THAT SHIT CRAY

More marker goodness courtesy of DIET HTK - a bunch of Crayola and Crayola looking markers.

WHITEBOARD MARKER - DAISO

I picked this up as a 3-pack from Daiso. Man, that place fell off. The one on Market Street and the one in Japantown had pretty much no markers. Last time I went to the one in Redwood, they had heaps and heaps of different ones. This is a good quality, well built marker. Nice solid plastic construction. Attractive GREY/BLACK text on gloss white background, with ORANGE pop accents. Bullet tip nib. Medium ink darkness. Makes nice smooth lines. Average marker, good price.

EBERHARD FABER 4000 WATERBASE

Nice simple silhouette. Minimal markings. DOA.  These are common low-cost markers that are generally of good-to-average quality. Peep more of their products here.

DIXON PERMANENT MARKER 

Cheap plastic construction, barrel bends in when pressed. Simple markings on label. Made in Mexico. Chisel tip, similar to Crayola. Really good ink quality though, makes solid nice dark lines. Surprisingly bad product from a quality company like Dixon.

EBERHARD FABER 4000 WATERBASE - SILVER 

Same specs as the one reviewed above, all markings appear in silver. Originally a chisel tip, nib has gone soft and bushy. DOA. Makes ghost lines at this point, will be good for drawing fill-ins.

COLOR GEAR ROSEART MARKER

I have a couple other markers from Roseart in a similar silhouette. This one introduces the ColorGear wordmark first. Lesser quality plastic construction. Conical nib. Makes slightly indigo-tinged dark ink lines. Roseart pretty much makes Crayola bootlegs. The quality isn’t that bad, and the price is a lot cheaper.

CRAYOLA WASHABLE

Classic Crayola silhouette. White barrel, wavy band markings on both ends. Features the curved Crayola wordmark. Washable. Conical nib, nice dark blue/black ink. 

CRAYOLA CHANGEABLES

Classic Crayola silhouette, but a bunch of gimmickry thrown in. This marker is supposed to make black lines, which I guess when written over with some other marker blender, turns the ink orange. Pretty cool design elements on the barrel. Star motif. Crayola wordmark still in the non-serif block format. Conical nib, ink is a bit on the brown side. It’s nice to have a bunch of different markers with different ink tones for drawing, and Crayola seems to have a range of product that has not-quite-black-black ink tones.

CRAYOLA OVERWRITERS

Classic Crayola silhouette, and still more gimmickry thrown in. I don’t even know what this marker is supposed to do. I tried to read the product description, but still don’t understand. Label has un-inspired OVERWRITERS wordmark, and other design elements that looked like they were made on MSPaint. Plastic construction. Seems a bit thin. Barrel bends in a bit when pressed. Conical nib. Makes nice smooth, dark black ink lines.

PATRICK HAT-TRICK

Crossed through a huge protest rally to cross the street into this store, Patrick and Company. 

CRAYOLA DRY ERASE MARKER

This seems kind of a new direction for Crayola. I don’t normally equate the brand with office supplies, but I expect them to make a good product. Nice solid construction. Ribbed plastic grip on barrel. Nice hard angled chisel tip. Wow. Makes really smooth dark black ink lines. Surprising for a Crayola whiteboard dry erase markers. Most ink from dry erase markers are grey or brown toned. And most Crayola inks I have tested are a bit on the blue/grey side. Not a fan of the overall design, but performance-wise, this thing is a winner.

PILOT BEGREEN VBOARDMASTER

I have a regular, non green version of this thing in the collection. This says it is made from 91% recycled material. Bullet tup. Wide plastic barrel. Makes medium wieght, thick dark black ink lines. Don’t have a lot to say about this marker. Pilot makes great markers, this one is another solid product.

PENTEL MARKATHON

This one was just sitting in a mug by the cash register. Glad I spotted it, since it wasn’t for sale on the floor. Gave the lady 50cents for a nice used marker for the collection. Nice silhouette I haven’t really seen before, although I guess it is similar to the Pilot from above. Medium line Chisel tip. Pump action end cap. When the ink applies light, you are supposed to depress the end to fill the nib with more ink supply. Really nice heavyweight plastic construction. Black and gold colorway, with sections of translucent windowing on the barrel, towards end-cap. Nice design details. Some arrows on a gold band towards the base. Thick-to-thin lines on the barrel. Really nice MARKATHON wordmark. The nib is all busted up, but still makes nice heavy black ink marks. This is a great marker. I thought I would have seen one of these sooner. Seems like a common brand. Happy to add this to the collection.

