Editing The Pen Addict 501/transcript (section)

== Kaweco Iridescent Pearl ==


'''Myke:''' Right. That's fair.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. So it's good. I will be anxious to see if these make the limited edition ones. This looks like the standard. So Sailor does a stock King of Pen, if you can call it that, you know, just your black and gold King of Pens that they do, you know, keep as the regular model of the King of Pen. And that's what it looks like. This is just a section shot, but it does look like the regular black and gold barrel. So it's very cool. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Myke, I got the email from Kaweco for their new springtime launch. They have two really, really, really interesting pens here. The first up, I think is going to be the most popular one. And it's the Kaweco Collection, which is your sport model, your standard plastic model.

'''Brad:''' Iridescent Pearl in the Kaweco Sport. What they call their naming convention. They really mucked this up. I'm sorry. So you have to understand that Kaweco Collection is the annual limited release of the Kaweco Sport. But it's not called Sport. It's just called Kaweco Collection. They kind of went off board here, right? Yeah, they've messed up the brand name.

'''Myke:''' They've nailed the colors.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Well, it's just hard to talk about the pen. I have to say Kaweco Collection, but this is the AL Sport pen, right? I mean, excuse me. This is L, man? The Kaweco Sport. No, no, no. I misspoke. See, it's causing me a problem.

'''Myke:''' How the hell did they do that?

'''Brad:''' It's called the Collection, but this is the Sport pen or the Classic pen, whichever one you want to choose. They're both the same name. So this is the Plastic Barrel Pocket pen. And that's a really wild, iridescent material. And that's what they should do, right? Yeah. This is what the Special Edition should be, right? Kaweco has always done solid color Special Editions. They're known for solid color Special Editions, unless you get into the art sport where they use different materials. And, you know, they're close to $200 pens. These are your basic Plastic Barrel Sport model pens, and it's in a fun, wild color. It's not going to be for everyone. I think it's killer. I will want this pen. And this is the experimentation I like to see. Now, could I translate this into Lamy? Could you see Lamy doing this, Myke? Like, this is my overarching question after we just had the Safari conversation. I'll answer for you. No way in hell.

'''Myke:''' Oh, no, no, no, no.

'''Brad:''' Absolutely not.

'''Myke:''' I don't know.

'''Brad:''' I don't know. No way. No way would Lamy do this, but I'm asking them to do a little bit more. Kaweco. Kaweco. I'm glad they're doing this. This is a little bit of an outlier for them, but they've kind of been leaning. I don't know. They kind of go on this path with, like, the torch stuff.

'''Myke:''' If you've shown me this material a week ago and said, could you imagine Kaweco doing this? I think I'd say no.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. But I don't know. Maybe. Maybe. But it's awesome. I'm glad to see it.

'''Myke:''' Just because they have been missing constantly for the last year, right? They have been. What is a baseball term for this, surely? They've been striking out.

'''Brad:''' Swinging a miss. Striking out. Yeah.

'''Myke:''' Over and over and over again.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad:''' I wouldn't go that far. I would. Over and over.

'''Myke:''' Constantly.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. For about two years, probably. They've been questionable for about two years. I will give you that. And having to, you know, it's always, I always go back to the storytelling and they muck that up like pretty hardcore. And they're trying to correct that. I'm not sure if they are or aren't. But regardless, this Kaweco collection release, I mean, this is a sellout. Like, no doubt in my mind. I mean, it's not limited or anything like this. And you'll be able to buy it if you want it. But it's great. Like, and this is a crossover pen too, right? This is now someone's first Kaweco sport model pen. I see what you mean. Yeah. Yeah. Right? This is now they have a new customer base and they've also thrilled their existing customers. Right? Well, what has Lamy done with strawberries and cream? They don't stand out from the rest of the wall in the Lamy store. They fit in. And if you hadn't drawn in the customer already from the vibrant store wall, right? They look great. It's the same pen. This one is a little bit more, hey, look at me. And I think Kaweco has earned that right to kind of do this and see what happens. And I think it'll go well for them.

'''Brad:''' I may like the Lilyput even better. It's been a while since they've kind of done a new Lilyput. They do about one a year. They don't do as many as some of the other pens. And honestly, I know why. Like, it's not as good of a pen as the AL and the Classics and the Collections and the bigger sports series. But this one's called Kaweco Collection Fountain Pen Lilyput Green. And it's this very bright anodized aluminum green, kind of a yellowish green. And it's spectacular, right? But the Lilyput is such a difficult sell. It is a really, really small pen. And I happen to like it. You have to use it posted. But I think this color, like the last one they did, I think, was purple. And it did really well. They have a blue one that they've done. They did a, it might have been a Cult Pens exclusive blue one that I bought. But this pen just doesn't get as much use from me because of the size. Like, I'm using a Steel Sport today, which is, you know, the classic faceted barrel, fuller sized pen. The Lilyput's a little bit of a tougher sell. But I think this color is spot on. What do you think about it?

'''Myke:''' It's a beautiful green, man. I really like it.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. And I would never recommend this pen to you in a million years. It's a small for me. I know that. It is so small.

