Reform A&w Crazy Monsters Fleurs Pen Reviews

[bob_hayden]

The title is aimed at search engines rather than humans;-)

 

Twenty odd years ago the Brooks pharmacy chain (in NY and New England) carried three or four models of fountain pens carrying the "A&W" brand and selling for $5-10 US.  Brooks was swallowed up by Rite Aid in 2007 and disappeared.  The pens were mostly plastic and not very durable but they had WONDERFUL nibs.  In addition, they always wrote, even after sitting idle for long periods of time (a month in the only actual test I could find a record for). You can find lots of pictures of my A&Ws in this thread.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/119251-aw-fountain-pens/

 

"A&W" was the importer's brand name and I always wondered who made these pens, and not too long ago someone at FPN suggested Reform (also no longer with us) might be the culprit.    Even more recently I saw that speerbob had some NOS Reform pens for sale on eBay that looked like they were made from the same molds as the cheapest line of A&W pens.  He offered a "Fleurs" model and a "Crazy Monsters" model so I ordered one of each.  Both are plastic models with a design painted or printed on that matches the name.  The flowers seem to have a seam like wallpaper that was not matched up.  The cartoon monsters are seamless and are recommended to the fastidious. 

 

 

I am happy to report that they look and write just like the old A&W pens.  They arrived in a generic pen box with an unlabeled short international cartridge tucked inside.  No converter was included, nor do I recall one being included with the A&W pens.  Indeed, most of the converters I had on hand would not fit though I did find a couple of aluminum shelled Wing Sung press-bar converters that worked so I put same in one of the pens.  (Others converters were too fat.) Fittingly, I loaded the other with an A&W cartridge purchased at Brooks many years ago.  I checked a long international cartridge for fit as well and it was too close to call.

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/2017_07_21_Casio_NewPens/cimg0968-3.jpg

For those who care, the cap screws on. 

 

The nibs look like those on the A&Ws except that they are marked "Reform" and "Germany" is preceded with a "W." so presumably these date from before German reunification in 1990.  Both types carry the words "Germany" and "Iridium Point" (when not painted).  That made me think of another rumor I had heard that when Reform went out of business they sold their nib making machinery in Asia.  I always thought those Chinese nibs marked "Iridium Point Germany" were efforts to defraud, but they could also be ancient Reform machinery cranking away and stamping out the original markings. 

 

I paid $5 US each for these and am very happy to have them.  That's about what I paid for the A&Ws long ago.  For this particular (cheapest) line I do not think I have ever had one fail to function.  Their lack of durability is mainly confined to clips that break off and paint that wears off the painted ones.  If you want an extremely functional pen at a very low price these are hard to beat.  They are like a favorite pair of blue jeans. 

 

Not recommended to the fashion or status conscious ;-)

 

 

[Drone]

Are those cap threads I see on the barrel? Nah, can't be...

 

I saw "A&W" - now I want a root beer 'n vanilla ice cream float to go with my pen

[bob_hayden]

YES! Caps thread on. The next A&W step up (Marquis) does not while the top of the line model (Classic Impressions) does. All seem to resist drying out very well.

 

I am surprised nobody has asked about using these as eyedroppers;-) The bodies have a plug of a different color in the end just like the caps (See link to A&W page) and I doubt they would have gone to extra effort to make this ink-tight. (In any case, I have not had them crack like Jinhao 992s.) While you could ask speerbob, I suspect shipping these with root beer and ice cream inside the body would not be practical;-)

Edited July 25, 2017 by bob_hayden

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks for posting the photos. Those look like fun pens. But only taking, it appears, short International Standard cartridges? That might be an issue for me.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[bob_hayden]

The Reform pens are already inked with other stuff but I did two experiments. First, I tried long international cartridges, and then Thornton/Lamy cartridges upside down, in a couple of old A&W pens. Then I took the sections out of those and tried them in the Reform bodies with their big cartridges attached. Long internationals fit without incident in both cases. Upside down Thorntons fit, but sometimes (and sometimes not) would stay in the body when you unscrewed the section. In those cases it was easy to pull it out with my fingers -- no pliers or explosives required.

[calcat]

Thank you, Bob Hayden!

I'm so happy you posted the pic of the Reform Fleurs!

 

I've just gotten back to using my fountain pens after a very long time.  I have almost a dozen old fountain pens that I bought through the 70s and 80s, all of which still work, pretty much all Sheaffers and Parkers, with a couple of inexpensive 'novelty' outliers - one of them might be a Sailor.

 

After a few weeks of using them in rotation, I'm finding that my two Reform pens are the ones that I love the most, especially the Reform Fleurs. (I also have a Reform Calligraph EF.)  I truly *love* using the Reform Fleurs, for all that it would have been a very inexpensive fountain pen, bought, I suspect for its pretty barrel ;>

 

I've been on a hunt, as a new again fountain pen user, for something similar.  Do you, or anyone here, have suggestions.  There are so many more brands available than there were back when I started.

 

I don't know yet why I love to use it so much.  It's very smooth, it never skips, it always writes immediately.  The barrel is just comfortable to use.  I don't post caps when I write, so I suppose it just fits my hand nicely.  There isn't anything about it that I don't like - it's more difficult for me, at this stage, to identify why I do like it so well, compared to the pens I have that would have been more expensive.

 

Again, thanks!  Thanks in advance to anyone who might help me out with recommendations.