Holiday time means, to me as to many others, homecoming: I leave Trieste for a few days, and head back to Naples where I was born, to join other relatives scattered all over Italy and Europe, for a celebration of the old traditions and the new members of the family.
Whenever I visit my home town, however, I try my best to pay at least one short visit to my favourite second-hand bookshops and stationary shops, to see whether they still have some relics from the past which have emerged in the meantime, or whether they have acquired any in the past months.
So, I was looking through dust-filled cabinets, when I spotted this MP by Tombow… (apologies for the awful shots)
I’m generally not a huge fan of gold-ish metal bodies, but I had a nice experience with a regular Tombow 707 (grey body and tip, black plastic grip and button, red accent on the clip), and a shorter 717 (orange grip & accent on the clip), so driven by the enthusiasm I bought the pencil, even though it did not prove exactly cheap — 54 €, with what was sold to me as the original box — as I’m afraid the “22ct gold plated” sticker was highly leveraged by the seller to increase the final price.
The model number I can read on the box is BC-ZSDM (but it might be the box for the corresponding BP pen), production date should be H-112 (silver imprint on the back of the plastic sleeve box), and the only information I could find is on this obscure webpage (here) reviewing a huge portion of the modern Tombow lineup, where it is classified as a “Tombow Zoom 707 de Luxe Collection BC/SH-ZSDM” in chrome-gold-gold, as per that identification page.
If you have any piece of news regarding this item, it’d be much appreciated: the item looks decently old, it’s in perfect conditions, feels quite heavier than its “standard” counterparts, and while the writing experience suffers from the usual issues occurring with similarly slim bodies, it is generally pleasant — I’m not even that bothered by the pocket clip, which really says something.
Wish you all a shining 2024! 
