The Lego dots set number 41957 features what looks to me like a Staedtler Noris.
Perceptions may vary, so you might not see a Noris there, but with Lego being from Denmark, where the Noris is common, I think there is a good chance that a Noris was the inspiration for Lego’s Dots pencil.
It’s time to temporarily revive the pencil pot of the month series.
After spending five years tucked away it was high time for this Lego pencil pot to get assembled.
I bought it at the Lego Store in Manchester in August 2015 for £10.99 (~€12.15; ~$13.50) …after unsuccessfully chasing a previous Lego pencil pot, one that I thought looked nicer, for a few weeks.
You can find previous pencil pots of the month in the pencil pot of the month archive.
Price: August 2015, exchange rates: June 2020
Pencil pot of the month – June 2020 Read More »
Another one of those ‘there’s a good offer in the UK’ blog posts, so the following might be of limited interest if you are not in the UK.
My first (and only) set of Copic markers is from the Nineties. Back then a friend told me about them and after hearing about their miraculous properties I really wanted to try them out. Back then, like today, they were not cheap. As far as I remember I paid around 20 Deutschmarks for each of them [1]As a comparison, as far as I remember a casual job paid around 10 DM/h at the time and video and computer games were around 60 DM at the time. Well, they did and still do a nice job, but they usually bleed through the paper, maybe because they are alcohol based, so the reverse of the sheet of paper will look nearly as ‘stained’ as the front.
They certainly keep well over the years, my Copics all still work well. Just one of them had some of the ‘ink’ leak a bit into the cap, but that can be cleaned easily. If they ever dry out you can refill them.
Why did I mentioned them?
When we went grocery shopping this weekend I saw that Aldi in the UK sells a whole pack of what looks like Copic copies for less than the price of one real Copic marker. It seems a good offer, but I can’t comment on the quality of the pens.
✏︎ ✏︎ ✏︎ ✏︎ ✏︎
..and here a little bonus I found in the local Lego shop: Lego notebooks, reduced from £10 to £6. I assume the offers are similar in different Lego shops, but I can’t be sure.
In case you wonder, I bought neither the Copic copies, not the Lego notebook.
References
| ↑1 | As a comparison, as far as I remember a casual job paid around 10 DM/h at the time and video and computer games were around 60 DM at the time |
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Copic Copies (and Lego Notebooks) Read More »
I have mentioned the Lego erasers in two previous posts: The first Lego erasers where made by Senator in Germany. When they moved production to China the erasers got much more expensive, rising from €1.49 for two to £7.95 for four [1]They were more very expensive in the UK, I’m not sure about the situation in other countries. They got cheaper now (£2.99 for four), but the Chinese made Lego erasers are still more expensive than the German made ones were – unless you get lucky, like I did, and get them on offer. In my case it was on offer because the supermarket wants to get rid of their stock. I paid £1.49 (~$2.22; €2.06) for a pack of four.
The version I got is being sold as part of the Lego Movie franchise – but as far as I can tell there’s no difference between the normal Lego erasers and the Logo Movie erasers, except the colours.
To compare the erasers I used Banditapple 3G paper and a Simbalion pencil. Performance wise the Lego Movie erasers are pretty good. You might have read in previous blog posts that I prefer dust free erasers. The Lego erasers performed as well as or even a bit better than a Mono dust free eraser (a dust free eraser, but not one of the best dust free erasers).
This eraser has much stronger sprue and flow marks than the Senator eraser did. Unfortunately I can’t take a comparison photo as I have given my Senator erasers away (I think to Hen from Rad and Hungry).
For the price I have paid these are excellent erasers. Performance for a not dust free eraser is excellent.
Prices: April 2010, January 2012, February 2015
Exchange rates: March 2015
References
| ↑1 | They were more very expensive in the UK, I’m not sure about the situation in other countries |
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Lego erasers (again) Read More »
I was excited when I saw these Lego erasers in John Lewis. The excitement subsided when I saw the price: £7.95 (~$12.15; €9.60) for a pack of four – much more expensive than the ones from Senator. On closer inspection the rubber seems to have more ‘swirls’ on the surface …which makes them look worse than the Senator ones, but as I didn’t compare them side by side my impression might be wrong. As far as I can tell these new(?), expensive erasers are not made by Senator. I wonder whether the Senator ones are still being made. Maybe different companies make Lego erasers. Suffice to say that I didn’t buy them for this price.
Price and exchange rates: January 2012
New/different Lego erasers Read More »