Community Rules
You must post before you leave
Be nice. Assume others have good intent (within reason).
Block or ignore posts, comments, and users that irritate you in some way rather than engaging. Report if they are actually breaking community rules.
Use content warnings and/or mark as NSFW when appropriate. Most posts with content warnings likely need to be marked NSFW.
Most 196 posts are memes, shitposts, cute images, or even just recent things that happened, etc. There is no real theme, but try to avoid posts that are very inflammatory, offensive, very low quality, or very "off topic".
Bigotry is not allowed, this includes (but is not limited to): Homophobia, Transphobia, Racism, Sexism, Abelism, Classism, or discrimination based on things like Ethnicity, Nationality, Language, or Religion.
Avoid shilling for corporations, posting advertisements, or promoting exploitation of workers.
Proselytization, support, or defense of authoritarianism is not welcome. This includes but is not limited to: imperialism, nationalism, genocide denial, ethnic or racial supremacy, fascism, Nazism, Marxism-Leninism, Maoism, etc.
Avoid AI generated content.
Avoid misinformation.
Avoid incomprehensible posts.
No threats or personal attacks.
No spam.
Moderator Guidelines
I still remember putting a spring inside and shooting something out of them at my minis. they are soo old and bring many memories. Mostly how easily they broke. This thing always somehow ended up disassembled on my desk much faster than all the others. It was disappointingly simple though. I liked to take apart these with elaborate click mechanisms
A hole was added to the cap in 1991.
Wait, the hole in the cap is that recent?
Dude... That's 34 years ago.
Yeah, I know I'm approaching fossil age, but the pen itself was first made 75 years ago. I had always assumed that the hole in the cap was a change made much closer to the 50s than sometime within my lifetime.
Was that to try and prevent choking?
Yes. From the BIC website:
Why is there a hole in the cap of BIC® Cristal® Pens?
Our vented caps comply with international safety standards ISO11540. These standards attempt to minimize the risk to children from accidental inhalation of pen caps. Traditionally the pen cap served only to protect the pen point. These vented caps allow more air to circulate around the pen point when the pen is capped. This further adds to the quality and overall performance of the pen.
honestly, kinda refreshing to see a business not changing their shit constantly just to change shit. it's not the nicest pen, but it works.
Honestly still one of my favourite pens, and they last so long. Don't mess with perfection.
The guy on the line wants to stop the money printer? No, no no... you don't change the top selling pen of the century. We can introduce a lighter though. Guess we're doing fire now.
Maybe some razors.
They were actually updated in mid 90s when they made the cap have a hole in it.
What was the idea behind the drastic change?
Why fix what's cheap and barely does its job?
The kind of grace I yearn for in my performance reviews.
They do lighters too
The lighters also got a safety update in the '90s – the child resistant spring over the spark wheel
Why mess with perfection?
(Looks at the anatomically modern human) Bruh this shits been the same for the past 300,000 years. When we updating this bitch? New colorways, maybe?
Ah, the extremely shitty pen that scratches so bad you might as well carve your message into the paper. Lasts maybe 3 lines before it starts skipping but who cares. It exists to be as cheap as possible so your customer you don't respect can pocket it after initialing twice and signing something.
I hate bad cheap pens so much. I never would have gotten into fountain pens if there wasn't the counter example of how bad a writing experience can get.
American bics may be made in a different way because here in Spain they are so reliable they are a de facto standard for people taking an exam.
I think actual Bic-from-the-Bic-Company biros tend to be pretty good (especially the orange ones with black lids).
For a truly scratchy experience, you need a cheap, unbranded biro.
Why fix something that isn't broken?
Still tastes great
2050: .... starts manufacturing military cyborg soldiers with a Bic logo across their chest
They had a phone in 2008, so they should already have the knowledge to produce some basic electronics:
They also produce razors, so I envision some kind of BIC terminator with weapons for cutting things:
They've made more than 10 of these per human on the planet.
Don't you dare touch it!
please don't
This pen was decades ahead of its time. Made as cheaply as possible, just functional enough, disposable, and replaceable is the new standard for US commodities.