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(this is an expanded, more detailed version of the quick opinion I previously posted in the Colorverse thread)


Here is a quick review of Colorverse’s Voyager 1 ink set - their first limited edition set, limited to 1977 copies –1977 being the year Voyager 1 was launched. The set consists in 4 bottles of 15ml of ink.


voy01.jpg


voy02.jpg


The inks:


voy03.jpg


Golden Record is a very nice, vibrant dark orange ink that gives a dramatic shading. The beautiful, rich colour is reminiscent of gold as much as it could be of bronze or amber. It’s a dark colour and therefore very legible. It’s very close to Monteverde Fireopal, it just leans on the brown side where Fireopal has more red. I love it


Voy04.jpg


Fresh out of the pen, Jupiter Flyby is a lovely red/ burgundy brown. And then it dries :( And it turns to a muted brown, with red undertones mostly visible when you put more ink (see the swatch on the right) or wash it (water test on the left). ‘Jupiter Flyby’ does have good properties; wet, light but nice shading, lovely light green sheen, some water resistance… and a killer name. I’m sure it will get some love – it’s just not a colour for me.


voy05.jpg


voy06.jpg


Pale Blue Dot is, despite of is name, a teal - and teals are my fancy. It’s on the greener side of teal, but less green - and less bright - than its regular edition colleague Morning Star. It has some shading, no sheen, little water resistance.


voy07.jpg


Interstellar Meh Space is a rather light (when writing), faded camo green. It doesn’t inspire me, to say the least, so I’ll just let the pictures do the description. If you’re into its grey-green colour, I could see this as almost an everyday writing ink; light but legible, special without looking too wild.



Additional and general comments about the set:


voy08a.jpg


First, look at these four inks together; they ARE a set, I think they are a very good match and complement each other very well on a sheet of paper.

But I have to admit I would question the choice of colours, though, with regards to the Voyager theme. A 'space' set without a proper blue or blurple feels like something is missing?.. I get the Golden Record (also reminiscent of the golden foil the NASA likes to put on their gear) and the Jupiter red-brown, but I'm not sure I get why the pale blue dot is teal and space is green (in my yellow submarine). Don't get me wrong I probably prefer this set like this, without a blue in there, because again these colours are a great match, and I’m not a fan of blues, but i just feel a slight dissonance with what the theme would evoke.


In terms of packaging, as usually with Colorverse; great, superlative, over-the-top box and papers, with cool graphics and lots of slightly geeky Voyager-1 data, which fit the 'commemorative' and special edition bill well.. Because all these bottles are of the same size, the box feels less empty than the 65+15ml sets. Coloverse inks definitely come in the cutest ink bottles in the universe ... however the bigger pens' sections won't fit in. The freebies (stickers etc.) are always a nice addition, even if I still don’t know what/ how/ when/ if I will use them.


voy08.jpg

^ This is SO cool; I love having the RGB, pantone, PH info


This set is a limited edition which nowadays is a nice way to say that it’s going to cost you. And it does. $50 the set, add shipping, for 60ml of ink in total. All in all that's around a dollar per ml of ink. Which is a lot, I think. I'm certainly happy I bought this set, and I enjoy these inks, in particular Golden Record, of which I'd happily buy a 'full bottle' if it were not a limited edition. But the next special edition inks would have to be ferociously attractive for me to spend that much for that little ink (or so I say now).


Last point: I ordered the set directly on the Colorverse website. the Colorverse team's service is fantastic. Being a European living in Asia, I enjoy seeing the cultural differences between both sides – and embrace both; I enjoy what I get when I get it. I didn’t get a personalised email thanking me 50 times for my great choice and my support, but I got a standard order confirmation – basically a chart- and 65 minutes later (yes; sixty five), a shipping confirmation and tracking number. And my inks in my mailbox 2 or 3 days later. What a stellar ( :lol:) service.


voy09.jpg


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Ohh excellent review--I'm fascinated with these inks, and any new review is very interesting to see. Love your artwork. Looks like the Golden Record is the stand-out ink out of the set (subjectively). Jupiter Flyby is rather unremarkable vs. other inks, but for large amounts of it, the sheen looks really nice. If that sheen came through strongly in writing, I would consider that ink a must-get for myself; it's a great green-brown color combination.

“I admit it, I'm surprised that fountain pens are a hobby. ... it's a bit like stumbling into a fork convention - when you've used a fork all your life.” 

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Thanks for your review, pictures showing off these new ones, and honest appreciation.

I think what I like most about these inks are the names, although I agree with you where you say you don't see the association of the color with the name.

I think the icons on the labels match those best, in any case for the two I got: Quasar and Gravity wave.

