Raise your hand if you remember this pen.
I certainly do, as it was one of my favorites growing up. The Pilot Explorer has a very unique design, especially for a pen whose heyday was back in the 80’s and 90’s. To a youngster like me, it looked like it was from outer space. The best part about the Exlplorer though was how it wrote. I remember fine, crisp black lines, unlike the majority of the pens on the market at that time. So how does it hold up today?
It hasn’t skipped a beat.
Seth from Good Pens was kind enough to send me one from a stash he found at a stationery store in Europe. He has been on a mission for a while to find a good source for the Explorer, but has run into dead end after dead end.
From all appearances, the Explorer has been discontinued. You can find some strays available from various online office supply stores, but more often than not they are out of stock. I have looked through every Pilot Pen foreign site to no avail. I have even emailed the store in Denmark where Seth found them and got no response.
So, Pilot Pen, if you are listening - where can we get these pens?
The Explorer is as good as many of the pens that Pilot has on the market today. They write similarly to the Pilot VBall RT Extra Fine, which is very popular. I loved using one again and I think on nostalgia alone this pen would sell very well.
Please bring back the Pilot Explorer!
