Ready to be bored again with mediocre pencils from the 80’s, half of them from countries that don’t exist any more?
From right to left we have:
Astra 5654 from Czechoslovakia
Toz Rexpen 8055M from Yugoslavia
Pevdi Pax from Hungary
Three Star 700 from China
All in 0,5
I reviewed the Astra here:
The Rexpen looks and feels good in the hand, has a Bigraph Super vibe. All metal except the plastic grip. Alas 10 clicks push some 15-16 mm of lead. Horrible! But look at that gorgeous lead clearing tool. Machined from a single piece of solid metal (except for the wire), not a mere accessory, but a tool in of itself, for real men who don’t need erasers.
Pevdi Pax has a review and internals photos by someone else here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/mechanicalpencils/s/oEMEbqMPQM
What I would add is that the clear plastic lead tube has very thick walls, thus being rigid. The small grip is of poor quality, ill fitting plastic. There are several barrel and clip variations, but the internals are the same on all. Ten clicks release 13-14 mm of lead.
The Three Star production line was set up with help from Parker. It is small, thin, all metal except the plastic cap holding the cleaning wire. A bit top heavy. Despite the grip grooves being barely cut, it is grippy enough thanks to the brushed stainless steel finish. The lead pipe is retractable, making it pocket safe. The whole MP insert can be replaced by a standard Parker pen refill, turning it into a ballpoint. Early ones had a bulky clip, but later production ones have this colored insert. Besides green there is also red.
While I usually avoid branded pencils, these are reminiscent of the times they were made: Krka was a Yugoslavian medicine production company, still exists today in Slovenia.
Chemokomplex was a large chemicals factory in Budapest.
Advertising for state owned companies on pencils made by another state owned company. Peak communism.
