Pilot Otobaco Pen Case Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

The Pilot Otobaco is a pen box that transforms into a desk stand. A very cool idea, if a puzzling execution. It's made of hard plastic with a magnetic closure, and the inside is comprised of a number of compartments that unfold to serve various stationery related purposes. The material is sturdy but lightweight. If you were a kid in the 80s-90s, this is the same plastic your toys were made of. This is the 90’s Barbie fold-out camper of pen cases.

When the case is opened, the front flap folds down to become a pen tray, one part smooth, with part of it ridged to keep pens from rolling. Behind the ridged tray is a rubber strip designed to work as a stand for your phone or papers. Behind the stand strip is a deeper compartment with a hinged cup that folds up to serve as a pen cup.

There's a lot going on, and it's definitely fun, but not entirely functional. When closed, it only holds 5-6 pens total because so much of the interior space is taken up by its mechanics. While you can use the front edge of the tray, or the deeper back compartment to hold things when the case if fully opened, all of those things will have to come out before you can close the case back up, because the pens fold into those spaces when it closes. Overall, it makes a better desk stand than a case, and might be handy as a permanently open wee stand on a wee desk. As a case for on-the-go, it doesn't quite work for me. It's large and inflexible and doesn't hold enough stuff.

I could see this being useful for a student, though. If you don't need a lot of gear, and will be moving between multiple small desks throughout your day.

Whatever you're carrying in this case will need to be fairly small, also. It is only 16.5 cm long internally, so it won't hold most wood pencils or longer pens. That's what keeps me from recommending this for wandering artists. Bulky pens or highlighters would take up most of the interior. There isn't space for things like washi or erasers or other accessories.

As a mini-mobile desk stand, I think it does serve its purpose, but the trick is, what is the audience for this purpose? I'm not sure. It's also a bit pricey at $27. That's $10 more than the SMAND, the now legendary case-tray-stand that serves a similar purpose and is close in size, but holds at least a dozen pens.

So while I don't enthusiastically recommend this, it does make a useful small desk organizer, and no doubt it will find its audience who will love it dearly.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Luddite Liberator 4 Pocket Case Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

Pen cases (and bags in general) are one of the products that I have a lot of trouble keeping under control when it comes to my collection. I want them all because I can envision a unique purpose for each unique bag or case. The main problem is that there are so many different worthy designs and products out there — it's almost impossible to choose. That makes it so much more important to choose wisely to ensure my collection isn't needlessly large.

It's not very often that I come across any products that have any critical flaws or weaknesses, so that makes it even more astounding when it happens. At least in this case, it makes the decision of whether to add it to the case collection all that much easier.

What I'm leading up to is a specific pen case that I've tried using for the past couple of weeks. The Luddite Liberator Cordura 4 Pocket Pen Case looks interesting on the surface, uses some good quality materials, and hits a couple of trendy checkboxes that should interest many different customers. But be warned, dear reader, that this pen case has a critical flaw: it doesn't actually close when zipped up. The zipper works smoothly and flawlessly, but it's undercut by the two large gaps in between the zipper panel and the side panels of the case — one on each end of the case!

When I was first unpacking and inspecting the case, this design stood out to be almost immediately, but I shrugged it off thinking that it must do an adequate job of keeping objects inside the case — otherwise, how did it make it to the market? After loading it up with a few pens and trinkets, I did a quick test. I used both hands to smoothly rotate the case end over end to simulate being tossed in a bag. Three of the four pens fell out and onto the floor. One more rotation shot out the last pen as well.

At this point, I'm inspecting the case closer and trying to find a manufacturing problem — missing or broken stitches that might provide an answer for why it was so obviously ineffective at its one job. Nope — the fit and finish are fantastic and only show that this case is operating as designed.

And for that one simple reason, all I can do is dissuade any potential buyers from purchasing this case. I could talk about the main compartment and how it's divided by a nifty internal pocket sleeve, but that doesn't matter. The mesh zippered pocket on the front of the case is the only thing that works great. But there's no point in using the mesh pocket if you leave the main compartment empty. I could also talk about the Cordura fabric and overall build quality, but that doesn't matter either. Just for fun, I put as many pens as I could into the gap between the case walls and the zipper strip. I could easily fit three to four pens into the gap with plenty of wiggle room. What?!

In looking at Luddite's other Liberator case options, it seems that they definitely understand how to make a case that completely seals. This just further confuses me for why this 4 pocket case even exists, and that's the real problem I have with it: this is a product that shouldn't exist. There are so many good cases on the market that can fit almost every use case, and they all fulfill the most basic requirement: keep my stuff inside the case when I zip it closed.

