Tony Bridges 
You know we love us some novelty pens here at the Pen Vibe Blog.
With Christmas and other gifting holidays coming up, we figured this would be the perfect time to share some new finds.
There are novelty pens for kids, for adults and for both. Check ’em out.
A piece on the Japan Times site about pen-and-ink artist Hiroyuki Doi had an interesting little tidbit that caught our attention the other day. It was a mention of a Pilot Pen museum in Tokyo where he was having a showing.
Have you ever heard of this place? It’s called the Pen Station Museum & Cafe near the Kyobashi metro stop. It’s located on the bottom two floors of Pilot Pen’s corporate offices, according to Tokyo pen collector Russ Stutler.
The Pilot MR is one of my favorite retractable ballpoint pens, not so much for the writing – which is above-average smooth for a ballpoint – as for the design of the pen itself.
It has a sleek, finished barrel, fits well in the hand and extends and retracts with one simple twist. Sexy and smooth, like any good pen should be, the MR is sort of the writing instrument equivalent of the little black dress.
OK, pen peeps, this is a call to action.
Turns out we aren’t the only ones who obsess over choosing a writing instrument. There are some accountants. They’re in trouble. And they need our help.
It all started on a forum for people taking the CPA exam. DaveM was experiencing hand cramps and asked for recommendations on the “best pen for note re-writing.”
You know you probably have a winning Kickstarter project when you’ve raised more than three times your funding goal and still have nearly a month to go.
Roxtar Labs launched the Apollo Technical Pen and Drafting Scale project with a goal of $30,000 to manufacture and distribute the precision pens. Within a week, the project had doubled that number and has continued to climb now past $90,000.
I think the key to their success may be the pen’s compatibility with an amazing number of refills, more than 50 all total. Included in that list: Pentel EnerGel, Pilot Hi-Tec-C, Lamy Rollerball and both the Pilot FriXion and Uniball Fanthom erasable ink pens.