Can anyone help identify the model of this cute little Tombow pencil?
Thank you!
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There’s not going to be much you can reference for identification, as TOMBOW made an enormous run on ¥500 pencils with all kinds of kitschy variations, a great many that seemed to target child appeal. I think you’ll find that particular body reused a number of times with different graphics on it.
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I have a bunch of such innocuous Tombow pencils with funky prints. The generally accepted model number is ‘SH-500’. If it’s a premium or special series, it usually includes a letter or two tagged on, e.g. SH-1000C for Create slide pipe series, or W for double-knock, VP for Variable, etc.
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Wwhen I look back to the Tombow line over the years, I get the feeling that these SH-500 and the Create models were stuff Tombow only did to maintain a position in the market (alongside Mitsubishi and Pentel that produced dozens of these vintage types). Remember those SH-700LP approximations to Pentels’ PWP and Pilot H-1005? Or did they come first?
I get this feeling because even before in the 60s and especially later in the 80s most of Tombow’s products were much more innovative in the design and had an overall attitude that is not reflected in these vintage models.
As a matter of fact they don’t even show here:
Edit: actually a good looking Create from 1971 is in there somewhere… My bad 
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