Review for both the .3/.5/.7mm 3-pack and stand-alone .9mm Staedtler 775 Mars Micro: Lets get this out of the way by just answering all the questions everyone seems to be repeated asking in the Q&A section: -The sleeve DOES retract; it is hard to do on purpose and impossible to do by accident, and there are no /great/ instructions online. I will encourage you to look around, including other reviews. But the pencil has a two-stage click. The first stage pushes the lead, the second stage locks, and unlocks the sleeve; from there you ease off it to the first stage while pushing down and slide the pencil body down over the lead sleeve. If it doesn't work, you may be in the locked stage, so fully depress the cap again and repeat. -Also, to the best of my deduction, despite the confusion everywhere, including Staedtler's product page... these are B leads in the 3-pack. It is possible the single pencils come with HB leads, but this pack seems to include B leads. In either case, there are few of them in here, and you may wish to just bite the bullet and buy whatever lead you need. The Mars Micro Carbon refills are what are designed for these, though almost any same-size lead will work. I will add to this point, that the .3 is fragile as people say, but replacing it with a HB or H lead will probably take care of that -- note that a .3 lead is really only meant for drawing straight lines with a ruler, not drawing and certainly not heavy writing. Though, I plan on writing with it, that's my problem, not the pencil. You need to change your grip. -I do not believe the white erasers in these are Mars Plastic; I think they are their cheaper PVC-free school eraser material from the Noris line. In either case, you will want a standalone eraser. Mars Plastic or Rasoplast are the "official" pairings, but Pentel Hi-Polymer seems to be the best bang for the buck (this is not an eraser review though). -The pencil body is plastic, but solid ABS plastic, not the flaky crackly stuff on cheap school pencils. They have a surprising heft, and I do not believe you will be able break the body without doing so purposefully. The clip is metal, and sturdy. - The internals are a combination of metal and plastic. Seems sturdy, especially given how hard you need to press on all of it to get the sleeve to retract. - There is no clean-out rod (or pin, or needle or whatever you call it) included with the product. You can buy aftermarkets, or splurge on the nicer models, like the 925 line (some of which are still ISO color-coded). - The "Cushioned lead" is describing a spring mechanism which is built into the sleeve that will act as a shock absorber if you press down too hard. I am not sure if this is intended to protect the lead as described, or to protect the pencil from breakage... to be 100% honest, you are more than likely going to snap your lead long before that spring retracts, given how much pressure it takes to engage. I am giving this pencil set 4 stars. Quality build, despite the plastic, but that one-star loss comes from the actual usability of the product: On one hand, the retraction mechanism is super impressive from a design standpoint, as is the lead cushion -- but wowsers is it so over-engineered as to be functionally useless given how few people own this pencil and review it seem to realize that the sleeve even retracts. That is an objective detractor. The subjective detractor is that I feel overall shape and size of the pencil makes it hard for me, personally, to find a natural-feeling grip (Though, as a tip, the grips from my Zebra click pens swapped right in, and I might recommend that simple modification to other buyers). The value is good in that I feel like this is a product that would last for years and years, noting that any .3mm pencil is a delicate tool, but the value is wanting in that at $6-10/per you could either go cheaper and find something almost as good; or do what I did and spend a dollar or two more and have those gorgeous aluminum 925 pencils.
