Got My Eye On The New Pineider Avatar

[TheDutchGuy]

Goulet's Pineider Avatar page

 

 

I've got my eye on the upcoming new incarnation of the Pineider Avatar. Goulet has got a video op where Dante talks about it and assembles a pen on-camera. The section now widens near the nib, which might make it usable for me. The large nib looks lovely. Pineider puts a lot of focus on the unbreakable nature of the material and the pen being assembled without glue, but neither of these aspects will clinch the deal for me. Either it's a good pen or it isn't - you might spot that the ring in the above photo isn't flush with the barrel...

 

If it's a good writer, then I might not be able to pass this up. I wonder when local brick & mortars will start carrying these, since they seem to have quite a few first-version Avatars in stock that they'd need clear out.

 

 

[Taverius]

I saw the video.

 

Looks like a nice beater pen.

 

I can sadly confirm their nib qc is non-existent, though, so be prepared to ask for a replacement if bought online.

 

My only, but major, issue is the fact that it is a round-cap, which I seldom like, and this isn't one of them.

 

That's a shame because the Bronzo looks gorgeous for an El Lawrence daily.

[NotAWiz4rd]

I'm also interested in the new Avatar. Just wondering how well it writes - any reviews/experiences with it yet? I was only able to find review of the old model online.

[TheDutchGuy]

As soon as those pens hit my local brick and mortar, I'll give them a try. At the moment they can be ordered online with delivery within 7 to 14 days.

[TheDutchGuy]

Tried two of them just now, both with F nibs. The new conical shape of the section assures a good grip on the pen (the previous version of the Avatar had a straight metal section and personally I can't use those). Construction of both pens seemed to be flawless, but they lack the more high-end, small-workshop-vibe of the Leonardo Momento Zero and Furore (a tough competitor) and instead reminded me of the Visconti Rembrandt. The resin used is supposed to be unbreakable and and the pen is supposedly assembled without the use of any glue, but personally those traits aren't selling points for me. The large nibs looked very pretty and wrote very well indeed, with a line width that's surely on the EF side of F (about half as wide as the line width of my Momento Zero F, which writes on the M side of F). There was a small but pleasant bit of bounce and the nibs didn't feel at all like a nail, even though they were nowhere close to the extraordinary bounciness of the Leonardo F nibs. No skips, no hard starts, no unpleasant toothiness. Both nibs continued to write flawlessly until the ink ran out. In terms of feel and line width, both nibs were almost identical to one another, which suggests little variance and proper QA (though a sample of two is hardly a sample). One was just ever so slightly more to my liking, and I asked the retailer to keep that nib for me for use in the Abalone version that I've ordered (the colour you see in the image above). My pen should arrive in the next couple of weeks and I can't wait.

[NotAWiz4rd]

Thanks for the mini-review!
I'm looking forward to some more in-depth writing samples and such. But a F nib on the side of EF with a bit of bounciness certainly sounds good

[penzel_washinkton]

Tried two of them just now, both with F nibs. The new conical shape of the section assures a good grip on the pen (the previous version of the Avatar had a straight metal section and personally I can't use those). Construction of both pens seemed to be flawless, but they lack the more high-end, small-workshop-vibe of the Leonardo Momento Zero and Furore (a tough competitor) and instead reminded me of the Visconti Rembrandt. The resin used is supposed to be unbreakable and and the pen is supposedly assembled without the use of any glue, but personally those traits aren't selling points for me. The large nibs looked very pretty and wrote very well indeed, with a line width that's surely on the EF side of F (about half as wide as the line width of my Momento Zero F, which writes on the M side of F). There was a small but pleasant bit of bounce and the nibs didn't feel at all like a nail, even though they were nowhere close to the extraordinary bounciness of the Leonardo F nibs. No skips, no hard starts, no unpleasant toothiness. Both nibs continued to write flawlessly until the ink ran out. In terms of feel and line width, both nibs were almost identical to one another, which suggests little variance and proper QA (though a sample of two is hardly a sample). One was just ever so slightly more to my liking, and I asked the retailer to keep that nib for me for use in the Abalone version that I've ordered (the colour you see in the image above). My pen should arrive in the next couple of weeks and I can't wait.

