The Regal Alice fountain pen is a slender copper body pen with a shimmer metallic finish and silver tone hardware. The pen is pretty, inexpensive and feels nice in the hand. Everyone who sees it compliments its looks and asks about it because the color is unusual and the slim understated design is something not often seen in modern pen designs. Originally, the pen only shipped with a medium nib but is now designed to accept an EF fountain pen nib ($10) or can be retrofit to accept a rollerball refill if you change out the grip section..
The pen ships with standard black ink cartridges and there is an option to use a cartridge converter. A cartridge converter is available directly from Regal for $3 or the Monteverde Piston Converter which is more widely available.
I swapped out the medium nib for the EF nib which is quite fine and perfect for everyday office writing since its fine enough to stand up to inexpensive copy paper and the like. I also went ahead and got the cartridge converter because I wanted to be able to use lots of ink colors easily.
The pen is fairly long and slender but because of the brass base material it has a nice weight. The cap does not post because of a plastic lining material inside the cap that helps seal the cap and keep the pen closed tightly. It reminds me of the cap on the Pelikan Stola III in that way. I didn’t mind that it didn’t post but I know this might be an issue for some folks.
I normally write pretty small for notes and daily writing so the EF nib on a small, slender body fits my writing style nicely. The Alice is a bit drier writing pen overall so it felt more like a needlepoint rollerball or gel pen and may feel more familiar to people just starting in fountain pens than a wet writer. It also makes it a good candidate for mucking about on everyday office papers where you don’t get a lot of say on the types of paper it is on but would still like to use a fountain pen.
I tested the Alice on a bit of Moleskine Cahier paper, Tomoe River Hobonichi and some cheap 20# office paper just to prove my point. There was no feathering and very little show through with the light turquoise ink color I was using. YMMV.
The Alice is available for $20 from Regal in black, white, pink, turquoise, and champagne pink (fuchsia). It’s also available as a rollerball or ballpoint. At a price like this, if the colors appeal to you, its a fun pen to add to the collection and one that may intrigue non-fountain pen users into the hobby. It definitely catches attention.
The Alice got to visit my very own Wonderland… in my backyard this weekend. I think it looks right at home.
Love mine too-gonna order the fine nib-thanks!
I bought one in purple last year and another in the teal this year. I also got the EF nib–I should have gotten the converter, too. I’ll have to add it. What is also nice is that you can get the rollerball unit for it if you want to use it that way. It’s a screw-in unit that replaces the fountain pen section. I thought that was clever.
It was so nice to see you there at the Vanness booth! I’m glad you could attend!
That is a fine looking pen! I’ve never heard of regal before, but I’m definitely going to keep an eye out for them now
Great Photos! I’m glad Lewis Carroll got his day. Seems like a good value for work a day use.
Great Review Ana!
It’s hard to beat Regal Pens for the value!
@federalistpens
I plan on picking up another one of these in Atlanta next year.
Thanks for sharing the link to the extra fine nib. I might want to try that or a fine nib. I just bought 2 of these pens, one in black and one in turquoise. The turquoise is definitely a nice pop of color.
A couple things about these pens. I’m a newbie to fountain pens but have tried the Lamy Al-Star and Pilot Metropolitan. Compared to these popular first-timer fountain pens, the Regal Alice is not as easy to work with.
It’s a touch scratchy and doesn’t always start-up right away. It skips and doesn’t flow as nicely as I’d like. This could be the ink I’m working with or this particular nib that it came with. That’s why I’m interested in trying another nib. On the positive side, once it gets going it has less issues.
I also realized after buying them that, as nice as the slenderness of the pen body is, I prefer a wider barrel. This is of course just personal preference and each person differs.
One plus for the pens, it turns out my caps did in fact post. Also, I agree that the pen weight is very nice.
Thanks for your review and photos:)
UPDATE:
I got an extra fine nib for my black pen (so it matches the pen body) and I love it! Purchased it from the link posted in the review. Writes more smoothly and flows nicely. Plus, the line width is much better for smaller handwriting like mine. With the finer, better functioning nib I’ll probably be using this one a lot more!
I got this pen for Christmas after seeing it in a Jet Pens email. I sent them a question asking if the color was close to mint. I forget their answer and deleted the email. But it looks kind of like Diamine Soft Mint ink. The color turquoise almost makes me think of colors from the 1950s of 1960s, maybe, that I’ve seen in photos. I got the M nib.