Posts filed under Uni

Uni Kuru Toga Dive Mechanical Pencil Review

My review of the Uni Kuru Toga Dive has been a long time in the making. Why?

I was hoping they would be more widely available by the time I posted this.
After several months, I’m still not sure what to make of it.

Jacob, from Fudefan and the Tokyo Inklings Podcast, surprised me with the Dive earlier this year, as he happened to catch them at the right time during their very tiny launch window. While monitoring the launch online, it appears that several Japanese retailers received their store displays and inventory, put the pencils out for sale on February 16th, then POOF! They were all snapped up, and have yet to be available again.

What makes the Dive so special that there was a mad rush to buy them, and a continued 4-5x markup of them on the secondary market?

For starters, the Kuru Toga mechanism is one of the few technological advances we have seen in mechanical pencils in decades. Designed to rotate the lead as you write so you always have a sharp, consistent point on the graphite, it offers something no other mechanical pencil manufacturer can. And it works. This is no marketing gimmick, or mindless innovation.

With that under the hood, Uni turned it up to 11 with the rest of the design:

Adjustable length auto-advance lead mechanism? Check.

A cap, with a clip? Check.

A magnetic snap-cap, at that? Check.

No-knock writing when uncapping? Check.

Wait, what did I just say? When you uncap the pencil the graphite is “clicked” forward to your preset writing length based on your auto-advance setting. This means if you have a habit of holding the knock and pressing in the lead when done (to avoid breakage, for example,) when you uncap the pencil the lead resets back to the exposed position. Uncap, and write, no matter the status you left the Dive when previously using.

It’s difficult to explain, but it is due to how the cap, and cap magnet, are designed. You aren’t forcing a click every time you cap an uncap the pencil either. If you cap the pencil with the graphite exposed, it doesn’t come out any longer than where you left it previously. But, if the lead is retracted when storing (capping) the pencil, the next time you uncap it, the lead is ready to write without having to press the knock. In short, the Kuru Toga Dive can be used as a complete no-knock mechanical pencil.

There is a knock on the back of the pencil for you luddites out there, but like how the original Kuru Toga broke us from the habit of rotating the pencil in your hand, the Dive is asking you to never use a knock again.

That’s not the only thing the Dive is asking of you. It is also asking you to spend $50 on a plastic-barrel mechanical pencil. While the metallic blue finish on the Dive is beautiful, don’t let that confuse you into thinking there is aluminum underneath the admittedly cool exterior. The list of high-quality mechanical pencils you can buy for a fraction of that price is too long to list here, even Uni’s own upgraded Kuru Toga models.

But I get it. I get the price, and I get the ask. $50 seems right to me with the litany of design elements and engineering in a single package. And-don’t hate me for this-I think an aluminum barrel Dive in the $80-$100 range would be the sweet spot for what Uni has created here.

One detail I haven’t discussed yet is how the Dive feels when writing. It’s good, but I’ll stop there. My biggest hangup is the grip diameter, where at 10.7 mm is much wider than other standard grip sections like the Rotring 600, which checks in at 8.1 mm. That’s not the only oversized part of the pencil-the entire thing is gigantic. Posting the cap, while designed to fit properly, turns the pencil into a plank. I only use it unposted. Due to its size, the Dive may be better suited for an 0.7 mm default lead size, if not 0.9 mm.

In the end, the Uni Kuru Toga Dive is another step up in mechanical pencil technology. I’m just not sure it is a step forward. There is no arguing that it got off to a hot start, in part due to great marketing by Uni, plus the scarcity effect. But is it sustainable? That’s the bigger question I have. I like it. It makes me smile. It’s also $50, and asks me to hold a baton while writing with a needle. I’m glad I have one, but I’ll pick up a more classically designed mechanical pencil-even another Kuru Toga-if I plan on doing real work with graphite in hand.

Posted on June 6, 2022 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Uni, Kuru Toga, Mechanical Pencil, Pencil Reviews.

Uni EMOTT Color Mechanical Pencil Review

I’ll admit to being skeptical when I requested the new Uni EMOTT Color Mechanical Pencils to review from JetPens. As a product reviewer, the entire Uni EMOTT series is intriguing, so from that perspective I was interested. From a personal perspective, though, I’m generally disappointed with color mechanical pencil leads. They tend to be soft, breakable, and light on the page - all features that I don’t want in a color pencil lead.

So, how did the Uni EMOTT Color Mechanical Pencils fare in my testing? Let’s explore!

Before anything else, these pencils need to have good writing performance. That goes for any writing instrument in general, but for color mechanical pencil leads, it is especially important. Remember, These aren’t wide core, wooden barrel, colored pencils, which are a completely different category and feel of pencil.

These thin leads, 0.9 mm in the case of the EMOTT, better be strong, have good color depth even on light colors, and have to give pencil-like feedback on the page. Uni EMOTT leads succeed on all accounts. Impressively, I might add.

Let’s take the lightest color in my set, the No. 2 Tropical four-pack, which is Light Green. In my testing, it is clearly readable on a white-background paper. That means enough of the lead is transferring to the page, while also not being brittle. The color surprised me, as did the feel. It’s almost like a traditional pencil lead!

