I found Staedtler Rally #2 HB pencils in dozen packs in the clearance section of my local Office Depot so I couldn’t resist picking up a few dozen. These hexagonal pencils feature clean white and navy stripes on alternating hex facets, they come pre-sharpened and have a silver ferrule and white eraser top. Even at $3.49 per dozen, these seem to be a good value.
The packaging indicates that these pencils are made in Thailand and distirbuted through Staedtler Canada.
The paint on the pencils are nice but there is a pesky bar code printed on the pencil below the pencil brand info which is super annoying. I hate bar codes on my pencils, especially if I purchased them in a box of a dozen or more. What is up with this? My box of granola bars don’t have bar code on each individually wrapped bar, why should my pencils?
The bright white eraser tops made me hope beyond hope that the erasers were Staedtler Mars erasers. Wouldn’t that be fabulous? But, alas, no. Not even close.
Though pre-sharpened, I tend to re-sharpen my pencils which give a smoother first experience. I find the pre-sharpened points a little rough. The Staedtler Rally is no different here. When writing with the pre-sharpened point, its a little scratchy but after a couple twists in my Dux Variabel sharpener, the writing experience in much improved.
In writing, I got a little feedback noise on the paper but very mild. For a middle-of-the-range pencil, its totally acceptable. I wish Staedtler hadn’t bothered with the eraser caps if they aren’t going to use their flagship eraser on these. The eraser is utter crap. The paint and graphics are printed better than a lot of American pencil brands these days so in terms of looks the Rally is a nice looking pencil despite the bar code.
I think listening to the Erasable Podcast has made me want to “grade” my pencils. So, I give the Staedtler Rally a C — its a good pencil with a crap eraser that can be purchased at your local big box store. If you pair it with a REAL Staedtler Mars plastic eraser, I’d bump it up to a B+.
The barcode is a hallmark of pencils sold in places like Japan, were they are often sold individually rather than by the pack. This seems to be catching on in Europe as well.
I was thinking the same thing. At least there are sometimes and mostly just pens that they have the sticker barcode! I do dislike how some can look myself..
I accept that if I buy one pencil, I might get stuck with a bar code but if I buy them in a dozen box, they should be like pre-packaged snacks and not have a lot of excess coding on them.
They even put an A+ on the box, but you still gave it a C ;^)
The Rally is a nice looking pencil. It always reminds me of the “Polo” pencil, which used to be available in Germany (I think it’s now called ‘Milan’).
I’ve been tempted to try these, but not enough to order online. It is amazing how crappy eraser plugs can be, but if your Rally or U.S.A. Gold came with a top notch eraser built in, who would buy a Mars Plastic or Black Pearl?