Fountain pen review ~ Pilot Silvern X Pokémon (Pikachu)
This is hands down one of my most favourite pens in my collection. I heard about this pen whilst listening to the Tokyo Inklings podcast and HAD to check it out. I was young in high school when Pokémon made it’s way to the West in the early 90’s and have loved/collected/played/watched “everything” the Pokémon company has produced since Ash and Pikachu first teamed up! Pokémon is just so ubiquitous in our lives at this stage that it’s hard to imagine a world without it. I bought my Nintendo Switch (The LE Pikachu version with GO!) just to play Pokémon and (besides Animal Crossing) have basically no other games on it. So, when I heard there was a high quality Pokémon FP from an excellent maker out there, I had to see for myself.
Seeing was definitely believing. There’s three versions of this pen and they’re basically Pilot Silvern pens with different Pokémon “hand carved” into the Sterling silver. It has an excellent 18K rhodium plated gold nib. Mine is a Medium but the website doesn’t allow you to choose your nib size — so it’s pot luck what you’re going to get — not a deal breaker for me. There’s Pikachu, Charizard and Rayquaza. Maybe I’m too old, but who the hell is Rayquaza? How did it not make sense to do Squirtle/Blastoise or Bulbasaur/Venusaur instead (the OG trio!)? And if you think Rayquaza was a good choice, I’m sorry but you’re just wrong! Ha ha ha!
For some reason I couldn’t select international delivery from the Pokémon Centre store when I bought this so I had to get an American friend to post it forward to me. I say this because I have seen some posts on reddit claiming they got international delivery from the Pokémon Centre store — So, Maybe I missed it somehow…?
This was both an experience in delayed gratification (of which I am a huge fan and advocate for all the time — topic for another day) and sheer panic and dismay (at USPS!) More on this later. This pen intrigued me because I’m always on the lookout for genuine Limited Editions and it’s a Pokémon product. It was basically a guaranteed purchase! If I wasn’t married and didn’t have a normal human being for a wife, I think my whole life would be Pokémon merch! So, now I get a few limited “classy” items to show my love for the franchise, while still pretending to be a functioning human and doctor.
So yes, I pulled the trigger on this pen pretty quick. I later realised there was a mark up was from a “regular” Silvern. Don’t care, still very worth it!
There are many reviews for the Pilot Silvern pen, it’s a fairly old pen (new to me), so I’m not going to spend a lot of text going over measurements etc. The Pokémon store is pretty good at giving these details too, so I want to just give you my personal thoughts.
In this review, I’ll go over my favourite features of this pen and what I don’t like. I’ll picture some writing samples with different inks, to give you a feel for how it handles various types of ink. In summary, I’ll discuss why this pen is in my collection and whether this pen is truly worthy of being a GP’s pen!
Pros
First and foremost, this is a Pokémon pen! This is a huge positive for me. It allows me to combine a couple of my favourite hobbies. Over the years my office has materialised a shrine for Pokémon, from little gifts my patients have given me, so this piece fits beautifully into my room.
I really enjoy the sterling silver. With time and use of course it patina's a little but there is a cleaning cloth provided to keep it shiny. Very easy to clean. Mine took a few months before it needed a polish up. On the other hand I never polish my Kaweco Brass Sport — the patina on that pen looks great, but on the Silvern it looks like poo smears!
The nib is great! Its smooth with just the tiniest bit of Pilot feedback — very satisfying to write with. I love the in-laid look, reminds a lot of vintage Shaeffer pens (something else I need to add to my collection)
The price mark up. I do think the price mark up is fair. A regular Pilot Silvern from Goldspot or similar store is about $544 USD for the Thumugi & Koushi models, Pensachi has a few different models (pavement and lattice) for much less — so it depends on the model you’re after. Here we have a limited edition collaboration between a prestigious pen maker and very well known franchise, so to pay a mark up of about $50USD for this privilege seems very reasonable to me.
