Pentel – Page 3 – Nimrodd's Blog

Retail Packages in the USA, part 2

Posted on October 15, 2017 by nimroddfw

In my last post, I wrote about the P205 and P209 retail packages, as well as the 2-pack of P207C Blue pencils. This blog will be about the 5 series of P207 retail packages that are available here in the United States.

These 5 series of packages all use some of these 8 pencils in their packaging: P207M-KX (Light Green Metallic), P207M-K1X (Mint Green Metallic), P207MN (Metallic Graphite; sometimes called Anthracite), P207M-PX (Pink Metallic), P207M-P1X (Rose Pink Metallic), P207M-SX (Sky Blue Metallic), P207M-YX (Rose Gold Metallic) and P207Z (Silver).

P207 3-Packs

P207MBP3M (26194) and P207MBP3M1 (26195)

The package on the left was the first P207 retail pack I purchased in January 2016. I could not find a local source for this, so I had to purchase it online on eBay. The other package, I found online and purchased in June 2016.

The package on the left (P207MPB3M) contains a P207Z (Silver), P207M-YX (Rose Gold Metallic), and P207MN (Metallic Graphite) and the package on the right (P207MPB3M1) contains a P207M-P1X (Rose Pink Metallic), P207M-SX (Sky Blue Metallic), and P207M-KX (Light Green Metallic).

P207 2-Packs

P207MBP2 (26225)

I found these pencils at Office Depot in September 2016 (for the left package) and March 2017 for the other two. The left package contains a P207MN (Metallic Graphite) and a P207Z (Silver). The middle package contains a P207M-SX (Sky Blue Metallic), and a P207M-KX (Light Green Metallic) and the right package contains P207M-YX (Rose Gold Metallic) and a P207M-P1X (Rose Pink Metallic).

P207 Single Pencil, Lead & Eraser Packs

P207MLEBP (26190)

I first encountered these pencils online and purchased them, but later found out that they are available locally at Walmart stores. Each package contains one P207 metallic pencil, a pack of 12 0.7mm HB lead and 2 Z2-1N short white erasers. This was my first encounter with the short erasers, as I had not seen that Pentel had changed from a 3-pack of the erasers that are shipped with the pencils to a 4-pack of these short erasers.

The four packages contain the following pencils from left to right: P207MN (Metallic Graphite), P207M-SX (Sky Blue Metallic), P207M-YX (Rose Gold Metallic), and P207Z (Silver).

P207 Single Pencil Packs

P207MBPM (26155)

I was not able to find these pencils in any local stores, so I purchased them off eBay. They each contain one P207 metallic pencil, colors from left to right: P207Z (Silver), P207M-YX (Rose Gold Metallic), P207M-SX (Sky Blue Metallic), P207MN (Metallic Graphite), P207M-P1X (Rose Pink Metallic), and P207M-KX (Light Green Metallic).

P207 Single Pencil & Lead Pack

P207MLBPT (25919)

I found these pencils at Target in September 2016, and discovered that there were 2 new colors included in this series (P207M-PX & P207M-K1X). Each of these packages contains one P207 metallic pencil and a 12-pack of 0.7mm HB lead.

The colors from left to right are P207M-PX (Pink Metallic), P207M-KX (Light Green Metallic), P207M-SX (Sky Blue Metallic), P207M-K1X (Mint Green Metallic), P207M-YX (Rose Gold Metallic) and P207M-P1X (Rose Pink Metallic).

P207MLBPT (25919, 26248, 26249 & 26250, 26251, 26252)

An odd thing happened in 2017; Pentel redesigned the package for the P207MLBPT and re-released it. They also changed the barcode and the number that appears on the front top left of the package. I found these in March of 2017, and they contain the same 6 pencils as the first set.

P200 Family, Pentel

Retail Packages in the USA, part 1

Posted on September 11, 2017September 10, 2017 by nimroddfw

As part of my collection, I also collect the retail packages, at least from the United States, and a few others. In this post, I will talk about the P205 and P209 packages, as well as one P207. In the next post, I will cover the large quantity of P207 packages.

