Love that green Retro
There are so many of these wide mouth double-knock retractable pens/pencils around. Is there any consensus on what’s the favored brand/model? Or a few? And which ones are near the bottom (meaning, avoid 'em)?
yes, there is a huge variety of “wide mouth double-knock retractables” … I have a personal favorite due to sentimental reasons (staedtler retro), but I don’t know if an ancestor model is known for this pencil type?
Mitsubishi made what is almost an identical double-knock to the Staedtler Retro (at the ¥200 or ¥300 price point), and that’s always made me think these low-end pencils may have just been white-labeled (similar to the Ohhira/PSP double-knock).
And then, of course, you have the sister lineage of the Ohto double-knock with separate retraction mechanism.
To me, these are the two “wide mouth” double-knock styles that were favored by various OEMs; it’s a shame we don’t have more ironclad information about the history of some of these pencils.
Ones I can realistically acquire: STAEDTLER Marsmicro 770; Retro de luxe, Pilot H-1093, Lamy Spirit, STAEDTLER Hi-Matic; 925 95
Ones I will never touch: Pilot H-1005; 2005; 3005 - Pentel Mechanica 0.3; Accugraph 0.3 - Uni 5050
Staedtler Retro Deluxe!
And you can certainly acquire a Pilot H-1005 cheaply enough to leave it in the realm of possibility. Plenty pop up on eBay every year between $60 and $100.
I’ve even seen some rough examples of the PILOT H-1005 go for around $40. If you don’t mind worn off center ring label (some batches were notorious for the lettering coming off). But if you’re someone who remembers vividly buying one at $15 brand new (the discount period around the time it was being discontinued), it can be hard to consider buying used for nearly 3 times as much!
Revisiting my original Holy Grail post from October 2022; I’ve since acquired the following pieces:
- Pilot Gentleman Young double-knock
- Pilot ProTex
- Pilot Grandee Priere in silver
- Mitsubishi stainless steel double-knock in copper
- Pentel W-knock (13 of these damn things )
Of course, that means the Holy Grail list needs updating with some new pieces!
- Pilot stainless steel double-knock silver barrel variant with black silkscreen
- Staedtler Retro Deluxe
- Fuji-Corona double-knock
- Pilot Sprinter ¥1000 variant with black, red, and blue grips (I already have green)
- Pilot Heart Sutra
- Pilot etched leaf pattern with paint infill comes in red, lime green, blue, and ??
- Sailor Egyptian
- Pilot Switch etched grid pattern
- Pilot Grandee Priere in gold
- Tombow Variable in 0.4 and 0.3
- Tombow W-knock black and blue variants with “W-knock” silkscreen
Got a photo of this?
Also, at this rate you’re gonna be revisiting your grail list every week
Ahh yes, I’ve seen that one before. Yea it’s hard to come by.
I’m currently not gonna be able to buy anything till May at the very least so I will pass. Thanks nonetheless
I have 2 grail lists: one containing unobtaniums, the other contains items which are rare, but not necessarily expensive when they surface (of course there is an intersection between the lists).
Why I write is that today evening (Tokyo time) an auction ended w/o success (maybe not for the 1st time?) for a pencil, which I would position as #1 in my unobtanium list: Sakura Archi Y2 Gold (YS10) https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/l1056122356?conversionType=service_page_search
There must have been a previous auction on it, but I missed the result マニア垂涎 アーキ バージョンY2 ゴールド シャープペンシル 超レア コレクターズアイテム(シャープペンシル)|売買されたオークション情報、yahooの商品情報をアーカイブ公開 - オークファン(aucfan.com) and don’t have other, older results.
There is a 5000JPY (silver), an 8000 (black) and the 10000 (gold) version, I have a (bad) scan of an archi poster (but not accessible for the next days).
I believe the black one was 5000 JPY too.
No, that’s a twist pencil only. No knocking. The “Grandee Priere” name has been used for a variety of styles. The twist-knock style I’ve found only in striped polished steel and gloss black/titanium. I’ve not seen this one in gold plate.
Nope, there are 3 versions of the Grandee Priere twist-knock pencil—silver, gold, and black mirror.
That is correct. The Archi Y2 had 3 models:
YS5000: Black, Chrome
YS8000: Silver Plated
YS10: Gold Plated