P325 – Nimrodd's Blog

Character Pencils – Disney & Popeye

Posted on November 4, 2019October 27, 2019 by nimroddfw

Back in December 2018, another Pentel collector I follow posted on his Instagram a picture of some P200 pencils that I had never seen.

Photo by @crz-riley

These pencils were of Disney characters Mickey Mouse (2 versions), Goofy, Donald Duck and Minnie Mouse. In talking about these pencils and trying to place them in the timeline, we looked at a couple of things about these. First, they did not have any size molded into the bottom of the pencils, which seems to rule out Generation 2 or Generation 3. Next, they have the 2mm guide pipe on the tip, which led me to believe these were a Generation 1 pencils, but in the cutout, they did not say P205 JAPAN #, so we decided that these were Generation 1b pencils, which probably came out in 1972 or so.

After thinking about this a little while though, I came to the conclusion that since these originated in Japan, they were P325, not P205 pencils.

In discussing these pencils with @crz.riley, he mentioned that he had also acquired a Popeye version of one of these, and he sent me pictures of it.

Blog - Character Pencils - P325-KSD-POP - Short Tip - 01

Blog - Character Pencils - P325-KSD-POP - Short Tip - 02

Blog - Character Pencils - P325-KSD-POP - Short Tip - 03

Blog - Character Pencils - P325-KSD-POP - Short Tip - 05

Photos by @crz.riley

One thing bothered me about the pictures he sent me here is that the label in the second picture, I had always associated with later pencils.

In April, 2019, I finally received my own character pencil.

It is a Disney Minnie Mouse pencil. It seemed to have the same all of the same characteristics as @crz.riley’s pencils, except mine had the size molded into the bottom, so I decided that it probably fell into Generation 2.

Two months later, I received a Popeye pencil, and here is where the first of things started to change.

Around this time, I started to look at the numbers in the Mold Mark and see what range they fall into. I contacted @crz.riley to find out what the marks were on the pencils he had. As I posted in the Mold Marks blog, all Generation 1 pencils fall between 1 and 8, without exception. I also found that all of the Generation 1 pencils used a Beveled Brass Inner Body, whereas both of my pencils use a later Flat Brass Cap Inner Body, and it looks like @crz.riley’s pencils do as well.

When I checked the Mold Marks on my pencils, they were 11 (Minnie Mouse) and 25 (Popeye pleading to Olive Oyl). @crz.riley’s pencils all fell between 19 and 28, and when I checked in my database (and listed in the Mold Marks blog), these numbers all fell in the range for Generation 4.

The last piece of information that reconfirmed my reassessment of what generation these pencils were came from another blogger who posted these.

Photo by @Cuirassier_

These pencils had four different images – Popeye and Olive Oyl, Popeye pleading to Olive Oyl (my version), Popeye fighting Bluto and Popeye with a sea bag. It also shows that there were 6 different color inner bodies that were used: red, pink, orange, yellow, green and blue.

@Cuirassier_ wrote on his blog (translated by Google), “It was written on the bottom of the case as a manufactured product in 1980, so it seems to have appeared briefly before and after 1980.” This definitely pushes these pencils into Generation 4, which would make my Disney Minnie Mouse pencil a Generation 3. It looks like they decided to use the shorter 2mm tips on these limited run pencils. Of course, this fit nicely with the larger triangular label, as I had generally associated it with Generation 4 pencils.

Another photo he posted also clarified the model number of these pencils.

Photo by @Cuirassier_

It looks like these pencils were model number P565 or P565ST2 for the Popeye versions.

So coming down to this, until I learn otherwise, I am calling these pencils (at least for my collection):
P565 – Walt Disney are Generations 3 & 4
P565 – Popeye are Generation 4

I would like to say Thanks to the following bloggers, as I could not have written this blog without their contributions. Please go check them out:

@crz.riley on Instagram – a fellow collector of Pentel P200 and other Pentel pencils.

@Cuirassier_ on Twitter and his own blog – a Korean collector of mechanical pencils over a wide range of brands.

And it Keeps Growing and Growing…

Posted on July 29, 2019 by nimroddfw

Well, as of last week, I had to expand my collection into case #6. Up until my latest purchases of new pencils that came out around the world in June 2019 (11 of them), I could fit my primary collection in 5 cases. The new pencils would have fit in by count (5 cases will hold 240), but I had no way to keep everything grouped together for display, so the new case.

There are currently 232 pencils in the six display cases, along with the 15 custom pencils in the stands below, plus in the Pentel Salesman Sample Case (above the Knight’s head), there are 13 pencils that have alternate labels or something that makes them just slightly different in markings from the ones in the display cases.

Unintentionally, when I was changing the layout of the pencils in these cases, it wound up that Cases 1 & 2 (bottom and middle right) contain only P205 pencils in their various generations and limited colors. Case 3 (top right) contains all of the P203, P207 & P209 pencils, with their size specific limited colors. Case 4 (top left) contains all of the non-P200 pencils (P30xS, P32x, P533, PF33x, PS315, PS523 & P21x). Cases 5 & 6 contain sets that span sizes in P203, P25, P207 & P209. Except for the first 8 (Japan) in case 5, these all came from Brazil.

