Next to Pentel, Pilot is probably one of the best documented brands in terms of catalogs and web captures on the Wayback Machine. And yet, there remain gaping holes in our collective knowledge. Amongst the many unknown models is a series that seemed to be contemporary to a period in the 1970s-1980s when the major brands decided to produce pen and pencil designs with colorful screen printed graphics on glossy white coated metal bodies (or just white plastic for cheaper models)
Pentel had its PS705 with the graphics of wheat, corn and a rose, and the slightly creepy P585 series with a super slender boy and girl, and toddlers holding balloons on the sides. Colleen also had w-knocks in white with a rose, and a maiden… even Tombow and Sakura did some variations on this theme. All of these tend to be small- to mid-sized pencils of 12–13 cm in length; ideal for a young person’s hands.
And Pilot? They did this series, split roughly into themed designs for boys and girls. I wasn’t sure in the beginning when I only had 2-3 pencils, but once I had about 3-4 of each the pattern became obvious. The pens and pencils with a blue flange at the top featured designs relating to team sports and technology, while red-flanged pens and pencils featured cute critters and home-themed scenes.
In the 6-7 years I’ve been tracking this series, I have only obtained one pair of pen and pencil with the same design showing a girl bunny in a hot air balloon. The difference is that the pencil included ‘0.5’ above ‘PILOT’. Many of the examples have some wear on the printed graphics, making me believe these are old… like between 1979–1987 (i.e. the current gap in Pilot catalogs).
I doubt I have ‘caught them all’, but here’s a run down of the designs I have found so far. I took front, left and right shots of the pencil and made a crude collage of the design. Then I used AI to blend the shots seamlessly and clean up the distortion and shadows. Some of the results have typical AI generated errors but in general, I think there are useful for appreciating the wraparound designs.
SOCCER 10
FOOTBALL HELMET 36
FOOTBALL 72
BASEBALL 90
ANTIQUE AIRPLANE
ANTIQUE LOCOMOTIVE 1805
GIRL BUNNY IN HOT AIR BALLOON
SQUIRREL IN MUSHROOM HOUSE
WINDMILL, BUTTERFLIES & TULIPS
PINK MOUSE & FLOWERS
TELEPHONE & NUMBERS
If you have a design not shown here, please take a picture and share! 
