Friday, December 10, 2010

The 2010 DMP's

Welcome to the third annual DMP Awards.

Just to remind you, any mechanical pencil or other item featured on this blog in the 2010 calendar year is eligible for an award, but preference is given to mechanical pencils. Awards will not be given if there are no suitable candidates. The awards are:-

The “Bonus Slice of Pav” and “Last Nights Left Over Warm Flat Stale Ale” - special awards for anything judged worthy of an award, good or bad, respectively.

The “Pencil of Shame” awarded for the worst pencil (or item).

And the supreme award, the “Mordan-Hayakawa Trophy” for the best mechanical pencil (or item) of the year.

All decisions are final and the judges need offer no justification or defence of their decisions.

Right then, the first envelope please. This year there were no nominations for the Pencil of Shame, so that's a good start. However there were two nominations for a Last Nights Left Over Warm Flat Stale Ale award - the Yoropen Pencil and Monami Gripix-T leads. After due consideration the judges decided that both were enough of a let down to be awarded an open bottle of left over flat stale ale.

Enough of the negative! Moving on to things more positive. First up, the nominees for a Bonus Slice of Pav are:
Keun Young notebook
Platinum Hayakawa M-10000B mechanical pencil
Yoropen Pencil
Zebra Sharbo X multi pen
Papermate Biodegradable mechanical pencil
Tombow Onbook mechanical pencil

The judges have decided to award a Bonus Slice of Pav to Keun Young notebook (cheap, little, unpretentious but damn useful) and Zebra Sharbo X multi pen (love the options and customization).

The judges noted the apparent contradiction of the Yoropen Pencil being nominated for both a Bonus Slice of Pav and a Last Nights Left Over Warm Flat Stale Ale award. The first being for it's attempt at innovation, the later for failing.

Now for the main event. This year there was a strong field of nominees for the supreme award. The nominees are:
  • Mitsubishi Pure Malt Oak Wood Premium Edition mechanical pencil - a great tribute and special edition pencil.
  • Rotring Side Knock mechanical pencil - a very interesting mechanism
  • Metaphys VISS 44050 eraser - a new twist on the old problem of keeping a sharp edge
  • Platinum OLEeNU mechanical pencil mechanism - stronger is better, and for once the marketing hype is true.
  • Rotring 600 mechanical pencil - the august classic just keeps on going.
Drum roll...this years winner of the supreme award, the Mordan-Hayakawa Trophey is...
the Platinum OLEeNU mechanical pencil mechanism. Just as Kuru Toga showed, there are still advancements to be made in the design of mechanical pencils.

10 comments:

Christine said...

Really enjoyed this post - Thanks! And Happy Holidays! - Christine

Henrik said...

Me too. We can't have a year go by without the DMP awards. Great post.
regards Henrik

razide17 said...

Same here. Very entertaining, made the trip into work this morning worthwhile. I really like the look & style of the Zebra Sharbo X.

A bit disappointed the Kakapu wasn't mentioned somewhere. Seeing them on the ABC this year was my viewing highlight.

All the best over the festive season and new year.

Anonymous said...

I'm happy that the old rotring 600 is still alive. :-D

Dwscamel said...

I was riding on the Mitsibushi Pure Malt Oak or the Rotring 600 to win. I mean, both are terrific items, esoecially the latter . . . how could anyone not like a silver, heavy Rotring 600? It's the grail of heavy mechanical pencils!

The notebook was an excellent winner, however, and I totally agree. I'm also happy to see that interesting eraser as a nominee up there.

The worst product award could have easily gone to the economy-level Papermates . . . oh man, nightmarish. I'd be surprised if you could even advance the lead on some of them by the second use.

Very entertaining post as usual though. Thanks for sharing Dave!

2nd_astronaut said...

razide17, what is/was the "Kakapu"?

Razide17 said...

Sorry it should be Kakapo (Māori: kākāpō, meaning night parrot), Strigops habroptila. Nothing to do with pencils except they are vegetarians and from NZ.

Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine from Last Chance To See.
Sirroco was raised by humans, that's why he's not afraid and willing to take it to the next level."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T1vfsHYiKY

Anonymous said...

Dave,

Two Rotring's on the list, your getting there at last, not much happening on teh Pentel front.


Keir

Germ said...

I didn't get an award. :(( J/K

Angie said...

Love this! I'm sorry I didn't get to read the last two years' awards. Much better than the Golden Globes, in my opinion! :)