Benu Beam Me Up Review: A Hand-Painted Fountain Pen With Real Depth

Introduction

Benu has spent the last year or so adding hand-painted accents to more of its catalogue, starting with a light artisan flourish and gradually moving toward something far more ambitious. Winter and holiday themed releases followed, but the Beam Me Up stands out as the strongest of that artisan direction so far. It takes the company’s Euphoria platform, a decently sized resin pen, and wraps it in a space-themed artwork that feels genuinely considered rather than decorative.

The Hand-Painted Artwork

There is a lot happening on the barrel, and all of it is painted by hand. You get a rocket, the sun, a red meteor, a red planet, a little green alien, Saturn, and even a spaceship beaming up a cow with its tractor beam. The whimsy is the point, and it lands.

What elevates the design beyond the painted elements themselves is the underlying resin. Benu’s signature glittery confetti flecks do a convincing job of emulating fields of stars, while wispy translucent elements add real depth to the material. The artwork is not simply sitting flat on the surface; it is interwoven in a way that gives the barrel a vibrance and playfulness you do not often see at this price.

Because every pen is painted by hand, the artwork on the unit you receive will differ slightly from another example. The individual elements are the same, so each pen features the spaceship with the cow and the little green alien, but their rendering varies. That is arguably the appeal: you end up with something unlike any other pen out there.

Design and Build

The Beam Me Up is based on the Euphoria model, so it is a decent-sized resin pen with a faceted cap and barrel. Each has ten facets, making this a decagon. The cap top is slightly rounded with sparkly elements suspended at a physical depth inside the material, and on this particular example the rest of the cap carried very little extra flecking, though this may vary pen to pen.

The clip is the same one Benu uses across its clipped pens, and it accommodates materials of varying thicknesses easily. The cap angles up to a flat portion on the last three quarters of an inch or so, where the company name appears in a silver lacquer. A medium-sized step leads down to the barrel, which tapers at an even rate before ending in a slightly rounded finial.

The section is a touch long, beginning with a flare and angling up slightly toward the plastic threads, with a straight portion behind them before the step up to the barrel. It is slightly thinner than ideal, but not enough to be annoying, and the lacquered barrel exterior means you never feel the painted elements against your hand while writing.

Nib and Writing Performance

The cap twists off in two and a quarter rotations to reveal a number six Schmidt stainless steel nib, available in fine, medium or broad. For an extra cost you can also order an additional nib to swap in later. One idea worth considering: pick up a spare broad nib and have a nibmeister apply a custom grind, giving you something more interesting than simply trading between two standard points.

The broad nib lays down a thick, generous line with limited line variation, and the feed keeps up fine with fast writing. Reverse writing is a little scratchy and hit and miss, so that is not this nib’s strength. The pen is a cartridge/converter filler with a single standard international long cartridge included, and because there is no metal in the section housing and the barrel is a single piece of resin, it can be eyedroppered with the supplied converter option or with silicone grease on the threads.

Posting is secure, but it is not the best look for this pen; posted, it covers a fair amount of the artwork you actually want to see. Used unposted, it is nicely balanced.

Pricing and Availability

The Benu Beam Me Up is available only through the Benu website and retails for $280. Standard Euphoria models without artwork sell for around $150, so the premium here reflects the custom hand-painted work. Given the significant effort involved in the barrel’s artistic elements, that premium feels reasonable, particularly since Benu keeps hand-painted pens available at what most would call a sensible price for artisan work.

This is not a limited edition, but it may have limited availability. Benu plans to keep it in the lineup for a few months, perhaps longer, rotating artisan models frequently so new designs arrive without overwhelming customers with an excessively wide product line. In practical terms, it may not be around forever.

Measurements, Comparisons and Buying Advice

As an Euphoria-based pen it sits alongside Benu’s other hand-painted releases, such as the La Petite Prince and the Polar Lights, and the Beam Me Up’s artwork plays with its resin more successfully than most. Against non-Benu pens like an Opus 88 demonstrator, a Diplomat Arrow or a Lamy Al-Star, it reads as a comfortable mid-to-large pen.

For the writing test, a space-themed pen deserved a space-themed ink, and Colorverse Extreme EX Deep Field, a deep blue-black with a subtle red sheen, suited it well. Against Diamine 1864 Blue Black and Monteverde Blue Black, those inks run slightly bluer but lack the same sheen. If you buy the Beam Me Up, factor in an ink pairing, because half the fun of this pen is the theme.

If you value a pen that is genuinely one of a kind, enjoy playful design, and want a dependable everyday writer underneath the artwork, this is easy to recommend. If you prefer understated pens, need strong reverse-writing performance, or dislike a thinner section, look elsewhere.

Conclusion

The Beam Me Up is Benu’s best hand-painted release to date. The interwoven artwork gives the barrel a depth and life that flat decoration rarely achieves, the Euphoria platform beneath it is a proven, comfortable writer, and $280 for this level of hand finishing feels fair. Just be aware that availability may be limited, so if it speaks to you, it is worth acting on sooner rather than later.