Standard Retail Packages

The above packages are the current (as of 2017) style of packaging for the P205A (P205BP2F-K6), P207C (P207BP2F-K6) & P209G (P209BP2F-K6) pencils. At this time you can go to just about any store that sells Office Supplies and find one of these packages.

P205 Retail Packages

In 2015, this package (P205BP2F) was released for the 50th anniversary of Pentel America. This package has the same barcode as the above 2-pack of P205A pencils and came with 2 of those, plus the “FREE Limited Edition Pencil”, a gold colored P205 with black text. Since it was different from all other P205 pencils, I decided to designate it (at least for my purposes) the P205M-X50 (just tacking on the 50 to mark it as different from the P205M-X gold pencil with white text.

Unfortunately, I only managed to get hold of a couple of these pencils, and they are no longer available in stores.

Released in 2016, these two packages (P205MBP3M and P205MBP3M1) are still available, at least on eBay. I have never found them in stores, at least not in my area of the US.

The left package contains two P205MNX Metallic Graphite (or sometimes called Antracite) with white text, plus a P205MZX Silver with black text. The nice thing about these packaged pencils, is that they are also individually labeled with the model number and a barcode, which makes positive identification easy.

The right package contains one each of the P205MBX Red, P205MCX Blue and P205MDX Green pencils, all with white text. Again, each of these pencils is individually labeled. What is interesting, is that each of these three pencils were first released in 2012, with a slightly different model number (P205M-BX, P205M-CX and P205M-DX) and different barcodes. Everything else appears to be exactly the same.

P209 Retail Packages

In the last two weeks, I have found out about a new line of P209 retail packages. From what I can determine, there are 4 different pencils in the same packaging (P209MBPM). The above is one of the images I found on eBay. I know earlier this year, Pentel America released 4 new P209 Metallic pencils (P209M-KX, P209M-NX, P209M-PX & P209M-ZX), but I am not sure if these are the same pencils, just now packaged. I hope to get some of these in the near future to find out.

The next blog post will go into the multitudes of P207 retail packaging.

P200 Family, Pentel

P207C Pencils

Posted on July 17, 2017December 8, 2019 by nimroddfw

Here I will write about the Pentel P207C Blue 0.7mm pencil. This pencil was one of the key pencils in identifying the different generations of pencils in my collection.

Generation 1

Prior to September 2018, when I acquired this pencil, I had assumed that the oldest version of the P207C was the Generation 1A, since “P205” was molded into the cutout, and they stamped the bottom with the size “0.7 m/m”. My assumption was that they did that so that there would be no confusion about what size this really was.

Apparently, I was wrong, and they did release the P207C before they started stamping the size on the bottom. This is a very clean pencil that does not look like it ever had anything stamped on the bottom, so I have designated it as a Generation 1. Plus, it has the initial style clip with the Pentel down the front of the clip and the wrap around sides blank. I have only seen this on Generation 1 pencils.

Generation 1A

This was the first pencil I received with the size printed on the bottom. It is also, the only Generation 1A pencil that I own, and I have had it since 2012.

When Pentel first released the P205A Black pencil in 1970, they molded the model number (P205) into the cutout. Apparently when they decided to release the P207 pencil, they did not get the cutout changed out and used the same molds with the blue plastic. Well, this caused a minor problem, since the last digit of the model is the size of the lead, and since the “P205” was still molded in, they had to do something to identify this as a 0.7mm pencil, so they printed the size on the bottom of the pencil, opposite the cutout.

Another difference on this pencil from the modern versions, is that the tip has a 2mm guide pipe, instead of the modern 4mm pipe.

