What Happened To The Parker Vector?

[mitto]

this was from a local charity shop - unfortunately, it's a rollerball and not a f.p............ the caption under the plane says 'Jaguar GR1A'.

When I looked in the shop some days back, they had a dozen or so of these rollerballs, mostly it seemed with pictures of different aircraft and I made a point of not buying any - but curiosity eventually won the day and so I bought just this one. The clip etc. are in matte black.

 

As most folk here will probably know, the workings of the f.p. and r.b. are almost completely interchangeable, so I thought I'd create something unique and replace this r.b. workings with a set of f.p. innards ........... unfortunately, although the barrel contents are identical in fit, it seems that there's something just a tad non-identical with the caps, and so I had to revert and leave the bits and bobs as they were. The cap fit was just slightly not quite right for some reason.

 

The intended market for these 'aircraft' r.bs. appears to have been just the U.K., but could be wrong .... the box, which I've now binned, implied that these airplane related pens were for collectors, and unsure of when they were made.

 

The inner cap design of the RB and FP is different. You just need to take out the FP inner cap and put it in the RB cap to successfly convert a RB to an FP.

[PaulS]

such wisdom again - big thanks, and I'll give it a go.

[pajaro]

this was from a local charity shop - unfortunately, it's a rollerball and not a f.p............ the caption under the plane says 'Jaguar GR1A'.

When I looked in the shop some days back, they had a dozen or so of these rollerballs, mostly it seemed with pictures of different aircraft and I made a point of not buying any - but curiosity eventually won the day and so I bought just this one. The clip etc. are in matte black.

 

As most folk here will probably know, the workings of the f.p. and r.b. are almost completely interchangeable, so I thought I'd create something unique and replace this r.b. workings with a set of f.p. innards ........... unfortunately, although the barrel contents are identical in fit, it seems that there's something just a tad non-identical with the caps, and so I had to revert and leave the bits and bobs as they were. The cap fit was just slightly not quite right for some reason.

 

The intended market for these 'aircraft' r.bs. appears to have been just the U.K., but could be wrong .... the box, which I've now binned, implied that these airplane related pens were for collectors, and unsure of when they were made.

 

That's a wonderful pen, no matter how it works! I love it.

[mitto]

such wisdom again - big thanks, and I'll give it a go.

 

The RB inner cape is so made that it wouldn't click on the FP section. And so it would not grip the FP section.

 

You would have to lift the plastic sticker on the cap top using a needle and you would see a small screw. Unscrewing the screw would release both the clip and the inner cap. Replace the inner cap with one from an FP, insert the clip back into its place, tighten the screw back and put the plastic sticker back on top of the cap. Usualy it would still have some sticky substance to stick in its place. If not use some glue. And your RB cap is now effectively turned into an FP cap.

[PaulS]

thanks again, especially for the detailed explanation

[gammada]

Thanks for the help, everyone. It's a shame there are no pen shops locally in my area. I almost wish I lived in Europe due to the abundance of Parker pens!

Amazon is your friend here! I just saw a pretty nice selection of colors, finishes and nib sizes ranging from just over $4 all the way to $20 for the Premium versions. Check it out!

[Mike 59]

I've found several Vector F.P.s in charity shops over the years, which ranged from ruined nib, to 'like new'.

One I bought for £2 was UK made in 2006, and the nib was so good that I put it in my Urban, use it often too.

Another find was a purple version, a colour that was made for a short time, probably not too many around.

The Vector is not on the Parker website now, maybe being phased out?

Even this week I could buy a new one in our local supermarket in black or cobalt blue for £10.

Edited December 7, 2016 by Mike 59

[sciumbasci]

Ah, sad indeed, Parker dropped the Vector and the "old" Jotter (both FP and BP) even in the "international" website.

[Mike 59]

IF the 'Vector' & 'Jotter' fountain pens are being phased out, we can't be sure, they are certainly on sale in various shops as of December 2016, in fact the Jotter FP is in the new style grey boxes, priced in UK at £17, not seen on the maker's website though.

I have seen the 'Vector' in FP, BP and rollerball this week, but that may be existing stock being used up.

Edited December 8, 2016 by Mike 59

[sciumbasci]

The old jotter is not on their catalogue anymore. I thought safe to assume it is discontinued.

[chromantic]

You can still find plenty of older NOS Vectors (ones not made by Luxor in India) on ebay. Savvy sellers list the country in the title - "Made in France", "Made in USA", "Made in UK".

There's a Parker factory in China, too, now; probably the source for those $20 Sonnets. I've ordered one of these Chinese Vectors to see how it compares to the one Luxor I have but it hasn't arrived yet.

[mitto]

The original Vector either made in USA or UK are sometimes offered in used condition for sale on auction sites. Last year I also bought two made in France ones in a stationery store here in Islamabad.

[mitto]

I've found several Vector F.P.s in charity shops over the years, which ranged from ruined nib, to 'like new'.

One I bought for £2 was UK made in 2006, and the nib was so good that I put it in my Urban, use it often too.

Another find was a purple version, a colour that was made for a short time, probably not too many around.

The Vector is not on the Parker website now, maybe being phased out?

Even this week I could buy a new one in our local supermarket in black or cobalt blue for £10.

 

A few more rare color Vectors. Plum, BBB? and burgundy.

 

 

 

 

 

Aren't these in lovely P51 aero colors?

Edited December 13, 2016 by mitto

[inkstainedruth]

A few more rare color Vectors. Plum, BBB? and burgundy.

 

 

 

20161213_220127_LLS-1.jpg

 

Aren't these in lovely P51 aero colors?

