Mitsubishi Pencils acquires Lamy

[Black Spot]

I wish to return my Lamy it does not work.

What is wrong with it ?

The Steering wheel is missing and it does not drive.

Its a pen sir.

Mitsubishi makes cars and my Lamy model is defective I tell you.

 

 

Did you know  VF Corporation, owns Jansport , Eastpak, Timberland, and The North Face along with a bunch of other brands ?

I am not saying that the quality of all theses company's went down hill after they bought them...

[inkstainedruth]

Oh, so you're saying it's like when Newell-Rubbermaid bought Parker and Waterman? 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Black Spot]

I do not know, I remember when Banana Republic sold cool safari clothing and now I cant find a jeep or a banana in the store any where. 

If I had a time machine I would shop in the past I tell you. 

[tommym]

1 hour ago, Black Spot said:

If I had a time machine I would shop in the past I tell you. 

 

[Surlyprof]

On 3/2/2024 at 11:27 AM, Udo said:

 

Full agreement. Tombow is now my brand. As the brand advertises on its website: "Tombow is always at your side - always". It's just fun to work with Tombow products. Starting with the erasers, the precision erasers, the correction rollers through to the "Zoom" writing instruments, which are now also design classics. Even the glue bottles are designer pieces and work perfectly, like all Tombow products. As a second high-quality design brand, LAMY would have been a perfect match for Tombow Pencil.

I used to love Tombow bc505 ballpoints.  Great size, weight and rubber section.  Unfortunately, the ones I didn’t lose over the years eventually fell apart. 
 

I went ahead and bought a Lamy 2000 broad nib just in case Mitsubishi messes with the 2000.  However, as I mentioned previously, if “messing with it” means they produce it in other colors… I’m doomed!

[LWW]

I find this news  a bit disconcerting.

[Glenn-SC]

There is a sign common to most antique stores: “The time to buy an item is when you see it.”

Meaning that that item may be bought by the next person who sees it and you will miss out.  And this has happened to me.  After an item that I had found had sat for 6 months, I called and confirmed an item/price on a Wednesday and it was gone when I got there Thursday.  
 

If you REALL want a specific Lamy product now, buy it now.  
 

Me?

1) I don’t think that the new management will make any product design changes immediately. 
2) Unprofitable products may be dropped from the lineup at any time. 
3) There are no Lamy products that I am in desperate need or want of so I am good to wait and see what happens.  (Maybe they will bring back the red 2000!)

 

[Surlyprof]

18 hours ago, Glenn-SC said:

(Maybe they will bring back the red 2000!)

 

I’d be all in on that one… as long as it doesn’t sell for $25,000 like the last one!

[RJS]

I just stumbled across this discussion on another forum today... my first thought was "maybe the QC will finally improve", and funnily enough it seemed to be what most people commented!
 

Lamy nib quality control is horrendous- buy two M's and you'll probably get an F and a B. Having owned the 15rmb Safari knockoffs, it's hard to justify paying >10x as much for the real thing. Lamy want much more for a converter than the Chinese knockoffs cost, with an equally good (bad?) converter included. The genuine converters tend to get stiff then break.

 

Maybe the sale was why Lamy more than doubled the price of the 2000 in Europe in recent years, to seemingly boost the value of their brand? "Look, we sold x amount of 2000s in the last 5 years! Look how much you'll make considering they're €270 a piece!"

 

 

 

[RJS]

The Safari clones are owned by seemingly every child in Asia... it's hard to see much value that. The 2000 has cachet, but is now too expensive for what it is. Lamy do have a lot of mini-stores/concessions around China in luxury malls, selling their pens at more than twice the TaoBao price for Japanese imports. Maybe the 'luxury' market for supposedly fancier German things exists?

 

I'm surprised Mitsubishi didn't just launch their own line of fountain pens- we could do with a big player entering the scene are making something new and interesting, and as one of the world's two best pencil manufacturers (sorry Blackwing), they already have a great name, especially considering the breadth of Mitsubishi branded things in the world.

[Mark from Yorkshire]

2 minutes ago, RJS said:

The Safari clones are owned by seemingly every child in Asia... it's hard to see much value that. The 2000 has cachet, but is now too expensive for what it is. Lamy do have a lot of mini-stores/concessions around China in luxury malls, selling their pens at more than twice the TaoBao price for Japanese imports. Maybe the 'luxury' market for supposedly fancier German things exists?