In pencils of Generation 1 to 4, the cap stop (what keeps the cap from pushing the eraser into the Inner Body) was inside the cap, where in Generations 5 and later, they molded the stop as a lip on the Inner Body. Most of these pencils had a metal piece in the cap (actually the same piece as around the eraser), but this early pencil had a plastic piece inserted as the cap stop.

Generation 1B

At some point they got the cutout changed, removing the “P205”. They still needed some way to identify the size of the pencil, so they left the size printed on the bottom.

But, as you can see in the picture above, this solution had a problem, in that the printed size would start to get worn off.

This pencil still has the 2mm guide pipe, but the cap stop is now the metal insert.

The reason I chose to make Generations 1A & 1B as sub-category of Generation 1, is that the changes were so minor (adding printed size), and changing a minor plate (removing the P205) in the mold, but not substantially changing it, like they do below.

Generation 2 – Short Tip

In August 2017, again, 2 weeks after the blog, I got this pencil, which confirmed that Pentel did carry the Short Tip over to the Generation 2 pencils for the P207C, just like they did for the P205A pencils.

Generation 2

The solution to the printed size getting worn off, would be to mold the size into the body of the pencil. This necessitated every pencil to now have it’s own mold, where before they could use the same molds.

They also switched to the now standard 4mm guide pipe for the tip.

This pencil and the Generation 1B above were acquired in February 2017 off eBay.

Generation 3

I purchased this pencil along with the Generation 1A pencil from Andrey’s Pencils on eBay back in 2012.

At this point, Pentel decided to get the model number back on the pencil, so they started printing the size, Pentel and the model on the side next to the clip. I suspect that they also changed the ink they used, as I don’t find as many with really worn text (percentage wise) as I did for Generations 1A & 1B. Another factor may be the protection of the clip. Being that close to the clip’s band, it holds it off the body a little bit better.

Generation 5

Again, picked up off eBay, I got this in October 2016.

It is the first of the “modern” P200 generations, where they made changes to streamline costs and assembly time.

Generation 6

I don’t remember where I got this pencil, but according to my records it was back in 2009, when I was still collecting mechanical pencils in general, before focusing on the Pentel Sharp.

It is the standard P207 that you can still buy in the stores today, with the letter in the Mark in the Cutout, and shipping with the white Z2-1 eraser.

And Now For Something A Little Different

I purchased this pencil on eBay in 2016. I cannot remember specifically why I purchased it, but when I got it, everything about it was wrong.

First off, at a glance, it looks like a Generation 5 or 6 pencil from the text printed (does not have the “/” in the mm) on the side, but, it has the molded size on the bottom, which ended with Generation 3, so I thought that someone had taken an old pencil and printed the new style text, but on closer inspection, even this fell apart.

When I took the pencil apart, I saw that the Inner Body does not have the Brass spring rest, and is actually a Generation 5 Inner Body, with the molded cap stop.

On closer inspection of the Outer Body, beyond just the molded size, I saw that it had the letter A in the Mark (in the cutout), which was characteristic of the Generations 2 & 3 (and possibly 4, but I don’t have one to confirm this) P207s. BUT, on the inside of the Outer Body, I found that it has the 12 point retainer of Generations 5 & 6.

So, what it looks like is someone got hold of a Generation 2 or 3 outer mold for the body and an Generation 5 or 6 inner mold for the body and used them to make their own copy of the P207 and printed the modern text on it, then inserted the modern inner mechanism.

I keep this pencil in my collection, just as a reminder that not everything is always as it is represented.

EDITS 2019-12-08 – Added the Generation 1 and Generation 2 – Short Tip pencils to this blog.

P200 Family, Pentel

P203E Pencils

Posted on July 4, 2017 by nimroddfw

This post will cover the Pentel P203E Brown 0.3mm pencils. At this moment, I only own 3 distinct versions of this pencil, but I will cover some of others.

Generation 4

This is the earliest version of the P203 that I have been able to acquire for my collection. This pencil has the m/m in the printed text on the side, but does not have anything molded into the bottom (like a Generation 3 would). The cap still has the metal insert that keeps it from pushing the eraser down into the Inner Body.

