Pen Review: Pilot Metropolitan Retro Pop

Pilot Metropolitan Reto Pop Fountain Pens

I can’t believer how long Pilot waited to release the brightly colored line of their Metropolitan pens known as Retro Pop. The Retro Pop line offers six fabulous colors of the brushed aluminum bodies: red, orange, lime green, turquoise, purple and grey. And the pens are available as both fountain pens and rollerballs. I had a tough time choosing just one color so I bought two: a turquoise with a medium nib and a lime green with a fine nib. I probably should have bought all six, the colors are so fabulous!

Pilot Metropolitan Reto Pop Fountain Pens

Each pen color has a different pattern on the band below the cap. The turquoise pen has a op art dot pattern and the lime green has a sort of marbled feathered pattern. These elements are similar to how the previous Metropolitan pens have been handled with the animal print patterns on the bands or a smooth shiny finish featured here. All the Retro Pop fountain pens ship in a black plastic case with a clear plastic lid that is ugly and I’d rather not talk about it. For a $15 pen, I would have been fine with the pen being shipped in an environmentally-friendly recyclable paperboard box instead. The box included one black cartridge and a CON-20 squeeze converter. I’m not a fan of the squeeze fillers but, in a pinch, they will do. Even upgrading to a CON-50 twist converter will only add $5.50 to the price of the pen and most Pilot pens can use the CON-50 as well so it can be shared among several pens as they circulate through your collection.

Pilot Metropolitan Reto Pop Fountain Pens

Both the fine and medium nibs featured on the Metropolitan pens are much finer than European and American pens as are common among most Japanese pens. But boy, are the Pilot nibs ever smooth! Pilot did not skimp even on these low priced Metropolitans regarding the nibs. They really are some of the best values available in the pen market today. They are well-weighted, smooth, the caps snap nicely to close and will post if you prefer to post them while writing.

The fine nib will give a writing experience similar to a rollerball like a Sanford Uni-ball fine, a little bit stiffer and firm. The medium nib will have a little bit softer nib experience and give more line variation. It feels like a much more expensive fountain pen. Its pretty darn magical for the price.

Pilot Metropolitan Retro Pop Fountain Pens

I filled my pens with the ink cartridges from the Pilot Parallel Mixable Colour cartridges in turquoise and light green which actually match the pen barrels pretty accurately and came from the assorted color set. Goulet Pens carries the Parallel Mixable Colour cartridges in single color packets or in the assorted color set.

The Retro Pop colors offer a wide enough range of colors to the previously more sedate Metropolitan options to appeal to just about anyone’s taste preferences. If you ever wanted to introduce someone to the wonderful world of fountain pens, there is no better option than the Metropolitan now. Its clean look, wide color options and easy filling (with cartridge or CON-50 upgrade) is a no-brainer introduction.

I love the Retro Pop pens so much, Goulet Pens has kindly donated one for me to give away to one lucky reader. So here’s all the details:

The Giveaway Details:

The Goulet Pens Pilot Metropolitan Retro Pop giveaway package contents: A lime green Retro Pop with fine nib, a vastly superior Con-50 converter and a surprise ink sample package set. The pen and goodies will be sent directly from Goulet Pens. Thanks, Goulet Pens for making this possible!

To Enter:

Leave a comment below and tell me what the lime green color of the Retro Pop pen most reminds you of. Or tell what color you like to see added to the Retro Pop line. That’s it. Easy peasy limeade squeezy.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Friday, December 4, 2015. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Saturday. ONE ENTRY PER PERSON. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Include your “daily use” email address in the comment form (I’m the only one who will see it besides the vendor providing the prize) so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 30 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. US residents only please.

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281 comments

  1. The Lime Green PM reminds me, well, of fine Absynthe with a small cube of sugar in it: It’s happy and highly addictive!

  2. It looks like an ice cream – and specifically the Tropicana ice cream you find in some parts of South East Asia. Yum!

  3. These pens are great! Massdrop did a 2-pack in October and I bought 4, the 2 pictured here and also the red and orange, all medium nibs. With shipping, it came to less than $12 per pen. BTW I think they’re running the same drop again, it must have been popular. The turquoise pen with J. Herbin Vert Réséda immediately became part of my everyday carry. (I’m not trying to enter the giveaway with this comment, since I already have the pen. Just wanted to say how much I love the pens.)

