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

Please disregard most of my review below. When I first got this item, it didn't work, the lead was stuck inside and didn't advance at all. After I took it apart and dislodged the lead (which was not a very easy thing to do), it worked OK, but the advancing mechanism is still clumsy. You have to push down pretty hard to get it to go, and often after I advance the lead, the whole mechanism jumps up to its retracted position and I have un-retract (de-retract?) it again. It's ok if you don't use pencils much and just need one once in a while, so you don't have to carry an extra writing instrument for nothing. If you use pencils a lot, I think this is going to be annoying.

I just got the Coleto 4-refill body with 3 ink refills and a pencil component. The inks are OK (the 0.3mm is kinda scratchy on the paper, but 0.4 and 0.5 are fine), but the pencil doesn't work at all! The lead doesn't advance when I push down, I have to open up the pen, take out the pencil component (which is a pain to do), manually push the point in to advance the lead, put it back in and then continue writing. If I were taking a test, I'd spend half my time advancing the lead. I don't even see how it's possible for the lead to advance, there's no ridge at the bottom of the pen to advance the lead. I'd give this a zero if it were possible, unless someone can explain how to work it.

I love all sorts of multipens, but I'm so happy pilot has come out with a pencil component for the hi tec c coleto! My favorite multipen is the style fit multipen though, because they offer room for 5 refills, offer 16 different gel ink colors and a pencil. But, I digress from the point of my review: this pencil refill contains two pieces of lead and can be refilled by detaching the entire white plastic portion from the metal portion. It may feel like you're breaking the refill, but you're not. If you exert the proper amount of force, you will not snap the refill and instead the white part will pop right out of the metal cylinder. As with the review I wrote for the Style Fit pencil component, I recommend no more than 3-4 pieces of lead to be kept in the refill at one time. Lead jams can be avoided this way.

Works without much problem, but because it has a self contained mechanism, it requires a protruding button on the top, that looks like a wing on the pen. This kinds of breaks the consistency with the other components, the eraser component has the same protruding button.

The mechanism sometimes doesn't work, it is very flimsy and I feel like I will broke it easily. So far it has persisted.

I've not had the problems other reviewers have mentioned.

The mechanism works without trouble.

It requires a bit more pressure to extend the lead than on other mechanical pencils, but not substantially.

My only minor complaint is the top of the insert -- the part you push to deploy and to extend the lead -- is bigger than on pen inserts and compromises the aesthetic appeal a bit. Same is true of the eraser insert.

For me, though, the aesthetic compromise is worth the convenience of having pen and pencil at the ready.