BINGO

A slew of new pickups and stash stuff from always-on-the-lookout DIET HTK from July SF trip. 

BINGO MARKER 

I’m never really on the lookout for Bingo Markers. This is the first one i’m adding to the marker collection.  I see them more often than not at dollar shops, but I guess I never really considered them to be “true” black markers. In fitting with the criteria, this thing does make a black mark, and I guess it says it is a marker right there on the label.

So i guess from now on Bingo markers are getting accepted into the archives…but squeeze shoe polish bottles still are not. 

Bingo markers are good drippy fun. The nib on this thing is pretty much a cotton ball. Watery ink that makes good lines with character until the nib gets messed up. Good on paper, outdoors not so much.

ARTSKILLS PERMANENT

What a wacky marker silhouette. Artskills is predominantly a dollar store brand that makes these jumbo markers for kids. About a 3mm chisel tip on this marker. Most of this marker is hollow barrel for sure. Nice “comic” style PERMANENT label on the side, grey and black triangle motif resembles a backgammon board. Classy. Bit of kick in the smell of this thing. Nothing too fierce, just a bit of something for the kids to sit back and relax to.

BROAD TIP 9MM ( DAISO )

Daiso dissapointment this SF trip. The downtown one didn’t really have the goods. DIET HTK snagged this one from some other location. Medium weight plastic bends in a bit when barrel squeezed. Simple screened white-on-black labeling. 9MM broad tip. Makes good clean marks. Efficient, well designed product.

WINDOW MARKER

This little troublemaker, courtesy of DIET again. Cap flips open to reveal circular sponge tip about the size of a quarter. Ink comes out super fast of this thing, leaving a big drippy mess. These the sort of markers that tend to bust open in your bag and dirtying up all your stuff. Gonna sticker seal the lid shut on this thing and double bag it. Got my eye on you, Window Marker.

GARDENCRAFT TERRA COTTA MARKER JUMBO

Got this at the San Rafael Michael’s. From the folks at Marvy Uchida, this jumbo marker is labeled and branded to appeal to gardeners that like to paint things onto their terracotta pots. The label example shows a killer whale and a pair of cherries. Good product. Nice sturdy tip, good ink flow, solid construction. 

JUMBO MARKER

Dollar store find. I got one that is pretty much identical, except this one has the line 

UNSUITABLE FOR USE BY YOUNG CHILDREN 

omitted from the label.

Chisel tip, flimsyish tip. Works well but I can see the nib wearing out rather quickly with use. Which can be a nice quality. Good dark ink. Faint smell. Nice marker.

Jumbolaya

Dollarama pick-up. 

STUDIO JUMBO MARKER - I don’t expect much from Dollar Store markers, unless they are from Daiso. This one is no different. Thin plastic barrel construction, but nice stylized plastic black cap. 10 mm chisel tip, thinner than most. Hey, this is a nice surprise. It actually works quite well. Good coverage, good ink, runs smooth on application. 

NOKE IS IT !

A bunch more random Chinatown dollar store markers.

STERMARK – Made by a company called STERDAM. I wonder if they put a STER in front of the name of every single product they make. Odor kind of smells like burnt crystal meth. Kind of like the dazzle camo motif they have going down the sides.

TE NENG AQUALINE – A bootlegged Artline Aqualine. The label printing is really wonky and when I got it, it was already dried out. Cheap plastic construction, but it is refillable.

JUMBO MARKER – Cheap dollar store quality. Weak plastic barrel, cheap wrap-around label, but surprisingly it marks well and the ink is nice and thick.

HAIJIA TOKENS PEN – I have another one of these, exact same design label and layout, except the label says HAI XIN. Pretty much a Super Sharpie knock-off in shape.

HUAXIA 715 – Bullet point. Better than average dollar store quality black marker.

NOKE – Nice chisel tip, thick ink. It works better than it looks. Noke is it ! Made by Ningbo Noke Stationery Industrial Co., Ltd. Looking on a trade website, and apparently the contact person is Mr.Bobby.

SHANGHAI SURPRISES

More marker pick-ups from Shanghai.

