Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First of all, I want to correct the product description for this set of pens. There are indeed 48 pens, but they are not evenly split up into 4 groups of 12. The actual breakdown is as follows: 12 glitter 9 metallic 9 bright/neon 9 pastel/milky 6 swirl/multi-colored milky 3 black I believe they are all pretty standard sized 1.0mm ball points, which all but the most eagle-eyed of us will NOT be able to tell apart from the .7-.8mm most other gel pens are. All of them write smoothly with minimal skipping and dragging, save for the pastel and swirl types. I have a long history with gel pens - suffice it to say I've been a fan since middle school, when Pentel Milkies were all the rage, and were unfortunately no stranger to skipping and dragging even then, and now I'm in college - and it comes as no surprise that the much maligned pastel or milky ink is still a source of frustration. If I had to assign a letter grade for consistency of ink flow, it would be thus: glitter - A+ metallic - A+ bright - A pastel - C swirl - C black - A Additionally, the 6 color combos of the swirled pens are: Pink Cap - blue/purple/pink *Orange Cap - blue/purple/orange *Yellow Cap - yellow/green/orange Green Cap - yellow/green/blue *Blue Cap - yellow/pink/blue Purple Cap - purple/green/blue The asterisk denotes those pens where the color change is immediately evident. The others may have multiple inks in the barrels, but the colors seem to blend into one disappointingly lackluster hue. (i.e. Pink cap = purple, green cap = green, purple cap = purple) Perhaps I just had a bad batch, but I've been using them for quite a few large-sized spiral drawings a la The Spiral Draw Book (Klutz). (I bought mine secondhand and the kit was missing the mini swirl gel pens that came with it.) It took about 5 or 6 of these mandalas for the 3 pens that show color gradation to start working, so I'm hoping the other 3 duds will show soon, too. Unfortunately, they are the WORST for spiral type art due to their notorious tendency to skip, causing unsightly imperfections. It figures the coolest pens with the greatest potential - did I mention swirls write on black paper, as do the pastels - would also prove the most difficult to work with. All in all, Fiskars did a great job with this set. As for "big name" brands, none of that really matters; all of the pens are basically the same and likely produced in the same place (usually China ;p). Some of the best gel pens I've ever had were cheapies I've picked up at the dollar store: great ink flow and smooth writing are all you need. My only complaint is the with the milky gels; it seems that with all the advancements made with writing tools (i.e. waterproof pens that can write underwater, pressurized pens that are safe for airplane travel) you'd think there would be a pastel ink that shows up vibrantly on black paper without the need for retracing, writes smoothly from the jump, and doesn't give out and skip every inch or so! Oh well, a girl can dream...