  4. The lime green color of the Retro Pop pen reminds me of my very favorite season, spring…when things are growing and the fresh smell reminds me of life.

  5. It reminds me of Mopar paint color FJ5 – I feel like that pen should be cruising down the road as 70’s American muscle 🙂

    1. Yes! There was a ’67 or ’69 Mercury cougar on my block when I was a kid, the color was very similar. I fell in love with that car, I wish I could have one someday…..

  6. There used to be this zebra chewing gum with stripes on the sticks of gum. that’s what the color and pattern remind me of.

  7. I love the lime green. It is on my Christmas wish list. I would like to see them add a magenta colored Retro Pop.

  8. This shade of lime green brings me back to the memories of my first car, a 1957 Pontiac.

    I was seventeen at the time and my friends and I modified it to become quite a “runner.” Good times back then in 1966.

  9. The lime green looks like a fantastic 50s cocktail set my great-aunt has. Clearly this pen should be used next to it with a fizzy cocktail….

  10. It makes me think of limeade in the summer and I could use some summer just now – cleaning up from a nasty ice storm. It also reminds me of the caramel-sour apple suckers from a few years back. And yes, I too would love to see a bright yellow color added to the line. Bit the lime green is my favorite color so far.

  11. There’s a certain green color that you see on old glass-ball Christmas ornaments as the green color begins to oxidize. That’s what that particular lime green reminds me of.

  12. The lime green reminds me of the first new shoots of grass after all the snow clears away (which, in upstate NY, can take a while…)

  13. The lime green pen reminds me college. I had a lime green highlighter that I used for everything. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.

  14. It reminds me of a hipper shade of lime green that my grandma’s kitchen was decorated in. She preferred the uglier 1970s version of lime green. It was awful but it was comforting in its familiarity.

  15. I would love to see pink added to the Retro Pop line. From pictures, the red looks like it is more on the pink side of red, but I’d love to see a true pink, maybe even a pastel pink. It would be a great addition to the collection.

  16. The lime green finish reminds me of the color of some types of trout and salmon fishing lures used in Lake Michigan. Thanks for the opportunity to participate in the giveaway and for the great review and photos.

  17. I had trouble deciding between the turquoise and green when I got mine. So, I still “need” the green, which reminds me of apples, and I forgot to get another spare converter, so this would be great. I got the M nib, too, so this would even my Metro collection back up.

  18. I think of Alt-Goldgrun by R&K when I see the lime color, but more than anything it reminds me of happiness!

    I think Hot Pink and Neon Yellow is missing from this collection. I’d love to see those colors!

  19. The lime green matches the accent color in my favorite knitted cowl, a semi-solid called Loden from Shalimar Yarns. The yarn gives just a hint of that lime…and it would match the cowl so well.

  20. The green is my favorite design of the Retro Pop line. The color is great (like the stem of a summer flower) but I love the marbley design of the accent band the best of all the designs of the other Retro Pops. I already have a gold Metropolitan and I’ve been wondering how to talk myself into buying another!

  21. The green reminds me of William Morris. It shouldn’t, but there you have it. I’m surprised that Pilot didn’t release a blue-blue pen. You know what I mean? A “Goulet blue” is pretty much what I mean. I’ve got Noodler’s Liberty’s Elysium living in a silver Metropolitan, and I’d pretty much be obligated to switch it to a blue pen if Pilot released one. 🙂

  22. The first thing that came to mind for me was Key Lime Pie (my favorite) and then I noticed another user (and even another Jim) had said the same thing. Maybe Jim and Key Lime Pie just go together.

  23. Oh wow! Aren’t these gorgeous? The entire range is fantastical – but I have to say that the lime green reminds me of my workplace (a major retailer here in the UK) which is A-okay, ’cause green is my favourite colour and has been for years. 😛 I’m from the UK, so I’m not eligible, but I have a very close friend in the US who would love one of these!

  24. Loving the lime green, reminds me of the colour of my nan’s 70s wall art… And the outfit I wore for my best friends wedding! Both great memories!

