The Pen Addict 536/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	536
Title:	Strange and Cherry
Release Date:	October 26th, 2022
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 536
Audio File:	Audio Episode 536
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 536
Length:	5555 min <br />0.917 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 536. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and OOni Pizza Ovens. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Hey Myke, how's it going today?

Myke Hurley: Not too bad, not too bad. How about you?

Brad Dowdy: I am really good. I am really excited about today's episode. This is going to be an X-rated episode, Myke. Whoa, whoa. Hey, no, this is our general terminology of product, X product, right? You know, the brand by brand collaboration X-rated products. And I could not be more excited to talk about this first X-rated product with you.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Lamy X Pokemon Safari Limited Edition

Brad Dowdy: So this is the Lamy X Pokemon Safari Limited Edition. I knew it would get us started. That's why I just wanted to go as, send us off the deep end from the jump. Lamy Pokemon Safari Limited Edition. We have seen in the past, Myke, the Pikachu Lamy Pokemon. I got it right on my desk. Looking at it right now. One of the best jobs, right, that any brand collaboration has done before. They just did it right from, you know, top to bottom, from the packaging, to the pen, to the accessories provided with the pen, to the color, to the pricing. Like, everything was on point. I know you were excited about that. This time, Myke, we don't have one new pen or Pokemon to catch. We have four. And as our resident Pokemon expert, I would like you to take the floor for a moment before I get into the nuts and bolts of what this is. And tell me what your thoughts were on seeing this link in the show notes.

Myke Hurley: This is absolutely sick. Like, it is unbelievable. So there are four pens. They have a Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, and Jigglypuff for some reason. I'm not exactly sure why they chose Jigglypuff. Maybe they just wanted a pink one. They've gone for gem ones. This would have been Pikachu if they hadn't already done it, I feel like. But they went with Jigglypuff. So these include a color-matched pen to each character, along with two clip charms. This is like the Pikachu one. One is like a... Actually, I think there's three, actually. One is like a little logo. Oh, no, so there's two. One's like a little kind of like an emblem. There's like fire, fairy, water, grass. Then there is one which is the character's head. And then there's also like a little figurine. Now, that's different to the Pikachu one. It doesn't attach. It doesn't attach to the clip. Well, like there is actually an extra, like a figurine. Then they come in these cases that I can't completely work out what's going on with the case. Because the case is really large. And it looks like there's something interesting going on there. Now, the case with the Pikachu edition makes noise when you open and close it. I can't work out exactly what's going on here. It might just be like an overly unnecessary display case for everything. It's like what it looks like. But it's very physically large. Kind of gives me Pokedex vibes a little bit. Then it seems like it comes in a beautiful display box. Oh, they have Pokeball stands. So like there's a Pokeball in the case that's a stand. Like what I have for the Pikachu edition. So you can stand it. Yeah, like a pin stand. Then it comes in a great box and an equally excellent bag. And they are selling inks that match that come in these also killer limited edition cases. This is absolutely unbelievable. Especially when they're what? Like $140 Hong Kong dollar? The $498 Hong Kong dollar?

Brad Dowdy: Which is like $50 or something. Yeah, it's like $64.

Brad Dowdy: I don't get it. It breaks my brain to understand the level of work that went into this. And they're only $64. This is like an S tier production. Yes. Of quality. It's as good as I've ever seen them do. Of story.

Myke Hurley: The tie-in is just unbelievable.

Brad Dowdy: And there's not just one. There's four, right? So there's four different ones. I don't get it. On one hand, I'm like insanely impressed. On the other hand, I'm absolutely livid at Lamy for not doing more of this for a broader audience, right? Like I am like I look at this and my jaw drops. And then that just makes me mad on top of it too. Because I mean, this is a long-term thing with me and Lamy. It's like they have it in them. They have it in them. They've proven it time and time again. And then they do something like this, which is one of legitimately as a non-Pokemon fan, one of the best things they have ever done from a branding collaborative design manufacturing perspective. And it's like super highly limited, which is fine. It's just they don't do enough. It's like I was, you know, really spoke highly of the glossy red all-star that we talked about, you know, with the yellow section and how excited I got about that. Now I'm just mad at it. Like that's ridiculous that that's what I get.

Myke Hurley: Well, Brad, they don't clearly put all their work into this. They haven't got anything left in them.

Brad Dowdy: It's unbelievable. It's obscene. The only thing that's weird is the cartridges are like an added purchase, which the little cartridge, and they're all black ink, which is they're not special links. It's just a little bit weird. You're charging so little for this set. Just charge me $75 and throw that in there.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I see what you mean. I see what you mean. It might be a case of like, they couldn't find a way to fit it in the display box. So it's just like, we don't want to include it, I guess. I don't know. I spent 25 minutes this morning buying one. Which one did you get? Bulbasaur, because he's the best. Don't come at me. Bulbasaur is the OP starter Pokemon. Everyone thinks that Charmander is the best, just because Charizard Pokemon cards are so rare. So now it's blurred in everybody's minds.

Brad Dowdy: It's very like number two, kind of, you know.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, if you're playing Gen 1, if you start with Bulbasaur, you will have a good time for the first three gyms. You start with any of the others, you have like a horrible time at at least one of them. No one can tell me I'm wrong, all right? That's just the end of it. I went with Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur was my first starter Pokemon, because it's the best one. Can I? The purchasing process. Yes, please tell me about this. Was fine. It just required a lot of translation, and there were some pages where I had to just flip a coin and press a button, like, to see what would happen. And I feel pretty confident that I did it. Like, I got an email. I like with these things. I always pay in PayPal.

