Ah, the extremely shitty pen that scratches so bad you might as well carve your message into the paper. Lasts maybe 3 lines before it starts skipping but who cares. It exists to be as cheap as possible so your customer you don’t respect can pocket it after initialing twice and signing something.
I hate bad cheap pens so much. I never would have gotten into fountain pens if there wasn’t the counter example of how bad a writing experience can get.
This is why I got into fountain pens too! These days I find myself using a good rollerball or mechanical pencil for day to day, since they’re a little more practical, but man oh man I do love a fountain pen…
Lighters, razors and… uh, other things too.
Still tastes great
honestly, kinda refreshing to see a business not changing their shit constantly just to change shit. it’s not the nicest pen, but it works.
likewise, the uniball eco pen is the perfect pen for lefties.
What? No app connectivity?!
However will they drive engagement?
(Looks at the anatomically modern human) Bruh this shits been the same for the past 300,000 years. When we updating this bitch? New colorways, maybe?
there have been plenty of patches, but it takes serious selection pressures to make major changes happen quickly
A hole was added to the cap in 1991.
Wait, the hole in the cap is that recent?
Dude… That’s 34 years ago.
smeagolnotlistening.gif
How dare you. I wont be 34 for 7 more months…
Yeah, I know I’m approaching fossil age, but the pen itself was first made 75 years ago. I had always assumed that the hole in the cap was a change made much closer to the 50s than sometime within my lifetime.
A very helpful comment
According to the Wikipedia article.
Was that to try and prevent choking?
Yes. From the BIC website:
Why is there a hole in the cap of BIC® Cristal® Pens?
Our vented caps comply with international safety standards ISO11540. These standards attempt to minimize the risk to children from accidental inhalation of pen caps. Traditionally the pen cap served only to protect the pen point. These vented caps allow more air to circulate around the pen point when the pen is capped. This further adds to the quality and overall performance of the pen.
Why fix something that isn’t broken?
The guy on the line wants to stop the money printer? No, no no… you don’t change the top selling pen of the century. We can introduce a lighter though. Guess we’re doing fire now.
Maybe some razors.
It’s a great pen, but I haven’t bought any for years since joining the refillable pen club. Fountain pens are great, but you can also get refillable ball points. I thought for sure I would lose it, but you spend a little more and you really make sure to look after it.
They do lighters too
The lighters also got a safety update in the '90s – the child resistant spring over the spark wheel
And razors…
Very bad razors. They Never fail to leave cuts and bruises
They did perfum once. Big fail…
And boats
Really?
2050: … starts manufacturing military cyborg soldiers with a Bic logo across their chest
They had a phone in 2008, so they should already have the knowledge to produce some basic electronics:
They also produce razors, so I envision some kind of BIC terminator with weapons for cutting things:
That’s cool although I’d hate the massive logo they slapped under the screen
please don’t
Don’t you dare touch it!
I recommend Design Theory’s video on quintessence if you’re in the mood for some infotainment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEg5u1kyNEs
