Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Five Cartridge Barrel Review

First it was the two cartridge, then the three, then the four, and now the five cartridge Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto has arrived. What's next, an eleventeen cartridge Coleto? If there was, I would still probably buy it, because the Coleto line is probably the best bang for your buck gel ink multi pen on the market today.

I love the versatility of multi pens, and because of that, I have tried as many as I can get my hands on. Compared to its closest competitors - the Uni-Ball Style Fit and the Pentel Sliccies - the Coleto is the undisputed champ in my book. The barrel has a great feel and design, and the many ink colors are vibrant and write wonderfully. If there is any knock on it, it is that the ink cartridges run out too quickly, but that is the case with many gel ink multi pens.

I was actually a little hesitant to pick up the five cartridge model, worrying that it was going to be too wide of a body for me, but it is not bad at all. The two cartidge Coleto is obviously the skinniest of the bunch, while the three and four cartridge barrels are nearly identical in width. The five is only slightly wider than the three and four, but completely comfortable to write with. That said, the four cartridge barrel is my Coleto sweet spot. With the width of the three and an extra slot to boot, what's not to like (I promise I will get them all together for a family photo shoot soon).

Pliot has been doing a great job of late with all of the different Coleto bodies, and I am having a fun trying them all out.

Click here for the XL review.

Products used:

Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto 5 Color Multi Pen - Pen Body - Clear Black from JetPens

Writing Pad from Doane Paper

Zebra Sarasa Clip 0.3 mm Blue Green Review

Current favorite pen model? Yes. Current favorite color? No chance.

One of the things that attracted me to the Sarasa Clip 0.3mm aside from the great performance was the wide range of ink colors that are available. I have tried many, and have several left to review, but this blue green color ranks up there with some of the worst. Admittedly, one of the issues is that such a light color does not work that well on my Doane Paper Writing Pad. A plain white background would have probably worked better in this case. Even so, the end result is a color that actually causes eye strain for me, and that's not a good thing. Time for this one to hit my kids pen box.

It has been a while since I jotted some lyrics down for review, but when I saw They Might Be the 50 Best They Might Be Giants Songs on UGO.com back in January, I knew I had to do my #1 TMBG song "We Want A Rock" (#13 on the list). I have other favorites like "I Palindrome I", "Ana Ng", and "Minimum Wage", but Rock always gets me going. Enjoy the song:

Review: Sailor Pocket Brush Pen - Super Fine

This review is by Kalina Wilson, who can also be found at Geminica.com.

The Sailor Pocket Brush Pen (Super Fine) isn't really a brush.  It's even less of a brush than most brush pens of the type.  In order to provide a line that could be described as "Super Fine", Sailor got rid of all the brush-like attributes and has simply provided a fine felt-tipped pen.

I don't mean that as a complaint, really.  The pen works well, the tip is performing well so far (I've seen one review that claims the tip doesn't hold its point for long, but haven't seen that problem yet myself), the ink is waterproof, and it seems to be a good workhorse product.  If I wanted to draw comics with a consistent line instead of the variability you can get from, say, the Tombow Fudenosuke which I unabashedly love, this super fine Sailor would be a decent option.

    

However, I will not buy this pen again.  At $2.25 (JetPens), it's the same price as the Tombow Fudenosuke.  The Tombow has a much nicer body made of recycled plastic with crisp, professional printing on the side; the Sailor is made of cheap plastic with sloppy silver printing on the side.  It just looks and feels cheap.  The Sailor Super Fine will give you a more consistent, thin line compared to the Tombow Fudenosuke's variability, but if consistent line width isn't your top priority, the Sailor brush loses its only advantage.  Personally, I just wasn't very excited to pick this one up, but will probably keep it around and use it until it runs dry because it  performs a simple function and works fine for what it does.

I haven't tried the other sizes of Sailor brushes, and they may be very different from the Super Fine so there is further investigation to be done.

If you're a fan of the Sailor Super Fine brush, I'd love to hear about your experiences with it and whether the tip has held up over time.

Note: Drawings on this page are based on Victorian mugshots, which are easily found online and lots of fun to browse.