Pilot VBall BeGreeN 05 Review

The Pilot VBall is a pen that has been around for years and has a large following. I know several readers would consider it one of their all-time favorites. What I don’t understand about the VBall is why isn’t it easier to find on store shelves? It is one of Pilot’s main pen lines, but I had to resort to Amazon to get a pack of my own to review. And I have had it on the radar for years.

Admittedly, I’m probably being too hard on Pilot. The VBall Grip and VBall Retractable are EVERYWHERE and use the same ink. I have used both of those pens, but I wanted the original VBall experience in the original VBall barrel design. Have you seen one of those on the shelf recently?

I settled for the VBall BeGreeN, which is a fine choice considering it is made from 81.6% recycled content. As happy as I am to be environmentally conscious, what I really wanted to know is how well the VBall writes.

I think my expectations were too high.

Liquid ink is challenging, especially in finer tip sizes. The VBall ink is wetter than I remember, more so than the VBall RT that I reviewed years ago. This causes my handwriting to not have the clean edge that gel or plastic tip pens provide.

When I bought this pen, I was hoping that it would find a place in my regular writing arsenal. Unfortunately it has been relegated to backup status.

Pilot Explorer Extra Fine Black Review

Raise your hand if you remember this pen.

I certainly do, as it was one of my favorites growing up. The Pilot Explorer has a very unique design, especially for a pen whose heyday was back in the 80’s and 90’s. To a youngster like me, it looked like it was from outer space. The best part about the Exlplorer though was how it wrote. I remember fine, crisp black lines, unlike the majority of the pens on the market at that time. So how does it hold up today?

It hasn’t skipped a beat.

Seth from Good Pens was kind enough to send me one from a stash he found at a stationery store in Europe. He has been on a mission for a while to find a good source for the Explorer, but has run into dead end after dead end.

From all appearances, the Explorer has been discontinued. You can find some strays available from various online office supply stores, but more often than not they are out of stock. I have looked through every Pilot Pen foreign site to no avail. I have even emailed the store in Denmark where Seth found them and got no response.

So, Pilot Pen, if you are listening - where can we get these pens?

The Explorer is as good as many of the pens that Pilot has on the market today. They write similarly to the Pilot VBall RT Extra Fine, which is very popular. I loved using one again and I think on nostalgia alone this pen would sell very well.

Please bring back the Pilot Explorer!

Pilot Better Retractable Ballpoint Review

The Pilot Better Ballpoint was one of my favorite pens in high school. I used the fine blue ballpoint almost exclusively, and I liked the fact it came in purple as well. There was something about the design and the fine tip that I enjoyed.

I grabbed a two-pack of the Pilot Better Retractable at Staples recently trying to bring back old memories of incessant notebook cover doodling. This was a great pen back in the day and the design is timeless. Unfortunately, the ballpoint quality has been lapped by even some of Pilot’s own products.

Because of the basic ink performance, the Pilot Better Ballpoint falls in to the “just a pen” category. The black ink is light, there is white space in the lines, and there is ink build up around the tip frequently. Have I used worse ballpoint pens? Absolutely. Can I recommend other ballpoints that are better than this? Dozens.

I understand its place in Pilot’s product line - they need an office supply cabinet filler. But when I see Uni-ball making an effort with the Jetstream 101 to have a lower cost, higher quality ballpoint, I think Pilot could do the same with this pen. How much of a design change would it take to get the EasyTouch Pro (aka Acroball) ink into the Better Ballpoint?

Make that change and the Pilot Better Ballpoint might live up to its name once again.