(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)
Every year Pilot comes out with a limited edition Vanishing Point fountain pen. I’ve never forgiven myself for missing out on the 2015 Twilight limited edition (Hey, yo, if anyone has one of those they’d like to sell, I’m your girl!). Even though I wasn’t as excited about the Tropical Turquoise, I liked it enough to buy it.
The photographs that were initially released made the Tropical Turquoise look rather bland--a flat turquoise color with black swirls. But, the design is much more appealing in person. The turquoise sparkles like water in sunlight and the black swirls give the color depth and interest. The pen looks very much like beautiful tropical waters. It is complemented with rhodium trim.
The Tropical Turquoise comes in a special limited edition box. It’s white with turquoise lettering. The top lifts up to reveal the pen. There’s a built-in drawer that contains one ink cartridge and a Vanishing Point pamphlet.
The Vanishing Point is a medium-sized pen in length at 5.4 inches/138 mm with the nib exposed. However, it is both heavy at 32 grams and rather wide in diameter at 11.5mm (where your fingers grip the pen).
Like all Vanishing Points, the clip is part of the grip portion of the pen. This forces you to hold your fingers in a particular position as you write. Some people can’t stand this design, whereas others find it quite comfortable (I’m obviously in the latter group). You can do a “clipectomy” and remove the clip entirely, but I have no desire to alter the pen.
Limited Edition Vanishing Points come standard with medium nibs, but some retailers, such as Casa della Stilographica where I bought my pen, offer it with any nib size. I chose a stub. It wrote perfectly right out of the box, and I’m quite pleased with my choice.
I love the Vanishing Point mechanism, because when I’m in class, I don’t write constantly. The click mechanism allows me to write quickly when I need to and to retract the nib when I don’t. The stub nib is wet and provides interesting line variation that suits my writing style.
My only complaint about Vanishing Points is the teeny, tiny converter system. It only holds about .5ml of ink. I realize they have to keep the converter small because the pen is already rather heavy. I just wish they could find some way to increase the capacity to 1ml or so. Filling the pen is simple, but if you run out while taking notes in the middle of a meeting, you can’t exactly stop, take out a bottle of ink, unscrew the pen, remove the converter, fill it, wipe it down, and reassemble the pen without creating a bit of a distraction. Obviously, having a back-up pen handy is a good idea.
Pilot created 2,019 pens for this limited edition run. Many retailers have already sold out, so if you’re interested in the Tropical Turquoise, act soon. The pen retails around $250 but I’ve seen prices as low as $206.
(I purchased this pen with my own funds.)
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