Pencils

MAD about pencils

Leave a Comment / Pencils, Seen in the wild / / , ,

If you grew up in a Western country and are old enough then you probably know about MAD Magazine.

Many countries had their own versions, but the UK edition stopped being published in the mid-90s, so every time I went to visit Germany I tried to get the latest German version. Towards the end of German MAD’s life this wasn’t very easy: the only places I found that sold the magazine were newsagents in train stations of towns with at least 100,000 inhabitants. I happened to be in Germany when the last issue was published and I have to say no one in the German media made a fuss about it being the last issue. It might also not have been known that this is the last issue when it was published, as I don’t see any indication of that in the actual issue.

As is the case with news though, sometimes more relevant news are overshadowed by less relevant news. When the US version of MAD Magazine announced it would stop publishing issues based on mainly new content, this news spilled over the Atlantic and somehow was big news in Germany: on TV and also in popular newspapers and magazines. The news was usually presented as if MAD Magazine will stop being published, even though no one seemed to care when the German version stopped being published and even though the US version MAD is still being published, to this day, it is just mainly made up of reprinted articles, with the occasional new content sprinkled in between.

Why do I mention all of this? Because I want to show you a page form the current (June 2025), reality-TV themed issue:

MAD about pencils Read More »

School start pencils

Leave a Comment / Pencils, Seen in the wild / / , , ,

By now, the new school year has started in most countries, and this year, I saw something I hadn’t seen before: Here in Northern Germany, in the states of Bremen and Lower Saxony, I have noticed houses decorated with large pencils. This is not very common, I only spotted a handful of houses like this, and seems to indicate that a child living in the house is starting primary school.

One of the houses with pencil decorations also had a Danish flag, so I wonder if this is a Danish tradition that has spread to Northern Germany.I have never observed this in England or Southern Germany.

If you know more about this, please let me know.

School start pencils Read More »

The upcycled Noris in Germany

3 Comments / Pencils, Staedtler / / , , , ,
The old and new Noris together

After being able to observe the shift from the traditional, wood-cased Noris to the new upcycled wood Noris in the UK last year (see The new, upcycled Noris) I was able to experience the same transition in Germany now.

What I saw is, of course, only a small snapshot of the two countries as I observed the transition in a city in North West England last year and now in a city in North West Germany. Other parts of the two countries might have experienced the change at different times.

In March 2024, about a year after the switch in the UK, supermarkets here still had the wood-cased version. Here is an example from Kaufland in Ritterhude.

The wood-cased Noris

By now, only the upcycled Noris is available. I assume the old ones sold out and stock just got replaced with the new version. I am not able to find the wood-cased Noris in any other supermarket in and around Bremen anymore, but some pockets with old stock might still be available, especially in shops with low turnover.

The upcycled Noris

The upcycled Noris in Germany Read More »

Staedtler x Star Wars

4 Comments / Pencils, Staedtler / / , ,

Merchandise from TV series and movies is all around us and is also pretty common in the stationery world, but a lot of the licensed stationery doesn’t actually show the manufacturer and quality is sometimes dubious.

In the Eighties and Nineties Staedtler used to produce quite a lot of licensed pencils with designs linked to TV series and movies. Most of these were unbranded, i.e. as a consumer you weren’t able to see these were actually made by Staedtler. It seems that this is down to the fact that in most cases Staedtler didn’t purchase the licence but produced the pencils according the customer specifications. This seems to be still common: the manufacturer is not the licence holder which might also explain the poor quality of a lot of licensed stationery as the company holding the licence might just get the cheapest factory to produce the pencils as the products get bought because of the licensed characters, not because of the quality.

I had a big collection of licensed pencils made in Staedtler’s Pontyclun factory in Wales but decided to let them find a new home as I just have too many pencils.

The printing on the pencils included some globally well known trademarks, like Lion King and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but also a lot of UK specific brands that are not well known outside the UK and Ireland, e.g. Beano and David the Gnome. To my surprise one type of pencil was particularly popular, the MASK pencil, based on an animation from the mid-Eighties. Even though I watched a lot of children animations in the mid-Eighties I was not familiar with this series and rather surprised by the popularity. The same is true for another series I wasn’t familiar with and that seemed to be very popular: Bravestarr.

The collector who took these pencils made me aware of Star Wars stationery that Staedtler used to produce and that I want to share with you today.

Image © “Star Wars Spanish Stuff”
Image © “Star Wars Spanish Stuff”

You can find the original information and more at Star Wars Spanish Stuff.

Thanks to Eberhard Rüdel and Andrea Plässer for additional information used in this blog post.

Staedtler x Star Wars Read More »