The other three colors are equally as nice and readable. I assumed the Fuchsia would be the darkest, but I am even more impressed with Orange and Light Pink being so nice and rich.

While the most important part of this pencil is great, the rest of the Uni EMOTT is only average.

Average may be too kind of a word to use for the erasability of the EMOTT lead. Even with heavy erasing, the color is still visible on the page. I had no expectations this would be a good feature, and, unfortunately, that was accurate. That said, color pencil leads usually don't erase at all, so maybe this performance is a plus?

The EMOTT barrels themselves are ok. They are long and slender, and are square in shape to prevent rolling. The cone tip retracts into the barrel when the lead is retraced completely, but I don’t see the need for that. There is no lead pipe that needs protecting, like with some traditional mechanical pencils.

Each barrel has a matching color section right below the cap area to designate the lead color. This helps visually when these pencils are stored in the provided stand, which also has space for the extra lead that ships with the set. The No. 2 Tropical is one of the three sets currently available, with No. 1 Refresh and No. 3 Nostalgic giving you a dozen total color options.

Price-wise, I think the EMOTT sets are reasonable. Each set ships with four pencils barrels, four sticks of each color lead (two in each pencil, two in the lead holder,) plus a stand to hold them all. That puts them at a little less than $3.50 per pencil as a set, with an 8-pack of lead (2 of each color in a set) priced separately at $2.95.

The final question I have is usage, as in, how do I see these being used? Individually, they are perfect for notations and highlights. They are good enough for longer-format writing as well. A set of four provides nice complimentary colors for planning and journaling, while a collection of all 12 may be overkill.

The real winner of the Uni EMOTT Color Mechanical Pencil lineup may be in the individual lead refills themselves. Do you have an 0.9 mm mechanical pencil handy? These would be the perfect choice for a single standout color to your writing. I think that is the route I’m going to take. Now, I have the difficult decision of which color goes first!

(The answer is Orange. It is always Orange.)

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

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Posted on February 28, 2022 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Uni, EMOTT, Mechanical Pencil, Pencil Reviews.

Uni Alpha Gel Switch Mechanical Pencil Review

The Uni Alpha Gel Switch Mechanical Pencil asks one of my favorite reviewer questions: Why? In this specific scenario, the “why” is why would you want both a standard pencil mechanism and a Kuru Toga pencil mechanism in the same barrel, with a toggle to switch between the two?

The short answer to the question is “I have no freaking clue!” But let’s explore the Alpha Gel Switch a little deeper, shall we?

First off, this is a fantastic looking mechanical pencil. I’d expect nothing less from Uni. The Alpha Gel is a classic in its own right, taking Uni’s traditional writing experience and adding one of the softest, most cushioned, writing grips on the market. That type of feel isn’t for everyone as it does add to the diameter of the grip, even accounting for the added squishiness. It is a popular and well-loved feature across several of their product lines.

The Kuru Toga is even more loved and more respected, as it changed mechanical pencil technology when it launched. For those unfamiliar, the Kuru Toga uses a mechanism inside the barrel to slightly rotate the lead every time you pick it up from the page. This allows your pencil tip to wear evenly and write consistent-width lines. My review from 12 (!) years ago shows a test where I didn’t rotate the pencil in my hand for an entire page to see if the technology actually worked. Spoiler alert: It did.

And it continues to do so to this day. I think it has made writing with mechanical pencils better, and sent the competition scrambling for something new they could compete with.

That said, you may not need what Uni is selling you in the Kuru Toga. From a note-taking and writing perspective, it’s great. But what if you are an artist or designer and need different line widths, edges, and shading density? Then the Kuru Toga isn’t going to fit your needs as well as a traditional mechanical pencil.

Notes on my writing sample: I used the Alpha Gel Switch with four different grip types. From top to bottom: Kuru Toga setting with fixed grip, Hold setting with fixed grip, Kuru Toga setting rotating the pencil in my hand, Hold setting rotating the pencil in my hand. As you might guess, if I work the graphite into an angle using the Hold setting and then switch to the Kuru Toga setting, it will take a couple of lines to normalize the shape of the lead again. This begs the overarching question of this entire product - why?

What if you could have both? The lead rotation of the Kuru Toga and the fixed writing of a traditional pencil are both available in the Uni Alpha Gel Switch. The issue I’m having is that I haven’t discovered the use case for that combination yet.

For starters, if the Alpha Gel grip is the big selling point, you can already buy it in a standard Kuru Toga model, as well as a standard mechanical pencil model. If you need the lead rotation of the Kuru Toga without the Alpha Gel grip there are dozens of options out there, too. What is the use case for both systems in one pencil? The student artist is all I can think of, and that is even a stretch. To me, it feels like this:

Despite the fact I cannot figure out the perfect use case for why this pencil exists, I do know one thing about me and what I look for in products: I’d buy the Uni Alpha Gel Switch again 10 out of 10 times. I just don’t know what I am going to use it for.

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

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