GRAND THEFT NYC !

Picked these up along Grand Street dollar store stroll in Brooklyn last week. 

SNOWMAN BOOTLEG

Pretty sure this is a bootleg of the Snowman series of marker from Seiko Seisakusho…because it came from a dollar store on Grand Street. The label is printed on plastic wrap around, and doesn’t have the trademark snowflake icon on the label. English, French and German text translations appear on the body. NIce bold wordmark in a red cylinder shape. Chisel tip. Makes nice deep black markings, no bleed, good fades. Heavy alcohol smell on this one. 

COLORIFIC WASHABLE MARKER

This came in a marker set. Screened on label, minimal detailing. Wordmark is made up of a multicolored letters, none of which really look good when placed together. Color sequence goes magenta, magenta again, brown, brown again, yellow, lime, lime again, blue, blue again. Heavyweight plastic construction. Conical nib, similar to Crayola brand. Ink is a light tone, closer to a dark grey. Makes nice smooth marks. No odor. 

DRY ERASE MARKER

Pretty no frills marker right here. Plastic construction, white body, black caps. Just says “DRY ERASE MARKER” screened in a slanted non-serif font, twice on the body. Bullet tip. Really faint ink color. Closer to a medium grey tone. Makes smooth lines. Slight alcohol odor. 

HENG BAO WHITE BOARD MARKER

This is a pretty common silhouette for dollar store markers. Plastic body, sticker wrap around label, ribbed black top cap and rounded black end cap. Bullet tip. Nice medium weight black ink, makes smooth lines. Medium alcohol odor. Pretty basic all around marker.

XINYIDA WHITEBOARD MARKER

Have a couple other of these whiteboard markers that have built in felt erasers in the caps. This one has a bonus magnetic strip on the cap so it sticks to a whiteboard, I guess. Solid plastic construction, white/silver/greem colorway. Minimal label details. Bullet tip This thing came DOA, dried out, even though it was in a plastic package.

STAPRO WHITEBOARD 

Stubby whiteboard marker with a felt eraser built in the cap. Bullet tip, makes smooth lines. Really dark ink, which is surprising for a dry erase marker. Minimal label details, black screened on text, white plastic body. Heavy alcohol smell. This thing is pretty under the radar, but is a better than average dollar store marker. Shoulda picked up a couple more of these ones.

SCHOOL DAZE

WHITE BOARD MARKER - This marker gets it’s own post. Remember those 4-color click pens that Bic put out sometime in the 80’s ? Them was the days of Trapper Keeper and Finder Binder and World Famous olive/black/khaki school bags with patches and drawn stuff on em.That 4-color click pen was a coveted thing. Pretty expensive for pens in comparison to whatever else they had. I never got one during Back to School shopping trips to the States. And I felt my learning was really impeded by not having one to write with in class. Some other kids had like 3 in their pencil case. And either were nice and lent em out just to be nice. Or leant them out to try and make friends. Or hoard them and give you cut eye if you looked at them and their click-pens. All you would hear in class in those days was CLICKCLICKCLICKCLICK.Them 4-click kids had an edge. They could write a story in blue, than underline it with red, than draw some grass on the border, and thrown in some black ink doodles on the side, all with one pen. I had all those color pens, but had them bundled with a rubber band. and tried to use it like as one pen. But it didn’t work too good. To this day, I have never had one of those 4-click markers. And I guess I turned out okay.

….so then I saw this marker and thought, redemption at last !!! This is a 3-color jumbo click white board marker. It doesnt work as smoothly as CLICKCLICKCLICK but it is still ok I guess. Just for the idea. The package says NEW on it. And I can only imagine that the inventor of this marker style grew up in awe of that Bic pen as well. Then waited and waited and waited. Then finally developed this. Way to go guy ! All this wonky technology for only $1.49.

The back instructions are also good life instructions. At least warning 1 is.

Not to suck, daub or orally take it.

BAZACK TO BAZICS

More marker finds from SF.

