Alessipens 0.5 mechanical pencil
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Pilot THE Dr Grip in ‘deep purple’ and Opt ballpoint in ‘Aurora Black’… first time in rotation since acquiring them in late 2024 
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Nice finds with the pinstripe Mistral and Platinum Angle + vintage drafter. The red-grid Morison(?) - beware of the plastic ‘neck’ splitting from internal corrosion/expansion.
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The neck was already damaged on this one and I bought it knowingly. It was the only design similar to the fuji corona or ohto gripper style of plastic insert near the nosecone. I wish I could get those Jib drafters like yours someday.
The cool find also was the brown etching pilot. Which almost appears blackish.
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That is such a beautiful Dr Grip! When were the ones with this color made? Most of the Dr Grips I’ve seen these days seem to have really different aesthetics - more pastel.
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These are from the ‘Black Accent’ limited colors that were released in Dec 2024.
Wow, so actually quite recent! Maybe I can get one
Some vaguely new (to me) pencils aiding in rewriting all of my homework answers.
Professor likes the answers formatted very particularly, which I didn’t initially oblige to… Oh well, these help!
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Why is the Zebra Drafix 0.5mm (OG) the only MP that is more (1.5x…) than the 0.3mm??
I can’t recall any other make/model being so drastically reversed…
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I would guess simply because the .5mm version must be available in smaller numbers on used market and auction sites compared to the .3mm
After getting this one though, I am not that impressed. And the seller did not keep it in a good state it has a lot of deterioration.
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Theory: when they were originally sold, most people who could afford 1000 yen for an MP bought the 0.5. Used it hard and wore them out.
20 years later, nostalgic fans still sought out the 0.5 first and stocks dwindled. Meanwhile, unsold 0.3 stock stayed fresh and relatively plentiful.
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Finally put the 2019 Korea limited edition metallic gold Smash into rotation! It’s unusual because the upper shaft is not just molded in some shampoo-swirl kinda ‘gold’ but actually mirror coated in a proper golden chrome.
I also chose an all-brass edition of the original Sarasa Grand, with its beautiful thumb stabbing clip. This was apparently a limited run in 2018 made for Mitasanshodo, a small pen shop located in Gunma prefecture.
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That thumb clip is very eye-catching. I knew about the golden Smash but I didn’t realize it was so pretty.
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Thanks! The new and safer Sarasa Grand just feels more ordinary when you compare it to the original. I wonder how are the sales numbers?
Nice! What are the two pencils on the far right?
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Those are the Sun-star flavour mps
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