What Is The Most Ridiculous Pen Gimmick Ever From A Major Pen Company?

[Silent Speaker]

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii101/matthewsno/fullsize1.jpg

 

I dunno...that's pretty cool. I don't know if I'd kill for a pen like that, but I'm pretty sure I could push them hard into a wall. Maybe twice.

 

Does it come with a bottle of .... Squid Ink?

 

*ba dum dum Tsch! - Nyuck nyuck nyuck!

 

-=-=-

 

I have to agree with you; I kinda like ole' squidy here - gimmicky or not.

[stuartk]

What is the most ridiculous pen gimmick ever from a major pen company?

 

Precious Resin - Everyone stop your kneejerk reactions for just a minute and let me explain. MB uses a plastic material for their pens and they try to get people to believe that it is something else and paying silly high prices for it by calling it Precious Resin when it is neither precious or even resin. To my thinking, this is a 'ridiculous gimmick by a major pen company' which is what Speerbob asked.

 

It depends on when they came up with this nomenclature. People didn't think much of the durability of early plastics, so calling it something else was probably a very smart thing to do.

 

While I don't own any MB FPs, and I sometimes like joking about them, MB evidently makes good pens. Whether they're worth the price or not is a personal decision.

[pajaro]

For most of my life I considered the Parker 51 with hooded nib to be the only pen worth consideration.

 

Now, that Liquid Lead was probably one of those things with good intentions, but I would say that my 51 Liquid Lead pencil writes a barely visible gray. I like the other 51 pencils better.

 

Right now I am handling a Montblanc pen with "precious resin" body. High grade resin. It has a nice feel and looks nice even though it's old at about 30 years. So, what's wrong or gimmicky about that? These are the only pens I think can stand with the Parker 51, based on years of using both. Nice stiff nibs, good enough to be pushed along for years and decades by a left handed overwriter.

[DrPJM1]

Wasn't the Sheaffer Snorkel designed so that it could fill out of any bottle of ink, regardless of the amount of ink left in said bottle?

 

I thought it was done so that the owner didn't need to wipe off the section after they filled it.

 

No, it was designed by Sheaffer specifically to shoot ink unto other other pupil's shirts.

[ANM]

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii101/matthewsno/fullsize1.jpg

 

I dunno...that's pretty cool. I don't know if I'd kill for a pen like that, but I'm pretty sure I could push them hard into a wall. Maybe twice.

 

Does it come with a bottle of .... Squid Ink?

 

*ba dum dum Tsch! - Nyuck nyuck nyuck!

 

-=-=-

 

I have to agree with you; I kinda like ole' squidy here - gimmicky or not.

 

 

Did you know that squid ink was once actually used for drawing and writing? Its called sepia. I agree that it is a neat looking piece of art but still think it's a silly idea for a pen.

[nxn96]

If one wants to interpret "gimmick" as a writing instrument solution for which there was no particular problem to begin with, my vote would go to Liquid Lead pencils. For some reason, it's a gimmick that never seems to go away, seeing as Sanford recently re-introduced the concept in the Sharpie line.

[watch_art]

The raden Vanishing Point.

 

 

Maybe I just really don't like it....

[Bo Bo Olson]

1932 for ink windows by Pelikan.

I don't know of any others before. Could be but I don't see it, in it was normally rubber sac lever action. Soennecken and MB both had to be dragged into the 1930's by their heels, by Pelikan. They liked the cheap easy to make rubber sac lever pens.

 

Pistons were very complicated, compared to the normal lever action. One had to take a blind cap off, and take a lot of time running the piston up and down.

 

 

One might forget to fill when ever a chance came by like with the simple, and fast lever action, if one had to fiddle all the time with a blind cap.

 

 

 

So that is my view....folks forgot to fill as often as possible so needed a window to remind them.

It was a great gimmick, you could see how much ink you had left while the poor sac guy, was doing dead reckoning.

 

A good gimmick was the Geha Reserve tank.

 

Twist out nibs was also a good gimmick.

 

I know it's supposed to be bad gimmicks; but I lead a sheltered life.

[th3]

I find the idea of a disposable fountain pen a concept that is difficult to understand. A fountain pen is a quality writing instrument that should last for decades. The thought that a fountain pen is used until the ink supply provided with it is exhausted and then just thrown away just seems wrong.

[raigne]

The raden Vanishing Point.

 

 

Maybe I just really don't like it....

 

As a new owner of that pen, I will agree it's a bit of a gimmick, but hardly a ridiculous one.

 

The lack of absurdity was the reason I didn't add the Sheaffer Intrigue to the list. Which was, incidentally, the first fountain pen I ever bought.