BAZIC WASHABLE - Yeah Bazic is pretty much a bootleg marker brand. But they bootleg a wide variety of brands and silhouettes and shapes so at least you could say they are an ambitious lot. This is their version of the crayola multipack. It came in a box and as usual, I copped the box, took the black one out and tossed the rest of the colored ones in the bin. Exact same silhouette and stylings of Crayola. And they got this zigzag border instead of Crayola’s wavy line border, so they manage to bite Charlie Brown at the same time. Wow. Someone at Bazic did their homework. Wide stub conical nib and that off blue-ish tint of ink found in Crayolas is somewhat replicated. The nib is spot on, but the ink is on the greyer side, instead of that Crayola black-blue. Peep the rest of what these people are faking…um…making online BAZIC PRODUCTS

BAZIC WASHABLE MINI - Same as above, ‘cept it’s a snub.

FAMILY MAID - A no frills dollar store marker brand. From a company that specializes in making products for the dollar store shop. Common shape amongst lower quality marker brands. White hull, simple black lettering and logo. Pretty bad company name though. Doesn’t project the most aspirational connotation. If you are gonna call your company Family Maid though, at least make the labeling and graphics of your marker look like a French Maid outfit.

PERMANENT MARKER - Dollar store quality black marker. Plastic hull with sticker label. Designer kinda gets wild out with the layout a bit though. Which is good to see that he or she is flexing some design ideas on something that isn’t probably expected. Got this black wave, then this medieval type font, and where they intersect, you see the negative space inverse. Oh. Also the package it comes in has a picture of the S.S Enterprise flying through space.

BOARD MARKER - Same shape and silhouette as the marker above. Same sticker label. Just different label graphics. Bullet tip. Yeah it’s supposed to have light ink as it’s a dry erase, but it shouldn’t be this watery and runny. Good for drawing if you like these qualities though.

BLK MAGIC

Went for a long walk from Dundas + Keele to Holt Renfrew, stopping in every little convenience store/dollar store/art supply store along the way looking for new black markers.Also stopped off for Popeyes and Tacos, but not Doubles. Heres what I managed to grab.

REDI MARK PLUS - The Redi Mark is made by Dixon and has been a name brand for a bunch of years. I have a bunch of older versions of this marker which were made from metal. This new version is made from plastic. All black finish, with white labelling. They kept the REDIMARK hand scrawl wordmark. The ink is a little too light, and the overall design is a little too plain for my liking, but this is still a good marker. Chisel Tip.

QUARTET - This a nice dry erase marker made by ACCO. It has a “patented 3-chamber technology” that is basically a see through side panel that lets you know if your marker is running low on ink. They also registered the term “EnduraGlide”. Wow, Quartet has their legal game on lock. The label text is in English and French, so I am guessing that the marker is made exclusively for Canadian retailers. ..though the fine print says “US PATENT” and the marker was “MADE IN CHINA”. Interesting flower shaped screw off cap.

MORNING GLORY MAGIC - Got this one at some shop in Little Korea. Morning Glory is a chain franchise that sells an assortment of stationary and gift items. The shop has an okay little pen/marker display. The marker pretty much has the same specs and plastic construction as the Dixon Redimark, reviewed earlier in this blog entry. Identical size and cap and body shape. The only difference is the top detail on the cap, the labelling, and that it is a bullet tip. I just like that is says MAGIC on the label. It is also “NEW” (explosive bubble)

MORNING GLORY WHITEBOARD - This product is also “NEW”. Nice bullet point dry erase marker. Smells heavy alcohol.

WHITEBOARD MARKER - A pretty no frills whiteboard marker. I bought it from a dollar store. There is no brand name, or any sort of company name on the cheap sticker label. The text is in English and French. Bullet point nib. The lettering and silhouette is very similar to Bic marker design. Works well enough.

MEMORIS-PRECIOUS MARKER - I think I may have this marker. But I couldn’t find it described on my blog. I will have to double check all my records. I really like the geometric pattern on the label. I remember drawing something similar to this pattern fill which is why I think I already have this marker in my collection. Perhaps that is the effect of this pattern; confusion and forgetfullness. Combine looking at the trippy visual with sniffing and catching the slightly pine undertones of the ink odor, and you are in for a bit of a funny drawing session. Memoris-Precious ? I would have thought I would remember text like that…Made in P.R.O.C. Ha ! A less obvious way of saying Made in China. Chisel tip. Makes nice lines.

WHITE LINES FADE AWAY

Some more white board markers from Shanghai. I got most of these around the fabric market.