  25. The lime green is the one I want! It is my favorite of this line right alongside the turquoise. It makes me think of leaves in springtime… I love the fresh bright green. I love most of the colors in this line but I would love to see a deeper blue than the turquoise (a Goulet Pen blue??? 🙂 yes!) and maybe a nice clear pink.

  26. It’s “lime”-green, but it reminds me of a shiny Granny Smith apple. The accent could even be leaves!

  27. The glistening lime green reminds me of the wings on a June Bug…a big beautiful jewel-toned scarab beetle that old grown-up kids like me used to catch and tie a string to in the summer, before the Internet was invented and life was simple.

  28. Guacamole time! Living in Florida, one of my favorite foods to enjoy several times a week is guacamole! Everytime I would use that pen (inked up in green of course!) it would remind me of the delisishness of guacamole!

  29. It reminds me of the “You Can’t Do That on Television” green slime that splattered onto kids’ heads when they said, “I don’t know.”

  30. I’d like to see darker tones in the Metropolitan line! Besides the black, All of the colors available have been really bright, even the darkest ones seem quite bright to me. A really deep burgundy or navy blue would be phenomenal complements to the series.

  31. When I was 16, my mother made a lime green three piece outfit. It was the color of the lime green of the pen. The reason I remember this outfit so well is the principal of the high school sent me home for wearing pants to school. This was 1967. I had no problem when I returned later wearing the matching mini skirt. My mother tells me if she had been there, she wouldn’t have let him make me change. But she had returned to college and was 60 miles away. She got her BA when I graduated from high school, and her MA at the same ceremony I got my BA.

  32. The green reminds me of vintage 50’s color and devor. Can’t you picture atomic designs with this bright color?

  33. The green one one just reminds me of my friend who loves green, because ever since she saw me eyeing them up on the Goulet site she has been nagging me to get her the green one. Ah well, Christmas is coming!

  34. The lime green retro pop reminds me of the Key Lime Pie my mom used to make for me in the Cayman Islands.

  35. I can’t say why the lime green appeals to me so much . I think it reminds me of Jolly Rancher Green Apple candies. A pomegranate color would be great!

  36. The lime green looks somewhere between my own margarita recipe – fresh lime juice, no sour mix, with just a splash of OJ – and my niece’s best-in-the-world guacamole. As for other colors, I’d love to see pastels, some bright but highly saturated blues, or a rich burgundy.

  37. The green reminds me of lime popsicles:)

    Color I’d like to see? How about a nice cranberry red.

  38. I love these pens! The lime green reminds me of the “Swingin’ 60s”! Just need a hot pink one to match one of my favourite dresses from that era. (OK – I am so dating myself!)

  39. Hi —- The lime green reminds me of nature: i.e. – a catipillar or a grasshopper or Jimminy Crickett 🙂
    very pretty

  40. My wife’s key lime pie, until a waiter told us that true key lime pie was white. Now she gets to hear “mom, you’re making it wrong!”

  41. Hi — The lime green reminds me of nature:
    A catipillar or a grasshoppers or Jimminy Cricket 🙂
    beautiful

  42. The lime green reminds me of a sweater I knit, especially paired up with that turquoise. It is a lovely green and turquoise striped sweater! And I still have lots of extra lime green yarn.

  43. I had a Canon camera in exactly the same green colour as this Metropolitan. I took this camera with me when I studied overseas. Good memories 🙂

  44. The lime green kind of reminds me of summer or spring, and the happiness of plants. I think it would go great with a nice bright green ink!

  45. The lime green simply makes me happy. Reminds new of my birthstone, peridot. However a pink would be swell and groovy.

  46. The color of the lime green retro pop reminds me of color of the new leaves on the trees outside my window in the spring.

  47. I’d love to see burgundy, magenta/fuschia, copper/bronze, and/or emerald green. The lime green reminds me of frozen margaritas!

  48. I would love more of a rich blue for it. The colors are very vibrant, and I think a nice blue would be a good addition.

    The green reminds me of limeade. Yum. 🙂

  49. First thought is of a tropical paradise. Fresh fruit on lush trees, gentle sea breeze, lounging in a hammock listening to the waves break in the distance.