 

I've seen a complaint of scratches develops in the grip section part due to repetitive action of capping/uncapping.

Do you find this true with your pens?

Edited March 28, 2019 by penzel_washinkton

[TheDutchGuy]

I've seen a complaint of scratches develops in the grip section part due to repetitive action of capping/uncapping. Do you find this true with your pens?

They're not my pens. I tried them in the store. I wanted a different colour so my pen is on order, should be there in a week or two.

[amberleadavis]

No stubs?

[TheDutchGuy]

My pen has arrived. First impressions here.

[TheDutchGuy]

Update after 6 weeks. I'm very happy with the pen and am appreciating it more over time. No scratches whatsoever on the section, which some other users have reported. I've applied an easy quick fix to fix the wobbling cap issue and have had zero problems with it. The nib, flow and performance of the pen are outstanding, with several different inks. On one particular ultra-smooth kind of paper, the pen sometimes fails to write reliably, but in its defence I can add that on that particular kind of paper very few of my pens write well. Considering the pen's price point, I can definitely recommend it.

[TheDutchGuy]

Update after 5 months. Still happy. Aesthetically this pen is a thing of beauty. People notice it. Really a wonderful design. The metal section is still scratch-free and my little cap fix is holding up. Witing-wise, it’s a great pen. The steel nib is wonderful, with a bit of pleasant bounce. I never miss a gold nib. Flow is just right with Robert Oster Fire & Ice, the colour of which matches that of the pen really well. The only drawback is that the ink tends to dry on the nib if I don’t use the pen for a day or two, but that’s what some inks do and I can’t blame the pen for that.

 

To summarize, I’m still scratching my head how Pineider can make a pen this nice for less than a 100 euros. Yes, my Leonardo pens have more of an old-school, small-workshop vibe and nibs that are even better, but they cost upwards of 150 euros.

[DrAtomic]

Kudos on the pen! I have the red and blue, and found recently that they have one rather nagging issue; the cap isn't sealed at the clip on the top of the pen. I was wondering why my hands were covered in ink when the section was dry, and found the silver clips on the very top of the band were leaking ink. It took a while to clean them out completely. I now check the caps before I use the pens to make sure I don't walk around with blue/red fingers.

 

I have the older version in Coal Grey, and I have to say the older pen color choices are for me far more appealing than the newer Ultra Resin pens, The resin seems to be deeper, richer, and more vibrant. But that's just my preference. The UR pens are quite bright and vibrant, and have the added benefit of being unbreakable, although I'm not planning on testing the validity of that claim.

 

[TheDutchGuy]

Update after 2 years.

 

 

As beautiful as this pen is, my two years of experience with it have led me to believe that this might actually be something quite rare in this day and age... namely, a rather bad pen. This is due to one very specific reason: the cap is as drafty as an old church. There’s no inner cap and the spring-loaded clip (basically a gadget) ensures there are plenty of holes to the outside world. If you blow through this thing, there’s hardly any air resistance. As a result, no matter what ink I choose, the pen dries out as soon as I turn my back on it. Leave it for two hours, the ink in the feed will be twice as dark. Four hours, I need to wipe the nib with some tissue to get it going. Six hours, I need to prime it by giving the converter a twist. More than that, cleaning and flushing. Not good. Basically this makes it a pen that won’t write, which makes it rather bad. I’ve tried to like this pen for two years but by now I’ve sort of given up on it.

 

For what it’s worth, Visconti pens with a spring-loaded clip don’t dry out. The cap of my van Gogh (a steel-nibbed competitor of the Avatar UR) is fully airtight. That pen never dries out. My more expensive Homo Sapiens pens are also tightly sealed and never give me problems. It baffles and disappoints me that Dante designed all of these pens yet somehow marketed the Avatar UR with a cap as leaky as a sieve.