Ash nazg durbatuluk… More fan collab fountain pens please!
Disclosure: I received this pen in exchange for an honest review. I am also a member of their affiliate program. I purchased the 15 mL inks with my own funds.
To say I was a Lord of the Rings fan when I was a teen is an understatement. I read all of the books. I went to the midnight launches of the films. I designed and made custom hoodies for my friend group with our favorite characters on it. I wore the Evenstar around my neck. Probably couldn’t do it anymore, but I could mute the movie and say every line. I was a trivia champion. My best friend and I wrote our notes to each other in a modified elvish code. I’ve read The Silmarillion. My walls were practically papered with posters and fanart. One of these days I’m going to suck it up and spend the money on the Lego Rivendell set and then lovingly display it in my house.
So, yeah, I like the world of Middle Earth. Just a little though, haha!
There have been previous fountain pen world and Lord of the Rings world collisions before. The Montegrappa had several editions that were complete with over the top design and a high price. Even if I had several thousand dollars to drop on a pen, I couldn’t see myself actually using them since they are large and heavy which doesn’t suit my hand.
When I saw the collaboration between Ferris Wheel Press and Warner Bros. coming out with a Lord of the Rings themed set, I was very tempted. I hesitated too long and missed the Kickstarter and just hadn’t gotten around to ordering it. Then I got an opportunity to review one and I was eager to get my hands on it.
And spoiler alert… I may have to complete the collection at some point.
The FWP x LOTR pens are designed from the Bijou model, which is the smallest of the FWP higher end pens (the Bijou, the Joule, and the Marquise). I’d been pleasantly surprised with the Bijou previously. These pens have a slim profile, etching on the grip, and the standard lineup has the signature FWP brass nut that acts as both a design element and a rollstop. On the LOTR Bijou this is replaced with the One Ring, complete with Black Speech script. Beyond that, the exterior of the pen is very simple. I have the Gandalf/Two Towers pen which is a soft silver with depth. Stealth nerd stuff is one of my favorite things to have around me as an adult. People who don’t know, won’t know. And the cool people in the know can become a friend. This pen is simple on the outside and it would take a closer look to see the One Ring around the barrel.
I adore this detail.
It takes three twists to open the cap to reveal the grip and nib which have also been themed. The etching on the grip of the Gandalf edition is of his staff, Glamdring (his sword), and his pipe. The nib itself has the script from the One Ring once again. The other two pens appear to have a Hobbit theme and a Mordor theme. I love the attention to detail. It would have been so easy to just use the stock nib on this pen, but it also matches. It does seem to write a little dryer than my other Bijou, but that might just be a manufacturing tweak with the plating.
As you spin the grip, you can see the full length of the staff and sword.
Another interesting aspect of this set is that they included a “Tengwar” (a type of Tolkien elvish script) nib. It’s essentially a fude nib and allows for the line variation needed for certain kinds of calligraphy. The nibs can be swapped by unscrewing the nib housing from the grip.
It also has a different design on the nib of the One Ring.
Along with the pen, converter, and nibs in the box there is also a bottle of the themed ink. Since the Gandalf colorway is associated with The Two Towers, the ink is called Dawning Silver and has a design of a Rohan horse on it. It is a deeper gray with silver shimmer inspired by, I assume, the moment Gandalf and Eomer arrive with the Rohirrim to end the Battle of Helm’s Deep. I had been playing with the ink in a different pen, so I decided to drop FWP Leadcast Letters into it and the soft gray did compliment the pen pretty well. Unfortunately, the ink bottle does have the same problem as the Superman special release inks. It’s in what they usually use for their calligraphy ink bottles and they are very difficult to open without getting ink on your fingertips due to the stopper under the cap.
I’ve written through two converters in the last few weeks and it’s comfortable to hold. My one nitpick is that the drop from barrel to grip is just slightly bigger than the regular Bijou. It’s enough to be noticeable, but doesn’t affect how I held or wrote with the pen.
The Lord of the Rings Bijou is a little narrower than the standard Bijou.
In a larger sense of the collection, the design is very enjoyable as a LOTR fan. FWP usually goes all out with the boxes for their inks and pens, but I feel like these ones were made with such care. Even the small bottles have themed packaging. It’s a functional, fan display piece.
At $200 for the pen and ink set, it’s definitely not on the inexpensive end of things. However, based on the prices for standard lineup Bijou pens ($130) and a bottle of ink ($22 to $25), the up-charge for the theming is about $45. Considering that there was a redesign of the nib, grip, and barrel ring that isn’t that outrageous to me. Also considering that the only other LOTR themed fountain pen on the market starts at around $1000 and goes up from there, it’s a way to get a dose of LOTR into one’s fountain pen collection without dropping a good chunk (or even all) of a paycheck. Even just the inks are a lot of fun. The 15 mL bottles are $15 and the 28 mL bottles are $35.
Overall, I am very happy with this pen as a fan of both fountain pens and Lord of the Rings. I would love to see even more collaborations with different companies with fan properties. While the Cross and Platinum Star Wars releases from a few years ago were okay, I’d love to see even more creativity with interpreting these story concepts to writing instruments and inks. I’m still salty that the Sailor x Disney 100th anniversary inks were only released in Japan. I know that licensing can get tricky and expensive (there’s a reason a lot of train museums don’t call their Christmas trains the Polar Express), but it’s such an underutilized aspect of fandom and collecting. It’s also an opportunity to bring more people into the hobby through other hobbies.
Currently Inked
Still rocking the couple of inks from last week. I did switch out the nibs in my liliputs to a steel F in the copper and a steel M in the fireblue. Was having trouble getting pen to paper so I decided to go with less fussy nibs for this week.