Here is a pen that you rarely see: an early Pilot Capless in the hard to find Red color. These pens are better known as Namiki Vanishing Points, which was how they were marketed to the west. In Japan they have always been the Pilot Capless.

The Capless pens first were released in 1963, just in time for the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympic games.

. If you are old enough to remember 1964, you will recall that this was the year that Tokyo hosted the summer Olympic games. It is hard to express just how important these games were to Japan. It was only 20 years after the war, and Japan saw this as their one good chance to reintroduce themselves to the world. In the 1930's Pilot played a similar role when they produced the famous Dunhill Namiki maki-e pens. Then they were trying to show the world that Japan produced wonderful high quality products, not the junk that most of the world associated with Japan at the time.

In 1964 Pilot hoped to show the world that not only the politics had changed but also that the Japanese industry had matured to one of the world's leaders. Pilot played a big part in the Tokyo Olympics. They were an official sponsor and for the Olympic tourists they produced English instructions for the inovative Elite, and the Capless

What stands out about this pen is the rare red color. 90% of all these early Pilots are black. I have only seen three of these red in the last 8 years of looking.

$650