This was a long journey. I first picked up a M4-1052 around 2018, before the prices all went sky high. This design sported a hybrid grip with a black knurled section and 4 silicone rubber rings embedded in it. Unlike Uni’s earlier (I have to assume it was earlier) PRO STAFF or SUPER II designs, this one kept the rubber rings at a shallow height, so they did not feel obstrusive in the hand.
And strangely enough, it was the 0.4 model that was abundantly listed on Yahoo Japan Auctions back then. And the 0.5 was actually harder to find while the 0.3 languished, unnoticed and unwanted.
What followed was the discovery of an adjacent design: the SS-1006 ballpoint. This really piqued my interest as I also greatly enjoy ballpoint designs that are based on technical and drafting pencils.
Truth be told, I use ballpoints more than pencils… And as luck would have it, both the grey and black ballpoints were listed and I managed to win the bids. Now, I was curious: was the conical tip of the 1006 a practical necessity for a BP compared to the stepped tubular tip of the 1052. And of course, why ‘1006’ instead of SS-1052? More pressingly: there was a GREY version? Was I game to find the 1052 in grey as well as black?
About a year passed as I filled in other blanks in my collection before I slowly acquired grey and black 1052 models.
And then, BOOM. The 1006 was not just a BP, it had a pencil as well in the M5-1006. Now this was around late 2019 and prices were starting to heat up. I lost a couple of auctions in the 4-5000 yen range.
Around 2021, I was browsing Mercari when this grey blob of a thumbnail showed up in my search results. A display tray? In grey foam? For Mitsubishi 1052? BUY IT NOW. It had 10 slots, which basically made me seek out a full set of these ‘HI-UNI LITE’ beauties.
And as my roster of 1052/1006 filled out, I noticed that MOST of them actually had their price seals intact. I had not set out to collect ‘perfect’ specimens but here I was…
I took a deep breath and decided to bite the bullet. I set aside a M3-1052 grey and a M5-1052 black and kept my eyes peeled for a stickered version.
In late 2023, it was done. I had a full set of black and grey 1052 and 1006.
This was a very fun collecting journey and holding the full tray, it kind of tides me over not having a 5050 (yet) in my collection. I know there are even rarer red and blue versions of the 1052 out in the wild, but… this is enough.
