It’s been a while since I’ve had anything relevant to post here… Because it’s really been that long since I’ve done anything fountain pen or art related. I did buy a bunch of stuff yes, but I’ve not unboxed most of it yet… So maybe next time…
I did however, finally found Pilot V5s being sold in Singapore. I mean, the cartridge ones.
Maybe I just don’t go out and shop around enough… But these cartridge Pilot V5s are just RARE here!
And I’ve been searching for them ever since I’ve heard of their existence. The V5 is a very unique looking pen, and very easy to spot on the shelf. So every time I see a V5 being sold, I’d check if it’s the converter V5 but no luck… That was until last week at The Green Party at Jem!
I’ve seen V5s sold at The Green Party in various different outlets but it has always ONLY been the regular, non-refillable (at least not without forcefully taking the pen apart) ones.
Finally found the converter ones that takes what looks like a regular pilot converter! Awesome stuff. Needless to say I bought a few for myself. One for each color and two blues just because. I’m sure the ink cartridges in there is different from the FP ones they sell? But no matter. More hardworking folks have use pillars to refill with regular V5s with FP inks and had no issues. I’m personally just too lazy to do that. But I honestly also don’t use pens – FP or otherwise – much in the first place so… Why did I buy more pens again? ><
Still. Very excited to finally see the around. I’m told they are much more common in China or even in Malaysia. Definitely makes sense in China because using FPs is much more common there, might even be mandatory in schools? Whereas in Singapore… Apparently Pilot did bring it in before but it just didn’t sell well. No surprise I guess, while pen refills are really popular here, people just aren’t used to buying cartridges to refill a pen. And honestly in the first place the V5 probably isn’t that popular a pen? Students would more likely prefer gel pens. The G2 was the king in my day. Right now just from my casual observation… The pental energel pens are really popular, and so is the pilot friction. Ink pens just… Don’t tend to do so well because of the feathering that happens on cheap paper. And most school students would be using cheap paper – myself of the past included.
Adding to that fact that the cartridge version costs a dollar more… and you have no idea where to get refills… It’s just not worth it. For the common folk, getting ink and syringes to refill a pen is just not worth the hassle. Might as well just get the disposable version that’s cheaper and looks like it holds more ink. Or… Get a gel pen! Despite what it says on the price tag, I assure you that the v5 is an ink pen and not a gel pen. They just don’t have price tags that says otherwise I guess…
Other differences… The disposable v5 is slimmer than the cartridge version. The entire pen – body and cap – is slimmer. It the grip section doesn’t look that different, but I tried to put the cap on wrong and it doesn’t fit. It’s just ever so slightly too tight to put the disposable cap onto the cartridge pen. The clip of the cartridge pen is completely plastic, just with a silver paint in front make it sort of resemble the metal clip of it’s disposable counterpart. There’s a V indent on the top of the cap as well, making it actually very easy to differentiate the two if you’re looking down from the top. I only saw the cartridge versions in blue, black and red, I’m not sure if there are other colors produced… But the disposable V5 comes in a lot more colors, like pink, and this pretty green that I couldn’t resist getting for myself. Of course color options ink wise doesn’t matter for us FP fanatics because we have enough inks to use for many generations to come… As long as you finish the ink in the pen that is. OR you throw that ink out… But I really can’t bear to waste ink like that so… Still. More colors to differentiate between your flock of V5s would be nice – assuming that’s your thing.
Or you could go the hardworking route and use pillars to pull… Like… The front ‘nib’ section out? It’s either that or the plastic stopper at the back. I think I’ve seen someone done it by taking the back piece out. I have no idea which is a better method since I’ve not done it myself before.
So once again, I found these in The Green Party at Jem. No idea if the other The Green Party outlets have them in stock, and also no idea how long the stocks will be around for. TGP tends to buy a batch of goods and once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.
The cartridge V5s are SGD $2.90 each, and non-disposable ones are $1.90 each (might be cheaper at Popular esp if you’re a member?).
That’s all for today. Till the next time!