Pelikan Hub '24 (Auckland, New Zealand)

A couple of days ago I attended my first ever Pelikan Hub. I'm pretty new to the fountain pen community (although I was given a couple as a kid) and thought I would add my experience as a newbie (albeit one that reads and researches the living daylights out of all my hobbies lol).

I don't remotely have a large or even what I guess most people would consider a middling size collection (TBF, I'm not collecting them and all my pens are in circulation and used). It was with some amount of trepidation that I took most of my pens (all of which are 'starter' pens) into a really neat little book store (a sadly dying breed in this country).

I was the last to arrive and displayed before me were large pen cases holding 20-40 pens each and immediately felt like I was going to be the odd one out with my little cheapies. However the host was welcoming as were the dozen or so other people sitting in a circle passing pens around.

It was with a sigh of relief that other people were showing their 'cheapies' too so into the fray went my TWSBI Eco (the most expensive pen I owned at $60 at the time, yes owned past tense because there's a $70 vintage Sailor coming in the post that didn't arrive in time for the Hub lol), Hongdian M2, Pilot Kakuno, 1960s vintage Platinum 'President' and the one and only Pelikan I (currently) own - a silver Twist.

I honestly thought I would be embarrassed showing around that the only Pelikan I own is a Twist. But no one else there had seen one and it generated a fair amount of chatter about it. Much to my cringing shy-person relief lol. TBF, while I don't like the triangular grip (I have a 'non-conformist' grip lol), the nib is so damn nice I use it anyway and it's one of my go-to jotter pens.

Also interesting to the group was the M2 ("better than a Kaweco" 🤫😅), the Kakuno because it was loaded up with Herbin Violette (violet scented) which I bought the Kakuno specially for (purple cap of course) and keep bagged owing to it's nuclear scent - my spouse likes to call it "Herbin Violence" lol because it smells so strong! I also passed around the chocolate version (Encre Brun Parfum Cacao).

I also had some 1990s 'vintage' (seriously, the 90s is "vintage" now?!) Pelikan Royal Blue ink for show and tell.

I lost count of all the pens that I got to try. Some that disappointed me:

• Gravtias in Rainbow Skittle with a flex nib - Awesome colour but it was freaking heavy and, for a 'flex' nib, is really REALLY hard! I was too scared to flex it.

• Narwhal/Nahvalur - I had planned to buy one of these but the pens I tried were heavier than I expected, the caps took a lot to unscrew and I didn't like the feedback (which I normally like some of, this just didn't feel that pleasant). Not massively bad or anything but just more meh for me.

• Pelikan 400 or 800 (I'm not sure which it was sorry). The weight was nice but I just expected more I guess? Hopefully it was just the ink but it skipped a LOT.

• Sailor Manyo ink smells so bad! (Shhh... don't tell Robert Oster lol)

Some unexpected enjoyable surprises:

• A vintage Kaweco that looked like a pencil. It was suprisingly heavy for such a thin pen and was weird but fun to write with, feeling like a heavy pencil in my hand but being a fountain pen.

• Pelikan Level - weird looking but interesting and a nice nib.

• Shimmer inks. Figured I would probably despise them because I really dislike glitter gel pens. Needless to say, I hadn't bought any up until now. My mind is changed. Diamine Party Time was a stand out - nice colour and sparkles!

• Benu pens. I looked at them online but I will admit that I was put off by the eye candy. I like sparkles but didn't see the need (or want) for sparkles in my pens. I am 100% wrong lol. They are so much nicer in person and so so pretty! I thought the barrels (both Benu Euphorias) would be too big and that the resin would be meh. But the weight was great, the resin looked gorgeous and the nibs.... oh the nibs. I was suprised by how nice and smooth they were. A Benu is now on my wishlist lol! (Yes, I realise one of my critisms of the Nahvalur is how much the cap takes to unscrew and the Benus also took a lot, but for me the visuals and nib made up for it.)

• A vintage Pelikan 400MN. I was planning on getting a vintage Pelikan, and this exceeded my expectations. It was so smooth with just the right amount of feedback, a nice size and good weight (for my hands I prefer thinner, lighter pens).

My hopes for going along was trying out some pens that I otherwise wouldn't be able to afford (just to see what the fuss was about), to try pens that I was considering buying (some are now off my list and some that I wasn't planning on buying are now on it!) and to maybe swap a few ink samples. Well, I got that and much more - what an awesome group of people to share a hobby with. I really enjoyed my time with folks, passing around pens, gawping at the new Pelikan pens coming out (hello Pelikan Raden!🤤), swapping inks, eating chocolate (shout out to Foundry Chocolate 😋) and, well, the (unexpected) freebies lol. I was considering buying some Edelstein Golden Lapis (yes, a shimmer ink, but I had to find out what the fuss was about eventually!) and was disappointed to see it sold out in all the places I buy ink from. Problem solved. Seriously, thank you Pelikan! I'm really glad I went and I look forward to Pelikan Hub 2025! ✒️🪽💙