Brad Dowdy: Sure.

Myke Hurley: Because at least I know I'm going to get a receipt in English from PayPal. Right. And also with PayPal, like, I'm going to get the order form, like the final order form, the payment form, 100% in my native language.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: So, I mean, I've gone for it. I'm going to see what happens. Like, maybe at some point, like, I will get one, but, like, who could even tell? But I would just, the fact that they are making this available for overseas purchase, it's like, to me, I feel like I'm foolish if I don't do this.

Ink House Hong Kong and purchasing logistics

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so this link we're sharing came from Ink House Hong Kong. I've definitely heard of them. I haven't bought anything from them before, but they've made a point, like, in their Instagram post, hey, overseas purchase, here's the link you want to use for that. I don't know if this is an Ink House Hong Kong exclusive. These usually are more, like, region exclusives, like, you know, the Chinese market, you know, or the Japanese market or whichever market that they're in. So I imagine other stores will have this. I don't think this is an Ink House particular. This is too big of a brand to be a specific exclusive, but I think it is a region exclusive, just like Pikachu was, which, by the way...

Myke Hurley: Pikachu was China, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and this is, I assume, it's like China as well, Hong Kong. Yeah. Um, essentially. Um, didn't Pikachu cost around $100, like, US dollars?

Myke Hurley: Wasn't it around $90, $100, something like that? I genuinely have no memory. That's what I had in my head.

Brad Dowdy: So, like, I am... I'm really impressed with Lamy here. I'm really angry at the same... by the same token. Like, I can't stop looking at these. Like, you know, I don't need any of these. I'm not gonna... I'm not gonna order any of these. I would love... Like, if I... If I stumbled across one, yeah, I would get it. But, like, I don't have any, you know, favorite. Um, can I... Can I... I might have to shop based on their translated name. Can I give you the translated names real quick, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, man.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, uh, Jigglypuff is Wave Ball. Okay. Fair, fair. That's pretty good. Uh, is it Bulbasaur? What's... Yeah, Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur is Strange.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Squirtle is Cherry. Cherry. No, that doesn't make any sense. There must be some kind of word... Like, actual word translation that... Part of that name translates into Cherry. Um, and Charmander is actually very accurate. Little Fire. So, that one makes sense. So, uh, Strange and Cherry are very interesting to me.

Myke Hurley: So, I just logged in, and for some reason, I have two order numbers.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Myke Hurley: But I have only...

Brad Dowdy: Did you order the ink cartridges?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but it's all in one... All in one order. Yeah. I don't know. We'll find out later on, you know what I mean? But, like, some way... Yeah. ...and come.

Design and features of the Lamy Safari pens

Brad Dowdy: And just real quick on what's important to me, the actual physical Safari itself. So, the whole barrel is a single color matching, you know, essentially the Pokemon they're trying to design around. And then the clip is an alternate color. So, like, um, um, you know, uh, Charmander's, like, orange barrel and yellow clip. And Bulbasaur is, like, a light green barrel with a darker green clip. And Squirtle's, like, a blue barrel with a yellow clip. And, um, Jigglypuff is, like, pink on pink, just darker pink. So, it's really, really nice. It's really, really beautiful. Safari's, like, these... Any, like, if these were just, like, the limited edition, hey, we're gonna make these great color limited editions, I mean, these would be just bangers for that. So...

Myke Hurley: Yeah, the colors are so good. I went with, uh, a left-handed nib, because they offered it.

Brad Dowdy: Okay, that's good. Yeah, Lamy has always had that steel nib in their, uh, in their catalog, but they never offer it as a base. You know, usually... I had to buy it. Yeah, usually you would have to have someone as, have it as, like, an add-on, uh, type of thing. It never would just come, like, pre-installed. So, that's good that you could, you could do that. That's, uh...

Myke Hurley: I got mine in the, um... Uh, the Lamy store in San Francisco, I think. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Is where I, I picked mine up. Uh, yep. I got one there. Um, and I have it in my, uh, my Arushi Safari. Okay, good. Good, good, good. Feels like a good home for it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's great. These are, I... It's just fantastic. Like, I love seeing this. You know, we, we go on and on about these silly products, but... Yeah, but it's so good, though.

Myke Hurley: Like, this is just so good.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, just, like, based on, like, my entire life just harping on Lamy Safari and seeing this and just absolutely loving it. It just, you know, it's, like, it's, it's really amazing to see. And it just still leaves me a little bit short in, like, come on, let's do some more. Let's just make some regular stuff that's just completely awesome like this.

Myke Hurley: Well, I mean, my, my things, I just don't, I just, I don't understand why you would go to this level and not try and make a worldwide exclusive. However, what I will say on that, I'm not going to level the blame at Lamy's door on this one. The Pokemon company is very strange. Mm-hmm. And they have a lot of products that are region exclusives. Like, there's a keycap company called Dwarf Factory, and they make, like, really incredible designed artisan keycaps all by hand. And, you know, they started off making more, like, fantasy stuff, hence the name. But they've gotten some, they got a deal with Pokemon Asia. And they make these incredible Pokemon keycaps. But you cannot buy them outside of Asia.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: And it's like, it's such a strange thing because they have a huge, like, worldwide presence. Like, they have a really big deal with Drop, I think, for a lot of their stuff. Oh, really? And these keycaps, these Pokemon keycaps are basically perfect. Mm-hmm. And you cannot get them. And I find it very odd.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So, yeah, this whole thing is odd in the best way possible and perfect for us. And I adore these. I hope to see. I can't wait to get yours. I want to see. We'll have to revisit when they arrive. I don't think they ship until, like, mid-November or something like that. This was a short pre-order, but they will ship in a couple weeks. So, I'll be looking forward to seeing the actual, like, the physical goods in hand. I know the pen is going to be fine, but I definitely want to see, get your thoughts on the accessories and things like that.

