Daiso's Fountain Pens

Daiso, the Wikipedia says, is a franchise of 100-yen shops original from Hiroshima, in Japan. This company is present in a number of countries including US, Canada and Australia.

Among the many products present on the Daiso’s shelves we can always find some fountain pens. On this Chronicle I will describe some recent examples. All of them cost JPY 100, plus tax.

This picture taken in 2010 shows a number of inexpensive pens present in the Japanese market. Among them, some of the pens marketed by Daiso analyzed on this Chronicle.

1. Daiso Mini, ca. 2008. This was a small pen to be used posted. It uses Sailor cartridges, but it has no room for the regular Sailor converter. The nib is made of stainless steel and carries no engraving at all.

Daiso Mini.

Daiso Mini's nib, shared with the Regular model.

2. Daiso Regular, ca. 2008. This is the sister pen of the Daiso Mini. It is a regular size pen and accepts a converter. Section and nib are identical –and interchangeable – on both pens. This model could be found in black and in red.

Daiso Regular in red.

3. Sailor Ink Pen, ca. 2008. This is the cheapest Sailor fountain pen in recent years. It is a regular size pen that uses Sailor-proprietary cartridges and converter. The nib is labeled as F-4, is made of stainless steel, and is not tipped.

The Sailor Ink Pen, now discontinued.

The untipped F-4 nib of the Sailor Ink Pen.

4. Platinum Riviere. I saw this pen at Daiso shops back in 2008 and it is still available. Again, this is a cartridge-converter (Platinum proprietary) pen with steel nib. The nib is engraved with the platinum logo and the nib point—M. It is tipped and the pen is a smooth writer. Several colors --at least, black, blue and red— have existed, but lately only black seems to be available.

The Platinum Riviere in blue.

The Platinum nib of a 100-yen pen.

5. Daiso metal pen, ca. 2015 on. The latest arrival is this all metal pen save for the section. It implements a steel nib and uses international cartridges and converters. This pen is available in grey and white.

The non-branded fountain pens on sale at Daiso's shops nowadays.

Not much information is provided by the nib itself.

This last pen is, by far, the most attractive of those here described. On the other end we encounter the Sailor Ink Pen, whose untipped nib made it a bit tricky to use for the novice.

In any event, these Daiso pens show that there are refillable pens in the market for less than a US dollar or a Euro.

Pelikan M800 – Tomiya Tomikei blue (by Sailor)

Bruno Taut
Nakano, April 30th, 2016
etiquetas: Daiso, mercado, Japón, Sailor, Platinum.