There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
It's kinda like the idea of an exclusive. Some video games are for certain systems. One could argue why a game wouldn't be on all systems, but Playstation (or whatever) likes exclusives because it drives up sales. Bungbox is a smaller shop, and they only have so much ink made and that's it. It's very expensive, but really good ink. I tend to go for each of these drops when they become available. It doesn't help that the Yen is so good against the dollar right now, that's driving up the costs too.
I think that's the big reason why we don't see more colors. If you look at Japanese Culture, they aren't as...diverse as we have it here. Fine/Extra Fine is important for Japanese writing (which I do a lot of writing in Japanese), and seem to sell more than mediums (which yes you can get). When dealing with Japanese Fine/EF, color isn't quite as nice as it is with more broad nibs. You don't have as much shading for one, and a lot of colors can appear to be very similar/same because you're having such a thin line. Also, Japanese culture is a bit more muted, simple, earthy colors. I think if Sailor kinda branched out a bit more than just the Japanese market, they'd be a bit better off. They aren't anywhere near the size of Pilot.
I'd recommend the Iroshizuku line of inks if you want more diverse colors, but work with an ink that's similar in terms of performance as Sailor. I think the formulation is very similar, and I use primarily Iroshizuku (I literally have every color, multiple bottles, etc) and Sailor/Bungbox (I have most of the colors that both have put out).