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Leonardo Momento Zero Grande Primary Manipulation 4 Review- Is it worth the hype?


punjabi

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Pros-

 

  • Immaculate finish
  • Very beautiful resin
  • Good ink capacity
  • The gold stub nib on my pen is very very nice & very smooth.It writes very wet.
  • Very nice grip section
  • Well Balanced Pen
  • Great red ebonite feeder which matches color and scheme of the pen

 

Cons-

 

  • Bit costly
  • Only 70 pieces limited edition
  • Had a bad encounter with Leonardo Customer Service in some other case, I emailed them but they never replied.Although my most of Leonardo Pens turned out great out of the box

 

Things you should know –

 

The new 2021 collaboration between Leonardo Officina (Italy) and Jonathan Brooks of the Carolina Pen Company (USA) 

 

  • Material – Primary Manipulation 4 Custom Acrylic made by Carolina Pen Company
  • Trim- Rose Gold
  • Nib- 14k gold nib
  • Feed – Ebonite in Red 🔴
  • Filling Mechanism – Piston Filler
  • Pen Length (closed) – 5.9 in. / 150mm
  • Pen Length(uncapped) – 5.24 in. / 133mm
  • Pen Length(Posted) – 6.73 in. / 171mm
  • Cap Length- 2.67 in. / 67.7mm
  • Weight with cap – 31 gram
  • Weight without cap – 20 gram
  • Weight of cap – 11 gram
  • Nib Options – EF, F, M, B, Stub 1.1 & Elastic (F)

 

Packing/Presentation- Great 👍 , Leonardo has done great job. This pen comes in a very very beautiful box with Limited Edition & Primary Manipulation written over it. Their is black box inside with their logo & their is another box which carries the pen. Their is a booklet, warranty card inside it. Their is a complimentary Leonardo Red Ink bottle inside the box,I have used the ink it’s nice. The unboxing experience is very good overall.

 

Material/Build Quality- Great 👍, The material is just stunning. It looks better in person than photos, Carolina Pen Company has done a great job. The rose gold trims at end of the body & section looks really nice. It’s very aesthetically pleasing. The pen is large but it’s very very well balanced , you will love writing with it. The section tapers a bit,it’s very nice to hold.The piston mechanism works flawlessly & compliments this great design.The material is very very colorful & you will get compliments wherever you carry this pen.

 

Nib & Writing Experience- Great 👍 , it comes in many different options- EF, F, M, B, Stub 1.1, Elastic (F) . It’s a #6 size nib & works very well.My nib was very smooth out of the box. It offers a bit line variation too. This pen is very wet & I enjoy writing with it. The red feed compliments the design well.

Conclusion- Amazing Pen 👍, This pen is just amazing in all aspects. You will enjoy writing it. If you are looking a good acrylic pen & have the budget you can go for this pen. I am sure you will not be disappointed. Leonardo & Carolina Pen Company both have done a great job in this pen.

 

Note- I tested this pen lent by my friend Mr. Wilson for a week & review is based on my personal experiences. This pen is very beautiful in real, one of the best acrylics I have seen till now

 

https://inkpenlover.wordpress.com/2021/05/15/leonardo-momento-zero-grande-primary-manipulation-4-review-is-it-worth-the-hype/

 

IMG_20210519_235713.jpg

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Is it worth the hype? No.  Unless the purchaser really likes the swirly material. Then it's a matter of taste only, and in that regard anything is worth the hype to someone.

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from around 280usd on the base mz grande to  just over 680 just for swirly plastic and a red ebonite feed?  really it is a matter of taste ... and how much one has to spend on pens. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Gorgeous pens.  One note, as someone who has issues with larger pens, some details comparisons to other well known pens (like a 149) might have been helpful.

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On 5/19/2021 at 10:00 PM, Aether said:

Is it worth the hype?

 

I was about to start a discussion on the pricing of pens like the Momento Zero Grande Golden Rule II, retailing at €492 versus a base price of €243. An optional #8 nib adds another €165 to those €492, ending up at a staggering €657. For reference (all the mentioned prices were taken from Appelboom, Akkerman or LCdC websites and exclude VAT):

  • a MB 145 will set you back €417, a 146 can be had for €479 and a 149 for €640.
  • Switching to Japan as a point of reference, a Sailor 1911 Large Naginata nib retails at €442. A Pilot C845 retails at €528.

A base price of €292 including VAT (21% in Holland) already seems _to me_ to be a heck of a lot of money for a pen like the  MZ Grande with 14k nib. Anything on top of that just doesn’t seem realistic _to me_.  Leonardo’s pens are well-made, comfortable and pretty. No argument there. Yet at those prices… I’ll pass. That might be my loss, since Leonardo seems to sell and sell and sell some more. They must be doing something right. But I’ll stick with my early steel-nibbed Furore (serial #049) for which I paid €160. Nice pen.

