Waited nearly 60 days for a combined shipment (spreads shipping cost nicely thin across the items bought). A few duplicates. One cluster was a combined lot, where I was interested in just 2 pencils. The Tombow MONO Delta 0.5 mm draft (¥1500) and the fine striped steel 0.5 mm executive (gold accents). The executive is a bit badly tarnished/pitted at the clip and nose cone (planning to strip off the plating). A weird Tombow labeled as “AUDEE” was included. It’s not bad. Rubber grip reminds me of the OHTO Gripper. The rOtring body-knock has an unusual silk screen design on it, with a bell and “M”. It’s actually a very smooth action, similar to the higher end KOKUYO models. Finally got the PS-101 and picked up an extra. Also picked up a few modern ones – Pentel Smash and Kerry.
Nice mix of finds, Gary! AUDEE was one of Tombow’s ‘lifestyle brands’, kinda like their take on BOXY, except that it didn’t really take off. The remnants of AUDEE goods that I’ve seen include pencil cases, basic MPs and BPs with printed patterns, erasers, and a pair of outrageously priced lead holders.
Nice stash!
'Been wanting to get one of those Botta fixpencils for ages but never decided on which one should I get the black with white “bricks” or the white with black “bricks”.
It’s like the famous paradox of Zhuang Zhou: is Zhuang Zhou dreaming he is a butterfly or is the butterfly dreaming it is Zhuang Zhou?
Or like the much less known Portuguese one: is the salamander black with yellow spots or yellow with black spots? 
Nice body knock additions, I really want the Rotring version someday.
Love those Kokuyos, and the copper Mitsubishi double-knock and etched Tombow with gold trim really stand out!
Thanks, Kelvin. I’d never heard of AUDEE before. Was it sort of a less popular BEAMS?
Same! I almost went black with white dashes. But the white with black dashes just strikes me better. It’s very light and at first I was thinking it might be plastic… yet, I was assured it’s actually aluminum alloy.
Thanks! Yeah, that copper Mitsubishi executive is the one I’d posted about nearly 2 months ago. Finally arrived! I can see why you were so hot to collect these. It’s a really nice and uncommon color. I got lucky with a very good working mechanism too. Just no price sticker, unfortunately.
The black PS-101’s complete my “upper end” of the KOKUYO line. I’ll have to take a group photo.
About the TOMBOW, do you know if there’s a formal model number for it? I know there’s like 3 variations (gold, black, silver). Pretty weighty. Seriously nice mechanism. This one has a lot of wear, so I may strip off the gold anodizing on clip and nose cone.
I was never into acquiring all the variations of a pencil (colours, lead size, limited editions, regional editions, one-offs — I find it marvellous that most of you here do this actually)… I’m more given to get one specimen of a model that interests me. And maaaaybe perhaps the next one. But e.g. I didn’t keep the vamped up Orenz AT after the Orenznero, it just didn’t appeal to me like its predecessor. Inversely, I’m collecting a few Delguards Lx limited colour editions that I really enjoy. I suppose I have no rule for this, just intuition.
And that same intuition tells me that in the case of the Botta Fixpencil I’ll probably try to get the two variations. But I’m slightly leaning for the black/white so we’ll see
Oh, absolutely, body is aluminium. Exception of a quick & cheap ballpoint pen that looks like a fixpencil, I think all their line up is from aluminium. I haven’t checked the lead pipes inside of the new models, though. They might have changed those and they are plastic now. But plastic will work as a silencer in this case so it’s probably not a bad idea at all.
I think someone (perhaps here or on X) posted old Tombow materials (maybe a catalog, maybe a promo piece) that included these etched executives, but I don’t recall if a model number was present.
I had the fortune of seeing both the white- and black-based Mario Botta at a local pen shop. I decided on the white base with black marks because it is very hard to make white paint look ‘solid’ against a black background. And in the case of the Botta, or at least the one I saw for myself, the white markings on black base definitely looked a bit less solid compared to the black-on-white.
What .mm is the FIXPENCIL?
Modern line up is 0.7, 2mm and 3mm (not sure they’re still making 3mm)
You can still find vintage 0.5 in good condition, but not very cheap…
Ah, thank you. I’m still a stranger to Caran D’ache/FIXPENCILs.
I wasn’t sure if it was currently being sold or an Out of Production model.
They’re still producing the classic Fixpencil in 2mm and 3mm — but they are the least sought off Caran d’Aches among collectors. Not because they’re still in production but because the imprints now say “Swiss Made” instead of the old drafting board numbers: “22”, “77” and “3”. There was also another nice pencil line called “Junior 884” or 884 that has nice cutout edges in the grip section. The most sought of these 884 is the light blue, which is truly nice to look at.
The modern 0.7 isn’t the classic Fixpencil but the 849 which is a smaller pocket size “writing pencil” around 13cm, like the caran d’ache 849 ballpoints. These have several colours, special editions, etc.
The Botta is a classic Fixpencil 22
@Hammer_Jackson It’s still a Fixpencil, I think the proper name is “Metal 0.5”; a writing pencil with sliding sleeve — they weren’t as precise about names as the Japanese manufacturers.
Notice that the same model (i.e. same name) can also come in a variant with smooth finish all over the metal barrel, so without the sanded strip improving the grip.
Different story with the Fixpencil F-S Metal 0.5: fixed sleeve, rounder tip, and a strange “cushioning system” which can be adjusted by tightening the brass internals; there was a thread on this pencil which included scans of the instruction leaflet.
Here’s Leonov’s post about it: LINK
Also, @drifand has a cool detail photo:
https://twitter.com/drifand/status/967571249185501184?s=20
Very good looking !