Generation 4.5

When I was trying to buy these pencils online, I assumed they were (what I currently call) Generation 5 because of the text on the outer body. It wasn’t until I received them and found that the inner mechanisms all belong to a 4th Generation pencil.

When I was first categorizing my pencils, I called this “Generation 5” (and later generations were 1 step higher) because I had about 11 out of about 175 pencils, so I thought this was a legitimate full Generation. But I was getting frustrated, because I could not find a “Generation 5” P205A Black pencil. It wasn’t until at one point, I looked at what pencils comprised this generation and found that (at that time) only 0.3mm and 0.7mm made up this generation, and for the 0.7mm, it was only the smaller run of pencils (not P207s).

I then decided that this must be an intermediary generation to use up existing supplies. So I changed “Generations 6 and 7” to the current Generations 5 and 6, and since this is a hybrid of Generations 4 and 5, I decided to call it Generation 4.5.

Generation 6

I picked this pencil up with the label (model # & barcode) on it as my example of a Generation 6 P203. It is hard to tell in the individual pictures, but if you look at the image at the top of this post, you can see that this is a slightly darker shade of plastic that makes up the body of this pencil.

Other Generations

I don’t know when the P203E was first introduced, but I suspect it was at least as far back as Generation 2. On the cover of the German 1975 Catalog (at least that is where I believe this is from), it shows (bottom row, to the left) the 4 standard P200 pencils (at least I think that is Brown, Black, Blue and Yellow) without text on the side.

If this is the case and that is a P203E on the cover, then it was released in at least 1974 as a Generation 2 pencil. The other 4 P200 family of pencils appear to be Generation 3 with text printed on the side, so 1975 is where I assume that Generation 3 starts.

I also assume that there are Generation 5 P203s out there, but as of the date of this post, I have not found any. Each time I have tried to get one, it turns out to either be a Generation 4 (I currently have 4 of these), or a Generation 6 (as it is hard to tell in online pictures).

Hopefully in the future, I will have a more complete collection of this model of pencil and will have to update this post.

P200 Family, Pentel

P205 Metallics

Posted on June 19, 2017June 19, 2017 by nimroddfw

After the success of the P205 Marble series, Pentel started to release metallic colors for their most popular size, the P205. In 2012, Pentel released 12 or possibly 13 pencils.

One thing that made identification of these pencils easy is that with 1 exception, all of them came with labels on the bottom with their color codes and barcodes.

P205M-BX – Red Metallic

P205M-CX – Blue Metallic

P205M-DX – Green Metallic

P205M-KX – Light Green Metallic

P205M-K1X – Mint Green Metallic

P205M-PX – Pink Metallic

P205M-P1X – Rose Pink Metallic

P205M-SX – Sky Blue Metallic

P205M-VX – Violet Metallic

P205M-X – Gold Metallic

P205M-Z – Silver Metallic

P205-WX – White – Not a metallic, but it was released with the rest of the series, so I count it as such.

P205M-YX – Rose Gold Metallic – I am not for sure if this pencil came out with the rest of the 2012 metallics, but I found it and purchased it in 2014. I may have overlooked it in 2012, mistaking it for the P205M-X, since unless you see them side by side, it could be mistaken for Gold.

The above are the 12 or 13 that were released in 2012. There are three more pencils that I count as part of the metallic line as well as some that were re-released.

******************************************************************************

In 2015, Pentel America celebrated 50 years in business. As part of this celebration, instead of their standard 2-pack (P205BP2-K6), they released a 3-pack (P205BP2F) with 2 P205A with a bonus pencil. Both of these packages have the same 5 digit number on the front (04490), which corresponds to the UPC.

P205M-X50 – 50th Anniversary Gold – This is the only pencil in the P205 metallics that did not come with a label, so I made the above designation to keep track of this in my collection.

