It took quite a bit of digging to find any info on these funky Waterman fountain pens so I decided to make a blog post as a way of safekeeping some of what I found. I first came across them while window shopping on eBay for a new Waterman fountain pen. A bunch of these popped up in the search in all sorts of designs. I ended up getting a couple to try.
These are very simple cartridge fountain pens obviously with young users in mind. The designs seemed to suggest they were marketed towards very young kids, perhaps ones in 1st grade who would just be learning to write, as well as teenagers. They were only available from sellers located in Europe, most often the Netherlands and France. All that I saw came with a Fine sized stainless steel nib, most were silver colour and some were gold plated. They came in a plethora of colours (neons, pastels, even chrome), geometric designs, holiday themed designs, some had cartoons, some had flowers, others had road signs. The prices seemed to range around 10-30 Euros. Seems these pens were made in the 1980s and 90s. There is also a similar looking pen called the Jiffie, it seems to be made specifically for very young kids. It has a slightly more pronounced band, perhaps so that the cap is easier to pull off for young children. These pens don't always pop up when searching the international eBay, but they do appear when searching the French eBay site (ebay.fr).
After some digging around I was able to find some info on these, but not much.
http://dirck.delint.ca/beta/?page_id=8627
https://pennibink.weebly.com/list-of-models--liste-des-modegraveles.html
From the info on those two sites, it looks like the JIF that was made in the 80s was based on a school pen also called JIF that was made in the 60s. The pen was sold as a JIF 2 c.1975 - 1990, then renamed as the JIF 31 c. 1990 - 2000. There was even a metal version made at one point.
So how are these pens? They remind me of the Safari Lamy but lighter, with a lot more spunk, the grip section is round, and they don't need proprietary cartridges to run. The ones I got write very nicely, the nibs are very smooth and wet. The plastic does feel cheap but it is plastic. It wouldn't make sense for a child's pen to have more heft. These feel very nicely balanced and they are very comfortable to write with. They feel light, but the pens are very nicely made. They feel replaceable cheap, not trashy cheap. The caps snap on with a very satisfying and secure click and they post perfectly. They seem to hold up very well to use and have a durable finish. Mine have some micro scratches visible on the caps which are just a solid colour, but the graphics on the bodies look perfectly preserved.
Here are some of the many different designs that were available.
