Mini Review: Uni-ball Style Fit Mystar 5 Color Multi Pen Body Component – Black

Old body, new body, and my bathroom counter.

Can’t go mentioning the sleek new 3-component Mystar Meister without also acknowledging the slightly cheaper (in all senses of the word) 5-component body. In my undoubtedly never-ending quest for the Perfect Multipencil, the Mystar Meister is an upgrade from my first multipencil/my first Style-Fit body.

The new body might be the teensiest bit thicker than the old body, or I might be the teensiest bit hallucinating; it's hard to tell.

I didn’t get any new components to go in the new body, because why would I need two fully-loaded multipencils at the same time (/why would I need to spend an extra quantity of money exceeding $10)? So this will just be about the body. The Mystar Meister has a matte finish to its plastic body (as opposed to smudgy-fingerprint-showing slick plastic), a tapered end with streamlined plungers (as opposed to airplane wings), a metal clip on a plastic plunger (as opposed to an all plastic clip that could break at any moment), and an eraser with easy-to-lose cap (as opposed to no eraser whatsoever). I like these improvements, for the most part, but there are still some problems with the Mystar Meister’s overall design.

You don't need to know what components you're using, right?

The tiny window is a slight problem. All the labels, on the gel pens especially, are at the bottom, now hidden by the grip. The only thing I can see on this 0.28mm Black Gel component is the beginning of a label that says ” .24 BLACK” (what happened to 0.28??) and the only thing I can see when that component is deployed is “CK”…. ink components need to be labeled with all Style Fit bodies in mind, not just the original model.

At least I could relabel the pencil components myself.

Remodeling the plungers, however, was a good move. Looks much nicer/less like a rocket ship.

No one is ready for take-off now

Much of the improvement in this model is geared toward making the Style Fit a better multipencil. The old model body, while technically multipencil capable, was a pain in the thumb when you needed to advance lead. You had to press down on the little airplane wings, which were not exactly optimized for the task. And the old model body had no eraser.

Let me quote my first Style Fit review: "I think I’d rather have no eraser at all than be saddled with a uselessly small eraser beneath a tiny, easily lost plastic eraser cap." ...... it's like they listened...to half of what I was saying.

I still much prefer the Hi-Tec-C Coleto eraser component. I’m glad to see an eraser on the Style Fit…but I doubt I’ll use that dinky thing very much.

Finally, I want to mention the biggest improvement/problem in the new Style Fit:

Forget doofy wings; we can go back to advancing mechanical pencil lead in the way our ancestors intended.

Deploy pencil you want to use. Push down on the top. Lead advances. EXCELLENT….at least conceptually. In practice, I have frequently (not always, but enough to be very annoying) had the component I was trying to advance lead on spring back up into undeployment whenever I clicked the top to advance lead. The lead advanced, the component retreated. NOT EXCELLENT.

The design is a much better—and most importantly, more aesthetically pleasing—way to advance lead (PILOT I HOPE YOU ARE TAKING NOTES). But Uni needs to work out whatever design bug is causing this frequent retraction problem. I don’t know what condition causes it (I am sitting here right now trying to replicate the problem on command, but the multipencil refuses to obey, as if to say “I can change! Please don’t tell the world about my one major design flaw! I swear I won’t do it again!….until after you’ve posted your review”)…and that unpredictability makes it all the more annoying.

I can be a good multipencil! A good multipencil like you wanted!

It’s an improvement, yes, but it still has a ways to go. If you’re looking for a good multipencil without outrageously flaring wings, I’d just load up the Mystar Meister 3-component metal body. No eraser, true, but I haven’t had any problem with components waywardly retracting in that model. And it looks all kinds of snazzy.

 Uni-ball Style Fit Mystar 5 Color Multi Pen Body Component – Black – at JetPens

Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto 5 Color Multi Pen – Pen Body – Clear Black with ERASER (& other stuff)

Gaze into the eye. Ignore the other terrible drawing. You see only the eye.

So the title was going to get all kinds of unruly; here’s your full title: Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto 5 Color Multi Pen – Pen Body – Clear Black with Three 0.5mm Mechanical Pencil Components, 0.5mm Black Multi Pen Ink Cartridge, and ERASER COMPONENT.

I’d been collecting some Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Multi Pen(cil) components before in my quest for the perfect multi pencil, but previously I was unimpressed by the ink cartridges (also, negatively impressed on several occasions, but let’s stay positive), and the mechanical pencil components didn’t swing my opinion one way or another since the additional ink components couldn’t carry me away from my previous multi-pen(cil) love. The body options for the Pilot Hi-Tec-C multi pen, I admit, are much more extensive and much nicer than what’s available for the Uni-ball Style Fit (which has recently added a few bizarre polka dotted options in a misguided attempt to bring something interesting to the table), but the pencil components were close enough to identical that the presence of a Jetstream component kept my loyalty with the Style Fit. Not anymore.