Myke Hurley: That one is it. So, the deal is, I wanted to check it, because, yeah, the deal is with Pokemon Asia, but you can only buy these in Vietnam. Which is, like, it gets, it goes, like, multiple levels down, these Pokemon keycaps. It's, like, it's with all of Pokemon Asia, but only in Vietnam can you buy these things. Yeah. It's, like, why? Like, why just Vietnam? No, like, it's very strange. So, I'm not going to level the blame at Lamy for the release on that one.

Brad Dowdy: No, I'm just jealous. I, like, this, like, I know you can do this, Lamy, and you just proved everything I've ever wanted, like, in a single release. And you've charged about half of what you could charge. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I just could not believe the price. I could not believe it. Like, I was convinced I'd done it wrong. Right. Right. And it was, yeah, I was like, is this a translation error? Like, how can this be, like, $60? Like, how are you making any money on this? There's so much stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: It's wild. I'm so excited. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

Brad Dowdy: Good, good, good. I'm glad you, I'm glad you ordered one. So, yeah, they're very cool. And I look forward to seeing, I know a bunch of people are interested in this, so I look forward to seeing them, seeing them around. And I hope everyone enjoys it, because I think it's just really, really cool.

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Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. And fall is the perfect season for getting outside and cooking these pizzas. And you're talking about the temperatures. It's like, yeah, I don't believe that thing is going to get those temperatures, right? But I have the little laser gun where you can check the temperature. And I was like, all right, I'm going to test this thing out. And you pop that on there. It's like 750, like right after you've launched it. It's like, okay, this thing is going to be cranking here pretty soon. And so, yeah, it's really, really impressive technology and just really cool and easy to use. That's what makes it so great, right? It's shockingly simple and it just makes a great product. So, yeah, I could not appreciate my uni enough.

Myke Hurley: And every time of year is the perfect time of year for pizzas. But if you have an outside pizza oven, right, an outdoor pizza oven, this is the perfect time to go cook them, right? Exactly. It's not going to be too cold. It's not going to be too hot. This show can get 10% off their purchase of an uni pizza oven. That could be up to $50 off on Unicoda16. Just go to uni.com and use the code ADDICT2022 at checkout. That is ADDICT2022. So that's uni.com, O-O-N-I.com and use the code ADDICT2022 for 10% off. Uni pizza ovens are the best way to bring restaurant quality pizza to your own backyard. Thanks to Uni pizza ovens for the support of this show and Relay FM.

Kaweco X Tokyo Bike collaboration

Brad Dowdy: So I'm bringing up this next X-rated pin. This is Kaweco X Tokyo Bike, Myke. And just on the surface, it's like a massive letdown coming from the Lamy. And honestly, it's really not something that I would normally put in the show notes. But I wanted to talk about it because I never give Kaweco much grief about their pins. And they just kind of do what Lamy does. You know, just make cool, make single color, single barrel branded stuff. And like, I love every one of them. Like, I don't know why I'm so hard on Lamy in relation to someone like Kaweco. But like, this is a very simple, straightforward kind of sunflower yellow barrel. I bought a bright sunshine one. I think mine was called actually Sunset from Fanta Pluma years ago. And just having a yellow pocket pin just really makes me happy. I don't know why. It's probably my most used plastic barrel Kaweco. And this is just another option for someone who did not get that yellow sunset one from Fanta Pluma years ago. This is a little bit different shade, a little bit more subtle. But it's just a really cool and unique thing. And that leads me into the next point, Myke. The next link I just added this morning.

Brad Dowdy: Kaweco, and I'm calling this Kaweco Choice Choice. So this is kind of the translation from a tweet I saw this morning from a company called Pento Note, I believe. And they're doing an in-house event where you can go build your own Kaweco. And now, like, this is something I've always talked about, like, with Lamy or with Kaweco or with Sailor. We've seen Sailor kind of dabble in some of the build-your-own stuff as well. And I'm wondering, my question just to anyone, is this an authorized Kaweco event? Or are they just taking apart all of their inventory Kawecos and letting you come mix and match and charging you a little slight premium for that? And I think it's that. I think it's the latter. I think they're taking their Kaweco inventory, disassembling them, and letting you re-put them together, which I could pretty much do at my house. And we do. Like, people put their Lamy's Safaris together, take them apart, mix and match. Same with the Kawecos. They're really fun for that. And honestly, I think we should do more of that. I just wonder, would Kaweco or Lamy or anyone just kind of put the hammer down on something like this in-store? I find it interesting that they're planning an event around this. What do you think?

Myke Hurley: I feel like this would be too complicated to try and just do on your own. Right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, they have, like, diagrams and imagery. Like, they put work into this.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's a cool idea. I mean, I'm assuming they've been given the A-OK to do it. It would be a weird thing to do. Like, if you were making their products, like a carrier of their products, I don't think you'd want to mess around. Right? Right. Right. But as well, with the finials, like, it looks like Uniku can add a finial, too. And I can't imagine you'd, like, you know, you could try and, like, oh, you could get a bunch of pens and unscrew them from each other. Yeah. I mean, it's interesting.

