Search the Community

I've just realised I have quite a few coloured demonstrators and actually, I prefer them to totally clear demos. (I know some people say we shouldn't even call them 'demonstrators'... but heck, they're see-through, you can still see the ink sloshing away or pistons going up and down, so they're demos as far as I'm concerned.) So I thought it would be interesting to start making a list of what's available. These pens are all relatively recent manufacture - the transparent Pelikano came out in 2000, the first of the m200s I think in 1997 - though not all are still available new. Pelikan m200 comes in a range of transparent finishes; amber/cognac, green and yellow highlighter pens, amethyst, blue, grey, red, 'anthracite', regular green, light blue, aquamarine. I only have the blue, so far.Other transparent Pelikans include the 450 Pelikano which is a nice inexpensive pen, and various other Souveraens including a green 400, and 600 versions in blue, marine blue, aubergine, red.Platinum 3776 has a number of versions - the Bourgogne in deep red and Chartres Blue, but also the more recent Nice Lilas in gentle pinkish-purple. (It also has some gorgeous translucent or not-quite-completely-transparent pens like the Nice Pur.) There's a 'lantern' version currently available from Japan which appears to be translucent amber with black ends, and which someone else always seems to win on ebay, and the red Shungyo which Goulet pens is showing for pre-order.I haven't ordered one but the ASA Pens Tangerine Nauka also fits the bill. I just didn't particularly fancy the colour but now... there's still time!Kaweco Ice Sports come in various colours and are an inexpensive way to collect coloured demos.Waterman Kultur has loads of translucent coloured variants. I have blues, reds, a neon yellow, green.. Lovely pens, still available in France as a school pen.Pilot Custom 823 in amber. Pilot Custom Heritage 92 comes in orange and blue and Custom 74 in violet (this one I find very tempting!)Nemosine Singularity I believe comes in pink, 'onyx' (smoky) and blue, another inexpensive pen.Monteverde Artista in blue, red and green.Quite a few Edison pens come in partly translucent acrylic but I'm not sure I'd call them demos, since the translucency (eg on a couple of the Goulet-exclusive Nouveau Premiere iIRC) is part of a swirl design. Custom pens, of course, you name it....Franklin Christoph does a lot in this line, though it's not a manufacturer that I know well (I don't think they're distributed in Europe?) - model 02 comes in amber and 'smoke' for instance.I hope that's a nice little list to be going on with, and that other FPNers can come up with additions to the list. By the way, when was the earliest translucent demo? - I mean all-translucent, not (for instance) a bulbfiller with a translucent barrel, or a visulated barrel pen like the Vacumatic. I'd love to know the history and I wonder if we could speculate about why these pens have become popular. Who else loves coloured demos?