Flying Tiger - A5 "bullet Planner" - A First Impressions Review (Picture Heavy!)

[Sui-Generis]

So. I have an addiction. This addiction costs me a lot of money that I really don't have.

 

I confess.

 

That I am a notebook addict.

 

I can't walk past a stationers without leaving with something.

 

However! I am countering this addiction with only shopping at discount stores for the most part and I continually quest for a notebook that is fountain pen friendly and doesn't cost the earth (also things that are shiny, fluffy, or both...don't judge me!).

 

Enter Flying Tiger. Or to use it's full name; "Flying Tiger Copenhagen", I can see why they thought it was a good idea to drop that from the advertising.

 

Flying Tiger is a store that is a few steps up from a pound/dollar store & sells a multitude of household bits & bobs, basic art supplies, phone cables and, yes, stationary.

 

Unlike other discount stationers that seem to insist that two sheets of toilet paper forced together under enough pressure does actually equal writing paper, I have had nothing but success with the notebooks I have brought from them.

 

And so, enough of the preamble, on to the initial impressions review!

 

What we have today is Flying Tiger's attempt at a bullet journal. Hard backed, approximately A5 in size and of a fairly soft, perforated, leatherette finish. At the time of writing this only two colours were available in the store I visited - the green you see here and blue.

 

Details for details sake! 96 pages in total.

 

When compared to a "Rhoda Webbie" hardback in A5, the two are nearly identical. The Flying Tiger version a little bit thicker.

 

Two silken page markers that match the colour of the cover. Similar to the Leuchtturm1917 Hardcover Notebook or the Rhodia Goalbook. The markers in the Flying Tiger version aren't as 'fluid' as either the Rhodia or the Leuchtturm1917, but they are there!

 

As mentioned earlier, there are 96 unnumbered cream/ivory coloured pages in a 5mm dot-grid layout. There is no mention on the GSM of the paper used but I would take a guess at 80-90GSM. It's also fairly textured/toothy & gives a nice, positive feedback as well as excellent control when being written on.

 

A few of those pages at the back are taken up by an example layout for your bullet journalling needs. Since I don't bullet journal, only journal journal, this is superfluous to my needs, but a fun little addition.

 

The rear cover features an expanding pocket for loose notes, again a la Rhodia, Leuchtturm1917 and many others, but the first time I have seen it in a Flying Tiger notebook.

 

And so, the finale! Writing samples and ink tests.
This notebook coped exceptionally well with all inks on it's face side, even the very fussy, feathery, bleedy DeAtramentis Document Blue-Grey.

 

The rear shows similar stoicism in that the only bleeding that occurred was from the previously mentioned Document Blue-Grey (the only paper I've tried that puts up with this ink very well is Rhodia) and the infamous Sharpie.
Only very minor ghosting too! Looks worse in the picture than it does to the naked eye (for some reason).

 

I REALLY like this notebook. Not just for the features, but the price! £5! That's less than half the price of a Rhodia and a quarter the price of a Leuchtturm1917!

Edited January 20, 2020 by Sui-Generis

[txomsy]

Yes, they have some good products.

 

However, on their plain notebooks I have noticed that not all pages behave equally, with some being more FP friendly than others, some being nice and others terrible --in the same notebook.

 

I reviewed one of their sketchbooks long ago and found it exceptionally and uniformly good. However, last time I went to a shop the sketchbooks seemed to have changed paper and I didn't feel (to the tact) that it were that good anymore. Didn't buy one, although I had gone looking specifically for them. I mention it because if they are so good, you might want to stock a few lest they also change paper quality later.

[wallylynn]

Hmmm, I'll have to keep an eye out for it. I'm currently using an A5 Muji spiral. I'm open to trying that next. I absolutely loved their spring (weather) design one-two years back and went around to multiple stores to purchase two sets. The paper was ok, I'm not a big stickler unless it's absolutely terrible.

[flyingfox]

OMG I LOVE Flying Tiger! I have been to their store in Tokyo (in Shibuya and Omotesandou, the latter is a couple of blocks away from BunguBox, a fantastic fountain pen store) and NYC. I have a pen case, rubber stamps, and a bunch of other random cute stuff from there, but never thought of giving their notebook a try. I should go look for them. How I wish they start a branch here in Philly...

 

Companies changing paper quality is a huge pet peeve of mine. There once was a great notebook from Daiso (100 yen store chain= equivalent of Dollar store in the U.S.), but then...grrrr.... Yea, I should have bought a whole box when I had a chance.

[txomsy]

Yeah, for a very long while I couldn't understand what all the fuss about copy paper was about. All paper I could get was FP friendly. But in the last 6-9 months, its quality has plummeted and now it is the opposite, it is almost impossible to find cheap A4 paper sheets you can write on without problems. Grrrr...

[wallylynn]

I bought some sugar cane bagasse paper (long ago) because reviews said it worked really well, but I found it worse than my regular copy paper. Recent posts suggest that HP32# isn't what it used to be either.