Fisher Q4 Quad-Action Space Pen Stylus
OK kids, it’s
FLASHBACK time….(cue TV flashback music).
Now you’re sitting on
the floor watching that must see episode of ALF you’ve been waiting
for all week. The opening credits have just rolled and you are
settling in with your beverage of choice. The commercial comes on
and it’s…it’s…it’s the Fisher Space Pen! How cool. The announcer is
telling you the merits of writing upside down. You know you have
always wanted to do that. And there! There’s the astronaut floating
in space with his suit on writing something while he is upside down!
And the announcer comes on again and tells you that the space pen
was developed for the space program and now you too can own one.
INCREDIBLE! And here you thought the closest you would ever get to
NASA was to drink a glass of Tang and roll yourself up in a space
blanket. Now, you can do that, hang off your bed upside down and
write a letter to the ALF fan club with your new Fisher Space Pen!!!
You can barely contain yourself as you write down the address to
send in your money.
Cue flashback music
again…….
Here we are, back in
the twenty first century. You no longer have the burning desire to
write upside down wrapped in a space blanket, not since they took
ALF off the air, those network bastards.
 And
goodness knows you have not had a yen for a glass of Tang since you
discovered Red Bull. Let’s face it. You are a grown up. You fight
it, but you are. Now it’s all about efficiency and appointments and
getting somewhere on time. But every once in awhile, you want
something cool, something gadgety and fun, not to mention great to
look at.
Enter the new Fisher
Quad Function Space Pen.
Yes, that company,
Fisher, is still around making technologically advanced writing
instruments. They aren’t doing infomercials anymore, but, they are
still making great pens.
The Quad-Function
Space Pen lives up to the Fisher name. It’s good looking, and it
does the job of four instruments.
First, pick up the
pen. The body is made of aluminum, with a wider more comfortable
base made of rubber for a better feel, and to reduce the threat of
that dreaded “writer’s bump” we have discussed in an earlier review.
The mechanism is the
classic plunger method we are all used to. But here is the “space
age” part. To get the desired point, you hold the “Q-4” parallel to
the ground. Simply find the name of the point desired, which is
printed on the barrel until it is facing up. Push the plunger, and
voila! The point you want magically appears.
Now I tried to figure
out how they do this, but so far I haven’t been able to. I tried to
fool the pen by quickly moving the barrel around back and forth, but
the minute I stop it and push the plunger, the point corresponding
to the name on the barrel facing up always comes out. Huh. That is
weird.
But, rather than try
and find out the physics behind this methodology, which I am
convinced is mired in some Einsteinian probability theory where
Stylus “X” is related to gravity “V” and the odds of selecting
pencil “P” is calculated out to the nearest tenth, I figured I would
just select the red pen and doodle. Yup. That’s about my speed.
I have to say, the
Fisher Q-4 is a great pen…I mean pen/stylus combo. It does
everything. Two colors of ink, a fine point pencil, and stylus, all
in one unit. It’s very sleek looking as well, the barrel being a gun
metal grey right down to the rubberized flexible base.
And, you’ll never be
at a loss for just the right writing instrument to reflect your mood
when you have the Fisher Q-4 on you.
As for the cost of
being so technologically advanced? Well, I found it on sites like
www.stylisource.com for $29.99. I thought that was quite manageable
for all the Fisher Q-4 offers: four points, great looking,
futuristic mechanism, and the chance to be part of the new
millennium. Think of it! Who knew all those years ago, sitting on
the floor, watching those ALF reruns, you would be part of the shape
of things to come!
Now, go. Go and take
your Fisher Q-4 Space Pen and travel down town on your Segway and
write your name on the list for that new flying car that’s supposed
to come out next July…..or is it a car that runs on water…or
air…..or seaweed……or dust bunnies…..
Geez. I should have
written it down...
This classic multi-function stylus pen still be found in a few places, from Amazon.com to e-Bay. We found brand new inventory for sale on StyliSource.com's site:
http://www.stylisource.com/detail.asp?product_ID=q4
Daniel R. Berenthall is a writer and techno-geek who sometimes does reviews for cool stuff. Oh, and he writes too. Pick up his latest book, “Video Killed The Digital Star” at
amazon.com.
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