Category Archives: Reviews

Review – Sharpie Colors Part 4 Purples – Purple, Berry, Boysenberry, and Lilac

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All right, now it’s time for part 4 of my look at many of the Sharpie Colors. This time it’ll be the purple-ish set I’m looking at, so let’s get to it.

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Purple – The standard purple color is a very dark purple that looks much like the stereotypical purple. It looks almost bright enough to be some of the darker purple flowers, or a very near-night sky. It doesn’t have many applications in most workplaces either, and its darkness could make it hard to read. It’s middle of the road on bleed, through, for Sharpies, and almost doesn’t feather or shade, making it a pretty good all around color to use around the house.

sharpie colors purples

Berry – Berry certainly lives up to its name and provides a very reddish purple that is very similar to berry juice. It doesn’t have many other natural applications, though. It is bright and visible, with minimal bleeding, shading, and feathering. It’s a very good organizational color even if it might not be that work-friendly.

Boysenberry – This color is an interesting one. It’s a lighter, reddish purple that is akin to the fruit from which it takes its name. It is a much more appealing purple color and is useful in many situations. It’s prone to bleeding, but feathering and shading are minimal. I like it a lot, but it isn’t the most useful color.

Lilac – Lilac is a light, bluish purple. It is very similar to the flower and many other natural shades. It is bright and easy to read, but a bit unprofessional. It’s not bleed- or feathering-prone, but it shades a bit. It’s a nice looking color, and artistically or organizationally useful, but not really for a work environment.

And those are the purples. I like the colors, but they tend to be less useful. It’s just hard to find applications other than organization. But they work very well. Next week I’ll be looking at the various red colors I have.

Review – Sharpie Colors Part 3 Greens – Green, Lime Green, Mint, Aqua, and Argyle

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Now I’m on the third part of my look at all of the Sharpie colors that I have. I’m not sure I need to introduce the color green to you, so I’ll just get into it.

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Green – This green is a very dark color, even more so than the standard green color most art supplies feature. It’s a deep, leafy green that is quite natural but does look generically dark in bad lighting. On copy paper, it can be hard to distinguish for people with bad eyes. It’s also quite bleed- and feathering-prone, but on less absorbent papers all three of the last points are minimized. It’s a good generic color, but far from my favorite of the selection.

sharpie colors greens

Lime Green – The lime green is a variety of lime that isn’t an eyesore and looks sufficiently like the fruit to justify the name. It’s bleed- and shade-prone, but isn’t too bad on feathering. It is a very visible, not too bright to read, not too dark, and not too close to the standard green, making it good for organizing. It’s finally a lime color I would use.

Mint – The mint is more akin to ‘mint flavored’ than to the plant. It’s a very frosty, light green. It is still not too light to read, and is very distinguishable from the other colors. It’s also a fairly natural shade, so it works for art as well as the office, though this might be a bit extreme for some offices. It’s less bleed- and shade-prone than most of the greens, but the most susceptible to shading.

Aqua – Aqua is a nice dark blue-green color. I’d say it leans more to the green side myself, while the turquoise leans more to the blue (which is the opposite of real life). Still it is a very natural shade for both water and land. It is a darker green, but not one that I think would be confused with any other color, but it might be a bit out there for office use. It also has the least shading, feathering, or bleeding of any of the greens.

Argyle Green – This is the second and final color that I am dubious of my identification of. If you think I’m wrong, feel free to correct me in the comments. Argyle is a medium green very similar to the lime color but a bit darker. It’s got some bleed-through and feathering problems, but minimal shading. Other than that, I’d say it mimics lime well on the page: it has similar organizational and artistic properties, and would be hard to distinguish at a glance. It’s just not very original.

And that’s my look at the green selection of Sharpies I have collected. They are all very good for organization and artistic efforts, but they may stick out or be frowned upon in the office. They behave all right in terms of properties, but they aren’t the best in that regard. But I think they might be my favorite set.

Next time I’ll take a look at a collection of purple pens.

Review – Sharpie Colors Part 2 Blues – Blue, Navy, Turquoise, Sky Blue, and Blue Ice

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Now in the second part of my Sharpie color reviews I’ll be talking about the blues, a nice and varied set of colors.

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Blue – Blue is a very classic color and it looks quite a bit like the standard blue we’ve come to expect from various markers and pens. This one is a bit darker, though. The ink is more wet than the other standard colors and bleeds a bit. It’s also too dark to be natural and almost too much to be organizational, it is a bit too close to black in dark conditions, but with good eyes it can work. Still, it is very blue.

sharpie colors blues

Navy – This color is very close to the classic navy color, a bit close to black in low light, but it looks like a lot of navy colors. It’s a very dry color and has very little bleed and feathering/spreading. It’s a nice-looking color, but not a very useful one.

