What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[RJS]

16 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

Eagerly anticipating the arrival of my latest and greatest. Well, make that 'latest and most Smurftastic'.

 

Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything Smurfy about the pens themselves other than their colors. That said, Sailor did get creative with the finials on some of these pens and I haven't seen them on these pens yet. (Did anyone notice that the Candy finials are wonderful parodies of the Montblanc bird splat?)

 

 

Are those vintage or modern? I unsuccessfully tried to Google them. The packaging and the styling of the pens look 40 years old, but of course it could be deliberately retro. 

[PithyProlix]

2 hours ago, RJS said:

Are those vintage or modern? I unsuccessfully tried to Google them. The packaging and the styling of the pens look 40 years old, but of course it could be deliberately retro. 

 

I assume they are vintage - perhaps circa 1980s when I think both the Smurfs and the Sailor Candy were very popular - but I don't really know. Hopefully the package will have a year printed. 

 

I found some other Smurf Candies with Google but also couldn't find this set. But it's funny - I just remembered that, up until a few months ago, I had a Candy fountain pen that appears like it might be the same as the one here (the larger pen - the smaller is a fineliner or something). The one I had had a heart shape on the finial and it will be interesting to see if this one does too. You can see that Candy here, along with some other Candies I sold with it: https://imgur.com/a/ik5AbJL

 

Honestly, I probably won't keep it nor even use it. With the combination of a low price and a high kitsch factor, it was most definitely bought on impulse. There's nothing special about the way they write (unless, I imagine, you can find one with a music nib, which they actually had with the Candy - no lie). With inspiration from this packaging, it's certainly tempting to fill it with an orange ink, though ...

[RJS]

10 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

 

I assume they are vintage - perhaps circa 1980s when I think both the Smurfs and the Sailor Candy were very popular - but I don't really know. Hopefully the package will have a year printed. 

 

I found some other Smurf Candies with Google but also couldn't find this set. But it's funny - I just remembered that, up until a few months ago, I had a Candy fountain pen that appears like it might be the same as the one here (the larger pen - the smaller is a fineliner or something). The one I had had a heart shape on the finial and it will be interesting to see if this one does too. You can see that Candy here, along with some other Candies I sold with it: https://imgur.com/a/ik5AbJL

 

Honestly, I probably won't keep it nor even use it. With the combination of a low price and a high kitsch factor, it was most definitely bought on impulse. There's nothing special about the way they write (unless, I imagine, you can find one with a music nib, which they actually had with the Candy - no lie). With inspiration from this packaging, it's certainly tempting to fill it with an orange ink, though ...

Smurfs are apparently back once again- I saw my youngest niece watching the new cartoon. That's the reason I wondered if they were new but 'retro styled'. Your set do seem to have survived the past four decades well. I do enjoy seeing items like these, that remind me days long gone. Thanks for sharing 😊

[PithyProlix]

14 minutes ago, RJS said:

Smurfs are apparently back once again- I saw my youngest niece watching the new cartoon. That's the reason I wondered if they were new but 'retro styled'. Your set do seem to have survived the past four decades well. I do enjoy seeing items like these, that remind me days long gone. Thanks for sharing 😊

 

Sailor reintroduced the Candy in 2011 but it was discontinued. I don't know when they were discontinued but I can't recall seeing them for sale in the few years since I've gotten back into fountain pens. The regular reintroduced version had a five-pointed star (or perhaps a starfish?) on the finials and there was a special edition series with a cat head on the finial (which you can see at the imgur link in my previous post). Maybe there were others but I don't know. The heart finial seems to be on circa 1970s-1980s Candies, as far as I can tell. We shall see what this one has but I'm betting on a heart. 

[jthole]

On a whim, I bought two Chinese Asvine pens: a P20 and a V126.

[awa54]

On 7/23/2024 at 10:43 AM, PithyProlix said:

Eagerly anticipating the arrival of my latest and greatest. Well, make that 'latest and most Smurftastic'.