**********************************************************************************

In 2016, Pentel released two 3-packs of P205 pencils.These are the P205MBP3M (left) and the P205MBP3M1 (right). The one on the left included 2 new pencils.

P205MNX – Metallic Graphite – 2 of these are included in the 3-pack.

P205MZX – Silver

The 3-pack on the right contained 3 colors that were released back in 2012. But, they issued them with slightly different color codes (took out the “-“) and a new barcode.

P205M-BX (2012 – 884851008237) vs. P205MBX (2016 – 884851025739)P205M-CX (2012 – 884851008244) vs. P205MCX (2016 – 884851025746)P205M-DX (2012 – 884851008251) vs. P205MDX (2016 – 884851025753)

I am not sure why they reissued these with different codes and barcodes, but they also re-released at least one other that I know of.

P205M-VX (2012 – 884851008275) vs. P205MVX (2016 – 884851025760)

To my knowledge, these are all of the P205 metallic pencils that have been released, at least in the United States.

P200 Family, Pentel

Updated Pentel Countertop Lights

Posted on June 11, 2017 by nimroddfw

A few posts ago, I showed off the Pentel Countertop case with the lights I installed.

Now, I wasn’t really happy with this light setup for a couple of reasons. First, the top tray really looked great, but the second tray and the items on the bottom had a hard shadow across them, so they did not look that great. Second, the way I routed the wiring, interfered with the door at the back; it would close, but it was pushed out a bit.

So, I really wanted to get this re-wired with a better lighting arrangement, not just adding lights to the bottom of the trays, since that does not fix the second issue.

So, my wife was out of town this week, so I decided to do some lighting projects for the above display and the shelves where my collection is displayed, which I installed about a month ago, when my wife was on another trip.

I used the strip LED lights, as I have used in several other projects, and aluminum corner brackets that light at a 45 degree angle, for both the display and the shelves. Over 3 nights, I worked on the lighting and got it done the way I like now.

Here is the new lighting setup for my pencils (and other odds and ends):

This shows off the new shelves to the left, the Pentel display below the cabinets, and the packaged pencils mounted on the cabinet doors. The pieces of acrylic laying on the counter will normally be put over the pencils in the travel cases to keep the dust out, while making them available to view.

Here is a closer shot of the shelves and their new lights. I mounted the angle brackets at the front of the shelf above, so it lights the shelf below and the back of the area. Since the bottom shelf currently just has books under it, I have that light unplugged.

And here are the new lights for the Pentel Display. I took black corner brackets and mounted them running up the sides. This lights up the pencils much more evenly and also, gives the display a more framed look (it comes with black trim along the top and bottom). I had to drill a hole on the bottom front left to run the wire out, so it does not interfere with anything on the inside of the case. The white wire on the bottom left is for the IR receiver that works with the remote sitting there to turn on the lights on the shelves and the Display.

So, now, I am much happier with my collection on display. I will try to get back to posting about my collection in a couple of weeks.

P200, Pentel

The Marble Pencils

Posted on May 16, 2017 by nimroddfw

I first saw these pencils back in 2010, when they first came out. I am not positive, but these were probably released to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of the P205, back in 1970. What I do know is that it was the start of the release of all sorts of colors for the P205 and later P207s & P209s, at least here in the United States.

P205MB – Red Marble

P205MC – Blue Marble

P205MD – Green Marble

P205ME – Brown Marble

I got my first set of these directly from Pentel of America in March 2010. It was nice to see Pentel adding a variety to a line that has been around for 40 years. I really liked the way the body looked with the black sprayed over a base color, giving it a marbled look.

At this time, I was collecting various different mechanical/drafting pencils. Seeing these come out, helped me make my decision to concentrate on the P200 family of pencils. I had already picked up several other pencils in the family, but now having colors made the decision easy.