Myke Hurley: It's certainly a way to get the vibe of the, what is that one? The one that I really like the look of. Is that a Kaweco pen? Like, the soul pen? You know what I'm talking about?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The student. The larger one. Yeah. The student. And it's, like, something soul. Yeah, it's like a two-tone. Or whatever. Yeah. Like, disco, soul. Jazz, soul, rock. They're all, like, kind of music themes. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And the image that's on the tweet reminds me of the colors there, right? It looks like the orange and the cream or whatever. Yeah. I think it's a cool idea. I remember we were looking at this. There was a store doing this for Pro Gears at one point, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, Sailor has dabbled in this. There's a company called Bolograph that does their ballpoints in some of the Japanese stores. It's a Swedish brand, I believe. And they have some retailers in Japan. Again, this is, like, in-store events, right? You're only going to get this in certain markets, right? Not all markets could support something like this.

Myke Hurley: Cobothor in Discord says, Kaweco brings the finial press when they do the build-your-own pens. So, this must be...

Brad Dowdy: Now, that's interesting. So, they don't list it as Kaweco-supported, but that makes me very much think that it's at least, you know, the regional Kaweco distributor is, like, involved in this. Yeah. So, that makes some sense. Because they do have an image of the finial, right? Because when you get the gold trim or the gold foil stamping on the Kaweco barrels, they match it with the gold finial. But you could swap that around and use silver finial some. So, yeah. It's super interesting. And if it's Kaweco-supported, like, I'm way into this. So, that they want to do it. It is stock colors, right? Like, I'm looking at all the barrel colors. These are their regular stock colors. But if Kaweco themselves or the distributor, the regional distributor, is actively supporting that level of broken-down inventory, like, that's pretty cool. Like, I like this. So, it's fun to see. You know, this is not something we're going to see very often. You know, we might see it, you know, one year at one of the biggest pin shows. Like, I don't even know if you get this at, like, the Tokyo International Pin Show or things like that. Like, I could build my own plotter at San Francisco this year. But it was very, much more simple in parts than this. But I hope we see more of this in a broader scope as opposed to just, like, little store, you know, store-exclusive things like this. But I love seeing it. And it was just an interesting thing to pop up in my feed that caught my eye. And I was like, oh, yeah. I'm completely down with this. So, yeah. Very cool. Next one, Myke. God. I have a lot of pros and cons on these topics I'm bringing up. And the next one is Conant.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: I'm pretty familiar with the brand. I'm not totally sure you are. You're certainly aware of them. Yeah, I know them.

Myke Hurley: I know, you know, they're the pen brand that people like because they make the pens where you can put a ton of ink in them. Yeah. And they've done a lot of weird and wonderful stuff. Our friend of the show, Thomas Hall, always would show me different Conant pens. And I know that they shut down during COVID, right? Like, and they knew if they were coming back or not.

Brad Dowdy: They were essentially a subsidiary of a medical manufacturing company, right? So, they just made these highly, highly engineered, maybe over-engineered pens that were just absolutely fantastic. Love them. And everyone who bought one loved them. But they essentially stopped making pens for the last three years because their focus was in medical manufacturing, right? So, they had to, you know, stop making these pens. And everyone was curious. Like, is this, are they ever going to come back? And what is it going to be? Are they ever going to make these pens again? Drove the secondary market for these pens bananas because they were already expensive to begin with, right? Like, the cheapest Conants at the time were, like, in the 300s. But they went all the way up to, like, you know, $700, $800 and more. And people wouldn't hesitate to spend that. So, the secondary market, you can imagine, is, you know, cranking four figures and all that stuff. So, they were very highly sought after pen just from, this is, like, a very high nerd level type of pen, right? This is not a pen you just, like, randomly land on across at a pen store. Like, you got to hunt these down and decide if it's something for you. And you want all that engineering in there and want to mess with it and want to, you know, pay the price for it. So, they were very popular and they stopped making them. So, now there have been rumors that, hey, they're going to start making some pens and redoing them. So, they have partnered. If you go to the Conant site, conantpen.com, they have these little pop-ups on there that they are partnering with penworld.eu to sell conant pens. So, in the past, you had kind of been able to build your own conant. Just in the general sense, you could pick the barrel style, right? And you could pick a few different options and, you know, different nib sizes, something like that, directly from conant and have it made and shipped to you. So, now what conant is doing, according to this article, we'll link in the show notes, is they're manufacturing a few pens and they're just going to be inventoried at penworld and whatever inventory penworld has is what conants are available. So, right now, they, I hesitate to use the term relaunch because they are, they restocked a pen that they used to sell at penworld with this, it's this really beautiful red pen. It was kind of a penworld exclusive, but that's the pen that they went with as the restock and, like, the base level pen's, like, 750 euros, something like that. Yeah, 750 euros and they have a king size pen that's, like, 995 euros. And the interesting thing that they do with the pen, and they already sold out of this restock, so I don't know how many they had available. The interesting thing, like, when I was researching them yesterday, I was doing this live on stream, and you go and you look at the pen. So, I'm going to look at the regular red fountain pen, which is 749 euro, right? So, you go and look at it, and just, like, if you're a conant person and this material is, like, I get the price. Like, I understand it. It's extraordinarily expensive. And now they're making probably even less of them. So, it's even going to be more expensive. But say you want that pen, and you go, and you see it's 749 euros, and then there's a nib drop down. And the nib, you know, you can choose your regular fine steel nib or your titanium nibs. There's an upcharge for a nib, like, period. Like, it does not come with a steel nib. So, it's not 749 euro if you want a pen. It's 749 euros plus $42 if you want a steel nib or plus $118 if you want a titanium nib. So, it's like, why isn't the steel nib built into the price? But anyway, it was really bothering me yesterday. So, the problem now, as I was going through these yesterday, they're all out of stock. So, I was trying to figure out the final price. It's like, is this VAT included prices? Because these are really expensive, right? They're really expensive. I was kind of, like, a little bit taken aback. It's like, on one hand, I get it. Because, like, the secondary market is dictating that these people will pay these prices, right? But these new pens, I went and put one in the cart to see. There's no note if VAT was included or it'll be removed if you're a non-VAT accepting country. So, I put the 995 euro king size. And then I added $235 for the titanium nib. Cool. So, that made it 1,230 euros. But when I put it in my cart shipping to the U.S., it did take – it looks like it removed the VAT. So, it only ended up being, like, 1,010 euros, Myke. So, still. It's ridiculously – yeah, that's fine. That's fine. It's perfectly fine. It's a-okay. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: So, Conan is back.

