While I did write about the rOtring Core before, I thought it might be worth making a post here in the Pen Discussion subsection… since the Core line has a pen to pencil ratio of 4:1. So, here goes.
According to the rOtring museum (hobbyist initiative–nothing to do with rOtring corporate ), the Core line debuted in the year 2000 (a little less than 2 years after the Sanford acquisition of rOtring) with a total of 9 colorways. I do not know precisely when the Core line was discontinued, but it seems it’s likely 2005 was the last year of production. The 2006, 2007, and 2008 catalogs don’t have many of the previous rOtring models.
In 2000~2001, rOtring released these 5 Core colorways:
Lysium, Eternium, Tecnor, Titanium, and Coridium in only fountain pens and rollerballs.
In 2002, rOtring added 3 more Core colorways:
Balium, Tanakor, and Rexor. Plus, there were now ballpoints and mechanical pencils.
In 2004, rOtring added 1 more Core colorway, but dropped 4 others:
Rubidium added, but Coridum, Eternium, Tecnor, and Lysium dropped. Also, no mechanical pencils.
The 2005 catalog shows the same offering as 2004, but after that the Core series appears to have vanished.
This “colorways chart” was put together by grabbing a variety of stock images. I couldn’t find all colorways for just one writing instrument type (consistency), so it ended up being a blend. The rollerball and fountain pens are the most dramatic in terms of colorways because of that super beefy cap.
I did manage to grab a collector’s image that shows all of the rollerball colorways, except for Rubidium:
I just recently picked up a few more additions to my small rOtring Core collection. About 16 years ago I’d picked up my first rOtring Core–the Technor fountain pen. It’s a very strange design, not just for the rather daring and bold body furniture, but also the grip–it’s offset so that your index finger tip is in line with the nib. Kind of a clever idea.
Anyway, rOtring had produced a prolific amount of inventory that didn’t sell, so caches of them would get offloaded to various buyers who’d then in turn sell them at a nice discount online. I picked up the matching Technor ballpoint and mechanical pencil around that time (like $6~$9 a piece). I was aware of a few other colorways, but hadn’t really explored the Core line. Frankly, they’re not exceptional writing instruments–more of a curiosity for their “weird” or “unconventional” designs.
Well, kind of bizarre to think that it has been a quarter of a century since the Core came out! Time flies. So, that does make them a novelty collectible now. I hadn’t set out to collect this line… it just sort of happened by random chance. And I don’t have everything, clearly. I don’t know if I’ll ever end up getting every single colorway, as the “clutter effect” bothers me. I’m not enamored by all of the colorways anyway. Tanacor, Titanium and Rexor are kind of boring to me (very similar to each other), and Rubidium is a very weird one–the only bright color metallic body pen, but then the ballpoint/mechanical pencil don’t use that bright color for the body. It looks almost like they took the Eternium and then coated the rear plunger in black (instead of silver, which appears for all the rest).
Anyway… onto the overall experience of this series. I don’t think I’ve seen a more peculiar range of design decisions. Just look at that fountain pen with its offset grip. It actually is remarkably ergonomic as the nib tip ends up acting like a direct extension of your finger tip–as if you’re pointing with your finger the exact spot where the nib lays down the line. Sadly, the rest of the pen is rather comical, with it’s immensely oversized cap. rOtring designed it purposefully to be posted… but when you do that, the pen is very back-heavy.
The pencil is a clutch forward design. No pipe. The mechanism works fine, though there is a bit of rattle, and lead advancement is way too generous, having 2 examples to compare. The body shape is so steeply tapered, with a flared grip. It’s weird. But fun. And then there’s that huge clip. The contour of the body is filled with ridges and bumps. It makes me think of something a Klingon would write with. And yeah, it’s not a long writing session pencil. The real butt of the joke is the eraser. You have this ENORMOUS girth at the back of the pencil, and inside the shaft is actually a fairly modest eraser. It’s workable except that the plastic frame is a failure. There’s a set of plastic prongs that tighten around the eraser at the extension you want, but it just doesn’t hold. Also, the material ossifies over time (mine is like a stick of wood). That’s probably the iconic “joke” of the whole pencil design.
The ballpoint is OK. Probably the most usable of the bunch, despite the tip wobble (there’s a little too much gap around the refill tip). A little kapton tape wrapped on the refill can help eliminate that, though. The rollerball is just so oddly balanced with the cap posted… and that really big cap doesn’t make it pocket friendly. Still, a definite conversation piece. “My pen comes with ridges. Just like a Klingon!”
One last thing – the lead size isn’t noted anywhere on the body. They only came in 0.7 mm. And it was probably a cost saving measure, as the BP and MP use the exact same body, cap, and nose cone.
rOtring went to town on themes. I think there were 9 of them altogether. Most of the names were based on an “ism” suffix. Balium, Lysium, Coridium, Rubidium, Eternium, Titanium… then Technor, Tanakor… and Rexor. As part of the design theme, rOtring reduced those names to 3 letter codes that appear on the pen bodies. So Technor is TCN, Balium is BAL, Lysium is LSM, Coridium is CRD, Tanakor is TNK, Titanium is TTN, Rexor is REX, Rubidium is RBD, and oddly Eternium is TRN (I’d have thought ETN). Those initials appear on the cap and on the body, and on the plunger. Each model has it’s own symbols and line graphics as well.
You would think that this really wacky and quirky writing instrument line would have at least one or more devotees who collected the whole lot… but I’ve yet to stumble across a gallery showing off such a collection. I have to believe someone out there has all of them and may one day post about them online.
You know, seems they were totally neglectful of the color yellow. And I have just the name: Potassium! You know, because… bananas. 
But Sulphurium also works.
Last but not least… the aspect of collectability. Well, prices are all over the place. Because of the age, there are sellers trying to command relatively high prices compared to how steeply discounted you can periodically find them. When a seller manages to acquire a huge batch of them rather cheaply (I’d once gotten inside info from a seller, who’d bought a large box of them from a store closeout, amounting to about $1 per pen). The cheapest I’d ever gotten one was $6 USD. There are stretches when sites like eBay and Etsy have light inventory and sellers will try to get $20~$50, depending upon the colorway. Historically I’ve found that periodically sellers show up with large inventory and bring those prices down below $20, sometimes as low as $10 a piece if you buy several at once.
In closing, I would emphasize that the writing experience will be fine with some people, and off-putting for others. Today, the Core is just a very strange and amusing writing instrument line that’s fun to have at least one as a conversation piece.
EDIT:
OK, so I was able to dig a little more and from combing through rOtring catalogs, it appears like 2005 was the last year of the Core series. I’ll interleave the updates above.
