Paper Mate Mates Mechanical Pencil, Disney, 4 Count

I love these mechanical pencils; both the superheros (grandson) and the princesses (granddaughter). My college students like to borrow them also. They only give them back under threat of death. These pencils are so popular because they have the thicker gauge leads instead of the ridiculous thin leads that break with the slightest pressure. I also appreciate that the package comes with spare leads and erasers.

Love the thicker lead

I grew up using these and they have come a long way! I would break them within seconds and could never use them properly. Over 35 some years later, my daughter is using them with her sketch pads.My daughter is 4 ½. I thought it was going to be a repeat of when I used them. I opened all of them and she loved the Disney characters on the pencils. She watches Disney Junior a lot; the characters were familiar to her. Since giving them to her, she has not broken one tip of the pencil! The tips are strong. In order to get the pencil to work, you press the eraser down. The more clicks/pushes, the more it comes down. To retract, you push in the eraser and push it back in. The design of the barrel is fabulous. Even though it is a triangular barrel, it is contoured and easy to hold. I feared my daughter might loose grip so I tried it and it feels great in the hands.With this you get 4 mechanical pencils (with lead already in them), 12 lead refills in a case, and 2 erasers refills. I will say the only thing I do not like is the erasers. It works well if you need to erase but falls out easily. My daughter kept pulling it out or it would fall out. Perhaps mine are not as secure as they should be. If you have little ones in the house, I would remove the erasers to be safe as they are tiny and could fall on the floor.Again, these really have improved over time and come a long way.

The erasers leave the paper very dark. It smears the writing instead of erasing it.

My granddaughter loves these pens and I am not sure if it the Princess part or the pen part that she loves the most. These are inexpensive Paper Mate mechanical pencils. They are good for writing quick notes. The lead is very good however there are four pens with only two extra erasers. I have a feeling the erasers will be worn out long before the pens quit writing. There is a box of lead refills included with the package of four pencils.The pencils are all plastic and probably won’t last all that long however while they are new they are working fine. If you are worried about all the forest being cut down so that wooden pencils can be made from the trees then you will probably love these plastic pencils. Just remember that plastic has to come from somewhere and in general plastic is not that environmental friendly. While I have not run out of lead in any of the pens, I did experiment with one to see how easily I could insert a new piece of lead and that was quite simple and the pencil accepted the new piece of lead immediately.These pencils are not round but triangular shaped and easy to hold with a regular sine hand and fingers. Really small kids should not have an issue but I don’t really know since I have none around. Paper Mate claims the lead is stronger than thinner leads used in most mechanical pencils. I have no way of testing for this.Good product that the kids will love.

Love this product. Arrived on time.

When my kids first started using mechanical pencils, they went through that 0.5mm lead like it was water. I swear companies sell cheap mechanical pencils knowing that is going to happen (it isn't the razor, it's the blades!). Anyway, these pencils have a beefy 1.2mm lead that is equivalent to #2 pencils so they can use them on those "bubble-in" tests without needing to worry. The diameter of the lead in these pencils looks to be pretty much the same as in a standard wooden pencil, without the need to worry about sharpening them. I have been using one for a couple of weeks and have not had the lead break once.As for the erasers, these are pink rubber erasers, just like the ones on wooden pencils, not those tiny ones that come on most mechanical pencils. The triangular cross-section of these pencils is similar to the old grips that were sold to help children learn how to hold a pencil correctly. No need for those here since the shape of the pencil takes care of that.The package comes with 4 pencils, 2 spare erasers, and a package of the 1.2mm lead (12 pieces). The princess theme is great for little girls or other fans of Disney princesses -- or for my boys when they lose their pencils or break all of the lead :)I have not seen this lead at the local office supply stores, and I don't think it is as common as the 0.5/0.7/0.9 sizes, so that might be an issue. Other than that, this is a nice package of pencils.For those interested, the princesses (at least, in the package I received) are Ariel, Belle, Cinderella and Rapunzel.

Paper Mate Mates are great mechanical pencils for kids. The triangular shape to the bodies with curved edges make it very easy to hold. The 1.3 mm lead is stronger than the thinner leads and also easier on young, learning hands. The 4-pack comes with 2 extra erasers, which is good, but, of course, never enough. There is also a set of lead refills. The lead in the pencils is rated at #2, which is fairly soft and good for school work and standardized tests. Important to note that the refills are labelled HB, but this is the same as #2. For the Disney princess fan, each features one of the four main ones: Cinderella, Arielle, Rapunzel and Belle.If you need pencils for your child, and you don't want to worry about sharpening, these are an excellent choice.