Much more exciting than the augmented reality 3D Lamy pens, at least for me: Little videos in the articles that will come to life in the AR app, e.g. a video showing different pages in travel diary or a time-lapse video how Lamy’s store in New York is being set up.
The AR app shows a video of someone flicking through diary pages where the magazine shows a photo.
Fitting with the article about the Lamy Safari there’s also an AR ‘artefact’ where you can change the colour of the Safari.
The app lets you pick the colour for the Lamy Safari
Like last year I found new special editions from Lamy in Shanghai, not available in the West.. This time it’s another Line Friends edition: LAMY BROWN The Black Edition.
The amazing aluminium container
The one comes in an amazing packaging: a thick-walled aluminium tube (with screw lid). I haven’t seen any packaging like this for a Pen before.
The Lamy Safari itself is the Matte type with the Line character’s name BROWN embossed in the cap.
The cardboard packaging that goes around the aluminium tube container
It also comes with a leather strap and metal buttons with browns face. The leather strap can be used to attach it to your belt, etc. The Lamy employee wore it around his neck.
The Safari with the leather strap, if worn as a necklace
In previous year’s people contacted me to ask whether I can get them the special edition, but I already left Shanghai at that time. To avoid this happening again I bought two of these special edition pens for interested readers. I hope I won’t regret this decision. If you are interested let me know as soon as possible by leaving a comment here or by emailing me (if you know my email address).
The price is £65 plus postage. The item is in the UK.
I will add this Special Edition to the list of Lamy Special Editions on stationery.wiki in a few days (if no one else has done it by then). That list contains (so far) 26 Special Editions of the Lamy Safari.
Line Friends are popular in East AsiaLine Friends are popular in East Asia
Today: Just something I want to show. Something I come across again and again on eBay UK and eBay Germany. I assume other countries are ‘affected’, too.
Whoever set up the stationery categories on eBay seems to think Lamy is a French word – L’Amy..
When I first came across this I thought this is another brand, but it’s really supposed to be our Lamy.
I guess German surnames don’t normally end with a -y, but Lamy is based in Heidelberg and my relatives form Heidelberg also have a surname ending with -y.
Since I got your attention: Something else I came across – in my computer’s app store.
There seem to be more and more apps aimed at bullet journal users – and they seem to get more and more expensive. I neither use bullet journalling, nor do I normally buy expensive apps [1]I’m not keen on the idea of getting used to an app and change the way I work only to discover the app has been cancelled and won’t be supported after an OS update. I guess even big … Continue reading ..but nevertheless, I find this an interesting development.
I’m not keen on the idea of getting used to an app and change the way I work only to discover the app has been cancelled and won’t be supported after an OS update. I guess even big companies are no guarantee an app will stay, small companies are even less of a guarantee. I remember moving from an mp3 player to an Android phone so that it’s easier to listen to podcasts, only for Google to cancel “Google Listen”, their podcast app. Or think of Pebble. Fitbit bought their intellectual property only, but the rest of the company went belly up, leaving customers in the rain.
Sticking to the Lamy theme from the recent blog post about blue Lamy Safari fountain pens from the 1990s and now we’ve got another Lamy blog post today: Their special edition pens you normally don’t see in the West: the Pirates of the Caribbean (Dead Men Tell no Tales) and the Star Wars pens.
Lamy’s Special Editions
Lady’s special editions follow a similar recipe: Take Lamy’s Line Friends Safari, for example. It’s a Safari with a different colour and a clip attachment. The colour of the special editions isn’t always different and the main difference of these special editions to their ‘normal’ counterparts is the clip attachment. They also often have extras (converter, special packaging) and a higher price.
I’ve shown a few different Lamy shops in Shanghai. Here’s one I haven’t shown yet: The one in the Jing An Kerry Centre [1]Fun fact: many years ago Jing An was the only place in Shanghai with a Burger King, but now Burger King is ubiquitous..
Pirates of the Caribbean
The Pirates of the Carribean themed pen looks like a Safari in the current Petrol colour with clip attachement in the shape of a jolly roger skull. You also get a converter and a leather roll as part of your set.
The Pirates pen on the left and the leather roll in the background. Excuse the reflections in the photo. The pen was behind glass.
Star Wars
The Star Wars themed pens are Lamy joy[2]Lamy spells joy lower-case so I’ll stick to that in this this blog post fountain pens. If you are not familiar with the joy: the front section is the same as the Safari’s, but the main body is much longer. It is kind of a desk only version of the Safari. Desk only because the long body makes it unsuitable for easy transport [3]You can see one in this Bleistift blog post from 2011..
The Star Wars joys have ‘normal’ nibs. I mention this because the joy is also available as a calligraphy set with italic nibs of different widths.
The black joy comes with a Vader clip attachment. The white joy comes with a Stormtrooper themed clip attachment.
The price is only slightly higher than the price of a normal Lamy joy in Shanghai: A normal joy is ¥380 (~$56; £44; €50). The Star Wars set is ¥418 [4]This number sounds good in Chinese, a bit like ‘will be fortunate, for sure’. (~$$62; £48; €55). It comes with a converter.
You pay more, you get more
The price of the Lamy pens in Shanghai is a bit higher than in the West, but you also get more. The pens I’ve seen in Shanghai often come in nice boxes I haven’t seen in Europe. They also often seem to include converters that would be charged extra in the West.
The special edition pens are only slightly more expensive than the normal editions [5]Exactly 10% in the case of the Star Wars joy..
The Safari Petrol. I believe this version is also available in the West. Excuse the reflections in the photo. The pen was behind glass.
Not in the West
I assume the reason why you normally don’t see these special editions in the West has more to do with licensing than with demand, especially since they are not much more expensive than the normal versions of these pens, so they should sell well anywhere – but that’s just a guess.
As I know most of the readers of my blog I might as well write this publicly: If you want one of these pens let me know and I’ll try to get one for you.
