P for Preppy; P for Petit

... Or P for Platinum; P for Pilot.

They say that a newbie's collection is forever incomplete without a Platinum Preppy or a Pilot Petit. I drooled over them because they're really colorful pens. But though I want them so badly, I could not have any because they're not available here.

Pens uncapped. 0.3/Fine Platinum Preppy Blue Black. (Preppy pens are very unique - their nibs are colored as their ink colors!) Fine Pilot Petit with purple ink. (Petit pens, on the hand, have barrel and cap color accents according to their inks!)

When I started my collection, I got a couple of inexpensive plastic pens, including the colorful Schneider Zippis and M&G Joy Box. But the talk about ED'd Preppies and colorful Petits continued to haunt me.

Nibs up close.

Sometime in early September, I had a conversation with a pen seller from Taiwan, and after exchanging a series of email messages, two pens were sent on their way to me. Hurray!

Writing samples of the two pens. Better views below.

I got the pens in a couple of days and I was very, very surprised at the Preppy. It wrote very, very smoothly and despite bearing a fine nib, wrote as comfortably as my medium-nibbed pens. But the biggest and most awesome surprise with the Preppy is that, of all the pens I've tried on my Moleskine notebook, this one has the least bleed through! It actually doesn't have a remarkable bleed through, and the writing on the paper's backside is still visible and comfortable to read.

Writing sample of the Platinum Preppy, blue black ink, fine nib.

The Petit, though did not fare as well as the Preppy did. I was very excited about it because it is purple and has purple ink, but not only did it show excessive bleed through in my Moleskine and on most papers, it had bad feathering issues, too. A page written with it is somewhat difficult to read, and writing on backside is out of the question. Both sides written with it would be difficult to read. Another feature of this pen that I am uncomfortable with is its length. I am not used to posting my pens as I write, but it becomes necessary to post this one to comfortably write. Despite all these, I still love my Petit. It's a cool pen to carry around, not to mention that it's got purple ink. I'm dying to get my hands on any purple ink, and if this is the closest I can get to purple, then so be it. *Wink.*

Sample sample of Pilot Petit, purple ink, fine nib.

There. Two pens. Great members of my newbie stash. Great pieces to lend to my nieces when they like to tinker with my pens. :)