The bottles are super cute and like you, I'm glad I got these; but I also am not planning on getting more, for the time being. Price is the deterrent. The inks are very nice but I already have so many very nice inks...

a fountain pen is physics in action... Proud member of the SuperPinks

fpn_1425200643__fpn_1425160066__super_pi

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Excellent review, thanks!

 

Interesting bit about the surface tension and pH. Can't recall any other ink company putting so much thought and detail in ink names, information, or packaging.

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Thank you for your comments.

 

To Intensity:

The sheen doesn't show strongly at all in writing, but it does come through more than I first thought, as this below hopefully shows.

This was made on Tomoe River paper by the way. It looks rather plain brown indoor/ under bulb light, but with lots of daylight, you get hints of that green sheen.

 

20180528_111215c.jpg

 

mhguda: We are on the same line; i'm not planning to get too many more, but I know this is typically the kind of thing I could buy on impulse, precisely due to the packaging, name, etc. No offence to anyone, but it's a lot easier to have a crush on one of these Colorverse inks than on a good ol' bottle of Noodlers or Iroshizuku or Herbin....

Their design/ marketing teams deserve many props.

 

jandrese: I agree, I like having these, and wish that data were available for more inks.

I suppose the numbers and chemical geekery fit more with inks marketed as space-age than with inks marketed as flower or gem essence :D

Not that i know what to do with all these numbers, but I'm sure we could find correlations between some of them and some ink properties. But then would that harm the reviewing business??

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I haven't tried any Colorverse inks, but the more I see of them the more curious I get. Golden Record looks cool, although I already have similar colors. Love the different ways you wrote all the ink names, too!

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I got myself this set (well, will get it at the end of June :D), to satisfy my crush on Colorverse :D because it felt like I either gonna get every space related inks (which I couldn't do because I'm not filthy rich unfortunately) or none. But when the set was announced I felt like it's a good opportunity to get some and hopefully be able to not feel very bad about not getting any, at least not for the next few years :D

 

Thanks for the review!

"Music..Its language is a language which the soul alone understands, but which the soul can never translate." - Arnold Bennett


Instagram // my inks

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wonderful review!

Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas).

Create a Ghostly Avatar and I'll send you a letter. Check out some Ink comparisons: The Great PPS Comparison 

Don't know where to start?  Look at the Inky Topics O'day.  Then, see inks sorted by color: Blue Purple Brown Red Green Dark Green Orange Black Pinks Yellows Blue-Blacks Grey/Gray UVInks Turquoise/Teal MURKY

 

 

 

 

 

 

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i'd have happily paid more for proper 55ml bottles of these inks. I'm a sucker for space themes and I bought the entire 10 ink set that nemosine released immediately.

 

I have one of the big/little combos from colroverse and LOVE the ink and the bottle shape and the science/space themes, but I hate that stupid little 15mL bottle. it's worthless and stupid and I hate it.

 

I also hate how I have to cut the label on the box to open it, I like to keep the boxes for display (and to protect the inks from light) and that the little bottle just makes the boxes ENORMOUS.

 

I wish colorverse would just switch to selling whole, full sized bottles of their ink. they're already premium quality in premium packaging (minus the label position) and premium bottles, I don't need a cardboard bookmark, pen rest, and stickers alongside a second tiny unusable bottle of ink of, for about half of their inks, the exact same color. And for colors that ONLY come in the tiny bottle that I love (brane) I'll never be able to buy a full sized bottle.

 

They need to slow down on releasing so many colors and switch to regular single bottle packages. I'll probably buy one or two more of these big/little boxes before I'm done if they don't make this change.

Edited by Honeybadgers

Selling a boatload of restored, fairly rare, vintage Japanese gold nib pens, click here to see (more added as I finish restoring them)

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  • 5 months later...

Pen Chalet called these inks color changing. No images, so I’m not sure what they meant. The only example in this excellent review was looking one way when the ink was wet, to another once dry. That cannot be what they mean by color changing, right?

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Pen Chalet called these inks color changing. No images, so I’m not sure what they meant. The only example in this excellent review was looking one way when the ink was wet, to another once dry. That cannot be what they mean by color changing, right?

 

Thank you Misfit.

I don't know what they can mean by this 'colour changing' bit, but I can confirm that the sheets above still look the same as they did back then in May (was it that long?!?) and as pictured; no change of colour, no fading either, no late burst of sheen, no blinking.

 

The one ink that changes slightly when drying (Jupiter Flyby) looks paler/ less saturated once dried, something many other inks do. And Iroshizuku Syo-Ro for example, 'changes' a lot more when drying.

 

I went to have a quick look on the Colorverse website to see if there was anything about the colour change, and found nothing. I'd assume if there was really such a feat/ gimmick there would have been some marketing about it.

 

So I'd say either a mistake from PenChalet, or they saw something no one else did!

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