Platinum started the Hayaai series in the early 1980’s, and according to Platinum’s website, it won a design prize. Here are some close ups:
The original Hayaai is mostly metal, has a fixed sleeve and a hard plastic grip. It’s a solid pencil, with its strong point being its nice quiet click.
Then it seems Platinum took a direction change – going for a lower priced pencil:
The second Hayaai is mostly plastic, has very vibrant colors, and strikes me as very 1980’s. The sleeve now retracts, but it’s pretty chunky, so there is some precision loss. The Hayaai’s click is still pretty smooth, though, and it is a forerunner to some modern pencils (like the Pentel Smash) with the accordion fold cap.
The last update is the Platinum Hayaai TR. And it is yet another price drop – down to Y100. It’s all plastic with a metal clap and retractable metal sleeve. The nice click feeling is gone, and it’s comparable to other cheap pencils. Again, the design is sharp and current – my guess is early 1990’s.
There they are – For me it is interesting to see Platinum’s direction shift over the course of a decade, from a high quality and rather unassuming pencil, to more trendy and lower priced pencil. And maybe there are more Hayaais floating around in the world, but I haven’t seen them!
The Montana Writing Company 