Parker 51 Comeback 2020?

[Hanamizu]

On 1/3/2021 at 8:51 AM, catbert said:

'The nib is not tube shaped but has a traditional pen blade, of course this nib is completely hidden in the front part of the pen.'

Sounds a bit like the new Aurora Duo-Cart.

Sounds a bit like the original 21.

[Lamy4life]

Preorders are open right now on pen chalet

https://www.penchalet.com/fine_pens/fountain_pens/parker_51__fountain_pens.html

[dparker999]

I just want to applaud the product manager at Parker who is at least trying to come up with something creative.   He/She must be under pressure to produce something for short term profits with a margin to meet a consumable business like Newall specializes in.   I don't consider FPs as a consumable.     Anyway, the reinvented 51, some new Sonnets, etc.   I hope they keep it up as Parker has always been a great company!   Watching Waterman go to the wayside!

 

 

[mikerph]

I saw the latest post on the Fountain Pen Hospital website, the Parker 51 redux will be released in Jan.-Feb 2021. They showed pictures of them. The base is a stainless cap with black or burgundy barrel ftn pen, roller or ballpoint. The ftn pen has a steel nib, there is a gold tone cap version with a 18k gold nib. The cap is unscrewed on ftn pen and roller. The ballpoint is a twist propell. Prices are between 100.00 and 250.00 depending on mode and trim level.

[mikerph]

On 1/2/2021 at 4:25 PM, OCArt said:

From a vendors website new P51:

Jinhao 85:

 

 

The picture and description on the Fountain Pen Hospital site shows and describes a threaded barrel and shows that the cap is a screw off cap.

[Flounder]

On 1/9/2021 at 9:32 PM, mikerph said:

I saw the latest post on the Fountain Pen Hospital website... The ballpoint is a twist propell...

 

Oh, I just presumed it would be push cap activated like the old 51 and 45 ballpoints. Hope that it's not a twist propel!

[PithyProlix]

On 1/3/2021 at 9:51 PM, catbert said:

 

According to the description here: https://appelboom.com/parker-pens/parker-51/:

'The nib is not tube shaped but has a traditional pen blade, of course this nib is completely hidden in the front part of the pen.'

Sounds a bit like the new Aurora Duo-Cart.

 

They can call it a Parker 51 but to me, without the tubular nib, it is not a Parker 51. The tubular nib is one of the main things that distinguished the P51 design from all previous pens, perhaps even its most important new design aspect.

[inkstainedruth]

On 1/9/2021 at 1:52 PM, dparker999 said:

I just want to applaud the product manager at Parker who is at least trying to come up with something creative.   He/She must be under pressure to produce something for short term profits with a margin to meet a consumable business like Newall specializes in.   I don't consider FPs as a consumable.     Anyway, the reinvented 51, some new Sonnets, etc.   I hope they keep it up as Parker has always been a great company!   Watching Waterman go to the wayside!

 

 

Ironically, BOTH companies are owned by Newell-Rubbermaid.

Afraid I don't completely agree with your enthusiasm.  Vintage Parkers?  Oh yeah.  They're awesome -- probably a quarter of my entire pen collection is Parkers, and most or them are vintage -- Vacs, 51s, 61s, and about a half dozen 45s -- even one 41 that I happened onto in a shoebox full of mostly ballpoints at an estate sale about 5-1/2 years ago (rarer, and apparently more valuable, than most of my 51s ).  

Modern Parkers?  Not so much (other than Vectors, which I'm kind of a sucker for -- they're inexpensive little workhorses that come in all sorts of fun designs).  The pens my first Vector replaced were cheapie cartridge pens (I think the model was called Reflex) had rubberized covered sections and the rubber disintegrated over over time (time being daily minimal use).  The Parker Urban from H-E-double-hockey-sticks ended up in a trash can -- and that was the REPLACEMENT pen they sent under warranty after giving me grief about the pen it replaced getting sent back a second time under warranty (and they were snotty about it to boot).  Well, the second time I was snotty right back at them, because I was so PO'd at the chick in France I had dealt with the first time).  *Including* telling her that she and Parker should care more about ONE mouthy American broad with access to an internationally read pen forum (me, and FPN) than their entire potential market in China....  

And then of course there was the one that caused a lot of people on FPN to point and laugh -- the felt tip marker with a cover over the tip to make it *look* like a fountain pen.  Forget what it was called, other than a joke....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[dparker999]

11 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Ironically, BOTH companies are owned by Newell-Rubbermaid.

Afraid I don't completely agree with your enthusiasm.  Vintage Parkers?  Oh yeah.  They're awesome -- probably a quarter of my entire pen collection is Parkers, and most or them are vintage -- Vacs, 51s, 61s, and about a half dozen 45s -- even one 41 that I happened onto in a shoebox full of mostly ballpoints at an estate sale about 5-1/2 years ago (rarer, and apparently more valuable, than most of my 51s ).  