 

I'm surprised Mitsubishi didn't just launch their own line of fountain pens- we could do with a big player entering the scene are making something new and interesting, and as one of the world's two best pencil manufacturers (sorry Blackwing), they already have a great name, especially considering the breadth of Mitsubishi branded things in the world.

They already have it’s called Nahvalur or it least their parent company have Uni corporation 

[Glenn-SC]

59 minutes ago, RJS said:

(Snip) Having owned the 15rmb Safari knockoffs, it's hard to justify paying >10x as much for the real thing. Lamy want much more for a converter than the Chinese knockoffs cost, with an equally good (bad?) converter included. The genuine converters tend to get stiff then break.

And here we go again with someone advocating buying cheap fraudulent copies of another company’s product, that are marked and marketed as the real product.  
 

I have numerous Lamy Safaris, 2000s and others.  I have never had a “quality control” issue with any of them. 

[Glenn-SC]

52 minutes ago, Mark from Yorkshire said:

They already have it’s called Nahvalur or it least their parent company have Uni corporation 

Are you saying that the Nahvalur (previously Narwhal) brand of pens is owned by Mitsubishi?

[Mercian]

16 minutes ago, Glenn-SC said:

And here we go again with someone advocating buying cheap fraudulent copies of another company’s product, that are marked and marketed as the real product.  

I assumed that RJS was referring to that Jinhao ‘homage to’ the Safari.
I forget its model number, but at least it is branded as a Jinhao, rather than being fraudulently represented as a Lamy.

 

ETA:
I have five Safaris, a Vista, an Al-star, and a couple of additional Z50 nibs. Oh, and a 2000.

Like you, I haven’t experienced any QC problems with my Lamy pens or nibs.
Maybe you & I are just ‘amazingly lucky’? 😉

Edited June 11, 2024 by Mercian
For clarity

[Mark from Yorkshire]

19 minutes ago, Glenn-SC said:

Are you saying that the Nahvalur (previously Narwhal) brand of pens is owned by Mitsubishi?

Yes their parent co. Uni corporation also own Nahvalur. I know because I have been having dealings with them lately.

[Glenn-SC]

2 hours ago, Mercian said:

I assumed that RJS was referring to that Jinhao ‘homage to’ the Safari.

But RJS said “ knockoff”, which is an illegal copy, not an homage. 
 

2 hours ago, Mercian said:

 

Maybe you & I are just ‘amazingly lucky’? 😉

I hope the we both are too, but I would bet that it has nothing to do with Lamy or fountain pens. 

[Mercian]

6 minutes ago, Glenn-SC said:

But RJS said “ knockoff”, which is an illegal copy, not an homage. 

Ah, then this may be an example of our two nations being separated by a common language (or just that I’m flat-out wrong again )
In British English ‘knockoff’ can be used to mean any blatant imitation.

The word’s meaning has expanded over time, just like my waistline 

[RJS]

2 hours ago, Glenn-SC said:

And here we go again with someone advocating buying cheap fraudulent copies of another company’s product, that are marked and marketed as the real product.  
 

I have numerous Lamy Safaris, 2000s and others.  I have never had a “quality control” issue with any of them. 

I'm not advocating anyone buy cheap knock offs. Please don't put words in my mouth. 

 

What I was saying is that maybe Lamy should have tried to outdo the quality of the knockoffs, but they didn't care and didn't try. It's hard to justify most €20-50 European pens in my opinion, vs the quality of €3 Chinese pens (price in China).

[RJS]

6 minutes ago, Mercian said:

Ah, then this may be an example of our two nations being separated by a common language (or just that I’m flat-out wrong again )
In British English ‘knockoff’ can be used to mean any blatant imitation.

The word’s meaning has expanded over time, just like my waistline 

I am British too, and wasn't specifying illegal clones. 👍🏼 (Though technically copying any foreign products isn't precisely illegal in China to my knowledge anyway...)

[RJS]

2 hours ago, Mark from Yorkshire said:

Yes their parent co. Uni corporation also own Nahvalur. I know because I have been having dealings with them lately.

I'm surprised. I did not realise they had purchased them!