 

I have a UK-made one that looks like the burgundy; I would buy those other two colors in an heartbeat. I've also heard rumors of one that sounds as if it's more of a lavender shade of purple, but have never seen one.

The last three Vectors I got (all UK-made, F nibs, IIRC) were last spring, from an eBay seller in the Netherlands (I think I got the s/s one with some company logo imprint from the same seller a couple of years ago). He had 5 different colors, of which I wanted the pink, the avocado (?) green, and the Aztec gold; I don't know what the actual color name was, but it looks like a lot of the bridges here in Pittsburgh, which are apparently painted that color -- and that's what it was called when the city was discussing repainting the "Three Sisters" (the Roberto Clemente, Andy Warhol and Rachel Carson Bridges from downtown to the North Side -- formerly known as the 6th Street, 7th Street and 9th Street Bridges, respectively). I got outbid, but then got a notification about a Second Chance deal (seems that the original seller thought his $18.50 bid was for all FIVE pens, not just one -- even though it clearly stated that in the listing). But eBay had a glitch that didn't allow for me to get more than one for my price and that ended up with me and and seller spending all of that Tuesday frantically contacting each other back and forth trying to figure out how to make it work and generally cursing eBay's IT dept. for not anticipating such a situation.... [The seller ended up pulling the listing and resisting them as "BIN" at my price so I could then say "I'm buying X, Y, and Z pens -- but not A or B" in order to make it all work....]

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[mitto]

I have a UK-made one that looks like the burgundy; I would buy those other two colors in an heartbeat. I've also heard rumors of one that sounds as if it's more of a lavender shade of purple, but have never seen one.

The last three Vectors I got (all UK-made, F nibs, IIRC) were last spring, from an eBay seller in the Netherlands (I think I got the s/s one with some company logo imprint from the same seller a couple of years ago). He had 5 different colors, of which I wanted the pink, the avocado (?) green, and the Aztec gold; I don't know what the actual color name was, but it looks like a lot of the bridges here in Pittsburgh, which are apparently painted that color -- and that's what it was called when the city was discussing repainting the "Three Sisters" (the Roberto Clemente, Andy Warhol and Rachel Carson Bridges from downtown to the North Side -- formerly known as the 6th Street, 7th Street and 9th Street Bridges, respectively). I got outbid, but then got a notification about a Second Chance deal (seems that the original seller thought his $18.50 bid was for all FIVE pens, not just one -- even though it clearly stated that in the listing). But eBay had a glitch that didn't allow for me to get more than one for my price and that ended up with me and and seller spending all of that Tuesday frantically contacting each other back and forth trying to figure out how to make it work and generally cursing eBay's IT dept. for not anticipating such a situation.... [The seller ended up pulling the listing and resisting them as "BIN" at my price so I could then say "I'm buying X, Y, and Z pens -- but not A or B" in order to make it all work....]

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

I have the burgundy in some other shades as well. Not as bright as the one in the picture above.

[PenPaper52]

Putting my two cents in for what it's worth.

Went into a shop this afternoon to get a magazine ....a shop I had not been in before and noticed that they marked down all FP by 30%. I got myself a UK made Avocado green Vector and another Parker...don't know which one ....pinched in the middle of the barrel...It doesn't say on the box, nor on the pen.

The Vector has a fine nib and the other one a M nib.

 

Needless to say...I am very happy with my new FPs

 

Have a nice one....

 

Rita

[PaulS]

I have one in a semi-transparent dark green - and if held to the light you can in fact see through the casing........ in fact you can see, back down at the rear end of the plastic what appear to be internal constrictions vaguely in the shape of small conifer trees, running around the circumference of the barrel. At a guess I'd imagine these reduce the internal thickness such that they prevent movement of the cartridge and create pressure to keep the cartridge in place on the piercing tube.

Anyone know if this semi-transparent effect in Vectors is common or not?

[inkstainedruth]

I have one in a semi-transparent dark green - and if held to the light you can in fact see through the casing........ in fact you can see, back down at the rear end of the plastic what appear to be internal constrictions vaguely in the shape of small conifer trees, running around the circumference of the barrel. At a guess I'd imagine these reduce the internal thickness such that they prevent movement of the cartridge and create pressure to keep the cartridge in place on the piercing tube.

Anyone know if this semi-transparent effect in Vectors is common or not?

 

I've seen a few of the translucent ones for sale, but not many. The only one I have that is translucent is a dark blue rollerball I bought at the Ohio Pen Show last month to (temporarily) harvest the barrel for my original one (solid color blue, sort of cobalt color) until I can get a "real" replacement. All the rest are solid colors (burgundy/dark red, black (2 of those), pink, the "Aztec gold", the avocado one, and a stainless steel flyer; no fancy designs (although I did buy a Looney Tunes "Tasmanian Devil" one for a friend) and none of the fountain pen barrels are translucent.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[pajaro]

These pens have an unusual look. Possibly they passed out of style.

[chromantic]

Go to ebay and search "parker vector translucent green" or just "parker vector translucent" - lots of stuff comes up, including red FPs, a green mech pencil, a purple rollerball (hard to tell, looks blue through the packaging), and blue ballpoints, as well as fun non-translucent ones, the best of which is a 2-lot of rollerballs, 1 in shiny hot pink and 1 in shiny mint green, the labels say "dichroic pink/black" and "dichroic green/black". The FPs mostly seem to have M nibs.

 

Question: are the barrels the same in the FPs and the RBs? In that could you replace the RB section with a FP section/nib? I know you can guy the FP nibs separately and some of the RB barrel designs are trippy, be fun to make a Frankenpen.