[ANM]

1932 for ink windows by Pelikan.

I don't know of any others before. Could be but I don't see it, in it was normally rubber sac lever action. Soennecken and MB both had to be dragged into the 1930's by their heels, by Pelikan. They liked the cheap easy to make rubber sac lever pens.

 

Pistons were very complicated, compared to the normal lever action. One had to take a blind cap off, and take a lot of time running the piston up and down.

 

 

One might forget to fill when ever a chance came by like with the simple, and fast lever action, if one had to fiddle all the time with a blind cap.

 

 

 

So that is my view....folks forgot to fill as often as possible so needed a window to remind them.

It was a great gimmick, you could see how much ink you had left while the poor sac guy, was doing dead reckoning.

 

A good gimmick was the Geha Reserve tank.

 

Twist out nibs was also a good gimmick.

 

I know it's supposed to be bad gimmicks; but I lead a sheltered life.

 

 

I don't know what year they started but Sheaffer had ink windows on their pens with a rubber ink sac. They just put the window in the section in front of the ink sac.

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Your version of the name come from " During the jeep's service in Korea, the name was referred to as "Just Enough Essential Parts" by the troops due to the very basic design." Which would be consistent with the dark humor of the American service man referring to the tools he is given to work with...

 

Right up there with "Found On Road, Dead," "Fix It Again, Tony," "Poor Old Nutjob Thinks It's a Cadillac" (bowdlerized from a version with an ethnic slur), "Drips Oil, Drops Grease, Everywhere," and the ever-popular "Cheap Heap, Every Valve Rattles, Oil Leaks Every Time."

[Namo]

Didn't MB have a limited edition Lincoln pen that had mitochondrial DNA (replicated from hair taken from his corpse) embedded in resin in the cap?

 

I think that was Krone, another garish marque. They also had a T.Rex pen with some kind of gimmick.

 

Correct! And a steal at over $6,000!

 

http://www.penboutique.com/images/Product/large/555.jpg

T'Rex is a pen I'd love to have... Krone pen are extreme, but I kind of like it...

[experiment626]

T'Rex is a pen I'd love to have... Krone pen are extreme, but I kind of like it...

 

I thought the same about the squid pen further upthread. I think that looks *really* cool. The rest of them...really overpriced for the level of nouveau riche sophistication you're getting, IMO. Blinged out Montblanc? Total style overkill.

[goodguy]

My take interpretation rediculous is make a pen futuristic pen that the pen maker didnt have the technology to make and I am talking about making a pen from Titanium when the pen maker didnt know how to attach the iridium to the tip.

 

I think we all know what pen I am talking about and what pen maker.

[Djehuty]

For professional reasons, I would choose every Egyptian-themed pen ever made. They're always insanely gaudy, only vaguely Egyptian at best, and the hieroglyphs are always wrong. Some just slap any random hieroglyphs on in any random order, some actually make up new glyphs that they think are close enough that no one will care, all of them assume no one could ever figure out what hieroglyphs are so they don't need to bother. And any of them could have been designed properly, with real and even pen-appropriate hieroglyphic inscriptions, quite possibly for less money than it costs to make up a bunch of gibberish. Egyptologists work cheap.

[danthemann5]

Disposable ballpoint pens.

 

Pencils were disposable too, so are you saying they're also a ridiculous gimmick?

 

Although I genuinely dislike non-mechanical pencils, I do not feel that they are worthy of ridicule nor a gimmick. Disposable ballpoints, on the other hand, seem to shout at me "Forget about those leaky messy fancy-pants pens you have to refill and maintain and respect! No more of that nonsense! Write with it, stir your tea with it, poke people with it, who cares? If it breaks, into the trash it goes! This is the future baby!"

[Merrib]

Parker's attempt at a "liquid lead" pen. That one came from left field. Also, all of these pens that have an obscene amount of bling no matter what manufacturer made them.

[zal]

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii101/matthewsno/fullsize1.jpg

 

I dunno...that's pretty cool. I don't know if I'd kill for a pen like that, but I'm pretty sure I could push them hard into a wall. Maybe twice.

 

but i am sure that i will commit suicide if somebody gives me that "pen". :ltcapd:

 

rgds.

 

krishna.

[hari317]

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii101/matthewsno/fullsize1.jpg

 

I dunno...that's pretty cool. I don't know if I'd kill for a pen like that, but I'm pretty sure I could push them hard into a wall. Maybe twice.

 

but i am sure that i will commit suicide if somebody gives me that "pen". :ltcapd:

 

rgds.

 

krishna.

 

before you take such drastic steps, just post the pen to me.