Please help me identify this tiny egg pen

I don't know what this is but I like it

May 29, 2023

Everyone, this is Tiny Egg Pen:

I don’t know what this is or who made it. There are no markings I can see. It was in a tray at the counter of a pen shop as an impulse buy, which obviously worked on me.

I’m pretty sure this is the only pen in my collection where I have no idea of who made it AND THIS FACT BOTHERS ME.

So, readers: please help me identify Tiny Egg Pen. Here is what I know.

Clue 1: it is very small.

I like pocket pens, and Tiny Egg Pen might be the most pocket of all pocket pens. Here is a picture of it stacked up against some other pocket pens:

From left: BENU Minima // Opus88 Fantasia // EGO.M Cento3 // Kaweco Sport // Kaweco Liliput // Fisher Space Pen // Zebra SL-F1 Mini // Tiny Egg Pen // Ricola

As you can see, Tiny Egg Pen is a true innovation in very small writing implements, finally delivering the teeny-tiny writing experience you have always wanted. Say goodbye to back problems from lugging around a bulky Kaweco Liliput! Be free of the fear that the gargantuan Zebra Mini might rip your pants pocket! Never again have to choose between carrying a pen and carrying some loose hard candy!

Indeed, Tiny Egg Pen is so small that it is less pen-sized than candy-sized, as the best comparison I could find was a Ricola. That said…

Clue 2: it is not candy and you can’t eat it even though it looks like candy which is kind of lame I agree.

Despite looking a lot like those Robin Egg chocolates that you can buy around Eastertime, it is not chocolate. It is a pen.

wow really going all out on the graphic design for this one YOU’RE WELCOME (candy picture credit: Candy Concepts Inc.)

So if you think you know what it is, maybe double-check to see if you are thinking of candy. It’s not candy. Don’t read anything into how much I am stressing this.

Clue 3: it’s a ballpoint.

Tiny Egg Pen is a ballpoint, and it is actually a pretty good writer once you spend the five minutes or so it takes to position it in your hand so you can write with it.

Unfortunately, I am fairly certain this pen does not take standard refills, or any refills, but part of me hopes the entire barrel is filled with ink so it lasts forever, for I do not want to live in a world without Tiny Egg Pen.

Clue 4: it has a clip.

The clip is surprisingly decent and also surprisingly exists in the first place.

I tried taking an action shot of it clipped to my shirt but it’s so small it just looked like a pile of fabric and the pen laying on top

Why? Why is there a clip? As far as I can tell there are two use cases.

First, although Tiny Egg Pen will fit into literally any pocket, it is also pretty easy to lose in the vast majority of pockets. The clip lets you anchor it to the side of your pocket so you can easily access it without having to first sort through whatever else you are keeping in your pocket, which is of course a healthy mix of thumbtacks and Cheez-Its.

Second, the clip reminds you that it is not candy, because candy does not come with a pocket clip, and that’s useful because it means you can know it’s not candy without putting it in your mouth.

Clue 5: it is not a Tombow Egg.

Any internet research you do on Tiny Egg Pen will be glutted with Tombow Egg information. This is the Tombow Zoom 828, aka the Tombow Egg:

Image credit: this YouTube video by Unsharpen

OK, sure. I can’t look at the Tombow “Egg,” and then Tiny Egg Pen, and not think of the knife scene from Crocodile Dundee.

nailed it (crocodile dundee via youtube)

It’s not the Tombow Egg. Thanks for nothing, search engines.

Clue 6: it was at one point available in Italy.

I bought this at La Stilografica on Corso Buenos Aires in Milan…in late 2021. It was on top of the right side of the main counter when you walk in.

i’m pretty sure it was right there two years ago but also it was two years ago so it’s possible this was a dream I had (image via: La Stilografica)

I know that is not much to go on, but commenter LJD managed to identify the shop in Brera I mentioned in this post, so who knows. Also, the back-end stats for this blog show that we get a bunch of referrals from Italian pen forums, so I’m hopeful someone else has run across this.

I can say that immediately after buying it and realizing I asked zero questions about it I went to Stilografica’s site to see if I could identify it and struck out, and looking recently couldn’t find it there either.