 

Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything Smurfy about the pens themselves other than their colors. That said, Sailor did get creative with the finials on some of these pens and I haven't seen them on these pens yet. (Did anyone notice that the Candy finials are wonderful parodies of the Montblanc bird splat?)

 

 

 

 

I want the Gargamel / Azrael pen set  (I think Platinum must have made it?)

[Number99]

23 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

perhaps circa 1980s when I think both the Smurfs and the Sailor Candy were very popular

 

22 hours ago, RJS said:

Smurfs are apparently back once again

 It seems that Sailor Publishing (at the time 1985- , Now the company name has changed and it is no longer relevant.), a subsidiary of Sailor Fountain Pen Co. was the publisher of the Smurfs in Japan. I had never heard of the Smurfs and wondered how they became a pen, but it seems that they functioned as a character of Sailor Fountain Pen Co.

 

21 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

special edition series with a cat head on the finial

I believe it is the Manhattaners Avenue series. I wonder if it was released by Sailor or Manhattaners?

https://www.manhattaners-onlineshop.jp/smartphone/list.html?category_code=ct148

 

 

 

 

[PithyProlix]

8 hours ago, awa54 said:

I want the Gargamel / Azrael pen set  (I think Platinum must have made it?)

 

For more than a brief moment, I took you seriously! 😅

 

4 hours ago, Number99 said:

I had never heard of the Smurfs

 

I wanted to ask if the Smurfs were popular in Japan. From what I can tell they were at least somewhat popular - they are called スマーフ there - so perhaps they this was before or after your time?

 

Thankfully, when my kids were little they were into Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, Blue's Clues, and Thomas the Tank Engine, all top-rate kid's TV shows, so I could blissfully ignore the Smurfs. (But there was a brief Barney the Purple Dinosaur phase ... 🤮)

 

4 hours ago, Number99 said:

I believe it is the Manhattaners Avenue series. I wonder if it was released by Sailor or Manhattaners?

 

Yes, the ones with the cat heads were the A. S. Manhattaner's series, which you can still see on the Jet Pens website: Sailor A.S. Manhattaner's NY Artists Guild Fountain Pen - Fine Nib - Cat on the Road | JetPens I am confused about when they came out because "© NY Artists Guild 1996" is printed on the barrels, though that copyright date might indicate that the art was an earlier production that was used for the pens. I am guessing that NY Artist Guild was the commercial entity associated with the artist, Takashi Kuge, who lives in New York. 

 

I would guess that they were released through Sailor, mostly because of their large distribution network. Jet Pens is a US company so it seems they were distributed outside of Japan. From what I can tell, the company that currently owns the Manhattaner's brand only sells in Japan. There is also Sailor branding on the nib.

 

I owned a complete mint set of the Candy Manhattaner's series which I sold to a Japanese graphic artist living in the US. It was her first fountain pens. As far as I can tell, they are now quite difficult to find. When I was researching my pens I also saw a leather wrapped Sailor fountain pen with Manhattaner cat art on it on eBay. I cannot remember what model base pen they used and, while I probably saved the photos, I cannot find them now.

 

[Doug C]

A Lotus Saral.

[senzen]

And then, there were three.

 

[Gloucesterman]

1 hour ago, senzen said:

And then, there were three.

 

Okay, three what???????????

[senzen]

Just now, Gloucesterman said:

Okay, three what???????????

 

Waterman Gentleman, still not sure if 33 or 44, or both. And still missing another section for number 4...

[inkstainedruth]

8 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

 (But there was a brief Barney the Purple Dinosaur phase ... 🤮)

You would have liked a t-shirt I saw for sale a number of years ago: It showed Barney Rubble holding up Barney the Dinosaur's head and the caption on the shirt was "There can be only one!"

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Gloucesterman]

2 hours ago, senzen said:

 

Waterman Gentleman, still not sure if 33 or 44, or both. And still missing another section for number 4...

Thank You for the ID.