Brad Dowdy: Air quotes, right? This is – my version of Conan being back would be for them to have their standard stock pen available regularly for somewhere between $300 and $500. Then, Conan's back. This is Conan special edition. I almost – I said it out loud, and I certainly don't know this. And this is just, you know, rampant speculation on my part. It's like, did they have these parts already? Like, this was something that they built for this company beforehand? Like, are they just, like, redoing – like, rebuilding these pens now that they have time to put this inventory together? Because I want to see the basic Conan come back, you know? Like, the standard Minimalisticas or the standard Slim bulk fillers or some of the really cool classic Conan's that are, you know, like, in the $500 range. And then I'll say Conan's back. Until then, I'm not really sure what we're getting right here. But whatever inventory they had, they sold because yesterday there were still some available and now there's not. So, it's interesting to follow if you're, like, a super nerd into the Conan's. And that is certainly a very particular market. Like, the people who like their Conant's really like their Conant's. So, we'll see. I want to see this keep going and then we'll decide if Conant is back or not.

Myke Hurley: At least a little bit.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, okay. There's signs of life. There's signs of life.

Myke Hurley: There's more than there was before. But, yeah. It's more than one. Making a small, limited amount of pens that only sell through one regional retailer is not, like –

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And a premium, limited model at that. It's not like a traditional Conant, if you will. So, we'll see. It'll be interesting to watch it because I do like the pens. I have one. Like, I don't need more. I'm probably going to sell this one that I have. Just because I don't use it enough for the price that I paid for it. You know, we'll talk about that later. But, yeah. Like, I do like them. I love the bulk fillers. I like the slims. So, yeah. We'll see. I would like them to be back. We're better. You know, it's a great option to have in the stationary market when Conant is building pens. But if this is the option, well, it's kind of insignificant in my mind.

Myke Hurley: This episode is brought to you by Squarespace, the all-in-one platform for building your brand and growing your business online. You can stand out with a beautiful website, engage with your audience, and sell anything. From products, services, even the content that you create, Squarespace has got you covered. You'll be able to easily and quickly create a website by taking advantage of one of their beautiful best-in-class website templates. You can very easily customize it to fit your needs and to fit your brand. You can put your colors in. You can put your logo in. It's very easy to create the layout. And you do all of this just in your web browser, in their apps. It's all drag and drop, and you can just very easily tap in to add content. Everything's super customizable. It's just clicking around and choosing options, which I find to be very satisfying and very easy to do. So the categories that they have for their templates make it really easy for you to get the perfect starting place as well. So you can go in and be like, I want to make this type of website, or I have this type of business. And then you can get it going and customized. If you want to have a blog, they have tons of powerful blogging tools for you to share stories, your photos, videos, updates about what you've got going on, which you can then categorize and share. Also to schedule your posts as well, so the content will post when you want it to. Make it work for you. And talking about what's working, you'll be able to use insights to grow your website and to grow your business. If you've ever wondered where your visitors are coming from, maybe where your sales are coming from, if you have one of their stores integrated, you can just set that up very easily to sell your goods. You can do that with Squarespace. You can work out with their insights which channels are most effective. This can be analyzed. You can take a look at it. They've got all of the data in there. What's great is that when you have that data, you can improve your content, you can improve your sales offerings, and then maybe build a marketing strategy based on your top keywords or your most popular products or content. Go right now and try it out for yourself. Just if you go to squarespace.com slash penaddict, you can sign up for a free trial. No credit card required. You can dig in and customize your entire website exactly the way that you want it. And then when you're ready to launch it to the world, use the offer code penaddict to check out, and you will save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com slash penaddict. And then when you sign up, use the offer code penaddict, and you will get 10% off your first purchase to show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for the continued support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: Can I just say real quick about Squarespace? They do not rest on their laurels. They are always adding and tweaking and updating literally everything. They'll send out an email, say, hey, here's all the new things, and it'll be like 20 new things. It's not just like one thing. So, yeah, I should probably get in there and check out some of the new bells and whistles. I haven't been doing that, but they make it easy. I can go test them kind of live, but without publishing it to prod, if you will. You can have this little test, a little playground. And then just when I'm done, I can say, do I like this and want to keep it? And then just go, yeah, and it lives. So, it's cool. So, there you go.

