Quote Originally Posted by Omegary
Are these still available to buy or were they a special edition and now sold out? It's probably the latter knowing my luck.
Not surprised you like them Gary, they do have a strong appeal to those with an eye for design!

The originals were from the 1970s and are now collector's items - they can still be found but as they were Japanese Domestic Market the majority of them have a Fine nib (Japanese standards of fine means an Extra-fine to us) - the Medium nibs command a higher price as writing styles have changed and westerners have 'discovered' them. The Pilot 90 was essentially a re-issue with a few design tweaks (which detracted from the original minimalist aesthetic for me although I still bought one). As I recall it was released in a limited run and at the time there was a clamour for them as people who had been frustrated in their search for an original all leapt on them.

Here are some quick shots of one of my original versions.

Capped - it has a short profile typical of many modern Japanese pens of the era.


Uncapped - you can see the relative lengths look disproportionate to what we are accustomed to.


Posted (the geeky pen term for putting the cap on the end of the barrel - in this case it 'makes' the pen).


The integrated nib.


There have been a few fully integrated nib designs, some here of a certain vintage may recall the Parker 50 'Falcon' which was produced from 1977 to 1983. It was never quite the hit it could have been but I loved it from first sight and have now got a few examples (one of which is in daily use and which always draws comment due to the sleek design - apart of course from the novelty of seeing someone using a fountain pen). The Falcon has a lot of quirks and finding a good example with the clip retaining ring intact is increasingly difficult as they were a design weak point. The nib however is a wonderful performer and that's why it's one of the only non italic/obliques that make it into my regular carry.



Other than that, fully integrated nibs have rarely taken hold - one of the rarest is the Parker T-1 (made of titanium) but they are quite hard to find and there's just something about them which doesn't quite work for me.

And if you drop them it's a good time to practice your metalwork skills or to find a really good repairer...