Image	Product	Features	Price
	LAMY Al-Star Ocean Blue Fountain Pen		Check Price
	Lamy Safari Blue Fountain Pen		Check Price

Welcome to the first official Battle Series!

First off, I’ll be honest: I’m a pen nerd, so I’ll usually like all the pens we talk about.

There may not be a clear winner and a clear loser, but with this new series of blogs, the aim is to tell you the strengths, weaknesses, and differences between two similar pens so you can decide which is ultimately the best choice for you.

OR, you could do what I would like to do: buy both!

Of course, if you can’t do that, I hope this blog helps you to make a well-informed decision.

If you’ve kept up with our other blogs, you’ll know that LAMY has been a recent addition for us, but has quickly become a favorite because of its quality and price point.

Made in Germany, and celebrating over 50 years of satisfied customers, the LAMY brand name is associated with high-quality design and extreme functionality.

Their modern look officially took flight in 1966 with the birth of the LAMY 2000: the design basis for most models today. With over 8 million writing instruments produced per year, LAMY is amazingly still a family-owned business! If your family is anything like mine, the simple fact that they have worked together for 50 years is astonishing!

With 32 product families of writing systems, LAMY has a lot to offer. Today, we want to dig into two of their most popular designs: the LAMY Safari (their best seller) and the LAMY AL-Star (a newer design on the rise, hoping to challenge the Safari).

The LAMY Safari Fountain Pen

Original Release Date: 1980
Material: Sturdy plastic
Colors: Pink, Green, Yellow, White, Umber (Grey), Red, Blue, Black
Tagline: “The Best Seller”
Price: $37.00

The LAMY AL-Star Fountain Pen

The LAMY Safari Fountain Pen vs. The LAMY AL-Star Fountain Pen

The easiest way to tell the difference between the two is that the Safari is plastic, and the Al-Star is aluminum (think: Aluminum-Star).

Another difference is in the grip sections. In the AL-Star, the grip section is a translucent black plastic. In the Safari, the color of the pen’s body goes all the way down until you reach the nib.

Speaking of colors, there are a few more color options in the Safari (8 compared to 6) – the colors are also typically brighter, and sometimes neon in the Safari line. Some colors are really close, though, such as the Grey, which is available in both Al-Star and Safari.

The only real difference, other than the material, is that the Al-Star has a chrome clip, and the Safari has a black one.

The LAMY AL-Star is also available in bronze, for a full rundown check out our blog post: LAMY AL-Star Bronze: Definitely Not Third Place.

In terms of size, both pens are roughly the same size, although the body is extremely slightly larger in the AL-Star in terms of length and width (the AL-Star is definitely a bit heavier as well). By pure looks, the AL-Star does look slightly “thicker” when they are viewed directly side by side, particularly in the cap section.

We offer a full selection of verified LAMY pens and fountain pens, be sure to check them out to find the one that's right for you!