Again, something I didn’t really want to do, but had to, to keep it organized was to split the P200 for Boys & Girls pencils into 2 cases, but I moved the Brazil ones to Case 5 and left the Japanese ones in Case 2. It just so happened that they lined up on the middle shelf on the bottom row of each case.

Since I started this blog, back in 2017, my display has grown from 3 cases in March 2017, to 4 cases in June 2017 and then to 5 cases in September 2018. Unless Pentel does something super extravagant next year for the 50th anniversary of the P205, I should have room to grow for another year or two (I hope).

Over the next few weeks, I will showcase the new pencils for 2019.

P200 Family, Pentel

Japanese Older Releases & Oddities

Posted on December 11, 2017December 23, 2020 by nimroddfw

This post is going to be about the P320 series and another couple of oddball numbered pencils.

First I will go over the more common P320 pencils (although they are not that easy to find). Then I will go over some other P320 pencils and another couple numbered P533.

P323E Generation 4.5 (Italic)

This is the pencil you see when you look up a P323. It is the standard brown (for 0.3 mm) and the text is the short text (size then model) that is seen on other pencils, except the size is in italic.

I am not sure when, nor from whom I actually acquired this pencil, as I do not find the receipt, but it was probably around 2010. I do know that it was the first of the pencils in this blog that I got.

P325A Generation 5 (Italic)

Again this is the pencil you see when you look up this model of pencil. This pencil I picked up in May of this year along with the P327C. I picked it up on eBay from a seller, who apparently found several sets of these, as he keeps posting a few of them every month or so.

P327C Generation 5 (Italic)

This is actually the second of these pencils that I acquired. The first one was in excellent condition, but did not have the price sticker on it, so when this one showed up on eBay, I bought it (along with the above P325A).

P329G Generation 5 (Italic)

This completes the set of P320 pencils that are commonly seen when looking these up on the internet. I never did see this come up on eBay, but another collector asked the above seller if he had any of these and he found a couple and I ended up purchasing this one in June of this year.

P323E Generation 4 (non-Italic)

This pencil and the following one that I purchased are the only times I have ever seen this style of P323. This is an older pencil than the above series, as it uses the “/” in the size. Also, it uses the full standard text with size, Pentel and model, as opposed to the short version (size & model) above. Also if you see, it has a different style (rounded triangle) price sticker than was used on the pencils above (rectangle). I am not sure if this has any significance, as the price is the same on all of the pencils in this blog, ¥500.

I purchased this and the one below in September of last year from an eBay seller I have purchased many pencils from.

P323E Generation 4.5 (non-Italic)

This is the next generation of the above pencil, where Pentel dropped the “/” from the size along with other changes to the outer body, but still apparently had stock of the previous generation inner body.

P327A Generation 4.5 (Blank)

I identify this pencil as a P327A because that is what I was told that it was by the seller I mentioned above that I have done business with for years (I purchased this in October 2014). The only identifying information is that it is a 0.7mm tip and inner body, and the sticker on it identifies it as a 0.7mm.

There is nothing to identify it specifically as a P327, other than the sellers information, so it was kind of an ambiguous P200 pencil. In doing other research, I came across a sold listing on eBay for a similar P325A pencil that had no other marking other than the triangular 0.5mm price sticker, and it was from a different seller in a different country.

So with two different sources identifying this style of P320 series, I decided to use that designation for my pencil.

From the pencils above, it looks like there may have been as many as 3 different styles of the P320 series pencils manufactured over the years.

P533A Generation 4 (Short Text)

When I saw these pencils online (and purchased it from the seller mentioned in the last 3 pencils), it was the first, ~~and only,~~ time I have seen this model of pencil. [While writing this post, I decided to look to see if I could find any other information on this pencil, and I found a closed auction on Yahoo Japan for one of these pencils.]

This pencil uses a black body with the modified short text with the bullet, “•”, between the size (using the “/”) and model. It also includes a smaller triangular price sticker.

I purchased this pencil in September 2016.

P533A Generation 4 (Standard Text)

The only difference between this and the prior pencil is the use of the standard text (size, Pentel & model) and the larger triangular price sticker.

I am almost ashamed to admit that when these two pencils were posted for sale online, I did not immediately pick up on the difference between the two, so I only purchased the one above. Once I received it, I looked back at the auction for this one, and immediately kicked myself for not ordering it, since at that point it was obvious what the differences were.

In my eBay search, I do look for other sizes of these pencils (P535, P537 & P539), but I do not expect to find them, as this appears to have been a one-off. The 535 designation is used on the Pentel PS535, which is a completely different type of pencil from the P200 family of pencils, and I do not expect that Pentel would make both a P535 and a PS535, if only to avoid confusion. So this will go down as one of Pentel’s pencil oddities.

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I try to post this blog every two weeks on Monday, but since the next day this would post is on Christmas day, I am going to delay it until the following Monday, January 1, when I will have two posts going up that day, one of which is a side post related to the Pentel P200 family of pencils.