Sorry for the visual gag right at the start, but isn’t that kind of the point with a pencil named ‘PECKER’?
I’d started out a couple years back with just a single yellow 500-yen model. I knew nothing about its significance, just that I liked the color and the tapered square profile, which gave off strong retro sci-fi vibes. After a while, I grabbed a black one, and suddenly I saw more: a 1000-yen model with a sleeker body and a hairline finished metal grip, and a ‘Deluxe’ model too. It would take another 4-5 years to slowly discover, bid, lose and win-at-all-costs to obtain the different color variants and complete the series.
Along the way, I also picked up 2 denim pouches that featured the mascot of 70s celebrity Masaaki Sakai drawn up as the titular ‘PECKER’. You can catch Masaaki-san in this 1971 TV commercial for Mitsubishi’s then-new 0.3mm leads. During my online research, more than one Japanese blogger mentioned seeing Masaaki’s TVCs and getting excited to get a PECKER sharp. Those were simpler times!
As for model numbers, sigh. I have only found one picture of a box for the basic 500-yen tier stating it as M5-540:
I’ve not chanced upon any other references for the rest.
The line-up, as far as I have discovered, from L-R:
• M5-540 in black, yellow, red and blue
• 1000-yen model with hairline metal grip: white with reversed black grip; black, red, green and blue with silver grips
• ‘DELUXE’ model with rounded full-aluminum body in silver
• ‘GX’ model with rounded full-aluminum body in black and slotted steel clip. I have no idea what ‘GX’ stands for but it looks ‘sportier’ than the ‘DX’.
Looking back I think I committed to completing this series because of a couple of factors:
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The Pentel Quicker Clickers were just too numerous for me to get any kind of toe-hold in. I remain selectively interested in some of the transparent tinted versions, and the non-0.5 sizes.
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Relative non-popularity of the PECKER series outside of Japan – possibly due to its cringe-worthy name. They used to not go for a lot when listed, except for a couple of crazy listings in the 20,000 yen range. However I did have to bid rather high to clinch the 1000-yen models in blue and green, and also for the denim pouches.
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The undocumented but oft-repeated anecdote that the PECKER was (arguably!) the first side-knock sharp to come out in 1973 (patented in 1972 per Graphography), probably just ahead of the Pentel Technica PD1055 with its flights of fancy.
We can only wonder why this format didn’t take off under Uni. Did they ‘surrender’ to Pentel’s QC onslaught? The lower price of a QC (300 yen?) must have hurt the PECKER’s chances with school kids. The technology that the PECKER pioneered would peep its head now and then over the decades in Uni’s line-up, but it would never gain prominence or get the mass polularity that the Kuru Toga would come to enjoy.
And that concludes my PECKER journey… Happy peckin’, ya’ll!
