My journey into this vintage series began with exploring Tombow’s fantastic Flight to 100 microsite, which details significant product milestones on the company’s centenary celebrations back in 2013.
I wanted to find out more about the Create Sharp from 1971, and after pouring through Twitter and numerous auction listings, discovered that the original model as depicted is the SH1000C. Even more interesting was learning from @altis0510’s tweets that ‘Create’ was a joint venture / co-development with Sakura.
This explained how Sakura also released dozens of ‘Sakura Create Sharp’ models at various price points throughout the 70s and probably well into the 80s before transitioning to a new branding of ‘Sakura Slide Sharp’. But that’s a story for another day.
Here’s a line up of 5 Tombow Create sharps at the ¥1000 level. The identifying marks are the double-angle cones with 3mm slide pipe, the chrome sandwich band or ring detail in the middle, and the slotted clip. plus one a tombow ballpoint that I think might be related because of its clip.
The stickers started with a ‘golden’ seal wrapped over the clip, which I have on the ‘first’ model, followed by a variant in black with silver pinstripes. I am very tempted to remove these dangly tags…
The stickers then evolved to a blue seal over the lower body. This is seen in the ‘reverse’ version of the ‘pinstripe design, and also in the black and silver grid designs.
This series seems to have focused on the emerging trend of silk screened designs over aluminum bodies compared to the more expensive acid etching process that collectors love. I would love to find more of these Tombow but I haven’t seen anymore with the ¥1000 characteristics.
