I have never been a fan of multi-pens. Mainly because of the early ones like the Bic 4 color pens. They were always ball points and in four colors, red, blue, green and black! And the slimmer 2 color pens that came in either red and black or blue and red, again in all point. Not a big fan of ball point pens either. Refills, if the pen was refillable, were hard to find, expensive and the reservoir was small! But over the years things have changed. Now there are all kinds of refillable multi-pens! Some are still ball-point pens, but even so many of these come with a built in mechanical pencil! The best are the ones that are 3 to 4 pen/pencil multi pens that are sold empty. The user them customizes their own multi-pen with a wide variety of refills, from ball point to gel to mechanical pencil. Some can even be fitted with a stylus! These multi-pens are a far cry from the earlier ones and can be custom fitted to suit the need of the user!
One of the very best of these is the very versatile Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Lumio 4 (now that's a mouth full)! This pen comes as a pen body with nothing in it! A blank slate ready to be filled with the users desired components! The components are each sold separately. The body comes in Black, Metallic Blue, Metallic Pink, Silver, Blue, Gray, Pink, soft Green and White as sold by JetPen.com. Mine is in silver. The Hi-Tec-C gel pen refills come in 0.3 mm, 0.4 mm & 0.5 mm sizes in 15 different colors! The mechanical pencil refill comes in 0.3 mm and 0.5 mm. There is also an eraser component and a stylus component! WOW! That's a lot of different refills! Choices, choices, choices!
I ended up choosing the 0.3 mm mechanical pencil (a no-brainer) and a black gel pen in all 3 sizes! Sweet! I'm happy with my choices as I do use gel pens often. And 0.3 mm is my favorite lead size. I carry with me, in a pocket protector, a 0.5 mm drafting pencil, a uni Signo 207 Micro, a Pilot 0.38 mm G2, a stick eraser, a retractable EF Sharpie and an X-Acto style hobby knife. In a second pocket protector I carry a small top ring note book. My lovely wife calls them my "Geek Gear". Cute. But at one time or another while out and about, I've had need of every item in the pouches! What I am considering doing is to replace the 2 gel pens and the pencil with the Coleto Lumio 4! I like it that much! But to be perfectly honest, if I had not been gifted the body, I probably never would have bought one and the refills to fill it.
Filling the Coleto is easy as popin' the top!
Sliding in the refill, making sure all the grooves and tabs align (they practically thread themselves and lock in with a noticeable feel)!
Then closing the top! It closes with a snap! The Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Lumio 4 is now ready for use, eh almost! Before you insert the pencil component into the pencil you should put a few pieces of lead into the reservoir. This is easily done as the tip separates from the reservoir easily where the plastic part of the tip connects to the metal reservoir. Add a few pieces of lead to the reservoir then reassemble the component. NOW insert it into the body...
Using the Coleto is as simple as any other multi-pen only smoother. The components go down with a smooth, easy motion using very little pressure because the springs in the pen are light but strong enough to do the job. Releasing the locked down component is equally as light and easy! As far as the feel of the pen components goes, they feel like any other Hi-Tec-C gel pen of the size chosen. Same goes for the 0.3mm pencil. The tips of the pencils and pens look very similar. This means the pencil's lead sleeve is short making it definitely a mechanical pencil component, not a drafting pencil component. So long as excess lead is not extended and excess pressure is not applied then the pencil writes fine.
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Now I guess you blog readers want me to give you some stats! Well I'm not going to do it! Nope, not this time! Ain't gonna do it! Well, OK! You talked me into it... Or was that just the voices in my head...? Anyway, the Coleto Lumio 4 is a lightweight weighing only15.7 grams filled as I have it. Different components are going to change the weight to some degree. The over all length with the components detracted is 142 mm making it of average length. The upper body diameter is 12.3 mm and the diameter of the grip is 11.4 mm. The balance point is approximately 72 mm from the tip of the pen body. This makes the pen nearly perfectly balanced at the pens center. The pen body is plastic with a metal pocket clip. The body separates from the grip so the components can be accessed without excessive wear and tear on the pens cap. The texture of the finish on the plastic is excellent! Despite there being no roughness to the surface the surface provides an excellent gripping surface! I have no problem holding onto the pen!
Bottom line... Like I stated earlier, I would probably never have bought a Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Lumio 4 Multi-pen if it had not been for the gift of the body. I like the pen so much I am now considering buying another one, maybe in blue, and filling it with both pencil components, the eraser component and the stylus component! I'll certainly review it if I do! So, if you are in the market for a good, customizable, multi-pen then I don't think you could go wrong by purchasing a Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Lumio 4 from JetPens.com.
The Old Geezer
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