These pencils and, as far as I know, all other color pencils released are still a part of the 6th generation of Pentel Sharps. This would be a great break point for a new generation, except that other than the colors, there is nothing distinct between Generation 6 and these. A Generation would need to have a distinct change across the entire line of pencils for me to classify it separately, and I find nothing in a P205A that would say it was made after 2010 versus 2000, where I can tell you if it was made around 1970, 1973, 1976, 1980, 1988 or 2000, as these are points within the different generations.

P200 Family, Pentel

P205D & P205B Sharp Pencils

Posted on April 29, 2017 by nimroddfw

In this blog I will go over the P205D Green and P205B Burgandy pencils that I own.

I don’t know when the P205D was first released, but I have back to Generation 3, which places it in the mid-1970’s. The only image I have of pencils from that era is a 1975 German Pentel Catalog cover, and it does not show up there, but that really doesn’t say anything, since it looks like the P203, P205, P207 & P209 are Generation 2 (no text on the side) on the cover but the other variations are Generation 3.

One thing I have seen in various places around the internet, but have personally never been able to verify, is that originally the P200 Green was a 0.4mm pencil, instead of the current 0.5mm. It was said to only be available in Japan, but again, I have never seen anything substantial about it (i.e. pictures), only hearsay. It does make some sense, since Pentel does use green for 0.4 mm pencils even today, for example the Graphgear 1000 (PG1014) and Graphgear 500 (PG514).

P205D Generation 3

This is a recent acquisition for my collection, which as I said above, pushes the original release date for this pencil back into the mid-70’s.

This generation is the first to have text printed on the side, but still has the molded size on the bottom.

P205D Generation 4

I have had this pencil for a couple of years and up until January of this year, it was the oldest I had found for the P205D.

The only difference between this generation and the previous is they stopped molding the size into the bottom of the pencil.

P205D Generation 5

I purchased this off eBay last October. The hard part of finding the different generation of pencils is that unless you can see the cutout with the mark (as in the picture above), or they remove the cap and you can see a green eraser, it is hard to tell if you are getting a Generation 5 or 6. Even telling the difference between a Generation 3 and 4 is hard, since most photos concentrate on the text, not the other areas of the pencil.

Again, this is the first generation with the current text on the side, dropping the / in the mm.

P205D Generation 6

This is the first of the green P205s that I purchased back in 2009. This was before I started collecting only P200s, and definitely before I realized the evolution of the pencils.

This model is the current version of the green pencil, as far as I know.

P205B Generation 6

I picked this pencil up at the same time as the Gen 6 P205D above. I had just started to collect mechanical pencils in general at that time, but only did so for about a year before I specialized in the P200 Sharp Family.

As far as I know, this is the only generation available for this pencil.

P200 Family, Pentel

New Display

Posted on April 12, 2017 by nimroddfw

New counter top display case I just received with a selection of P200 family pencils. The case was missing one of the trays, but this allows me to display some box sets and collections.

I also added LED lighting to the display. I may need to add some more beneath the trays to cut out the shadows and show off the pencils better.

P200 Family, Pentel

P205A Sharp Pencil

Posted on April 4, 2017 by nimroddfw

In this post, I will talk about the P205A and the 9 versions of it that I own.

Generation 1

This, as far as I can tell, is the earliest version of the P205A, released in 1970. The distinctive traits of this pencil, starting from the left are the short 2mm Guide on the tip. It is hard to see, but in the cutout plate, the bottom line reads “P205 JAPAN 3”. This was the only mark identifying the size and part number of the pencil at this time. The next distinction (that carries over to Generation 2) is that there is no text in the area where modern pencils show the size, Pentel and model. The last distinctive feature is the clip, which has Pentel written down the clip, rather than on the wrap-around band. Nothing else is printed on the band.

I got this pencil for my collection back in 2012 from http://stores.ebay.com/ANDREYS-PENCILS. Andrey’s Pencils is a great source for hard to find pencils, and several of mine have come from there over the years.

