[Pen/Pencil Review Blog] Halloween Rerun – Skull and Roses Novelty Stationary Set from Michaels
Yes, it’s another rerun – but we were on the road yesterday from a trip and today has been full of recovery and laundry. I will get back on track next week.
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For those who know my fiction-writing don’t need any explanation for why this novelty set caught my eye at Michaels. I write Death in The Four Redheads of the Apocalypse series from Yard Dog Press. So cheap skull and roses stationary pieces for 99¢ a piece made me giggle. I’ll be sporting my new “gear” at my next conventions – especially ArmadilloCon and FenCon.
The first piece is the plastic pencil case. I don’t really expect the pencil case to last very long. It’s a low density plastic with a decent zipper. But it’s going to be fun while it lasts, and I might even buy another one as a back up. It doesn’t hold a ton of material, but it’s decent for the price.
The wooden pencils are the good, solid #2s that I like. I don’t like the softer ones that bend rather than break and feel waxy that many novelty pencils are. This one is awesome. These hold a decent point. I won’t be traveling with – just to keep things clean. They’re very cool looking.
The retractable pen is the least useful, but pretty. It writes will for a ballpoint, but the plastic barrel is both too short and too wide for any long term use. For someone who likes that kind of pen, though, it’s way cool. But it’ll look darned cool at a signing table or on a panel, even though it takes up quite a bit of real estate in the bag.
The last two silly pieces have the most potential for convention travel usefulness . The first, a sleeve of 4 largish, skull embellished paperclips. I’ll use one or two of them to maybe mark readings for conventions, but mostly, you never know when you’re going to need a paperclip. The other are skull and roses bandages. Those will come in handy, because you NEVER KNOW when you’re going to need a bandage for a papercut or something. And if you’re going to wear a bandage, it might as well be a cool one. I should really get more of those.
The whole set was $5, which is what I want in novelties. The point of the novelties are the fact they’re impulse buys, so I’m looking for them to be cheap. Michaels has other sets, but this is the one that jumped out to me. Find the one the works for you. They’re pretty good quality for the price.
I give them 3 bronze pencils.
