2016

Sliding sleeves, Kuru Togas, DelGuards and more

Just a few small points I want to mention:

Sliding sleeve

I have created a table showing some of the sliding sleeve pencils and the force needed to slide the sleeve. I have averaged the values displayed in previous blog posts, just to make the table sortable. I plan to add the Orenz in 0.3 and the M9 to this table very soon.

Speaking of the Orenz, there’s a new Metal Grip version of the Orenz.

Kuru Toga

I have also ordered the new sliding sleeve version of the Kuru Toga. I did learn some Japanese in the 90s, but all I remember is some Katakana characters. Just enough to figure out that this version of the Kuru Toga is called “Pipe Slide”. Michael Fryda has published a video review of this pencil.

There is also a limited Adidas edition of the Kuru Toga. There used to be a Faber-Castell and Adidas cooperation in the past, not surprising as they are both from the Nuremberg area, but now Adidas seems to cooperate with Uni Mitsubishi Pencil.

Speaking of the Kuru Toga: M&G seems to offer a Kuru Toga copy, the AMP89202, but I haven’t seen it in reality, so I am not sure whether it is functional or only copies the look, not the functionality of the Kuru Toga.

DelGuard

One last point to mention, I noticed that two weeks after my DelGuard blog post and its video Zebra published a video that seems somehow similar – featuring the new 0.3 mm and 0.7 mm version of the DelGuard. There’s not as much information about the force needed in the video, but they have proper equipment to take close-ups, so it looks much better. Have a look at their video.

Wooden paper

One last thing I came across: Kizara memo pads, instead of paper they use wood shavings. Reminds me of the wooden Field Notes cover.

Sliding sleeves, Kuru Togas, DelGuards and more Read More »

Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai

Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai

Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai

Last December, i.e. a few days ago, I was in Shanghai again. You might remember my previous posts about stationery in Shanghai. I thought I add my new experience to this blog, too.

Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai

Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai

I’ll start with Lamy’s presence in Shanghai. I mentioned them in 2012 and 2015., so here’s a quick recap. I first saw Lamy products in Shanghai in 2010. I didn’t notice them before that so if they had a presence it was not very obvious. They tend to be present in big shopping malls where they don’t have shops but fixed stalls, usually near escalators or lifts.

Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai

 

lamy-raffles-12

 

Their stalls seem to get bigger and bigger every year. The one I have seen this year in the Raffles City shopping mall is the biggest and most impressive one so far. Raffles City is near People’s Square in Shanghai and at the end of FuZhou Road, a road full of book, art supplies and stationery shops.

Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai

Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai

As usual prices are quite high with cheaper items being proportionally much more expensive than in the West compared to more expensive items. There expensive items are still more expensive than in the West, but the price difference seems less out of place.

Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai

Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai

 

A Lamy Safari mechanical pencil will set you back ¥200 (~$31; £21; €28), a fountain pen ¥398 (~$61; £41; €56).

Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai

Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai

Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai

Unfortunately I didn’t see Lamy’s wood cased pencils, the Lamy plus and 4plus – you can see one here, anywhere.

Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai

 

Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai

The most unusual pen I saw there was probably the red Lamy Safari with a yellow clip, a special edition for China. At ¥398 (~$61; £41; €56) it was a bit too expensive for me, but then again, they were being offered on eBay for $299, so I guess it will be worth ¥398 or more to some people. Special edition Lamy Safaris are not uncommon. There is usually a colour of the year, but there are also themed editions and editions for specific countries or geographic areas, like this red/yellow China one.
Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai

 


Price: December 2015

Exchange rates: January 2016

You can read more about the China edition of the Lamy Safari at KMPN.

Lamy at Raffles City in Shanghai Read More »