Almost forty years ago I bought a STAEDTLER MARS-MICROGRAPH F 770 15.
After 19 years of use, it looked like this.
(If you look closely, you will see that the marking on the lower pencil is a little further to the left; I don’t know where this comes from. Batch variation?)
I was able to get the new one recently which gave me the opportunity to compare them.
(If you look closely, you will see that the marking on the lower pencil is a little further to the left; I don’t know where this comes from.)
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good one! I hope one day I can find a new stock that I’ve been using everyday too
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It’s almost like that 0.5 was longing to become a 0.7! 
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I think I have some possible explanations for the color change from blue to green.
- sunlight or heat exposure
- plastic degradation
- cigarette tar
I have an old “F” 77017 that I’d gotten from a relative. that hails from the 1980’s or 1990’s. It has some reasonable signs of use, plus some unfortunate plastic damage (it came into contact with some hot metal object). But the color of the plastic barrel is a nice royal blue, not much different from NOS. About 2 years ago, I picked up an “HS” 77017 with some moderate signs of use, especially to the lettering that’s now mostly faded. The metal furniture looks great though. But the blue plastic is darker, almost a navy blue.
I was still a bit set on getting another “F” 77017 and finally did, looking pretty much unused in box with a sticker, too. But the color? Definitely a greenish appearance. I thought perhaps there were some batch variations in the plastic formulation where color shifted, but that didn’t sit quite right with me. Well, I’d noticed the price sticker (showing a ¥1000 price) wasn’t on securely. And a light tug at it cause the sticker to remove completely. The adhesive had ossified. And underneath? BLUE! The sticker had shielded that circle of plastic from exposure. To sunlight? Well, when you rotate the pencil around, the greenish color is uniform. It’s not like it’s green on top and then blue below where there was no sun exposure.
So that led me to think… is it cigarette tar? Well, the pencil and the original packaging do not have a smoke smell. The clear plastic covering doesn’t have any yellowing to it. I took an alcohol swab and scrubbed away at the ossified adhesive and then scrubbed down the body… and the color really didn’t change much. I also tried a melamine sponge, which is great for whitening (removing stains)–no difference.
Btw, something else to note. Both of my “F” 77017 examples have a clear lead reservoir tube (a good thick sturdy one). But the “HS” 77017? It has a metal lead reservoir tube.
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