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7 hours ago, TheDutchGuy said:

 

I was about to start a discussion on the pricing of pens like the Momento Zero Grande Golden Rule II, retailing at €492 versus a base price of €243. An optional #8 nib adds another €165 to those €492, ending up at a staggering €657. For reference (all the mentioned prices were taken from Appelboom, Akkerman or LCdC websites and exclude VAT😞

  • a MB 145 will set you back €417, a 146 can be had for €479 and a 149 for €640.
  • Switching to Japan as a point of reference, a Sailor 1911 Large Naginata nib retails at €442. A Pilot C845 retails at €528.

A base price of €292 including VAT (21% in Holland) already seems _to me_ to be a heck of a lot of money for a pen like the  MZ Grande with 14k nib. Anything on top of that just doesn’t seem realistic _to me_.  Leonardo’s pens are well-made, comfortable and pretty. No argument there. Yet at those prices… I’ll pass. That might be my loss, since Leonardo seems to sell and sell and sell some more. They must be doing something right. But I’ll stick with my early steel-nibbed Furore (serial #049) for which I paid €160. Nice pen.


Pricing for premium Italian pens is pretty high across the board. Aurora, Leonardo, Scribo, Visconti can all be in Montblanc 149 price territory. If you add celluloid into the mix, like Montegrappa, then the prices go substantially higher than a 149. I guess this is the marketplace that Leonardo is pricing it’s top of the range pens against, with what they would consider to be comparable nibs, ebonite feed, piston filling system, premium plastics, and build quality.

 

Are the premium Italian pens worth it, generally, and are Leonardo or Scribo, specifically, justified in pricing their products similarly to more established brands? I guess the only real answer is to see whether they can sell these pens or not, over time.

 

I can say from my experience that my Leonardos perform well and I think the #8 sized gold nib is a very good nib indeed. Based on nib and feed alone, I would say the Visconti 18k gold, Scribo 18k and 14k gold, and Leonardo #8 gold nibs are all markedly superior to a Montblanc 149 nib in feel and performance. I would also rate Montegrappa and Aurora nibs higher than a Montblanc 149 but that is more marginal and, for me, the biggest difference is with finer width nibs. I would say the plastics on these pens are also superior to the MB Meisterstück black plastic. I don’t think I can point to anything that makes these pens objectively inferior to a MB 149, overall, although Montblanc’s piston system is exceptionally good.

 

The Montblanc brand is presumably more valuable than any of the Italian brands, but that is an intangible and has nothing to do with the actual product. Buyers will surely make their own decisions regarding what proportion of the price is justified by the branding.


On the other hand, I think it is clear that we are paying something for the Italian style and design, which some would feel is sometimes lacking from the German and Japanese competition’s standard offerings. At least that’s one factor that I feel buyers of expensive Italian pens are valuing in particular.


The bottom line, in my opinion, is that we have today a number of very good Italian pen brands who are making attractive, high-quality pens that are enjoyable to write with. We can each decide what we like most, but I would argue that these Italian brands offer pens that are objectively competitive against the best brands from Germany and Japan. All premium fountain pens are rather expensive these days, but that’s really a separate question.

 

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I have quite a number of pens from quite a number of pen makers which use Jonathan Brooks resins. As for the Leonardo "Golden Rule," I like the material a lot. I like the design of the pen a lot. The 14Kt 1.1mm stub writes like a dream. The large capacity piston works very well. The red feed does its job very well.

 

Yup. It's worth the price to me.

 

I have a couple MB 146's and several Sailors in various sizes. They all write well, but I find myself wanting to fill and write with my Leonardo pens much, much more often. That is an indication of their value to me, since writing is why I buy pens. 

 

David

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  • 3 months later...

Punjabi,, would you mind very much posting a writing sample with that 1.1 stub? I know they are super difficult to get bu5 a dealer has offered me one and I wan5 to make sure it s not too broad. I use only stub or italic so cut of the nib is less of the issue, just width. Many thanks🙏🏽Rajesh

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On 6/14/2021 at 4:46 PM, MoriartyR said:

Based on nib and feed alone, I would say the Visconti 18k gold, Scribo 18k and 14k gold, and Leonardo #8 gold nibs are all markedly superior to a Montblanc 149 nib in feel and performance.

 

Interesting that you find the Leonardo Jowo nib superior to the 149.  That alone would make it "worth it" to many.

Add lightness and simplicate.

 

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On 6/14/2021 at 4:46 PM, MoriartyR said:

Pricing for premium Italian pens is pretty high across the board. Aurora, Leonardo, Scribo, Visconti can all be in Montblanc 149 price territory.

 

I think they are actually quite far above Montblanc territory (in terms of the 145/146/149)....very considerably above; which is why I'm often puzzled when people say Montblanc are ridiculously expensive and then go out and drop €1,200 on a Visconti they will have to return four times before it writes.

 

On 6/14/2021 at 4:46 PM, MoriartyR said:

I would say the Visconti 18k gold, Scribo 18k and 14k gold, and Leonardo #8 gold nibs are all markedly superior to a Montblanc 149 nib in feel and performance

 

I think it depends on what you're after too. I agree the nibs mentioned are exceptionally good (except Leonardo gold nibs which I found singularly unimpressive for the extra layout in cash) but if I want a broad or double broad Montblanc are actually very hard to beat on that front. Vintage MB's are a whole different ball game.

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