' I don't know. Like, I don't know how limited. The Aurora was very, very limited. Right? It was like they were going to try something with these materials, this pen design, this pen shape. And they sold out of them pretty quickly. And then that's been over two years now since they've had another one of these. So I thought maybe they weren't going to do any more. Or maybe they shouldn't do any more. Or what the feedback was on that. But they have definitely leaned into this one. And this is a very, for a subtle pen, this is a very busy looking pen. I'm really curious, which I didn't know. I had to go back and look at the Aurora, which we'll link in the show notes, to a review of that pen if you're not familiar with it. I didn't realize where the ink window sat on that Aurora model. And it's exactly the same with this one, but this one, for some reason, stood out more. It's below the barrel cap threading is where the piston goes. Now, you see plenty of clear sections. And I'm not used to a piston going below the barrel cap threads like that. Maybe I'm mistaken. But the Aurora was the same way, and I didn't notice it there. But this one, for some reason, stands out to me because you can see the piston knob below the barrel threads if you're holding the pen. I don't have a price. It's launching March 31st, according to our good friends at Pen Chalet. I'm sure it'll be highly limited. I'm not, again, not interested. Just like the Aurora.

'''Myke:''' I like the pairing of the rose gold with this colorway.

'''Brad:''' Yeah.

'''Myke:''' But it just does nothing for me.

'''Brad:''' I'm having real trouble with this design, and I can't pinpoint it. Because it's the exact same shape as the Aurora, but I didn't mind the Aurora shape. I really think it's that ink window next to the rose gold threads. I like some more. It's really making me question what's happening here. Even though it's, like, technically, I guess fine. I wonder where that unscrews. Does that unscrew right?

'''Brad:''' But, like I said, it's no different than the Aurora. Because I had to go back and double check. I was like, I need to go check this.

'''Myke:''' Does it unscrew? Why would it unscrew?

'''Brad:''' It's going to have to unscrew from somewhere.

'''Myke:''' But didn't they used to break when you try and unscrew them?

'''Brad:''' Maybe. So maybe it's just from the nib unit. Like, other piston fillers, like a Pelican, right? They just unscrew from the nib unit. So maybe that's it.

'''Brad:''' It's interesting.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. Weird.

'''Brad:''' Again, I want to see this in person. I don't know if I'll get to see this in person.

'''Brad:''' Just like the Aurora. Like, it was good. Like, I'm glad it exists. I'm just a little confused. I don't know. I don't... I'm hemming and hawing because I don't know what to say about it. It's such an interesting pen. But there's something that's throwing me off with this design. And I don't know if it's just that ink window thread piece or something else. But it's confusing me. Anyway. A lot of stuff.

'''Myke:''' A lot of stuff. And there's a lot of stuff in our show notes today. Which you can go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 453. If you want to get your hands on those. And you can take a look. I'm going to give the same call to actions that I gave last time. Limited. You can go to spokedesign.com or cortexmerch.com. I'll also actually just throw in Tuesdays, Thursdays, 10 a.m. Eastern Time. Twitch.tv slash penaddict. You can see Brad streaming live. Yeah. Topping over there. We'd like you to buy our products, please. Which is what we will ask you to do today. Thanks so much to Canalea Panko and Squarespace for their continued support of this show. It's very, very much appreciated, as is your listenership. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the Panadict Podcast. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

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

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