Lamy Al Star Pacific Blue Special Edition

Lamy starts 2017 with a new Special Edition Al Star collection, and they call it Pacific Blue. Lamy jumped on the bandwagon with special editions a few years ago. I had tried to get Lamy to make some kind of collectible in the Safari series for years. Finally in the early 2000’s, I commissioned 500 Lamy Safari Orange Flame fountain pens. This was a shiny, true-orange pen with a bright red clip. I just looked on Ebay and there is one being offered at $199.00! Not a bad return for a pen that originally sold for $35.00.

So moving forward to 2017, Lamy just launched the Pacific Blue collection in Fountain Pen, Roller ball, and Ballpoint. There’s no set production number. Once the collection sells out, that’s it. The fountain pen comes in 7 nib sizes: Extra Fine, Fine, Medium, Broad, and 3 italics from 1.1mm 1.5mm and 1.9mm. The fountain pen uses Lamy Cartridges, or you can purchase the Z24 converter and fill the pen directly from a bottled ink color of your choice. Note that the fountain pen above has a slit in the barrel. This serves 2 purposes: 1) you’ll know which is the fountain pen vs. the rollerball, and even better, 2) the slit allows the user to see if there is any ink in the cartridge or converter. When either is getting close to empty, light comes through indicating a low level left… Pretty cool huh?

The roller ball ships with a Lamy M63. Color options include black (ships with), blue, and red. The ballpoint with it’s classic rubber plunger comes with an M16 Black medium refill. Monteverde USA makes lots of M16 style refills to fit the Al Star Ballpoints. All pens ship in the Lamy Safari standard crate-like boxes, along with warranty information. Lamy pens, inks, and refills originate in Germany.

A “Pacific Blue” special bottled ink and cartridges are also available. While the bottled ink does sell out much faster, the cartridges are also only available for a short time.

See special prices for all three pens on the website. Finally, don’t forget the Baltimore Washington International Pen Show is 2 short weeks away. See you there!