[Pen/Pencil Review] The Indiana Jones Souvenir Ball Point Pen
This weekend was an adventure for Jimmy and me… A house full of people, the Fourth of July, adventures with air conditioning. But we did manage to do one of those “We really should go to…” things on our list. We went to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History to see the Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archeology Exhibit. It was so much fun that I had to hit the gift shop. And, obviously, I bought a pen… and if you know me at all, you know I probably bought more than one.
This one is part of the “official” exhibit merchandise. It’s a decent “Parker Style” ball point pen. It’s a classic bullet design with a black lacquer barrel with chrome hardware and accents with the logo printed on the barrel. The retractation mechanism was difficult at first, now that I’ve messed with it for a while, it’s loosening up. The ink retracts through a barrel twist near the point.
The pen is about 5.25″ long with the ink retracted and 5.5″ with the ink extended. It’s a good diameter for comfort and has some weight to the barrel. This pen has decent balance with a springy clip that should be sturdy since it’s metal. The pen came with a generic Parker style ballpoint black ink refill which was probably a 1.0 mm. It’s okay… some skips and stuttering getting going, but functional. But “functional” isn’t necessarily what I want in an Indiana Jones pen, so the moment I finished an initial writing sample, I replaced the ink with one of the Fisher Space Pen fine point refills sent to me a couple of months back. Why? Because an Archeological Adventure pen should write anywhere, right? And now it does.
The numbers:
1. How does it work? – 0.5 – I’m knocking this down because right out of the package we had some stutters. The twist mechanism was so stiff it took a while to figure out how to get to the ink. The ink it came with took “priming” so it wasn’t a smooth, out of package experience. It is now though with my modifications.
2. Grip and feel – 1 – I do like it for a “desk” type pen. It’s long enough to be fairly comfortable. The weight and diameter are good with a decent balance. The ridges between barrel and grip are rounded and inset enough not to get in the way.
3. Material – 1 – It’s a solid metal pen. The logo design is in no danger of wearing off. I think this pen could last a very long time.
4. Overall Design – 0.5 – I like this pen. It’s functional. It’s more functional with the mechanism used some to not be super stiff and a better refill. I’m knocking it for the “learning curve” and the fact it’s a lot of chrome for fingerprints. If you don’t like smudgy pens, this will drive you crazy.
5. Price Point – 0.5 – It’s not cheap, but not stupidly expensive. It was $7.50 – which isn’t bad for a museum gift shop. This is a refillable and reusable pen, so it’s not that bad. But for the price, I would’ve liked a better grade of ink in it. I have that now, but only because I had it.
That’s 3.5 of 5 bronze pencils.
