Majohn P136-Ef, F, M, and 1.1 Stub

[J120]

Majohn. The pen, the filling system, the nib variation, the accessories and tools, and the quality.

Wing Sung has the 629 with two variations of the cigar piston filler and one has the flat cap and bottom. 

 

5 COLORS: Clarrt, gloss black, vintage green, navy blue,  and battleship Grey. 

 

The accessories and tool options available on release are refreshing. Most importantly,  we finally get a factory stub option. 

 

If you need a laugh look closely at the price:) Majohn is trolling again with the CNY 149 price lol

[Jamerelbe]

Looks interesting - any idea where I can find this online (preferably an English-language website)?

[J120]

It just went live on Taobao on the flagship store. You actually have to click the battleship Grey picture with the pen and the wrench to get to the accessories section for the wrench, nib units, and grease. 

 

I am checking with my Aliexpress dealers to see how soon they are going to offer. It will be interesting to see how this compares to the A1 with initial markup and eventual balancing out of the price. Shipping has slowly improved so I may go straight through Taobao if the Aliexpress sellers get too crazy. 

[J120]

CNY Pricing:

Pen-$21.68

Nib Unit-$2

Grease-$1

Tool-$5.09

[J120]

[ChrisN]

I'm curious, what's the difference between the 35 and 136 nibs? Looks like there's F and EF options in both.

 

I hope the pricing isn't too crazy on Aliexpress. The dark colors are really tempting, as is the variety of nibs.

[Jamerelbe]

I really wanna buy one, but having huge issues registering with Taobao (it doesn't help that Google wouldn't translate one of the pages for me 😔).  Might have to wait till it appears on aliexpress or eBay...

[J120]

1 hour ago, ChrisN said:

I'm curious, what's the difference between the 35 and 136 nibs? Looks like there's F and EF options in both.

 

I hope the pricing isn't too crazy on Aliexpress. The dark colors are really tempting, as is the variety of nibs.

 

47 minutes ago, Jamerelbe said:

I really wanna buy one, but having huge issues registering with Taobao (it doesn't help that Google wouldn't translate one of the pages for me 😔).  Might have to wait till it appears on aliexpress or eBay...

At first glance it looks like the 136 is the only one with a stub option. 

 

The first seller I asked on AliExpress quoted me $40 per pen. I'd rather pay the freight, which has returned to prepandemic rates, versus a $19 markup. 

[A Smug Dill]

On 8/29/2022 at 10:39 AM, ChrisN said:

I'm curious, what's the difference between the 35 and 136 nibs?

 

What you (and I) can already see, if you are truly curious and cared to look. Majohn (né Moonman) has made it very easy to do a comparison visually.

 

Spoiler

The marketing images of those nibs line everything up perfectly, so:

1. Open the large image of the model [P]136's EF nib in a new browser tab.
2. Open the large image of the regular number 35 EF nib in another new browser tab next to it.
3. Now flip back and forth between the browser tabs, and look carefully for the differences.

 

 

[clear1]

14 hours ago, J120 said:

It just went live on Taobao on the flagship store. You actually have to click the battleship Grey picture with the pen and the wrench to get to the accessories section for the wrench, nib units, and grease. 

 

I am checking with my Aliexpress dealers to see how soon they are going to offer. It will be interesting to see how this compares to the A1 with initial markup and eventual balancing out of the price. Shipping has slowly improved so I may go straight through Taobao if the Aliexpress sellers get too crazy. 

I can't find it on Taobao. Isn't their store 上海晶典文具社? 

[A Smug Dill]

3 hours ago, Jamerelbe said:

… having huge issues registering with Taobao (it doesn't help that Google wouldn't translate one of the pages for me 😔).

 

This is what I wrote, when I was trying to help a fellow FPN member work out how to be able to order something on Taobao herself last year:

 

On 10/20/2021 at 9:22 AM, A Smug Dill said:

I don't use Taobao, on account of not having a registered mobile number on the Chinese telecommunications networks for starters. That can be circumvented by enlisting the (paid) help of someone, e.g. an ‘agent’, who can provide one, and may be worth the hassle and expense as a one-off investment, if a shopper expects to keep ordering stuff continually and derive cost savings that way. But organising international shipping from China without an agent is just too hard;

On 11/13/2021 at 5:56 PM, A Smug Dill said:

I've now figured out that I can create a Taobao account using an Australian mobile phone number — and, yes, I've gone ahead and created one. Using a US or UK number should work as well.

 

But it gets tricky, even for someone like myself who can just make out what simple text written in simplified Chinese script says. All the prompts are in Chinese, and all the legal agreements to which one has to click to formally accept are in Chinese. Changing the automatically assigned string-of-gibberish username to something one can remember (for future sign-in purposes) is not that straightforward; and neither is setting the account password, when there is no procedural step for it in the process for registering a new account using one's phone number. All the SMS messages carrying authentication codes are in Chinese.

 

After I worked through all that (im)patiently — and even went so far as to go through collecting coupons and performing tasks in exchange for ‘coins’ (that translate to small discounts), due to newfound familiarity with that same format in the AliExpress app — I then applied my test case: a number of Majohn T5 pens. (There are only two sellers currently listing it, and in that sense it isn't much better than seeing only one on AliExpress.) Yes, the unit price is cheaper than on AliExpress; and (the whole reason why I was prompted to go through the exercise was) the product listing suggested that the goods can be shipped to Australia.