The other case options look interesting, but this particular case design just leaves a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to this brand. There are so many excellent options out there that will serve you well. In my mind, Luddite has to offer a truly exceptional product to get me over this initial setback.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Kamio Japan SEPA Pen Case Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

In the never-ending journey to find the best pen case for every situation, I picked up a Kamio SEPA case from JetPens. The compartmentalized design spoke to my more organized side, and I figured it was worth a try. After all, even a non-perfect pen case has plenty of use.

The SEPA is a rectangular case that has a zip enclosure that goes around three of the four sides. There are two zips, which is a strange thing in my mind. Either way, the zips are very smooth and easy to operate.

The spine of the case also has a strap that makes it easy to carry or latch to something else with a carabiner. Even though the strap is fairly long, it lays close to the spine of the case to prevent it getting in the way when not in use.

The exterior of the case is made of a sturdy polyester that is soft and pliable. The inside of the case is a lightweight polyester that's really soft to the touch. I don't see longevity being an issue, but the light color and soft fabric mean it will pick up dirt really easily.

Inside the case, there's plenty of built-in organization. The right hand side of the case has a zippered pocket, the left side has two elastic slash pockets, and there's an internal zippered pocket that is attached by two snap buttons to the outer edge of the left side. This middle pocket can easily be removed if you want more open space inside the pouch, and when it's not in the case, it operates as a nice small pouch on its own.

Starting on the right side, the zippered pocket is made of mesh that's easy to see through and find what you need. It works pretty well, but it's not a dimensional pocket. The mesh fabric allows some give and stretch for larger items, but there just isn't much space for jamming lots of small things in the pocket. It's very one dimensional.

The left side of the case is similar in that the pockets don't offer much depth. The slash pockets are two heights, but they're doubled up on each other. I really haven't found much use with the lower pocket since it shares all available space with the taller pocket behind it. It's good for storing really small items, but that's about it. The middle pocket is also mesh, but it's a much finer mesh that doesn't stretch. It's also a flat pocket with no room to stretch, so you're better off storing small objects in this.

With all three areas of the case utilizing flat non-dimensional pockets, this really limits the kind of objects you can store. If anything is dimensional, it takes up more available space since the pocket has to stretch to accommodate it. For example, if the zipper pocket on the right side had some depth, you could store more objects close to the edges of the pocket without any issue. But as it's designed with no give around the edges, everything you store in this pocket ends up getting pushed to the middle of the pocket where there's more give and stretch. The same thing happens with the other pockets as well.

The left side slash pockets are great for clipping pens onto, and it does a great job of keeping them in place. It's even tall enough to accommodate the current Apple Pencil, which is surprisingly not always true with many pen cases. But these pockets suffer from the same problem — no dimension. They look nice and wide, but you can't use all that space due to the flat nature of the pockets. You can easily fit six pens side by side in the space the left side offers, but only four or five will fit when they're slotted behind the slash pocket.

The photos in the JetPens product page really show the best use for this case: lightly packed with semi-flat items in different areas. If you pack each pocket to the max, it will do fine when laying flat open, but you won't be able to close the case. Even with some extra room in the pockets, you still have to consider how everything sandwiches together when you close and zip the case. In many cases I'd have to figure out how to move things around inside to prevent a big bulge in one spot while all the outer edges appeared empty.

My favorite kind of bag or case is the kind that can seemingly store more than you'd assume without looking full. I have many bags and cases that can do this, and they're a real delight. I'm always surprised by what I can fit in them, meaning I can fit more than I initially predicted. And even when they're fully loaded, the don't look like they're stuffed to the max or about to spill over if a zipper pops. There's a real art to designing and making bags and cases that can accomplish this. I imagine there's also a ton of trial and error to get to this point. With the Kamio SEPA case, the effort and design just isn't there. It's a case that comes up short and consistently tricks me into thinking it can hold plenty of stuff. In reality, this case normally holds less stuff than the amount of space the empty case takes up, and that's just disappointing.

If you're only storing small or flat objects, this can work fine as a great organization tool. If you're looking to store and compress a bunch of tools for carrying around and using, there are so many other great options out there.

I happen to have a Nomadic case that is roughly the same exterior size as the SEPA case, but it holds so much more stuff without being bulky. Plus, it's a few bucks cheaper.

The SEPA case comes in a wide variety of colors and designs, which is a large part of what attracted me to the case in the first place. There are plenty of solid colors, but also some options from the Pokemon and Charlie Brown realms. At around $22 to $25, it's a fair price for the materials and quality. I just can't recommend it as a functional case, which really bums me out. I wanted to love this case, but it just frustrated me too much!

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)