Marvy Le Pen: Burgundy

These pens have been around for more than a quarter of a century, yet I've never heard of these! I saw these at a local office supply discount store (a discount store? To fuel a pen addiction? SWEET!), and the first thing I noticed was how thin these pens are. I was attracted to the fact that it was a felt-tipped pen for a reasonable price. Felt-tipped pens usually go for $2-$3 a pop, but these went for $1.39. (Maybe it's the fact it was a discount store, but whatever.) I picked up a burgundy version of the pen. Below are the lyrics to "Maybe Tomorrow" by Stereophonics written with the pen.


This pen is about 7 mm in width and stands 14 cm tall. Overall it's a pretty thin pen. This seems like a minimalist pen – no grip, thin, not many bells and whistles, metal clip, and the such...not saying it's bad. There's a metal clip on the cap that seems sturdy to clip on books, papers, etc. Engraved are the words "Le Pen Marvy Japan" in silver.

The felt tip is .3 mm, but it writes a bit bigger than that. The ink comes out a nice wine red and writes quite well. It sort of scratches a bit on the paper, but that might be the felt. Also, the tip seems a bit fragile and slightly bends in the direction I'm writing.

This pen would be good for doodling or taking notes with. This isn't something I would use to write out my homework. (Then again, most of that is done on the computer nowadays...)

So to recap...

Good: Minimalistic, rich colour, sturdy metal clip, cheap
Bad: Tip scratches slightly, fragile; likely to crush
Costs: $0.50-$2.00

I give this pen...

a B+!