 

However, once I took the cart through the checkout, it ended up being more expensive than if I were to order through AliExpress. The shipping part remains confusing to me; there's a (fixed?) charge that amounted to twice the unit price of a Majohn T5 applied to the order for “regular expedited delivery”, but then somewhere about that on the endless scroll of a page, there's a panel with radio buttons for various shipping options — and everything except for the ‘option’ of “liaise with seller directly for delivery” at the bottom of the list. So does that massive delivery charge cover shipping to Australia, and all I have to do is instruct the seller to dispatch, or is the amount just the flagfall for accepting an international order, but the seller could then charge me extra (or refuse to offer me viable shipping methods), once I've committed to placing the order?

 

To me, it isn't worth the guesswork, the headache and the risk. You have to be buying quite a lot, perhaps consolidating multiple orders from different sellers into a single shipment dispatch from Taobao's shipping depot (suggested in the Chinese text, but without explanation that is clear enough to me on how it works), to make it worthwhile.

 

Now, things may have changed in the past nine months; I wouldn't know, but I don't expect so.

 

[socialmoth]

Considering it'll come with Jowo/Bock options for threading, I'd say this is a very promising release.

 

Looking forward to it; I'll be eyeing one in burgundy and plan on swapping a FNF unit into it.

[critical98]

6 hours ago, Jamerelbe said:

I really wanna buy one, but having huge issues registering with Taobao (it doesn't help that Google wouldn't translate one of the pages for me 😔).  Might have to wait till it appears on aliexpress or eBay...

Same issue here. I will have to wait for AliExpress or eBay. I can order all of the accessories using a broker but I am more curious about Jowo and Bock units. My assumption is it will take on #5 and #6 nibs. Really wish they had a #8 option. Very interesting pen.

[J120]

7 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

This is what I wrote, when I was trying to help a fellow FPN member work out how to be able to order something on Taobao herself last year:

 

 

Now, things may have changed in the past nine months; I wouldn't know, but I don't expect so.

 

Right now if I order all the pens,  accessories,  and a few stub units it would be $133.

 

The shipping is going to be between $17-36. That is what I was accustomed to prepandemic. 

 

The initial Aliexpress quotes for just the pens are between $33-40. 

The question is how much do you want to bundle and save. The accessories are being marked up by $9 for nib units and $12 for the tool. 

Aliexpress is click and buy versus Taobao being buy and hope the freight does not unexpectedly skyrocket.

 

Either way the initial hysteria will have the prices all over the map like the A1 was. Now the A1 is back to $25 and in a few months I expect this pen to do the same. The only difference is Majohn came right out the gate with the nib units and we are still waiting for the A1 individual nib units.

 

 

 

[ChrisN]

7 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

What you (and I) can already see, if you are truly curious and cared to look. Majohn (né Moonman) has made it very easy to do a comparison visually.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

The marketing images of those nibs line everything up perfectly, so:

1. Open the large image of the model [P]136's EF nib in a new browser tab.
2. Open the large image of the regular number 35 EF nib in another new browser tab next to it.
3. Now flip back and forth between the browser tabs, and look carefully for the differences.

Yes, I just tried that for myself. I was thinking an animated GIF would make the differences clear; but then discovered the easier procedure described above is more than adequate for the purpose.

 

 

Yes, there are obvious visual differences, but that doesn't explain why the #35 nibs are 60% more expensive (¥ 25.00) than the standard #136 nibs (¥ 15.00). Are they perhaps some sort of "premium" nib?

[A Smug Dill]

1 minute ago, ChrisN said:

Yes, there are obvious visual differences, but that doesn't explain why the #35 nibs are 60% more expensive (¥ 25.00) than the standard #136 nibs (¥ 15.00). Are they perhaps some sort of "premium" nib?

 

Sorry, but I don't care the least about the question of differences from a what-do-I-get-for-my-money perspective, as if they were competing for my money. Whatever interests me enough, I buy just to see and test for myself, not wait for someone to tell me which one is better or more worth the asking price.

[Mech-for-i]

Considering , no need to rush anything , but yeah , why not

[Helen350]

I gather I will have to wait to order this one!

[J120]

46 minutes ago, Helen350 said:

I gather I will have to wait to order this one!

The quotes I am getting are between $33-40. We all know the pen retails for $21 so the early adopters or Youtube reviewers can jump on it at those prices. If you have patience to wait out the initial hysteria, like the A1, eventually they will be regularly available. The A1 is available in all colors at between 25-28 depending on who you buy from. That was not the case for a long time due to the initial demand. The flagship store prices remain the same throughout the craziness so the market will balance out at some point and this pen, like the WS 629, will be in stock and more easily accessible. The question is do you have patience. The accessories and the pens are available now but if you do not buy from the source you will have to pay the middleman tax which at its worst defeats the purpose of these pens. 

[Karmachanic]

Wondering if the tool is necessary for the nib.  The current MB 146/9 have the housing notches, but can be unscrewed by hand.  If the nibs can be removed by hand there is no need for the tool, as one can lubricate the piston from the front end.

 

The nib variety is encouraging.  Perhaps we'll see more from other Chinese brands.