Modern Parkers?  Not so much (other than Vectors, which I'm kind of a sucker for -- they're inexpensive little workhorses that come in all sorts of fun designs).  The pens my first Vector replaced were cheapie cartridge pens (I think the model was called Reflex) had rubberized covered sections and the rubber disintegrated over over time (time being daily minimal use).  The Parker Urban from H-E-double-hockey-sticks ended up in a trash can -- and that was the REPLACEMENT pen they sent under warranty after giving me grief about the pen it replaced getting sent back a second time under warranty (and they were snotty about it to boot).  Well, the second time I was snotty right back at them, because I was so PO'd at the chick in France I had dealt with the first time).  *Including* telling her that she and Parker should care more about ONE mouthy American broad with access to an internationally read pen forum (me, and FPN) than their entire potential market in China....  

And then of course there was the one that caused a lot of people on FPN to point and laugh -- the felt tip marker with a cover over the tip to make it *look* like a fountain pen.  Forget what it was called, other than a joke....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Yes-  the point that Newall owns both so one would think that both have similar profit and operating goals.    Parker is at least trying.    The redesigned 51, some new Sonnets, and the Duofold.    Waterman hasn't come out with anything is over 12/15 years when they used to be an industry leader!     

 

[BaronWulfraed]

13 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

And then of course there was the one that caused a lot of people on FPN to point and laugh -- the felt tip marker with a cover over the tip to make it *look* like a fountain pen.  Forget what it was called, other than a joke....

 

5th Technology

 

Probably created by the same brain-trust that came up with that silly "Fifth Element" movie 🥴

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks, Baron Wulflaed.  I remembered it being called "5th something" but I was pretty tired last night when I was posting and couldn't remember the actual name.  (I actually rather liked the movie, myself; but then I *also* like bad Spaghetti Westerns, and the Zatoichi movies -- which are, of course, mostly a Japanese take on bad Spaghetti Westerns in of themselves).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[corgicoupe]

No such thing as a bad spaghetti western!

[FarmBoy]

I find this discussion very entertaining. 

[Estycollector]

True, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" comes to mind. 

[inkstainedruth]

19 hours ago, corgicoupe said:

No such thing as a bad spaghetti western!

Oh yes there ARE -- I've seen some.  Italian actors with American stage names and  dorky (as I recall) dialogue badly dubbed into English....

But when your TV view choices on a Sunday afternoon are: basketball, basketball, golf, basketball, bad spaghetti Western, PBS pledge drive, basketball (identical game as one of the previous, just on a different affiliate) and PBS pledge drive (again on a different affiliate)?  You watch the bad spaghetti Western, fingers crossed....

Oh then there was Comin' At Ya! -- the one from the late early 1980s that was in 3D!  That?  Just BAAAAD.  And not even entertainingly bad.  Made the Sunday afternoon ones I watched as a sophomore in college look OSCAR caliber in comparison....

Pass the popcorn.  At least it wasn't as bad as that goofy Beowulf movie with Angelina Jolie (!) as Grendel's MOTHER, which we saw a few years ago with some friends when we were up visiting my mother-in-law.  Paid $9 for the 3D glasses in an IMAX theatre, so I couldn't even afford to buy popcorn to throw at the screen.  Plot ripped off from some bad TV movie on the SYFI channel called Grendel (which was sadly NOT based on the same-title novel byJohn Gardner).  After we got back to the parking lot, I subjected the other people (mostly from the gaming group my husband went to when we lived up there) about how this was in no way, shape of form, based on the original epic poem (which I had read in translation for a college lit course).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: @ Estycollector -- no, the Clint Eastwood/Sergio Leone "Man with no name" movies are GOOD spaghetti Westerns.  Ditto for Once Upon a Time in the West (which has the absolutely *brilliant* casting of Henry Fonda playing against type).  But I'm talking about BAAAAAAD ones.

[bbs]

Another cartridge/converter pen that doesn’t include a converter for the price .....ooh that annoys me!

[Jerome Tarshis]

On 1/11/2021 at 6:27 PM, FarmBoy said:

I find this discussion very entertaining. 

 

I am not clear in my mind how to interpret that sentence. But as an admirer of The World's Most Wanted Pen I take refuge in the idea that the Parker 51 and online discussions of the pen attract some lively or at least excited people. This can be one more reason to like the pen.

[remus1710]

Preorders opened on cultpens!

[Estycollector]

8 hours ago, Jerome Tarshis said:

 

I am not clear in my mind how to interpret that sentence. But as an admirer of The World's Most Wanted Pen I take refuge in the idea that the Parker 51 and online discussions of the pen attract some lively or at least excited people. This can be one more reason to like the pen.

This is not FB's first rodeo. 

[peroride]

Gosh, the marketing photo looks to terrific.😋 I'll bet a few drops of Quink that the marketing budget outweighs the R&D, engineering, manufacturing and janitorial services combined...🤫