Bic matic grip in cinema

You do not need a high-end pencil to do some sketches, a comfortable one works just fine. It's all in the wrist finally.
In the movie American Ultra, Mike Howell played by Jesse Eisenberg likes doodling and sketching.
The results... Bic Matic will draw*


At some point in time, probably in the 3rd or 4th grade, I had a Bic Matic, the older version (classic by today's standards).
It had a white barrel with black clip and black front part, 0.7 mm. From my memories, it was my first (or second) mechanical pencil I ever owned. After seeing it in the movie American Ultra I am starting to get nostalgic, maybe I will get a new Bic Grip Matic.


It seems Thor is a fan of Bic as well. If you want to see Bic appearance in other movies view this post as well.

*  reference to "Forged in fire"

Penac Chubby and Faber Castell Grip Plus

Two different brands of stationary, same mechanical pencil.

Faber Castell Grip Plus:

The mechanical pencil comes in a plastic body with 4 available colors (green metallic, blue metallic, black metallic, red metallic). It has a triangular rubber grip and a twist eraser. The clip is plastic similar to that on the Grip Matic.

As the mechanical pencil is for general writing purpose you have the option of 0.7 mm lead. Also, there is a less common 1.4 mm lead size version. It has a slide back sleeve and spring lead protection, for when you push too hard on the pencil.

Penac Chubby 10:

Penac is a Japanese brand produced by the Kotobuki & Co Ltd. Chubby 10 is a large grip, "jumbo" by the producer standards. The pencil has a plastic body. You can choose between 0.7 and 0.5 lead. Available colors are blue for the 0.7 mm and black for the 0.5 mm.

It has a twist eraser, PVC free the same as the Faber Castell. It features cushioned lead and a sliding sleeve, the same as the Faber Castell.

The only thing that seems to differ is the clip. The grip is slightly different also, but not much.

The real difference comes in price though, where the Penac is half the price of the Faber Castell.

Sculpture in pencil lead

Modern art is not restricted to oil paintings or sculptured granite blocks. Now art is everywhere, train station, building walls, pavement, coffee art, sand painting, and why not in toilet rolls

Salavat Fidai is an "experimental" artist who among others does pencil sculpture, lead sculpture to be more precise.
A couple of images of his impressive work


For more, you can see Salavat Fidai work at www.salavatfidai.com, or on instagram

One question, can you use them for writing?

Stadtler Tradition pencil seen on screen

Seen on the screen comes back. Now with a pencil, Tradition 110 from Staedtler. According to Staedtler website, the Tradition is a High-quality pencil for writing, drawing, and sketching has an unbelievably break-resistant through special lead formulation and super-bonded lead. The wood is from certified, sustainably managed forests (I don't know what to say about this, we all heard about VW). Well, who knows let's give them credit until proven wrong.
The pencil comes in 12 degrees of hardness

Made in Germany.


In the movie The Numbers Station (2013) a bunch of Staedtler Tradition pencils can be spotted, apparently, grade B. The movie is poor - ok-ish but I'm not going to make further comments on the movie quality.
The main actors are John Cusack and Malin Akerman.
Note: I want to mention if by chance you see in the rest of the post the name Tom Cusack it's the same actor John, it's just I like to call him Tom :). He looks like a Tom for me.
Now that Tom is out of the way:

Right in the first scenes when the two are in the bunker receiving/sending numbers the pencils can be spotted.

With very good eyesight and zoom, you can actually see Tradition B written on the pencil in the middle.

In this first two images, John Cusack is picking up the pencil from the bunch and plays with it.


In the picture above Malin Akerman is holding the pen, taking notes

Spot the Staedtler.
Apparently, it is also good for holding your hair, not only for writing. Who knew?!

As I said before the movie is, how it is, but I have learned that Staedtler Tradition is good for playing when bored, good for writing, and good for holding your hair (if you have long hair)
Also, the movie made me aware that a number station is a real thing, not a made up bunker for John/Tom Cusack and Malin Akerman.

According to Wikipedia:
"A numbers station is a type of shortwave radio station characterized by unusual broadcasts, reading out lists of numbers or incomprehensible coded messages. The voices are often created by speech synthesis and are transmitted in a wide variety of languages. The voices are usually female, although sometimes men's or children's voices are used. Some voices are synthesized and created by machines; however, some stations used to have live readers. Many numbers stations went off the air due to the end of the Cold War in 1989, but many still operate and some have even continued operations but changed schedules and operators."

How does a number station work?
A number station provides a way to communicate in plain sight, transmitting a series of characters or numbers over radio waves. Everyone can listen to the transmission but only those who have the decrypter can understand the message.
The people decrypting needs a one time pad which is provided in advance.
More about one-time pad -The Laws of Cryptography