Myke Hurley: Nice. All right.

Listener horror story and slimy ink discussion

Brad Dowdy: We got one horror story this week, Myke. I'm going to let you read it. I'm going to let you read it.

Myke Hurley: All right.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, wait. Have you read it yet? I have read it. Do you want me to read it to you?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Let's do that. Let's do that. I like this one. So, Brad, this just happened to me. Spooky season delivers. I go to ink my Lamy 2000 55th Anniversary Edition for the first time. This is the blue one, I believe. Or is that the brown one? I'll have to check. But it's one of those, you know, fancy macrolon, color macrolon, either blue or brown. Inking it up for the first time. Before I do, I carefully switch out the nib for a fantastic OBB. So, that's an oblique broad nib. I'm really looking forward to it. I haven't inked a Lamy 2000 in a while and I wanted to use this special pen with a special nib. I just need to find a special ink, right? Perusing my stash, I find my bottle of Lamy Petrol. Perfect. When was the last time I used this? As I finish inking, I lift the section out of the bottle and out comes a slimy goop attached to it. Slime in the bottle. Slime in the limited edition ink. I just put slime inside this way too expensive pen. Despair and defeat were the immediate emotions. I dump the ink and take apart my pen to clean thoroughly. At least I got a good story out of it and a lesson learned. Check your inks if it's been a few years. I know moldy inks are somewhat common horror stories, but the fact that this happened today and with such a rare item compelled me to share. This gives me chills.

Myke Hurley: What is slime? What is going on there?

Brad Dowdy: I don't know that I've ever actually had a slimy ink, but it's basically short of congealing. The different particles will almost stick together. And, you know, it's just kind of an unhealthy, you know, chemical change in their fibrous mold, as the chat says, that essentially ruins the ink. Like it just needs to be pitched and thrown out. And to put this into what is really in a very expensive and rare pen blindly.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And I would say something like a Lamy 2000, especially bad for, because you can't see in.

Brad Dowdy: You can't see in it. Yeah. It has an ink window, but you're not going to get like any type of accurate representation. Like you'll see the ink levels. You're not going to see the, you know, if you've got all the slime out of it and taking apart those Lamy 2000s, you think it would be easy, but they have this wonderful little part in there that helps the clip attached to the barrel that people lose all the time because it's like this little microscopic little metal ring and it just flies out. But it's awful. This is, this is not a hall of famer.

Brad Dowdy: But this is, this is perfectly horrible for, if I was in this situation, I would be absolutely horrified. And I would have banged out the same email going, you have got to be kidding me that I just did this. I, you know, saved up or bought this really special pen and just gunked it up on the first fill. It's not like I've had this pen for a couple of years and like I made a mistake grabbing this ink. It's like, I'm going to make this really special and then just failed miserably. So I, I appreciate you sharing this with us, Jacob, because it was just like, it gives me chills. It's gross. So yes, this is a good sign. Check your inks. You can, you want to, so here's a tip. So if you haven't used it, haven't used an ink in a while, you want to do two things. You want to grab the ink without shaking it and open the bottle, right? You want to look in the top first. And this is before like shaking the bottle. All right. So look in the top and see if there's any mold or anything on the top. Then close the, close the thing, close it back and then look on the bottom and shake it up and see what it looks like after you shake it up too. So if there's mold on the top, it's instantly gone, right? So that's step one, but as Jacob found out, sometimes, uh, the seaweed leaves, lives deep down in the ocean, right? So sometimes you have to stick the nib down in there to like suck up the junk. So you want to shake it up afterwards. So it's kind of a two-step thing if you haven't used an ink in a while. So you kind of, and, and look at and see if anything's swirling around in there that shouldn't be swirling around in there. All the sea monsters.

Myke Hurley: I don't like any, basically I don't like anything. I'm not happy with any of it.

Brad Dowdy: It's a fast little phobia in ink bottles, right? Is that, is that the word? Uh, yeah. So, um, sorry that this happened to you, Jacob. And hopefully you got that Lamy cleaned out and now I'm kind of interested. You can email me back. What, what ink did you choose next? What was the cleansing your palette ink? Because there has to be a step is like, okay, I just really like screwed up. Right. But I can get out of this. Like I found it quickly. I'm going to clean it out. Do you go in with, Hey, I'm going to pick this next favorite ink of mine and go with that. Or is there an intermediate step? And I had almost bet like for me, there would be like, let me put in something average in case I didn't do a good job cleaning this out. And then once I've proven to myself that it's good to go and use that ink up, then I'll put in with like the real go-to ink in there. So that, that would be my steps in this. Cause I overthink all this stuff very, very much.

Brad Dowdy: Michael.

Myke Hurley: We got another list, huh?

