News: Kickstarter Follow-Up, Retro51 and Lamy

Kickstarter:

The Pen Addict RelayCon 2018 Kickstarter has just nine days left and has surpassed its funding goals. So much so that there is money in the budget to take me along on the trip to Toronto and New York as well as Atlanta so I am looking forward to meeting the Canadian contingency this fall!

Literally the day I posted the Kickstarter Round Up, Ensso launched their XS Pocket Fountain Pen Project. This is a tiny pocketable fountain pen that is the size of a Fisher Space Pen and reminiscent of the Kaweco Liliput. It’s faceted like the Kaweco Sport but smaller and priced right. The early backer prices start at $39. There’s still two weeks left to back this project.

Even with Matt from the Pen Habit’s video, the DeNobil Kickstarter is still struggling along at only 10% of their funding goal and less than two weeks left. The pens on offer are ebonite with a custom Bock nib. Is it the pen itself or the plethora of pen-related Kickstarter options currently available that are hurting DeNobil’s efforts to reach its goal right now?

Retro51:

Fahrney’s released their annual Retro51 Cherry Blossom edition designs in rollerball ($53), fountain pen ($89) and pencil ($59). The flowers are pretty but the Treasury Building in the center looks sort of slapped on and, in the description, it says there’s an eagle somewhere in the design which always makes me think of the eagle squaw in the intro to The Stephen Colbert show — just a little over the top.

Lamy Safari:

The Lamy Safari All Black (2018 Special Edition) has finally been revealed. How does it differ from the standard edition Safari umbra fountain pen (matt black)? It’s DEEP black matte plastic. Oh. Okay. All I’m going to say here AL-Star always and I’m sorry Team Safari got hosed this year.

Can I cheer you up by letting you know that it looks like the white Lamy Joy is back in circulation?

In Other News:

Finally, in the I-live-on-the-border-of-Kansas news, on Sunday, local police spent a good portion of their day chasing a naked man on an ATV down the interstate. As my husband said when he relayed this entertaining bit of Midwestern jackassery to me “Sun’s out, buns out.”