Cons
These days I find myself filling ALL my pens with a blunt needle/syringe, for ease and cleanliness. The converter (CON-40) is a bit odd, I’ve never seen ball bearings in a converter or this odd metal mesh thing halfway up the converter. I don’t really understand the utility of this design but I can recall multiple podcasters having similar concerns. The needle/syringe technique mostly negates these issues but most people wouldn’t be happy having to source further equipment to use it. Occasionally, if I get a bubble whilst filling, it can make a mess and I have to do a little fiddling to get it filled. All seems a bit unnecessary if you ask me.
The CON-40 has a very small ink capacity. I fill mine past the mesh thing, right to the tip and push as much ink as I can into the pen to flood the feed and re-fill the converter again. Still, for long writing sessions it’s quickly empty. The Silvern is a juicy writer too and I’ve been careful to only put good flowing inks into it but even still I’m filling the CON-40 a lot, even with just office use.
This is a delicate pen that I baby a lot. It’s definitely not for my bag/pocket without a case. The converter looks delicate, the barrel/cap is sterling silver, it’s light and looks like it’ll scratch easy. It lives on my desk on my crab pen holder or in a case. Again, not a deal breaker for me since I am a desk doctor for most of my days rather than running around a ward.
The pen really just comes in the usual looking black Pilot box with a black sleeve with a Pikachu on the front. I do think they could have made more of an effort in that department too, given the marked up price.
Getting a hold of this pen (as I mentioned above) was a bit of a pain. I’m not sure why it’s just a USA exclusive and like I said above dealing with USPS was very nerve wracking! I mean, it’s a very expensive Limited Edition pen, you can imagine my panic when for WEEKS it sat in Chicago and then in Sydney with zero explanation. I honestly thought it had been lost. I even called Chicago to find out where it was. I believe in the end it took about 2months to get to me. My guess is that due to COVID, shipping for emergency and medical supplies etc took precedence in limited shipping container space and my item just kept getting bumped down the priority list. This is exactly what happened to the chromatography paper I ordered. I blame Auspost as much as USPS to be honest in all this, but no worries, it meant I got to practice some Zen whilst waiting!
Writing Samples
I apologise for my horrendous writing sample images, but this pen is great to write with. I dare not use shimmer with this pen, and sheening inks is probably as far as would go in terms of playing with ink properties here. I mean this is a very expensive pen! Wet “light” inks like the ones above did great and flowed beautifully and handled fast writing without issues. The reverse writing was horribly scratchy, so I try not to need to do this. It’s a fairly juicy writer, and on crappy copy paper this wetness did cause feathering. The nib itself is fairly soft and bouncy to write with, so I don’t like to write too fast and avoid pressing hard, I imagine this could easily ruin the nib forever. If it does skip, which is rare, I clean the nib and feed rather than pressing harder or shaking the pen as I would with a steel nib which can handle a bit more roughing up. The wet writer naturally means that inks look great and colour is vibrant when laid down.
Its a really enjoyable writer.
Why is this pen in my collection?
It looks great. Its a unique and nostalgic collaboration from a very highly regarded pen maker. The silver material is unique to my collection and so it rounds out my collection well. Gold in-laid nib, Pilot limited edition, Pokémon, what’s not to love and I think these pens (Silverns) should be in anyone’s collection. I honestly don’t need another Silvern now.
Saying all that, one of course has to baby this pen a little. Be careful with the nib and polish it every now and again. It’s a great conversation starter and none of these draw backs is a deal deal breaker.
Is this a pen fit for a GP?
Yes, of course it is! It’s a snap cap, with a good strong clip, easy to use on the go. Only draw back here being the small ink capacity and stupid convertor. It’s fantastic at a desk situation, looks great in my room, is a conversation starter and writes really well.
It’s a wonderful long form writer, doesn’t skip/railroad or hard start and ink look thick, juicy and vibrant when on the page. Paired with good paper, like the Endless notebooks, it’s a winner.
Thanks so much for reading and remember no matter who you are, “first, do no harm.”