CHANGLI WHITEBOARD MARKER - Finally. A whiteboard marker that I actually kind of like design wise. Nice hard plastic construction. Printed on labelling. Nice silver and gold accents in the lettering and design. Nice lettering. Label says “the color is bright, innocuous, easily removed & cannot remain mark”. Who uses the word “innocuous” in the marker industry ? Wow. Way to go Changli. You make a great product that looks good.

JINWANNIAN HD634 - The label says Made by Jinwannian. I guess thats the name of the company. It has a similar weak plastic construction to a lot of cheap China made markers. Works ok though.

HLW WHITEBOARD - Yup. Back to the boring world of whiteboard marker design. Bullet point. Works OK. Clear labelling says “White Board Marker” on the side. Zzzzzz…..

SHENJIANG WHITEBOARD - Zzzzz continued. This is the NO927 Whiteboard Marker made by the Shenwu Stationary Co, Ltd in Shanghai. It has a white external plastic construction. IT has a bullet point.

WYLD STALLYNS

Trawling around Shanghai Old Town and Dongtai Lu, found a bunch more markers…

NEW MANY 30mm POP MARKER - My friend Suzette gave me this one. Nice solid plastic construction, early 80’s Edmonton Oilers colorway on label. Sturdy 30 mm chisel tip nib produces nice even ink lines. Refillable screw-cap bottom.

STERDAM TWIN-TIP - Another bootleg Zebra Mckee. It says it is “MADE IN STERDAM - CHINA “. I don’t think that city even exists. This one stays pretty much true to the original. They didn’t really try to hide their inspiration, or change the design all that much. Double-Arrow motif exactly same, “Marker” word on label same font. As expected, ink quality is not as good as the Zebra. Runs slow from both tips. Thinner consistency. Nibs dry out easier.

KNOW 5mm WHITEBOARD - Nicely finished black lustre, with printed label on surface. Pretty basic marker. Works well.

TRUE COLOR EXCELLENT WHITEBOARD - Saw this out of the corner of my eye in some stall in Dongtai Lu Antique Market. Gave 5RMB for it. Sellers most unexpected sale of the day. The label says EXCELLENT, and well, how can I not give it an EXCELLENT review ? Its more than subliminal. I walked away from the purchase feeling EXCELLENT. Rode around that day feeling EXCELLENT. Heck, even when I am testing this thing out, I do feel a bit more EXCELLENT. Made by Lotus Pen. The wordmark is executed nicely in 3d with a slant with a mirror finish outline. Mirror finish strip around base label as well for extra style points. Bullet tip makes nice smooth thick lines. Even for a whiteboard marker, this thing makes thicker fuller lines than some permanent markers.

MON AMI

More Fu Zhou pick ups. I document the markers in a blog, and draw them all individually, so after a while of sorting through them all, I kind of remember which ones I already have. When I am out looking for new markers, rarely do I see one and question if I have it or not. I guess all collectors have this “collectors memory”, and no matter how many items they have in their collection, can spot something and know somewhat immediately if they have it or not.

MON AMI - I first found Mon Ami markers in Gerrard Chinatown section of Toronto. Those ones had sticker labels. This marker is the modern version I guess. Same body shape, but with printed label on the surface. Nice bullet point leaves bold thick lines.

SIMBALION WHITEBOARD - This time last year I wasn’t including whiteboard markers in my collection. So this time around, I came away with loads of new markers. This is a nice marker. Slim metal jacket construction, bullet point nib. Simbalion is a quality marker brand based out of Taiwan.

DOCTOR HL-901 - I scooped this one up from a desk at the fabric market. Pretty poor quality dollar store-type marker. Its already pretty much dried out.
P.O.P PERMANENT 30m/m - I really don’t know if I have this one or not. I don’t think I do. It’s a 30mm wide nib, but the body is stockier than other similar versions. Nice silver finish bits hi-lighting nib width on the label.

???RANDOMS???

Some random markers from who knows where.

PLATIGNUM – This marker is made to write on plastic, foil and cling film, suitable for freezing. Do a lot of people write on things than put them in the freezer ? Am I missing out on a part of adult life ? It’s a really good quality marker. I don’t know why there is a letter “g” in the middle of Plati-g-num.

PENTEL WHITE BOARD MARKER – Bullet point. Simple whiteboard marker.

PENTEL NN50 – Bullet point. This marker is really smooth and has a nice citric odor. I have never really used this marker that much. I should pick up some more.

PERMANENT CHISEL TIP – Average quality black marker. The nib runs down a bit too easy, but it does produce nice fades.