Pen list refresh and notable models

Brad Dowdy: We got another list. We're, uh, I'm on, I'm on a list kick. I'm just making it a goal to finish the refresh of the top five. Yep. Uh, pens list by the end of the year. So I'm going straight down the line. This was in a lot of these at the top of the list are, they're definitely not ranked in order, but the more important lists are up top, right? Micro gel pens, pens you can find at the store, beginner fountain pens, which we discussed last week, a few different price point fountain pens. And then we get into some random stuff, paper brands, ink, pencils, things like that. But like, these are like the core important lists. So last week we talked about the beginner pens, right? I changed that. That used to be called a top five fountain pens between, you know, under $50, right? And my thought on changing it to the beginner pens list is that price point didn't really serve the purpose of what I wanted the list to be. I really wanted to be, Hey, what is my first fountain pen? What are my choices? What should I be looking at? So that's how I took that list, which means I had to take the zero to 50 fountain pens list. And then the next list, um, also got absorbed into a different list. The next list was, um, top five fountain pens between 50 and a hundred dollars. And I even said in the old notes section of that one that I hate that list. I said, I wish this list didn't have to exist in the, in the old, the old format. Um, and this is a better solution to have the top five fountain pens for beginners. And then I called this list, the top five next fountain pens. As I'm thinking of it, since this is a recommendations page, I'm thinking of that first list is, Hey, I want to try a fountain pen to see if I even like it. Right? So you have your platinum preppies and, uh, pilot metropolitans, things of that nature. So if you've gone through that list and you decided, I want to keep going down this path, something about the fountain pen. I enjoy, I like it. Maybe I want to experiment with ink or see what other nibs are out there or find a fancier barrel. What is the next fountain pen I should look at? And I thought it was important to remove the price points from both of those categories, even though they both live in the old categories that they used to be. Right? So the beginners list, there's nothing over $25, I think. And then the top five next fountain pens, they range from like $30 to $80. Right? So it's just kind of this step up range where, you know, I could have really done something, you know, more expensive, but after these two lists, I am going to go back into the price points. Fair enough. I'm going to, I'm going to decide whether we go from like $100 to $200 or we just go from like $150 to, I don't know, we'll probably do like $100 to $200. That's a pretty, that gives me a lot of leeway there. So we'll work on that next. But the top five next fountain pen, your second fountain pen, Myke, I think the best choice is the TWSBI Eco. And again, like the preppy and the beginner list, I don't think it's particularly close to like number two. It's like a number one with a bullet, right? Because if you've liked, say you get the Pilot Metropolitan and you like it, it's like, well, now I want to explore, you know, what green ink can I get? What other filling systems can I try? And the TWSBI Eco answers all that and is still very good writing quality. It's a great nib. It's a great build. I know people will, will continue to harp on TWSBI for some of their technical flaws in manufacturing. But I think overall they do a really good job of construction and everything's pretty stable as far as I've seen. So I don't have any issue recommending TWSBI Eco and it forces you on that next fountain pen to buy a bottle of ink. And once you do that, you're in, you're one of us, right?

Myke Hurley: After the races. Yeah, Eco's a fantastic pen. You know, I think I suggested last time that I think it would have belonged on the other list, but I knew why you didn't put it there. Yep. And it made sense. But so I think that makes it like the perfect candidate to be number one on this list. Yeah. It's a very easy pen to understand. The construction is great. It looks great. It feels great. You can get in a bunch of really cool colors. It's about as good as you can go for your first pen with a bottle of ink.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. And the thing you'll notice about all these pens on this list, which we'll continue to go through, they all have that one question. They all have that one thing that makes them not completely straightforward for a beginner, right? They're a little bit fiddly. You know, they're a piston filler. You have to buy a bottle of ink. Number two is the Lamy Safari. What's the one flaw with the Lamy Safari? It has a molded grip section. It doesn't work for everybody. Not everyone can physically grip a Lamy Safari comfortably, right? But it's number two on my list because it really kind of does work for a lot of people. It's super high quality. It's a great build. It's a classic design. You can get Pokemons in them. Mm-hmm. Maybe that's your third fountain pen is going down that path. But it's just a workhorse of a pen, right? I love the Lamy Safari. I use the Lamy Safari personally way more than I use the TWSBI Eco. I can't really answer why. It just works for me. I physically enjoy using it more, but I have a very traditional grip. It's not for everybody. So if TWSBI was number one with a bullet, it's definitely the top two or kind of the most traditional next fountain pens on this list. And then we branch out a little bit. And one of the good things about breaking this list up this way, even though the price point still stayed between $50 and $100, it allowed for a little bit of experimentation, right? So I go back to the Pilot Metropolitan. It's kind of the one different pen in the beginner's list because it's a little bit heavier. It's a brass barrel. It's got the feel and look of a classic fountain pen. Well, if you like that, but you wanted an even nicer pen, some would argue that maybe the Pilot is just as nice as the Lamy Studio, which comes in at number three on my list. This is your upgraded Pilot Metropolitan, right? It's the same general idea, right? It's a classic design. It's beautiful. It's well made. The one flaw or the one question you have to answer is, hey, do I like this metal grip section? Again, each of these pens on this list have that one question. You have to find out for yourself. Do I like the metal grip section on this pen? For me, it shockingly works well. And I don't have really dry hands or anything, but it's smooth enough to where my fingers don't slide on the grip at all. And I don't think that's a real issue for most people. And they come in either like really fun colors. You can get some bright like aquamarine colors or you can get like an all black or all gray Lamy Studio. I think they're just a really great, great quality. I think they're very underrated even at around $75. They're not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but I do actually think they're underrated. Like I would rather have a Lamy Studio than the Lamy LX, which is the premium all star, which they charge around 50 something for 50 to $60. Like I would take the Lamy Studio every time over that. It's just a different, different type of pen. It's great.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Along the same lines is something a little bit different is the Kaweco AL Sport. Now I was thinking of this list in a direct line from that first list. Okay. I found something I like. I want to continue down the fountain pen path, but you know what? I don't really sit at my desk to write a lot. You know, I like the Platinum Preppy or the Pala Kakuno. I can just throw them in my pocket. You know, they're plastic barrels. I don't have to really worry about them. Is there something even cooler I can get than those that kind of fits the same, you know, throw it in my pocket and go type of pen. And I think the Kaweco AL Sport is perfect for that. This is the aluminum version. I skipped the Classic Sport completely in favor of the aluminum one, because I think it's just that much better. Any of the metal barrel sports are as much as I love the Classic Sports and I rave about them and I have more of those pens than just than any Lamy Safari or Twizbee Eco. I still prefer as a recommendation, one of the metal barrels, in this case, the AL Sport, which is around $70. And then you can get brass and steel ones as well. And then there's even a carbon fiber one, which is very expensive, well, comparatively. But I think this is just, it answers a certain question for a certain person. And if I'm thinking about what's next, not every next fountain pen for every fountain pen user is going to be another traditional fountain pen. And the Kaweco is traditionally styled, but it's uniquely designed to fit a certain need of person who's going to be carrying and using a fountain pen. I think it's great. So I would recommend this just wholeheartedly. I think it's a fantastic pen. The last one, Myke. This one, I don't understand. It wasn't an easy choice. And I kind of didn't know what to do here. And I think I'm not going to change it. This is the extreme nerd level pen. And this is the Twizbee Vax 700.

