Sailor B-1 Drawing Pen & Older Sakura Pigma Micron

[stuck-in-time]

As usual, when travelling I always look for the smaller older stationery stores as they usually have some old stock that are always interesting. This time, I found some old drawing pens, the disposable plastic-tipped type. Not really a collectible stuff, but I bought they anyway since they're very cheap and still works anyway. What i'm interested in knowing, is the approximate age of these pens.

 

 

For me, this is one is the most interesting one. The Sailor B-1 Color Drawing. I never knew Sailor products were sold here in my country (Indonesia) and if they were at some time, it was quite some time ago. On top of that, this is the first time I've known that Sailor makes this type of pen. I tried researching a bit online, and can find very few references about it. One said that they were discontinued.

 

 

So, my question is why a large manufacturer like Sailor not have a fair amount of share in this type of market. To the point that their drawing pens are barely even mentioned anywhere, and if they really did stop producing them, when did that happen?

 

 

I also got these old Sakura Pigma pens. The Pigma Graphic is labeled "Nouvel" so I'm guessing this was a new product back then. So that might be a clue to their age.

 

 

2 interesting things I noticed was that these older Microns have the micro symbol (μ) on them and that the sleek "new" design of the blue bodied micron pens (like the Micron ESDK005) is actually reminiscent of these older designs.

 

Since these pens were invented in the 80's, I think it would be very nice to assemble a collection of the evolution of their design. But I'm unable to find any pictures of any of the older models.