  50. The line green green Metropolitan reminds me of the sour green Bottlecaps of my carefree and mentally imperiled youth….

  51. I would like a metro that changes color due to heat. Very cold-purple/pink. Hot- orange/red and warm-blue/green.

  52. Nice review! A maroon or burgandy color would suit me well. I have a black Metro, medium nib and just use the blue plastic cartridges. They work pretty good.

  53. The lime green one totally reminds me of the Euclid Tree Company’s trucks when I was growing up in Denver, Colorado. And that my mother painted every bedroom I ever had with a similar green.

  54. The retro lime green on the Metropolitan reminds me on 1970s love seat my grandparents had. I would love to see a royal blue metropolitan pen. (My favorite color) my first fountain pen was the white tiger metropolitan. I am hooked! Great pen.

  55. My mother used to make limeade that was tinted somewhat like that of the metro. Good times :)))).

  56. It is a perfect match for J Herbin Vert Pre (green meadow) ink.
    I am giving several of these for Christmas gifts!

  57. Gummi worms I really crave gummi candy looking at these. I am hoping for a pop of pink to be added. I would love one to match my Filofax!

  58. That lime. Did you ever go to Steak n Shake back in the day, meaning the 90s, and get a lime freeze? Cause when it’s reflecting off the light, it’s giving me those vibes and reminding me how desperately I miss that flavor!

  59. The lime green color reminds me of several of my favorite wardrobe items including my lime green Toms — it’s my signature color. Brings out the green in my eyes, so I’m told. The pen would coordinate nicely.

  60. It reminds me of the color of the leaves on the Dogwood trees during that brief period when there are still flowers on the tree and the leaves are first appearing.

  61. The lime green reminds me of my son’s favorite sippy cup, and I’d like to see a cobalt blue Metropolitan.

  62. It definitely reminds me of an old pleather couch that sat in my grandma’s house. I would lose the pen on the couch, the colors are practically identical!

  63. The vibrancy of the lime green reminds me of my honeymoon in the Dominican Republic all those lovely shades of tropical colors…….

    I would love to see a blackberry purple in the lineup of the retro as well.

  64. Alas just read your fine print. US residents only oh well no hard feelings We, here over in the rest of the world, wish all the US residents good luck with the draw
    Love your reviews

  65. It reminds me of the small opened pack of wrigley’s spearmint gum in the bottom of my grandma’s purse. She always had fresh gum.

  66. The color of my wife’s face when she sees another fountain pen show up in the mailbox..

  67. Ahh, the nostalgia really hits with this color! I immediately thought of Nickelodeon’s vivid green slime pouring all over a kid and thought to myself, gosh, how long ago was that? It’s a really nice trip back to my childhood. This really says retro like no other for me.

    Thank you kindly for the giveaway!

  68. It reminds me of my favorite pair of shoes in middle school. I went through a lime green phase, but my favorite thing was that pair of shoes!

  69. The green reminds me of the scarf I am knitting for a friend, just a few shades brighter, a bit of a pistachio colour.
    I would love to see a pink pen added to the mix, maybe with sakura petals as a design.

  70. I’d like to see some blue (not turquoise, true blue) added to the Retro line! I’m pretty sure it would look sweet X3

  71. The green pen reminds me of those Kia’s that the hamster’s drive in those unique colors. That green only looks good on a pen not on a car.

  72. Ooh! I love the lime green and turquoise combination! The lime green reminds me of candy – the lime green Starbursts that use to come in the pack back in the 80’s, and lime green rock candy.Love green! If Pilot wants to make more in this style I would love to see something in the tan/yellow/brown family. Maybe a coppery metallic or a lemon yellow?

  73. It reminds me of apple-flavored jolly rancher candies. Or that awful ribbon candy that grandma always seemed to have in stock.

  74. The lime green reminds of Jello. I’d love for the Orange color to be a tad darker and I don’t like the pattern on the section. I wish we could choose the section pattern but I realize that would cause the price to skyrocket…

  75. Our house sat in an apple orchard. Spring was the best. This green brings back memories of budding leaves and pink apple blossoms in the warm sun accompanied by laughter as we waited for the bus and anticipated the start of summer vacation. Happy times.