[PAKMAN]

Random look at Ebay netted a Parker Golden brown Vacumatic pen and pencil.

[Number99]

22 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

I wanted to ask if the Smurfs were popular in Japan. From what I can tell they were at least somewhat popular - they are called スマーフ there - so perhaps they this was before or after your time?

 

Thankfully, when my kids were little they were into Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, Blue's Clues, and Thomas the Tank Engine, all top-rate kid's TV shows, so I could blissfully ignore the Smurfs. (But there was a brief Barney the Purple Dinosaur phase ... 🤮)

I am only aware of the character Thomas the Tank Engine.

 

From Wikipedia, it appears that the publishing rights to "The Smurfs" in Japan were held by Sailor Publications, which was just being established at the time as a publishing company. The animated TV series was broadcast for two seasons of three months each on TV Tokyo, the only key station without a national network, with a 4% rating, the highest among all programs broadcast on the station. It was not broadcast nationally.

 

A search on Google for "The Smurfs" (スマーフ) returns the 2021 animated television series as the first link. In order to access the original version on Wikipedia, one must scroll down.

 

The number of slots for TV programs for young children is limited. It is my belief that program sponsors, such as major publishers who publish cartoon versions of children's magazines and major toy manufacturers and distributors who sell character goods and other products, are essential to the success of a program.

In this context, it seems reasonable to conclude that both Sailor Fountain Pen Co. and Sailor Publishing lack the resources to serve as sponsors for a nationally broadcast television program.

 

Thomas the Tank Engine has become a ubiquitous presence in the lives of children, having been incorporated into a well-known preschool television program and broadcast for an extended period of time.

 

 

 

Edited July 26 by Number99

[sandy101]

A Caran d'ache 849 and 844 pencil.

 

They were on sale on WHSmith's website so I got 25% off the two.

 

The medium nib of the FP is steel, but has a little flex, so you can push it to get some line variation. Without a push it's giving a fine/medium line, but that might change as I write with it.

 

The 844 pencil feels good in the hand. The lead it came with is very good though. I'll have to investigate further but if it seems like CDA's leads are excellent. 

 

I got these do I have a cheaper everyday carry. They're light, easy to use and replaceable. Having had a few near misses with some more expensive pens being misplaced and then found, I decided to have a note modest EDC - and already having the 849 in sapphire blue, it seemed like a good choice.

 

 

 

[RJS]

39 minutes ago, sandy101 said:

A Caran d'ache 849 and 844 pencil.

 

They were on sale on WHSmith's website so I got 25% off the two.

 

The medium nib of the FP is steel, but has a little flex, so you can push it to get some line variation. Without a push it's giving a fine/medium line, but that might change as I write with it.

 

The 844 pencil feels good in the hand. The lead it came with is very good though. I'll have to investigate further but if it seems like CDA's leads are excellent. 

 

I got these do I have a cheaper everyday carry. They're light, easy to use and replaceable. Having had a few near misses with some more expensive pens being misplaced and then found, I decided to have a note modest EDC - and already having the 849 in sapphire blue, it seemed like a good choice.

 

 

 

That fountain pen looks like it has the slimmest section of all time- how do you find it to write with? 

[sandy101]

1 hour ago, RJS said:

That fountain pen looks like it has the slimmest section of all time- how do you find it to write with? 

 

Very easy- just relax the muscles and loosen the grip so the fingers are are supporting the pen. You don't need to hold it tight - the nib doesn't need pressure to write. It's not a ballpoint which needs a tighter grip to be pushed into the paper.

 

If you feel your fingers are seizing up - you are holding the pen too tight. 

 

I have a CdA Madison - which has an even smaller grip and write very comfortable with that one too. 

 

I used the resources on this site on how to hold a pen. It took a couple of weeks of concious effort to relax my grip, but eventually I got used to it.

 

 

[Arthur Pewty]

This Duke 212-1 is quite a handsome pen, not outlandishly decorated like my other two Dukes. It came with an over-the-top gift box as usual.