Brad Dowdy: This is your choice to go off the deep end.

Brad Dowdy: There are simpler pens. We could have put it number five. And I'll talk about those in the notes. There's some more basic stuff I could put here at number five. But I wanted to give an option of a really cool pen that has a cool filling system. Looks amazing. It's fun to use. And actually surprised me personally as a pen that I like. And I wasn't sure I was going to. So not counting, discounting my opinion of my personal use. I would recommend this pen for a second fountain pen for someone who really wants to experiment. Like this is your experimental option. And that's the leeway I feel like I had in this next fountain pen list as opposed to just like a pure price point list. Like a pure price point list, the Twizbee 580 is going to be in there. The Twizbee Swipe is probably going to be in there. It's probably like a full Twizbee list, right? The pen you mentioned before, the Kaweco Student, that's probably in there. I even put the Opus 88, like the Coloro or the Halo. Either of those models could be in there. And I think if any of them swapped out for number five, it'd be one of the Opus 88 eyedroppers. That's a good next fountain pen along the lines of the Twizbee Eco, a different filling system, right? For a pen. This is an extreme. I might take some grief for this, but in the idea of not having the same option for every person coming through the list, you know, I think is a valid one because not everyone has the same taste or the styles. And that is admittedly a very high barrier to entry if you're a new person to coming to fountain pens. But it's worth the risk and it's worth like the neatness of the pen, right? To have something cool looking like that and really interesting functionality with the vac filling system. So that's my justification for this. I'm happy with having it on the list, although I think I might get some blowback just as a pure list. Like, why isn't the 580R on there? Like, I'm not going to argue like the 580. It's excellent. Yeah. But it's easy, right? It's easy to choose the 580 for this list. And I think the vac is something a little bit more experimental for someone. Like, what's the difference really between the Eco and the 580, right? It's just aesthetically. And I think the vac is different than the Eco. And I think that's my justification for putting on the list. And I think it's really, really cool pen. So there you go.

Myke Hurley: It's an interesting addition to the list.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it is. And it's not meant to be like, you know, ah, check it out. You know, I really think it's like...

Myke Hurley: Because you need the special bottle, right?

Brad Dowdy: No. No, no, no, no, no.

Myke Hurley: I thought that Twisby made a special bottle for the vac system.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, they do, but you don't have to have it. You just stick it in any old ink bottle. You just stick it in any bottle, like the 823, and just snap that, snap the piston rod down and bring in the ink. I don't use the bottle.

Myke Hurley: You know, I always thought that you had to use the vac bottle.

Brad Dowdy: No, no, no, no. You know, that's an option for like travel. And, you know, it's just something else that they can sell you. You absolutely don't have to use the bottle. I just stick it in the bottle of ink and snap the vacuum down and it sucks up the ink and you're good to go. Like, it's a... Yeah. Thank you for that. No worries. It's a unique pen and it's, I think, deserving a spot for something to think about for people when they're going down this path, right? This is... I'm interested in fountain pens. Let me think about the next options because once you get past that beginner list, you know, you really can go off in all these wild different directions. And this next fountain pen list of try to like encompass a few of the differences that you can start to look at for your own usage and just be a little bit different than some of the other options out there.

Myke Hurley: All right. I think that does it for this week's episode.

Brad Dowdy: All right. I love it. I love it.

Myke Hurley: Thank you so much to Squarespace and Unipizza Ovens for their support of the show. If you want to find show notes and links and info, like if you want to find the links that are Pokemon pens, you can go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 536. You can find Brad online. He is over at penaddict.com and he is at Dowdyism on Twitter, penaddict on Instagram and on twitch.tv slash penaddict where Brad streams three times a week, including after we record this show live on Wednesdays. You can find me. I am at imyke, I-M-Y-K-E and go to cortexbrand.com. You can find some wonderful journals and we've got our subtle tee and subtle sweater on sale right now too. You can go to spokedesign.com for Brad's work right now. That's the best place for that stuff, right? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: We've got some new pencils coming soon or new and updated, an update of the most classic design that we have, what I think people are going to like. So the Spoke Model 4 pencil, be looking for that in the next maybe week or so to have a kind of a refresh and a big inventory update and some new grip styles and a lot of fun stuff coming with that pencil, then hopefully some pens later in the year.

Myke Hurley: Nice. Yeah. And so we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.