'''Myke:''' The material finish released from these images is really, really nice.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. So this, I, this is one I like, I might break down and just buy one. I haven't bought a Lilyput in years, probably. Um, just because they just haven't been that compelling and they don't do that many of them because it's not a bestseller. Like some of these, some of their other models in this, in this price range. Um, it's just, it's a really tough sell for most people to use this pen and, and for understandable reasons, like I totally get it. But I think this color is great and it's, it's going to pop and it's going to draw people's eyes to it and things like that. So I included, um, Kaveko's, uh, mailer for this. Those were the two most interesting items. They are, they are doing the calligraphy set that they're pretty popular for, uh, known for where they have different nibs that you use and they added in the mint barrel for the Kaveko sports, which they've always done just kind of traditional colors, black and white, things like that for their barrels. They have a mint, uh, barrel set and things like that in there. So y'all can, y'all can pop in and, and see any of the new products that they have, uh, linked in this newsletter. But I thought the, the iridescent pearl Kaveko collection and then the green lily put were just, uh, just great. I think, um, I think I kind of would have gone with a different name than green though. Is it just called green? It's just called green. Lily put green.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. We just iridescent. Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad:''' Cause this color is, this color is five. It's got some vibrancy to it. Yeah. And some, I don't know. It's got some pop and it's just called green. So I don't know. It's, it's great looking though. I love it. So big fan, big fan of what Kaveko is doing despite the naming conventions and confusion going on. Yeah.

'''Myke:''' Yeah.

'''Brad:''' All right, Myke, you want to hit a couple of ass TPA and we'll wrap it up. We'll keep it shorter this week, even though it's pretty much our regular time, but compared to last week, man, this will be a short episode. Have we even started the show yet?

'''Myke:''' I don't think so. All right, let's do some ass TPA. Ezcom comes in from Fibber who wants to know, uh, any thoughts on the Muji branded platinum preppy?

'''Brad:''' Yes.

'''Myke:''' So this is a preppy with all the branding removed in true Muji style.

'''Brad:''' True Muji style. Uh, I don't know why my link's not coming up, but I looked at it before. It is like the perpanep, um, platinum preppy with the all white barrel, except you just remove all of the perpanepness of it. I think the clip is different though. So they've changed the clip style, but I mean, even the nib has the P on it for platinum, which you usually don't see in a Muji product. And it's like, well, yeah, okay. Let's see what you do there. But the...

'''Myke:''' I mean, that could have just been a thing of like, we can't, and we're not like, we'll do everything you want. We're not going to make a new nib for you.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Yeah. So it, this, I'm glad Muji did this because they get such love for their aluminum barrel knurled grip fountain pen that I actually don't think is very good. And they get a lot of love for that pen. And I think it's about, that one's about $15. How much is this one? I don't even know. I'd have to do the conversion, but it's not very expensive. Relatively. And this is such a better pen than the metal barrel one, even though the metal barrels sell, right? Like aesthetically, they're aesthetically pleasing. This is such a high quality pen. And this was a great decision for Muji to white label this pen. I am, I do think the clip is kind of funny though. It's like literally the entirety of the Preppy barrel. The barrel shape's the same. The grip section's the same. The nib's the same. The cap shape is the same, except for the top of the cap, which has on the Preppy, it has like this overlapping kind of clip that flows into the top of the barrel. And this is almost just like your standard basic clip. And it definitely, I mean, it, it stands on its own. It's just not as cool looking as the Preppy, but for Muji, man, this is pretty great. I love it.

'''Myke:''' And then also Don asks, do you know why Pilot doesn't sell the Orochizuku inks and cartridges?

'''Brad:''' I don't. Other than I think probably everyone would assume the same thing. Is that it's expensive, right? Like it, it's an expensive ask. And like Sailor had made their own machines, I think, because they're also a robotics company. And I, and they made their cartridges with all of their like Sailor gentle inks and Sailor ink studios. And they made a bunch of ink cartridges. I still haven't seen those like readily available. I still don't own any. I haven't chased them down. Um, so it's just a more expensive proposition for both sides of the coin for manufacturing and for consumers. And maybe they don't feel the markets there, but everything that we see in all of our surveys says Pilot is the most popular fountain pen company. They do some, you can find some basic non-black blue and blue black ink colors, but they're still not their Orochizuku inks, right? You can get purple. I know Myke uses purple. I've used orange and turquoise, but man, if I could get a Shinkai or Kanpeki or Yamabudo and cartridges, I would love it. I would pay the premium for it, but I, maybe they just, maybe they'll, they'll watch what Sailor does and, and follow along. But, um, it definitely won't be cost effective for anybody, but I would pay the premium. Like I, I talk about that with ink these days, right? Buying a 20 milliliter bottle at a more premium per milliliter price still keeps it like at 18 or $20 and theoretically I'll waste less, you know, if by not using it, right. Or, you know, having a 50 milliliter bottle that I pay $25 for, but don't use the whole thing. Like where's the real inefficiency? So, um, I would love to see this Don. I'm not going to hold my breath, but I didn't think Sailor would ever do it either. And they did. I don't know if they're going to continue to do it. Um, and I don't know how accessible they are to everybody, but I shoot like pilot just came out with some new ink colors for Uro Shizuku. Um, I would love to see them do some cartridges and just kind of lean into that or, you know, other pens, people that are buying a metropolitan. Can also buy a pack of Uro Shizuku cartridges to go along with it, make their, their first fountain pen a little bit more special. I would love to see it. I just not going to hold my breath, but, uh, one can, one can hope.

'''Myke:''' If you'd like to send in a question for us to answer on the show, you can send out a tweet with the hashtag ask TPA. You can use question mark ask TPA in the Relay FM members discord, or you can email longer questions to hello at penaddict.com. When you go to penaddict.com, you can see the work of Brad and the other penaddicts there writing wonderful articles about new exciting products. You can also go to spoke design.com to buy some wonderful tools that Brad makes himself. Go to, uh, twitch.tv slash penaddict where Brad streams three times a week. So you can hang out with him there, watch him on box stuff, hang out, all that fun stuff. Go to penaddict on Instagram. Dowdy is on Twitter. I am imike. I am Y-K-E. And I urge you to go to cortexmerch.com and buy yourself a theme system journal and check out the stuff that we've got going on over there. Uh, thank you so much to Squarespace for the support of this episode and thank you all for listening. We'll be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

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