Uni-ball Alpha Gel Kuru Toga Mechanical Pencil - 0.5 mm - Red Grip

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Description

Separately, the Alpha Gel and Kuru Toga lines were already popular. Combined, this new pencil is sure to be a big hit. Now you can enjoy the famous break resistant mechanical pencil with the irresistibly soft and squishy Alpha Gel grip famous for keeping an egg from breaking when dropped from a 5 foot height! If you don't know about the Kuru Toga, let us explain.

With standard mechanical pencils, as you write the pencil lead is worn down until it is a slanted surface. Each time you write you will get a different experience depending on how the pencil is rotated. This can cause multiple annoyances:

1. As you start to write you might have a sharp point, but as you continue to write the point is worn down and thus your line widths are not uniform. This can also lead to smudgy and thick lines.

2. If you pick the pencil up and happen to start writing with the tip of the angled point, it is likely to scratch or catch on the paper.

3. The different angles at which the pencil lead comes in to contact with the paper is a common cause of lead breakage.

The Kuru Toga, on the other hand, has a core rotation mechanism that continually rotates the pencil lead as you write. The lead is twisted through a spring-loaded clutch, it works by twisting incrementally every time you lift the pencil up (i.e. during printing words, etc). This allows a uniform wearing of the pencil lead so that it always remains as a pointed tip. Not only does it solve the above problems, but it also gives you an amazingly thin line. You are effectively using only 50% of the lead area that you were previously using with your old mechanical pencil.

Model Number: UNI M5858GG1P.15

Weight: 1.05 oz (View shipping rates and policies)

Reviews

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful

kuru toga and alpha gel..., November 10, 2011

By kam... - See all my reviews

kuru toga and alpha gel go together like bread and butter. so nice to write with.

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful

After looking to complete..., March 18, 2011

By trvsdnhm - See all my reviews

After looking to complete my pencil case with a kuru toga, I chose this pencil. Very happy with it.

Pros
- Combines the kuru toga technology with an alpha gel grip. This makes it better than other kuru togas because it combines two favorites into 1 pencil
- I bought the red grip version because it looked nicer online. The ones with the colored barrels did not appeal to me since I wanted a colored grip. Furthermore, red was more visually appealing than black or the teal colored grip
- More on the grip. There's a simple red grip below the alpha gel grip. Guess this makes it squishier? Looks cool though.
- The grip has more traction than any other alpha gels. Yet, the best grip is still on the non-shaka, HD alpha gels.
- Now for the mechanism. VERY COOL. haha...I don't use my shaka shaker anymore since at times, it just feels cheap. I use the kuru toga for writing notes and the Metal barrel HD for jotting things down.
- Stupid, yes. BUT there's NO japanese "uni" sticker on this!!! I find this awesome since the uni label will fall off over time and looks downright awful after much use. Instead, the labels are printed on the barrel of the pencil which is much nicer. See, little things like this make this pencil a tad better than the other alpha gels.

Cons
- The color of the grip isn't as vivid as it looks online.
- The barrel etc is all plastic. However, the kuru toga mechanism/the main pencil part is metal which is very nice.
- Grip isn't as squishy as other alpha gels. The shaka shaker version is the squishiest, followed by the HD. This kuru toga firmer than both of these grips.
- Not a shaker pencil. + i haven't found a way to take it apart and insert a shaker. downer