Miscellany: Fisher trekker Space Pen review

Fisher never produced the keychain Bullet pen in any quantity, so when I lost mine, I wasn't able to buy another one. I briefly turned to cheaper alternatives like the PicoPen and the Sharpie Mini, but found that none of them worked as well as my old pen. So, I ponied up the money and bought Fisher's latest and greatest, the trekker Space Pen.

The trekker corrects the single biggest design flaw of the old Bullet: its tendency for the body of the pen to get separated from the cap attached to the keyring. In the trekker, the pen body is retained very snugly by a ring of metal hidden in the cap, not pressure fit into the cap with an o-ring like the Bullet was. While not perfect, it's much more secure, and I've had the trekker in my pocket long enough to wear away the finish.

There are only two downsides to this arrangement. First, you can't post the cap onto the pen body to get a full-size pen like you could with the Bullet. Second, the trekker is actually a little more likely to unscrew itself in your pocket because the body is so tightly affixed to the cap. You can largely avoid this by screwing that sucker on as hard as you can (if you're paranoid, applying some blue Loctite on the threads will help).

The trekker takes standard pressurized space pen refills and writes pretty smoothly, certainly much better than any other mini ballpoint. I just hope Fisher keeps making 'em.