IT'S BECAUSE OF THIS

Ladies, gentlemen, individuals not constricted by societally prescribed gender, THAT IS AN ERASER. It is an eraser, and it is coming out of that multi pencil. We have seen the promised land. Our hopes, prayers, and animal sacrifices have been answered.

The finest plastic that three dollars and seventy-five cents can buy

The addition of an eraser, in spite of a lack of a satisfying pen component, puts the Coleto multi pen line in front running for Best Multipencil. Let’s take it from the top.

or the tips. from the tips. whatever.

I decided to go with the 5 component body—I wanted 3 pencils, the eraser, and figured it might be worthwhile to throw a pen in the mix (it wasn’t).

Unlike the Style Fit, disassembling the Coleto mechanical pencil component was not an esoteric challenge of obscure pentuition—just pull the long silver tube away from the plastic. Ta-da.

In hindsight, it would have made aesthetic sense to put the pen component opposite the clip. TOO LATE FOR SENSIBILITY NOW

It doesn’t fall apart, but it comes apart as easily as I think a component should. The eraser comes already in the metal sleeve. I haven’t gone through it yet, but we’ll see how long the eraser lasts and how easy refilling ends up being. The ink component is totally discardable—ok, maybe I’m being too harsh, but for me it ranks far below the Signo DX style ink cartridge and the Jetstream cartridge. If I can find a way to shove one of those in here instead, I’ll do it. We will henceforth refrain from commentary on the lowly ink cartridge and my infinitesimally low opinion of it.

The components drop down into spring-loaded tubes, then the lid snaps shut on top, securing the components in place. It’s very easy to rearrange components, swap them in and out of different bodies, and devise new orderings to try to get around the aesthetic nightmare all those plastic wings create. Score one point for convenience.

 

I wish there were a better way to differentiate between mechanical pencil components than a bit of Sharpie, but it’s all I’ve got.

Even though the plastic wings look odd and unpleasant, they are kinder on the thumbs than the wings of the Style-Fit, and advancing the lead seems much easier. Switching between deployed components isn’t always as smooth as I’d like; it doesn’t seem like pushing down on a new component always automatically makes the other component pop back up, and I’ve occasionally had trouble getting the component to stay down after I first push it (but once it’s in place, I haven’t had one retract while in use). I haven’t had any problems with the lead slipping back into the barrel, or at least haven’t had any vague hallucinations of such being a problem (one of which had to be the issue I was having with the Style Fit mechanical pencil components).

I am especially pleased with the performance of the eraser—I wouldn’t use it to clear out big areas, but it’s perfect for fixing lines in a quick sketch. The only drawback is having to overcome the learned urge to flip the entire unit around when I want to erase something. Once I learn to not do that, I think use of this multi pencil will be even easier, since I won’t be wasting time flipping the unit constantly (we will assume I’m going to be making a lot of little mistakes).

This is how smooth and beautiful it's SUPPOSED to look

The only mark against this multi pencil set up is that all these pencil and eraser components rattle around for some reason. When I fill the barrel with all these colorful, sleek little pen components I don’t get the rattling. And the only mark against the five-body model in particular that I have is that, unless I want to put another pencil in, I have no need for 5 component slots. This particular 0.5 mm black pen had no redeeming features that made it worth keeping in the mix, and it detracted from the otherwise uniformly wonky visual set-up the pencils and eraser provided. I found the grips on the barrel unobtrusive but …useful? I don’t know; I don’t really tend to have a particular need for a grip, but for those of you that do, this model does have a grip where the Uni Style Fit does not.

In going for a pure multi pencil, the Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto line has everything I’ve been looking for: convenience, ease of use, comfort, nicer component bodies, and above all, AN ERASER. If you’ve been trying to put a bunch of pencils together in a single house of plastic, jump on the Coleto; it’s the best option I’ve seen so far.

 

It's coming for you, like a doofy-looking starfish in search of a hug.

 

 

Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto 5 Color Multi Pen – Pen Body – Clear Black at JetPens

Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Multi Pen – 0.5 mm – Mechanical Pencil Component at JetPens

Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Multi Pen – Eraser Component at JetPens

Uni-ball Style Fit 5 Color Gel Ink Multi Pen – Pen Body with Clip – Black

The great thing about using blue lead is that it's hard to pick up on a scanner and easy to photoshop out, which would be perfect if I only wanted to review three of the five components I got for this pen...

