I have one of those Pro Touch II with Sanford branding stashed away somewhere. I love this aspect of personal history… you never know how a particular model of MP played a part in someone’s journey, whether it was a lowly model that was owned and used or a painfully just-out-of-reach-back-then grail like the Micromatic.
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Cool pieces would always catch my eye; knurled grips would send me swooning; and discovering pencils I never knew existed would always feel like vacationing somewhere new and incredible.
Absolutely love this. Your enthusiasm brightens my day.
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The Pentel Quicker Clicker wasn’t the first mechanical pencil that I used as a kid growing up in the 80’s, however once I got one, I decided it was so perfect in every way that I used them exclusively through 2021.
First off, it’s gorgeous! Not just the overall shape and style but the transparent colors are super clean and being able to see the internals is just plain cool! You can fill the lead reservoir with a whole container of lead! The eraser is actually a usable normal size and doesn’t move or extend any lead when you use it! It has a metal clip. The side click is absolute perfection and always right there when you need it.
Yes, I was a total QC snob. In my eyes, you just couldn’t get any better, and so I never even looked for anything else! How could anything else compare??
Then something finally happened to my last one and I had to find a replacement. At this point though, they had long stopped making the no grip model and only sold the rubber grip version. I reluctantly bought some and just dealt with it - occasionally going back to Pentel’s website to see if they started selling the no-grip version again but alas, no. I was hopeful though because there were other folks commenting about the no-grip version and begging them to re-release it. At least I wasn’t alone!
After a few years of using the rubber grip version they started getting sticky and I need to find a replacement. Looking back, I’m not sure why but I never thought to look anywhere else for them except the Pentel website. I start looking on eBay and HOLY COW, there were other colors!?! Yellow, green and red too!! I’ll get me a few sets of these thank you very much! Oh and look at these solid color ones from this dude in Russia! I’ll take a set of those too, thank you!
Feeling pretty awesome at this point and waiting for them to arrive, I stumble across @sideknocks’ blog with the freaking metal PD505 and almost shit myself. OMG where can I get one of these?! Search some more, find the Reddit sub, strike up a conversation with Thomas about them and before I know it I’m in a Slack group with him and other hard core collectors and see ya - down the rabbit hole I go!
Edit: 2021
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Sometimes I forget that I was once known as @sideknocks. Friggin @nimrodd and @knocktype11 got me deep deep in the real vintage stuff.
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Your admiration to one pencil is inspiring! I wish I had such a story, but i guess I’m stuck in an eternal loop trying to replace the initial feeling I had with my Jotter!
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Current pencils are fun, but the real challenges and interesting pencils are vintage. Once you start pulling on that thread is never seems to stop.
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After a few years of sporadic collecting… my silver collection:
I have a bunch more different models that have been easier to track down, but couldn’t fit them in one shot. I’m not serious enough a collector to pick up every variant made for a given line… just don’t have the patience to do that. Left much of what I’ve found to random chance… and sometimes got lucky (other times not, missing huge opportunities).
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