Two Learner Pencils - Stabilo and Faber-Castell

So called Learner pens and pencils for young children are a feature of a few markets, especially Germany and nearby. I doubt anyone here collects learner pencils, but here’s two. Both of them date from the late 00’s. One of them has a ridiculous name, and the other one is a pencil I really like.


Stabilo’s offering is the ‘s move easyergo. Huh? Despite the name it’s actually a serious piece of design and manufacture. The 3.15mm lead was manufactured in Stabilo’s Czech factory. That size was chosen for strength and because it was easy for them to manufacture. Stabilo did not have the ability to produce thin polymer leads, just traditional ceramic leads. The pencil can only be disassembled into two parts thus reducing the chance of children breaking, losing, swallowing, etc. The body was moulded by Stabilo themselves in Germany and Czechia, the mechanism purchased from an OEM, and the pencil assembled and packaged in their Czech factory. There were left and right handed versions of the triangular grip.

Faber-Castell offer the Scribolino for learners. I received this pencil in the post from Kotobuki, as a sample of their new pencil for children, using 1.4mm lead and called “Red Pepper”. They called it that because the top cap with breathing holes reminded them of a pepper pot. I really liked the colour scheme and triangular rubber body, as it just seemed a really fun looking little pencil ideal for children. Me, the hater of rubber grips and bodies actually really liked it. I’m unsure of its design origin because Kotobuki’s comments were not really clear, so I don’t know if Kotobuki designed it and then went looking for a customer, or whether Faber-Castell approached Kotobuki. In any event, Kotobuki had the tooling made, Faber-Castell paid for it and became the exclusive customer for it. At that time I did find this pencil on Faber-Castell’s website, but it was unnamed and simply listed as “propelling pencil” in the children’s section of their website. At some later stage Faber-Castell named it Scribolino.

Upon seeing “Red Pepper” at a trade show, Stabilo thought, “Hmmmm… maybe we need a thinner lead version of our one too. No need for the children to use a sharpener”.

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I’ve seen them in shops and was tempted a couple of times just to satisfy my curiosity. The strange thing about Stabilo’s range is that when I tried a couple of them, the ‘best’ feeling ones turned out to be the ‘opposite’ hand designs. i.e. in my right hand, the left-handed pen/pencil felt more at home.

For the FC, I actually bought the grey/yellow Scribero Combi. Front was a cartridge rollerball, back was a highlighter. Very nice sculpt but hard to keep the rubber surfaces looking good after many years.

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Yes I have noticed the rubber surface is quick to pick up any graphite dust, etc. The rubber body is actually essentially the same compound as erasers so I guess that is part of it. I have had reasonable results using a fresh block eraser to clean Scribolino’s rubber body.

Well, one cool thing on this forum is that one never knows when a very specific sub-niche can emerge. :smiley:

These are my additions for the thread (sorry for the poor lightning); top-to-bottom:

• One of my favourite and most-used lead-holders: the rOtring Primus (seemingly, model No. R022422). Very bulky grip with grooves perpendicular to the barrel axis, plastic and wood elements used with some ingenuity, bright colours, and an interesting reservoir system allowing to keep as far as four backup lead cores besides the one in use in the lead pipe. I love this one, and it comes in a nice set with a matching fountain pen — which instead has never seen any use.

• The Schwann–Stabilo Easy ergo 1.4, which is the same as @Kiwi-d «'s move», just sporting a different imprint on the tail pushbutton (still, I cannot stand the triangular grip).

• The LAMY ABC Blue 1.4, most likely echoing some of the vibes from the rOtring Primus, with a nice wooden barrel, a twistaction mechanism to feed the lead, and — again — a triangular grip very hard for me to deal with.

While the first one is a pencil I regularly use (I keep it loaded with red lead cores, to strike out documents/printed pages which no longer need to be considered), the other two sit in a drawer, possibly hoping to find another home.

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Good to see. Yes, after seeing Red Pepper at a trade show the Stabilo people thought, “Dang! We need 1.4mm lead too”, and their marketing department took a deep breath and returned back down to earth and got rid of ,s move bit :slight_smile:

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