The Rotring Tikky mechanical pencil has been around for many years and undergone many changes since it was first released. I’m not a Tikky expert so I can’t detail the various changes it has undergone, but if my memory is correct I recall that the author of the now deleted Pencil Box blog stated he had something like 30 or 40 different variants of the Tikky.
The latest incarnation of the Tikky mechanical pencil is significantly different from its immediate predecessor, so I’ll point out a few of the main changes below.
I have two older Rotring Tikky’s dating from the early to mid 2000’s. The white 0.9mm is logoed as a Rotring Tikky II (1.0mm) and the brown 0.5mm as a Rotring T. Apart from the name, there’s no obvious difference between them upon visual inspection. They are pictured below with the current Tikky.
Comparing these two older Tikky’s to the current Tikky, it’s fairly obvious that the apart from the name “Tikky” and concept of the wave grip zone the current Tikky has virtually nothing in common with the old Tikky. Maybe some or all of the internal components are the same, but externally they have little in common.
Completely different pocket clips.
Different end caps. Also note the method of pocket clip attachment to the body.
Different tip sections, and grips, although conceptually similar.
Old Tikky has a round upper body whereas new Tikky transitions from a round lower body to a sort of rounded trapezium shape up at the end.
Note the old Tikky had “Made in Germany” moulded into it.
The new Tikky has no country of origin either on the pencil or the packaging. It states distributed by, but not manufactured by or in.
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22 comments:
I have two mid 80th Rotring Tikkies in front of me.
One has a white body, blue label print "Tikky special 0,7" and a blue ring. The other has a brown body, white label print "Tikky special 0,3".
Now the interesting part: Both have the "two wing" clip you found on your new Tikkies. So they are kind of back to the roots with the clip on the new ones.
The clip on the white 0,7 reads "rotring W.Germany". The clip on the brown one just reads "rotring".
No other markings, and nowhere can a red ring ("rot(er) Ring") be found.
Thanks. What body cross-section are the old Tikky's - round or like the new ones?
They are round.
The Turkish text on the reverse of the Tikky III packaging in Europe shows where the pencil is manufactured: If you put the text into Google Translate the translation is "Origin: China".
Interesting, thanks Matthias.
how can somebody like pencils so much???
I wrote a depreciatory comment on Rotring Ticky at another place in this blog, but now you got me too look at my old Ticky (I am quite sure, it is a Ticky -- although everything written on the barrel has faded away).
As the first commenter wrote, on older ones the clip is clipped on the barrel (but in a slot, so it can't neither turn nor move). Furthermore, everything is different on my Ticky:
- the tip section is longer
- the grip section is shorter
- no coloured ring after the grip section
- the clip is not bend (it is marked rotring W. Germany).
So I conclude again: The Ticky is nothing to consider as a collector. It's just a work horse with no specific design :-)
Dave, if you only knew how rare the white 1.0mm Tikky 11 is. I've been searching forages for that pencil to complete my 0.3, 0.5 0.7,1.0(0.9) white Tikky 11's. Andrey sells them as a complete set but I've seen nowhere online that sells the Tikky 11 1.00mm individually.
Really? I'll keep my eyes open next time I'm at the local Tikky store.
I have a slightly different 'Tikky 2' where the wave section is a separate black rubber sleeve with the wave moulded into this. It has the name 'Tikky SC' on the side, but is identical in all other ways to the Tikky II shown above. I purchased its (and a few spares!) in Hong Kong, from a dusty old shop, where they have quite a range of old Rotring products, but still new in boxes.
Hi Ian - dusty old "NOS" stores are often full of hidden treasure - glad you found some.
German products marked W. Germany were all made between 1949 and German reunification in 1990. Introduced in 1979 the first version of the rOtring Tikky was produced till 1996, in 1997 rOtring released a new version, the Tikky II (2, not 11/eleven) which was kept in production until 2007, in 2008 the new Tikky (not Tikky III) came out. A few years ago, maybe 3 or 4, i read somewhere an announcement by rOtring in which they stated they have reached 100 million Tikkys sold around the world. Maybe this is the best selling pencil ever, if not, then the Pentel PG200 series is. I've been using Tikky mechanical pencils since they first came out and the only thing i can say is that they are great, specially the first generation pencils.
Ricardo.
Despite my Tikky rants above I recently bought a Tikky: a metallic double push. Now I'm looking for a metallic automatic one:-)
I have found a really old pencil in an older German shop- marked ''rOtring Tikky special 0,9'' (Made in W. Germany)
Do you know about how valuable this could be?
Ian, where is the old dusty shop?? I am livin in HK... can u tell me please?
Apparently the new Tikky has a 'colours' version which is only available in 0.5. It originally came in black, red, white, yellow and blue.
Only black and red are now available, the others having been discontinued. The black colours version doesn't have the small coloured flash by the clip to indicate the lead size.
So if you find any of the coloured ones they aren't going to be very common.
2nd astronaut: I have an old metallic automatic one but it does not work. I have taken it appart and tried to fix it but to no avail.
Have you managed to get hold of another one?
. (short name :-)), no I was not able to source an automatic Tikky until now. There was a (similar) Rotring 400 automatic at an auction site, but it was too expensive.
I wrote about Tikkys on the previous incarnation of my blog - the article was wiped by the provider before I could transfer to my new blog, so nothing to link to.
Anyhow, I have various of all three generations of Tikkies (sic), including the very first one I purchased in 1981.
I have the first generation in 0.3 (not 0.35) and 0.5mm, in the then default brown. A dark maroon one came with the isograph drawing set (the same base colour as the pens). In those days, one could even purchase replacement tips (which I had need to do).
The second generation were available (at least in the UK) until quite late in 0.5mm in a number of colours, including slightly translucent blue and dark maroon, and a bold yellow.
There is also a version of the Tikky where the whole tip could retract into the barrel (I have a white one), although I'm not sure where that comes in the time-line.
By the way, the colour flash identifying the width is the same colour code as used for their pens - it might be a universal standard for the pens - although of course not strictly accurate with the 0.3/0.35 anomaly for example.
I preferred the first incarnation to the second, as they were thinner and looked slicker, had a more substancial clip as mentioned above, and to my mind a better internal mechanism. I've lost so many over the years, though, I mostly have Tikky IIs now.
I have a few New Tikkys as well, but recently have moved towards multi-pens which I load as a pencil/pen/stylus combination, partly for work and mobile phone text message reasons.
The "Tikky" multipen was OK, a large diameter New Tikky look-alike version based on the Rotring Trio/Quattro, but it broke at the weak point - a plastic only thread, where a metal tube liner did not extend to support - for no good reason.
I might even re-write and update the original post if there was any interest - but the demands of real life mean I don't have much time at present.
Hi Dave,
I'm working my way backwards through your blog. Thanks for putting together such a fun and informative resource.
Cheers,
Jesse,
Canada
Hello Jesse
Glad to hear you are finding some entertainment amongst these pages.
You may never understand, if you don't like pencils a lot.
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