  76. Lime green always makes me think of this Camaro I wanted when I was younger… painted lime green of course… sigh.

  77. I’d really like to see a TARDIS Blue color. These pens are so beautiful. I love the patterns.

  78. It reminds me of a Christmas ornament I had as a kid. I’m old so the ornament was a neon green mercury glass bird ornament with a fiber like tail. It clilpped on a tree branch and was always mine to put on the tree. It’s long gone but whenever I see that color this time of year I think of it.

  79. I’d love to see a blue-gray or perhaps a deep sky blue. I love the Pilot Metropolitan — it’s my favorite starter pen. Even though I already have five of them, there’s always room in my collection for more.

  80. That lime green reminds me of bad shag carpeting from the 70s (Is there good shag carpeting?). [Hm. I actually like that color… Maybe I need new carpets.]

  81. That green reminds me of my grandma’s kitchen table in San Antonio. I think it was purchased in the 50s. When my family visited her home, I always admired the shiny chrome legs and the beautiful green formica top on that table! It was a classic.

  82. The lime green reminds me of the the little granny Smith apples I used to pick from my back yard as a kid, they were so tart most of the time I was the only one who would pick them before the squirrels got to them.

  83. Thanks for the chance to win one! I’d like to see a bright yellow one of these. The lime green reminds meof a skirt I once had and wore all the time …

  84. I love these Metropolitan pens, too. The lime color reminds me of the color of the baby leaves of spring, so fresh and cheerful. It would be a good pen to use on dark winter days when cabin fever has set in.

  85. Both pens remind me of shimmering ball gowns, so I should probably go check out the Glittering Royal Events message board and see what the royals might be doing.

  86. The lime green reminds me of the green of spring before the leaves darken in summer. Great color.

  87. The first thing that came to mind was a 1970 Dodge Challenger. I had to look up the color name to be sure: Sublime 2128 (go figure). Wouldn’t mind one of those, too! 😀

  88. A fine nib Metropolitan is my current dream pen. If they made new colors, I’d love to see a fuchsia or a bold blue…

  89. Chocolate brown, as many have already said, would actually be great! The green one is not huge source of inspiration, it mainly reminds me of spring and all that cliche jazz.

  90. The lime green Metropolitan reminds me of everything my sister owned growing up. Green is still her favorite color, but she isn’t so vibrantly lime green anymore. 🙂

  91. I wish there was a yellow or pink color! A sunny yellow or a dusty/reddish pink (not too magenta or something)!

  92. The lime green Pliot Metro Retro reminds me of the rad snowflakes in a Christmas card my Dad designed and silkscreened himself back in the late 60s. Wish I had a still had a copy of the card -it’d still look on point today.

  93. Oh the pen reminds me of lime pie or a Green Apple Jolly Rancher. Kind of a toss up. Both are making my mouth water!

    I’d love to see a pink grapefruit or melon-y color if they ever made it. Coral, I guess.
    What a sweet giveaway though.

  94. What a fabulous giveaway! The lime green reminds me of a lush and beautiful rainforest I visited last year.

  95. The lime green reminds me of my mom. When I was in high school she went through this lime green phase (now it’s purple) and she painted our kitchen bright lime green. And everything she wore was lime green. She had lime green purses and shoes and even eyeliner! Every time I see lime green I think of my awesome mom and how much she means to me and what s great job she did raising me and my three siblings.

  96. Love that lime green! Definitely makes me think of popsicles on a sunny summer day. But they should definitely add a hot pink to the lineup…

  97. I would love to see a pale pink, not hot pink or fuschia but a pale pink with polka dots would be perfect!

  98. I’ve been trying to figure out all week what the green pen reminds me of. Finally I figured it out, the green is sort of like some awesome mosses I’ve seen in the PNW, but the frosty shininess reminds me of the old aluminum cups that my husband got from his grandmother’s house.

  99. lime green reminds me of my first year as a teacher. Funny how my job is the same reason I started using fountain pens again.
    I was 21 years young and enthusiastically I painted the wall in my classroom in this crisp and clean color to give it my personal touch.
    It’s a cheerful color and it still reminds me of happy kids.

    I miss a salmon pink. The color of a happy summer feeling.

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