Freak369's Full Review: Sanford Clickster Mechanical Pencils
Can there possibly be anything more boring than a review of a pencil? Well, this isn't exactly your garden variety pencil - this is the Sanford Clickster Grip! Brightly colored transparent mechanical pencils that make writing a little more fun, regardless of the task at hand. Packaged in colorful assortments, these have become my pencil of choice over the past few months and for the average price of about $2.88 - they can be your as well. If you have grown to hate most mechanical pencils that never seem to hold up, check out the Sanford Clickster Grip.
The Clickster
Normally I hate writing with any type of pencil. Just when you get to a comfortable grip and the lead is just the way you want it you have to either advance the lead or sharpen the point. The Clickster Grip has ended that frustration for me by putting the lead advance button right where your index finger is. This way when you are writing the oh-so-important love song or penning a poem to your sweetie – you’ll never have to worry about losing track of where you were. A few simple clicks and you are right back on track.
The pencils come in an assortment of colors such as red, blue, orange, yellow, standard solid black, lime green, pink and teal. The newest line in the Clickster Grip series is the metallic family that look just as impressive as they write. Since these are packaged on cardboard with a clear plastic cover you can take your pick of the different color schemes that are available. An added perk is the cool colored erasers that grace the end of each of the pencils. While these don’t come in a tremendous number of colors, they are a welcome change from the run of the mill rubber ones.
The Clickster Grip pencils are refillable however they don’t come with extra pieces of lead in the barrel. Refills are about $1.00 and are handy things to keep around. Make sure that you are purchasing the correct sized lead for the pencil if you are going to try and save some cash instead of replacing them when the lead is depleted. The size of the lead is on the barrel of the pencil so you have no excuse not to pick up the correct refill package. To refill the lead simply pop off the back end of the pencil and feed the lead into the chamber. As per the instructions on the back of the package you shouldn’t try to feed the lead in through the point. Being the skeptic that I am, I tried this and it was a complete disaster. The lead would break into little pieces and created a nice little mess on the desk. Refill packages contain twelve pieces of lead and the item number is printed on the back of the package. If you need replacement erasers the item number for these are also available off the back of the package.
The body of the pencil holds up to a lot of use so you will be able to refill them again and again without having to worry about the pencil breaking. On the flipside, these are so inexpensive that if you lose one its no big deal. Since these are so oddly colored it also makes it impossible for someone to walk off with one or “borrow” it. For added comfort, the rubber grip allows you to write for an extended period of time without hand cramps or hand pain. The grip isn’t very large so the pencil doesn’t feel awkward or take a tremendous amount of time to get used to. The lead is retractable – just press down the lead advance button and hold it while you press the lead back into the chamber. Make sure you do this when you are done and especially before you put it in your packet or knapsack or you might just get a very unwelcome jab [hence the title of the review]
These shouldn’t be confused with the Paper Mate Clickster [Paper Mate is a division of Sanford] which is the basic model of this pencil – you get the color, style and ease of use but no comfort grip. If this is more to your liking you can pick these up for about $2.00 - $2.50 for a pack of four at your local office supply store. If you are going to be writing for more than ten to fifteen minutes, taking notes in class or doing any artwork, stick with the Clickster Grip for added comfort.
As soon as the boys saw these they each grabbed one [thankfully I had an extra pack tucked away for my own use] and started to play around with them. They weren’t too pleased with the “girlie” colors that I picked out so the next time we hit Office Depot they picked out their own packages that contained more “manly” colors. Normally they use pens for their homework which presents a real problem when they need to erase something so I am glad that they started using the Clickster Grip pencils. No more pencil shavings, no more White Out for the ink mistakes and no more snapped lead tips.
The Bottom Line
These are affordable, colorful and very impressive mechanical pencils that will last a lot longer than standard pencils. Considering that these are refillable, you can save some cash along the way instead of pitching them in the garbage. They come in assorted colors ranging from standard solids to transparent and metallic. I highly suggest these for students, office workers and for day-to-day use around the house. So far these have held up to a lot of use and haven’t given me a minute of grief – barring the lead replacement fiasco that was completely my fault.
Calligraphy Metallic Marker Pens, Silver. Dramatic silver ink. Permanent, opaque and waterproof. Includes two extra medium nibs. SOLD BY THE EAMore at Amazon Marketplace
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