This post is very firmly in the “@drifand made me do it” category (I know I’m not alone, there should probably be a dedicated tag in this forum 
), more specifically this post. I had kind of eschewed Pilot’s multipen offerings at first but after seeing it I proceeded to amass the following set of 2, 3 and 4 colours including the weird “Hosobuto” with 3 blacks and a red:
But you can’t search for metal multipens without coming across gems from the 70’s and 80’s so I gathered a few extras along the way (I managed to limit myself to the 4-colour variety):
(L to R: Pilot BK-300S-S, Zebra 4C-DX, older Zebra, Staedtler Mars, Pelikan 4x1M, Montblanc)
These pendulum multipens are very similar and it seems that the only originality allowed to desginers is concentrated on the shape of the colour windows:
As for the battle in the title, I can’t really deliver on my promise. With pens that old, a review would probably be more a comparison of how my specific samples have aged than of the models’ qualities. I’ll just say that I was disappointed by the Pilots’ tendency to jam when not perfectly oriented (both the 3- and 4-colours as well as the Hosobuto exhibit this). The Zebra 4C-DX is my favourite, it does rattle a bit but it has the smoothest action of the lot. It’s also one of only two to have ridges on the grip. I’m using this one regularly.
What have I done… ?
