Love it when the internet produces gold:
5 Likes
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this is from the year 1977. It has 52.10.15 written on it, showa 52 =1977
3 Likes
Yes! Been waiting for someone more knowledgeable about Japanese notations to chime in here. I think you nailed it—these brochure pages look to have been produced in May of “Showa 52,” which is 1977 (as @RPD indicated).
I’m surprised about the following:
- Pilot’s famous urushi lacquer finish costs more than the sterling silver (page 1)
- The stainless steel etched Elite series was on the lower end of pricing
- The gold-plated specimen on page 2 originally retailed for ¥10,000! In today’s money, that’s insane
- The HB-200BK must have been released in the 1970s! It’s one of the few Pilots I don’t have, and I rarely see it come up for sale (one just closed on YAJ for ~¥13,000).
2 Likes
Is this the oldest (known) Pilot catalogue that contains mps?
1 Like
It’s the oldest that we have, but I have to believe Pilot was making printed materials earlier in the 1970s.
(I’ve never seen a catalog reference any of their executives that are roughly parallel to Pentel’s offerings from 1969–1980).
1 Like
Are there any higher resolution copies located somewhere? Would like to zoom in more.
1 Like
Dunno—I got these from the Fountain Pen forums 
On reddit?
I’m curious about the original poster. Sometimes people upload downsized images to keep bandwidth from being taxed. Maybe they’ve got better copies. On FPN, there was this guy named stan who used to conduct these great sales deals on Japanese writing instruments (2008~2010) and he had catalog photos from various brands.
It was on FPN, not Reddit.
Thanks. Yeah, I though these had looked familiar. I’d seen them back in 2021 when Stan first posted them. Apparently he got them from an unnamed source on the Internet somewhere, perhaps a Japanese writing instrument blog…
1 Like
Another hb200bk on mercari now
[メルカリ] 【廃盤 極希少 レトロ】70年代 PILOT シャープペンシル 0.5mm ￥21,000
https://jp.mercari.com/item/m62705860803
1 Like
Saw this one—¥21,000 is extremely wishful thinking.
I thought the one on YAJ that went for ~¥13,000 was nutty, but this piggybacking makes perfect sense given that result.
2 Likes
7 Likes
I believe mp has been in the catalog since they released mps in the '60s, I’ve seen a few Pilot catalogs online from the Taisho era (1912~1926), and of course there were only antique fountain pens, like this one from 1918 when the Pilot brand was just created: 『パイロット 創業時の型録 大正７年』
The earliest catalog I saw that contained mp was in 1973, at that time (and earlier) they called it ‘stationert guide’ instead of catalog or ‘look up’ later. Corresponding Japanese key words are usually カタログ, and 型録 or 目録 are sometimes used
4 Likes
Thank you for posting this @Linus2K !
3 Likes
BTW there is a PILOT HB-200BK on Mercari
2 Likes
That’s from Nonaka, so overpriced and with minor scratches hidden from the photos for sure
5 Likes
These are some of the oldest and rarest Pilots to appear in secondary markets. I consider this to be one of the first hybrid MPs—certainly not a drafter, but not really in the typical executive style, either.
Sadly, I don’t have one 
1 Like
It’s a fairly easy distinction (for me) to discern between a drafting and executive style pencil, but I have always had issues with hybrids. This may be best answered in it’s own post, but what other examples of hybrids?
Hybrids fall into 3 basic categories:
- Some drafting features but not a full package (example: has a defined grip section but only a 2mm tip)
- Some executive features but not a full package (example: has executive shape but features “radical” silkscreening and most likely no joint between barrel and grip)
- Wild departures from traditional designs (Pilot Gimno and Pilot Sprinter are great examples)
In the image above, the 11 pencils on the left are executive-style hybrids, and the 11 pencils on the right are drafting-style hybrids.
And then you have 2 stainless steel double-knocks in the middle that could qualify as hybrids (when compared to the H-1005, for example). I would also be ok with calling these “executive-style double-knocks,” though, due to the shape and the fact there’s a joint between barrel and grip.
2 Likes