Generation 1b

Along with Generation 1a (which will be covered in the post about P207s), I consider this to be a sub-category of Generation 1. This pencil still has the 2mm Guide on the tip. With this generation, the cutout has dropped the “P205” from the cutout. On the bottom of the pencil, opposite the cutout, the size is printed, in this case, “0.5 m/m”. The clip is the now standard clip with Japan stamped on one side of the band and Pentel on the other, with nothing on the clip itself.

This is a relatively new pencil in my collection. I only received it in the last months of 2016. Before this pencil, I thought that they dropped the “P205” from the cutout only with Generation 2.

Generation 2 (Twins)

The two pencils shown above are both Generation 2. The only difference between them is that one is earlier in the production run when they were still using the 2mm Guide for the tip, and the other one is later, once they switched to the 4mm Guide that is still used today.

The only other change between Generation 1b and Generation 2 that I know of is on the bottom of the pencil (opposite the cutout). They no longer print the size there, it is now molded (it is kind of hard to see in the picture for the 2mm Guide pencil, but the bottom is fairly clear).

I have had the Gen 2 with the 4mm Guide since 2012 (again from Andrey) but purchased the 2mm Guide pencil late last year.

Generation 3

With this generation, the pencil starts to look like what you purchase in the stores now… but not quite.

The pencil still has the molded size on the bottom, but Pentel started printing information on the side where it is currently printed today. The size is printed with the “/” in the m/m, then Pentel and last the model.

I am not sure when I got this pencil, but it was probably before 2012.

Generation 4

The only change to this generation of pencil is that they dropped the molded size off the bottom of the pencil.

With the purchase of this pencil in late 2016, I completed my collection of generations of P205A pencils.

Generation 4, wait, no… 5

For a while when I received this pencil in September of 2016, at first I thought this was a counterfeit pencil, but I have come to the conclusion that it is probably a very early production from Generation 5.

When you first look at the pencil, the text makes it look like a Generation 3 or 4, and then looking at the bottom of the pencil and not seeing the molded size, makes it appear from the outside to be a Generation 4, which is why I purchased it, since at that time, that is the only one missing from my collection of P205As.

But, when I received this pencil and took it apart, everything else, said that this is a Generation 5. If you look at the teardown above, the Inner Body is the Crimped Plastic Body with Molded Cap Stop, that was started to be used on Generation 5. In the above picture, looking at a side-by-side comparison of the cap end of the outer body, you can see the difference between the real Gen 4 (bottom) and this one, with this one being thinner walled and not having the beveled edge. Also, looking down the inside of the Outer Body at the retainer, you can see that it has 12 points.

At first I thought someone had printed the older text on a new pencil to make it look older, but I have come to the conclusion that it is probably factory produced before they made the change to the text.

Generation 5 (for real this time)

This is the pencil that started my collection. My dad gave this to me back in the mid-80’s, and I have kept it since then. The only thing I have replaced is the clip, since back then I did not like having it on a pencil I was using. But for collecting, I needed to have it.

Here is where the big changes were made for production streamlining and cost reduction. The outer body is thinner without beveling at the cap end and the retainer (inside the outer body) is now a 12 point vs. the 6 point of Generation 4 and before. The Inner Body has dropped the brass spring rest in favor of a molded body, including a molded in cap stop, which negated having to insert a stop inside the cap. The eraser is still the green Z2-1 that had been used since 1970.

With very minor changes (see Generation 6), this model has been in production for over 30 years, vs. Generations 1-4 being produced for 13-14 years (1970 to 1982 or 1983).

Generation 6

This pencil is the currently produced model and is the basis for all the variations that have been produced since around 2010.

The only changes that I can identify are the cutout now includes a letter in front of the mark. It is a little hard to see in the image above, but it says B35. Another change is that during the production run of this generation, they Inner Body when from a Crimped Plastic Body to a smooth Molded Plastic Body, and they changed the erasers from Green to White, while keeping the same part number (Z2-1).

You can pick up this generation of pencil at just about any office supply store or art supply store.