Ahhh… Sakura craft_lab. The first of the artisanal takes on writing instruments by a mainstream Japanese brand. With designs inspired by elements from its iconic Coupy colored crayons and steampunk-lite machined aesthetics, the first 5 releases were an exercise in consistency, refinement and steady iteration.
But where was the mechanical pencil model? Surely Sakura wouldn’t leave us high and dry? What? The 004 Multi-pen has an MP component? No, that doesn’t count for the purists!
006 came and blew our minds with the crazy combinations and crazier prices. 007 returned to sanity, but… it was still just another twist deploy gel pen. This was getting boring! 
And then the 008 dropped. It had a new knock mechanism! What a twist! By not having a twist! But, what about the design? Gone was the milled cog-like knobs and engine-turned knurled surfaces that came before. No, the 008 was smooth up and down, seamlessly transitioning from golden brass lower section to anodized aluminum upper. And the clip? It no longer followed the signature look either. Instead it was fashioned as a wraparound appendage on the brass button. And while the sakura blossom logo was still around, it wasn’t as deeply cut into the brass. Heck, it feels like a micrometer thin laser polished detail.
And so I sneered and banished it from my want list. Until it came back in my weekly Mercari searches. Cheap has its own power of attraction. I thought: why not try modding it into the pencil that Sakura never gave us?
A couple of hours later, fiddling with spacers and stoppers on a Sarasa Select 0.7mm component, this is the result. Will I forgive Sakura for being lazy and noncommittal with MP lovers? Probably not. But then again, maybe their marketing department knows something we don’t.