Zebra Trio

I have reviewed a few Zebra's here at Good Pens in the past. Here's the list and some have even made my top tens.  So, I was pretty stoked when Shoplet.com sent over a pile of the little fellas for review.  I was pretty familiar with this line of office supplies and Zebras and I knew they had a gel version (G 301) but had never written with one.  I like this line of pens,  they look good in combination. Sort of how matching pens and pencils should look.  

I see a lot of pen and pencil sets on eBay and on the pen forums from back in the day and I wish they would not have gone away. In fairness...these are not sold as a set-but if you get creative on your shopping and you can have a nice ballpoint or gel /.5 mechanical "set" that looks nice.  These Zebras are a little bit lighter than I remember mainly because they are not solid metal.  There's enough plastic on the front and the back to lighten the load.

So here they are:  being watched over by Marty.  It's pretty clear, Gel is Gel, BP is ballpoint and 0.5 is the pencil.  What I did not know until I looked in the product guide that they also make a Fountain Pen. What?  Why didn't I know this? (The search has commenced.)

Here's the business end of all three.  I have bigger hands- so writing with these for a long time is a little strenuous.  More-so with the ballpoint than with the gel.  The plastic isn't rubbery at all,  it's a harder plastic that doesn't give a ton of grip but still works because of the knurling.

 Ooh,  Gel, thank you...nicely done.  The ink is thick and puts itself on the paper nicely.  It's pretty close to a true .5 even on bad paper.  Black and consistent= Exactly like I like my coffee. Just my opinion,  but I prefer the gel over the bp for my writing.

 Again,  the ballpoint is a little odd for me, because except for reviews or in extreme emergencies,  I rarely write with a normal ballpoint. Clicking the picture makes this larger and you get a better feel for the way the rubber meets the road.

The other thing I noticed about these pens (and pencils) is that they are really clicky. If I were in a conference room and someone was consistently clicking this thing unconsciously I might have to jump across the table and silence them, but in reality that means a solid working mechanism,  so I won't argue.  So, thanks Shoplet.  They are also kicking off a contest that is fun here.

I will get the winner of the August contest out and change the rules a little for September.  The Tumblr is getting some good stuff on it and there's always Facebook if you like that sort of thing.

Seth