Time for another addition to this yearly tradition. If you’re curious, you can check out the 2021, 2022, and 2023 entries. This idea was originally based on the “New Makeup Releases | THE TAG” video from Angelica Nyqvist.
This tag is about evaluating the releases — in this case pens & inks — from the past year. But, this year, I have to add a caveat. My focus has been on indie makers, and I’ve mostly ignored mainstream manufacturers. I had to do some research to find the answers to many of these questions. Let me know if you agree or disagree with me.
1. What release(s) lived up to the hype most this year?
This year’s annual Pilot Vanishing Point special edition, the Seashore, featured a gradient, which is always well-received. I don’t recall hearing anything but praise for it.
2. Which release(s) did not live up to the hype?
The Hobonichi releases sold out everywhere, per usual. But, I saw MANY videos and posts complaining about the quality of the paper. I wonder how many will get returned or remain unused this year.
I’m putting the Sailor Tuzu here, but, honestly reviews were mixed. The general consensus seemed to be that it’s overpriced for what it is, but it’s not a bad pen.
3. What was the biggest curve ball?
The biggest pen release surprise to me was Lamy’s Harry Potter set. I know they’ve done a few IP collabs before, but, if I recall correctly, there wasn’t anything super special. They were generally a standard pen model in a (sometimes) unique color with one or more clip decorations. The Harry Potter series actually has custom designs on the barrel and cap and a custom finial coin. It’s cool, but it doesn’t feel very true to Lamy.
I’m sure there were some people in the pen community who had an idea that Carey — Mr. Fountain Pen Day himself — was planning to leave Kenro, but for Jim and I the news was a major curveball that came out of left field. And it was definitely weird to not see Carey at the Kenro table at the DC show.
I believe there have been “decorated” Sailor pens before, but I think the First Snow was the first one made available to retailers in the USA. Knowing how quickly Japanese special editions sell out, it was a smart move on Sailor’s part, but it was also a surprise.
4. What was the most ridiculous luxury release?
In a surprising curveball, Visconti wins this dubious honor this year with the Checkmate. On the surface, this is a cool idea. It’s a magnetic chessboard so you can play on the go, and you can write with it. But, when you think it through, it quickly becomes ridiculous.
If you want to use the pen as a chessboard on the go, you either need to bring the enormous box with you (it looks like it’s bigger than an actual chessboard), or you have to hold the pen for the entire game. It makes far more sense to just buy a portable chess set.
In a similar vein, if you want to play chess at home, why wouldn’t you just use a standard chessboard?
It’s hard to tell from photos because they’re obviously larger than life, but I imagine that it would be finicky to move the pieces. You have minimal space especially if you have large fingers, and you have to make sure the piece gets to the right square on the “board.”
And, of course, you can’t write with the pen while a game is in progress, as you’ll knock pieces off, so you have to take note of each piece’s location.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but they should have looked to Montegrappa, because the Scarabeo pen is genius.
While not a luxury release, I have to give a nod to the Esterbrook Estie Sweet Dreams. It’s ridiculous in the best way, because it comes with an eye mask.
5. What was the biggest letdown/snoozefest?
For me, it was the lack of interesting, accessibly-priced, year of the dragon pens, specifically because I was born in the year of the dragon. Those that were released were mostly from Chinese manufacturers (e.g. Hongdian, Jinhao) or had little-to-no design elements marking them as year of the dragon pens — I’m looking at you, Nahvalur.
The “big brand” pens released were all targeted to well outside my tax bracket. Prices range from $1,600 for the boring Montegrappa Regal Dragon to over $30,000 for the Caran d’Ache Straw Marquetry Dragon.
I expected to at least see something from Opus 88, as they had such fun pens for the year of the snake and the year of the rat.
While looking up prices to write this post, I did find a pen from Hero that is interesting. But, at $100 dollars, it’s more than I really want to pay for a piece of memorabilia.
6. Which brand(s) had the best year?
I have to hand this one to White Bear Pens. Mikayla recently announced her brand was celebrating its one-year anniversary, and I literally couldn’t believe it. She sprang up out of nowhere and took the pen world, at least in the USA, by storm. I wish her many more equally successful years.
7. Which brand(s) need to reevaluate what they’re doing?
Given the number of complaints I’ve seen — without looking for them — about the Tomoe River paper “bad batch,” I’d say Sanzen needs to be more careful with their QC checks. If the issues continue long enough to kill the “bad batch” theory, it could kill Tomoe River paper for good.
I also feel that Pilot needs to reconsider their choices with the Iroshizuku ink line. They don’t have to discontinue inks to bring in new ones, and I’m going to miss Kiri-Same when my backup bottle runs out. Bring it back, Pilot!!!!
8. Did your predictions from last year come true?
I made two predictions again last year: “I can only assume we’ll continue to see more IP collaborations, especially from Montegrappa. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Bridgerton pen… since shimmer has been so big, perhaps we’ll see more duo- and multichrome shimmer inks.”
For pens, Montegrappa certainly released more IP collaboration pens, including 007 Goldfinger, the Odyssey, Warner Bros. (which seems to have been announced last year but released this year), Scrabble, Rolling Stones, and Frankenstein. But, they didn’t release a Bridgerton pen.
For inks, there were some releases with duo/multichrome shimmer inks, but not enough to say there was an increase in response to market interest.
9. What are your predictions for releases next year?
With Chinese manufacturers getting in on the retractable “clicky” fountain pens, and Endless’ retractable pen Kickstarter getting funded to 2,000% of what they asked for (with 4 days to go at time of writing), I’m guessing we’ll see even more “clicky” fountain pens next year.
Also, with Colorverse’s Colorvent calendar seemingly sold out everywhere online — reminiscent of Diamine’s first Inkvent — I think there’s a chance we’ll see other ink and stationery brands trying advent calendars next year. It would be nice to see a calendar that has more than just bottles of ink. Maybe Wearingeul, with their extended catalog, would be able to put together a fun, and perhaps more accessibly priced, advent calendar.
Thanks for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed my post. Do you agree with my answers? Do you think I’m completely wrong? What are you predictions for next year? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.
Make sure to subscribe to my blog or follow me on Instagram so you don’t miss any posts. I generally post at least once a week.
I totally agree with you on the lack of Year of the Dragon pens. I was super interested in the Hongdian Year of the Rabbit pen, and hoped to see something similar for this year. And…the offerings were so…GOLD.