The Ultimate Pen Showdown - Ballpoint Hybrids

The Lamy 2000 recently arrived on my radar after ignoring it for so long, after some persuasive reviews about the way it's engineered. I recently picked one up from my local Lamy shop but never used it or filled it with ink, because I'm just not a huge fan of its appearance (which I find a bit bland). Lamy made some limited editions in blue and brown, but the prices are way out of my budget. I decided that before using it, I'd investigate some other similar pens and try to compare them side by side. I picked up a Montblanc 220, which I think is a more interesting design in the same makrolon material, The 220 is a lovely writer and feels like it's built to tight tolerances, though the relatively broad nib in mine is a bit much for me and it doesn't have the solid heft of the Lamy. After digging for some more candidates, I discovered the Taobao Lamy 2000 clone which is made from someone in China with a 3D printer. I asked the seller if he could make one for me in dark...

I received a few interesting pens recently, including a batch of Uni Ball (Uni Mitsubishi) pens which seem to be from 20+ years ago, the new Monami Zenith 7 which is a pen I have not seen reviewed anywhere yet, and a Tombow Airpress which I couldn't resist trying after seeing it in a shop on discount. Let's get to the reviews. Monami Zenith 7 - I was excited to see that Monami released a new pen, because in my earliest set of reviews the Monami FX4000 refill in 0.7mm ranked very high (the 1.0mm wasn't as good), and I was also very impressed with the refill in the Kokyuo ME which has a Korean-made gel refill (not sure if it's made by Monami, but there's a decent chance). The Zenith 7 looked quite striking, and for 5000 Won (about 3.50 USD at the moment) I had to give it a try. The design is one of the highlights, and I'd say it's somewhat based on the Ballograf Epoca with its retro look, faceted top part of the body and rounded grip section. The faceted part ...

 In the years since I started on this pen testing journey, I did dabble in fountain pens as well. As a lefty, I was always hesitant to get into fountain pens, but I couldn't resist their allure. Here I'll give a brief overview of the ones I tested. Pilot 912 Green Limited Edition - I was looking at Pilot with the intention of trying a Waverly nib, which is supposedly suitable for my weird 90 degree writing angle and my left-handedness. I'm a big fan of green and brown pens, and was hoping to find something from Pilot in green. Endless searching for the right one led me to a store in Japan that partnered with Pilot to make a few limited edition colors of the 912, including translucent green. It came with a Fine nib, and wasn't going to have any WA nibs til the end of the year, so I thought I'd give it a try. This was the last fountain pen I bought, because it actually worked perfectly as-is (though I'd still like to try a Pilot WA). Beautiful pen, much more reli...

I'm going to review the remaining pens in my collection that are worth reviewing before I decide which ones I'll keep, and I'll sell off the rest. So let's take a look at some at the ballpoints and gel pens that haven't been discussed here so far. Porsche Design Tec Flex - This is one of the most interesting ballpoints I own. It's a click pen that's actually made by Faber Castell (I think the newer generation are made by Pelikan), and the entire body of the pen moves like a spring when you press it. It's a large heavy pen that takes a standard Parker G2 size refill. It currently has its original Faber Castell refill, but I'd like to see what the new ones are like, and otherwise I'd put in a Jetstream refill.  Aurora Ipsilon - This is the second Aurora ballpoint I've reviewed. I don't think it looks as good as the Style, and the click mechanism is the same (the entire "cap" presses down), but it feels slightly less plastic-ey t...