At some point, I realized that carrying upwards of ten writing utensils to a bar was making me seem less than sane.  Not that there’s anything wrong with carrying a bunch of pens, but when you’re the only member of a drinking party interested in drawing and you dump a bunch of pens on the table, people start to think you’d rather hang out with your pens than them.  I had to find a way to streamline the number of writing instruments needed while still retaining a usable arsenal of drawing tools.

Multi-pen! It's multiple pens! It says so in the name!! Regard this fine specimen; it's like five pens, ALL IN ONE

I looked for multi-pens with mechanical pencil components that would cost less than a fortune, and the Uni Style Fit caught my eye. Being a fan of Uni-ball products, I decided to give this multi pen a go and outfit it with 3 mechanical pencil components, a 0.7mm Jetstream black ballpoint pen component, and a 0.28mm black gel pen component, effectively defeating the purpose of calling it a Gel Ink Multi Pen. Henceforth, we shall call it my multi pen(cil).

Good for viewing pen(cil) components and greasy fingerprint smudges

After marking the pencil barrels so I could tell the Uni-ball NanoDia lead from the Uni Color Soft Blue from the Pentel Stein Blue, I puzzled at how to get the mechanical pencil components open. Certain that wizardry need not be involved, I consulted other reviews of the Style Fit Multi and its components, and found some very important wisdom.

If the component is coming apart anywhere other than the overlap that I've circled, you're doing it wrong. Stop.

This wisdom doesn’t make it any easier to open the component. It was difficult to grip the slick, thin metal, and the barrel was reluctant to slide apart. Persevere, and you will be rewarded with the opening of the barrel to refill the lead, which you will probably need to do because you probably just broke most of your lead in half getting the barrel open. I know I did.

Here are all the components, in place and looking haphazard.

After getting all the pencils in order, I loaded up the pen body and tested deploying each mechanism to make sure I had them in the right place. Helpful tip: make sure you push down and in to lock the component in place. Merely pushing down is not enough. To retract any of the components, just push down a little bit on another plunger. Or, unscrew the grip, yank out the component, and then put it back in; this is not very efficient but is technically another way to end up with the component retracted.

The plungers look cool together, but also seem a little unnecessarily wide

For several days after first receiving this pen, I had problems with one of the components sticking in place once in its deployed position. Trying to deploy another pen would not dislodge the offending component. This is no longer a problem, about two weeks later, but for a while I worried I’d screwed something up, and no, I have no idea what I did that managed to fix this.

You’ll notice that there is no eraser on the end of this pen body. No amount of wishing on my part will make an eraser appear. This necessitates carrying around an eraser in addition to this multi pen(cil); this runs counter to my desire to carry as few instruments as possible. However, I think I’d rather have no eraser at all than be saddled with a uselessly small eraser beneath a tiny, easily lost plastic eraser cap.

I have almost no complaints with the pen and pencil tips. One complaint: I have noticed that the lead occasionally seems to slip back into the barrel even when I'm not drawing very hard.

Advancing the lead in the pencils requires you to click the plunger harder than you would ever click a normal pencil. It’s possible that this will get better with time, but with the design of the plunger, doing lots of lead advancing for now will be a bit of a pain in the thumb. I also have noticed that, in spite of putting 3 perfectly intact pieces of soft blue lead in the barrel to begin with, I seem to be getting a lot of short and broken pieces coming through the pipe. I know that soft blue lead is delicate, but I don’t have this problem in my regular soft blue lead mechanical pencils. I don’t know if the lead is getting broken up in the barrel, or when it gets advanced, and I don’t want to open the mechanical pencil component to find out because then all the lead will definitely be broken. Of course, this is not a lead review, so we won’t dwell on this.

Pens with benefits

I have a lot to complain about with this pen. But I will say that it is sufficient for the task I wanted it for. I have five writing utensils in my hand without having to put down and dig around for each individual item. I have the option of three pencils, and two pens to ink with. The barrel isn’t too big; while not as thin as a normal pen, it is still within a generally normal range; it does not feel like I am dragging a tree stump across the page to make my art.

I’d like to see another round of Uni Style Fit body options, something that isn’t so much like cheap plastic, something more like the Uni-ball Jetstream 4&1 Multi Pens—-nice weight, smaller plungers, comes with an eraser—-but with the Style Fit customizability. All the current body options are under $4–what we need is a nicer body around the $15 price point.

I don’t know why the idea of multi-pencils seems to be so neglected. Many multi-pens available don’t even offer a pencil component, or if they do, only give you the option to have one pencil on board. There are too many types of lead out there for this nonsense to fly.

In the meantime, this Uni Style Fit is sufficient. I’ve got most of what I need to sketch while I’m out and about without having to carry a giant bag with me. But there is a lot of room for improvement.

Here's what this pen looks like in a teapot

Uni-ball Style Fit Multi Pen System at JetPens