LIBERTY POP MARKER – 30 mm broad tip. I think the design is based on the Artline 130. Has a really nice illustration of a marker tip and a wavy line going down the side. I really like the font for POP MARKER, and the triangle design motif.

ARTLINE POPMATE 30 – 30 mm broad tip. This thing looks more like a stick grenade. I was pretty happy when I saw it. Cap has a plastic groove on the inside to cradle the nib, which is a nice little touch.

WEI JIN EXTRA BROAD – Really cheap bootleg of the Sakura extra broad. Really thin plastic construction, covered in a plastic wrap label. I think they affixed a metallic circle on the bottom to make it look like it is a metal jacket marker. Strange. To top it off, it is a weird bullet tip that is totally out of proportion to the overall size. And it’s already dried out. The nib has weird black crystals forming on it. This is a horrible marker for use, but pretty amazing as a bootleg.

JUMBO WASHABLE – No branding and little other marking. The nib is super stiff, the ink is light and doesn’t apply too smoothly. Again, it’s a plastic marker, that seems to have metal circle affixed to the bottom to give it the illusion that it is made from metal.

SIMBALION 560 MARKER – This is the Simbalion version of the Magnum. It is called the Jumbo Large. Full metal jacket construction. Nice grey green color combination on the label.

CHISEL POP MARKER – 6 mm chisel tip. Plastic barrel. Best before 2007 – 06 – 21.

I’D BUT THAT FOR A $

A bunch of different dollar store Jumbo markers.

TARTAN GIANT MARKER – I got this in a pound shop in Dalston on the way to eat lunch at Shanghai. The marker is really bad quality. Cheap construction, bad nib, bad ink. In contrast, Shanghai is a really good restaurant. A really nice tiled front booth seating area opens into a roomy white tablecloth back area. I love the crispy duck and lettuce wrap.

ENCORE JUMBO – Picked this up at one of the dollar stores on Parliament. Cheap plastic wrap labelling. Actually works quite well if a bit splotchy.

MARKER – Another Parliament street score, another no-name cheap quality marker. According to the label, “It is more developed and smells soft”. It looks similar to the Encore Jumbo, but is a fraction smaller, and doesn’t work a fraction as well. It dried out really quickly and the ink bled a lot.

BAZIC 10mm JUMBO – Bazic is a really good dollar store brand. All their products work quite well and this marker is no exception. Simple plastic construction with a wrap around sticker labeling. 10mm chisel tip, produces nice clean lines. On par with a lot of more expensive marker brands.

BAZIC 8mm JUMBO – Same as above, in an 8mm chisel tip. Apparently all the 10mm marker users found the line thickness 2mm too wide, so the company caved into consumer pressure to produce this 8mm version. Or vice versa.

SUPER JUMBO MARKER – Another Dalston pick up. I have three of these markers. Same silhouette, just with a different plastic wrap around label. They are all equally bad. After lunch at Shanghai, I cut through the plaza and picked up a cheese platter from Sainsbury’s on the way home.

242 / 243 / 147 / 67

More Chinatown/ Dollar store finds.

JUMBO MARKER – I got this one in Dalston beside a beauty supply shop. I dunno if the rasta color gradient label is just a coincidence. Cheap plastic construction, really bad nib and ink quality. I’m looking at the nib right now and it looks like bits of ink has somehow crystallized around it. That’s pretty cool.

BIZZI CHISEL TIP – Knock off of the Sharpie Chisel tip. Nice fat lines, good ink quality at a third of the price.

KALES PERMANENT – Here is a marker shape that is pretty uncommon. Twin tip, fat chisel tip on one side, bullet point on the other. Ink dries out way too quick but smells like NIBS, which is a plus. They have pretty nice design on the top of the marker that looks like a cigar band, and they made the second E in PERMANENT look like a chicken wing.

OXIMEX – A Super Sharpie bootleg. WOW ! Their website is pretty crazy. Full on soundtrack with these maple leafs flying across the splash screen like ninja stars. It doesn’t do much past the initial animation though.