Turquoise – Turquoise is a difficult color to get down in ink, and none of them look quite like the stone. This one’s a bit dark, but it does make a good blue-green tone. The ink is very wet, and bleeds easily, but has very minimal feathering. It’s a very natural and pleasant tone, great for organization and for artistic purposes.

Sky Blue – This blue, like most of the blues in this set, is darker than it really should be. It’s more of an evening sky blue, or a wispy-cloudy blue. It bleeds a bit more than the turquoise and the blue, and is just as feathery. It’s a very nice looking and easily identifiable color that many office and artistic uses can be found for.

Blue Ice (Possibly Mystery Blue) – This color is the most contentious of the colors in my current review lineup. The package of markers I received was not marked, and of the other blue colors I looked at this one seemed closest. If you believe I am wrong in my categorization, I encourage you to leave a comment. This blue is a cool blue that I would say has no direct natural counterpart (certainly not ice, as this is the least aptly named), but it could be used as a substitute in many cases. I prefer it to the sky blue as a light blue. It can be used in art if one is creative and is very distinguishable from other colors for organization.

Overall, I really like the blue Sharpie colors. They are a bit bleed-prone, but they have a variety of uses and in many cases are work-appropriate. The tones are very natural and appealing. They’re a good set to get, if one can.

Next time I’ll be looking at a few of the greens that Sharpie has to offer.

Review – Jurassic World Tyrannosaurus Rex Lockdown Playset

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As you might have guessed from my last Jurassic World toy review, I am a Jurassic Park fan, and a T. Rex fan. And while most of the toys from the current Jurassic World toyline didn’t interest me, a few did. The first one being the Chomping T Rex I previously reviewed, and the second being the T. Rex lockdown playset that I will be looking at this time.

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The first part of this set is a T. Rex figure that is just a repackaged Basher and Biter T. Rex. It has the same paint, the same terrible proportions, and the same poor gimmick. I’m not as bothered by the many easily visible screw-holes as others seem to be, but they are a mark of getting a lesser quality product. Overall, it’s a disappointing figure that I wouldn’t have purchased on its own. It does offer some play value with its head biting and thrashing gimmick (this is accomplished by moving the tail) but there are too many faults to catch up on. At least it is almost the right size to look like a juvenile next to the larger Tyrannosaurus figure.

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The other parts of the set that are not the fence are even more disappointing. The gyrosphere is really bad. It is a small sphere of plastic with a cardboard cutout of a person inside. And there seems to be a problem in the manufacturing/packaging of this product that scratches each ball in the same place (though this could be dino-damage, another thing Jurassic park toys have been doing forever that I’m not really a fan of). I just wish this set had come with a human figure to get eaten, even if he was one of the little dinky figures the rest of the line came with, instead of this ball of plastic that can barely be played with and almost (if not entirely) breaks the suspension of disbelief in toys. The other thing is the net launcher, a weird looking hook with a spring that you put a piece of rubber on and fling it across the room. I guess it’s relatively safe and it will knock the dinos down, but it won’t look like you “captured” them with a net. Still I can almost see it being a fun toy to mess with; I just wish they had used that plastic to go toward something better. If they had combined the gyrosphere and net launcher plastic and made a better version of one or the other I would be happy, but here I’m just disappointed. Both of these items went back into the box.

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And finally, there is the good part of the set, and it doesn’t disappoint (for the price and size of the set at least): the fence and gate. Both of them look like redone (and slightly smaller) versions of the Jurassic Park gate that came with the command compound all of those years ago. It’s more film accurate to the Jurassic Park original than the sequel, but it looks quite nice, and the logo sticker is well done. The gate itself is smaller so older vehicles won’t fit through, and while the fences are smaller they are more solidly built, and it seems like this set should stand up to play pretty well. Some of the assembly points for the gate might be weak, but they are still stronger than the older version. There is also a secondary gate with a silly gimmick for the gyrosphere to smash through. It looks good when stood up, but I think the “shock” gimmick could have been improved. Still, it’s a decent play feature. The fences and gates are pretty well sized to keep the small bashers and biters figures in, but not really any of the larger ones.

I should mention at this point that I didn’t pay the MSRP of $25-$30, I paid $20 for this set. And, as a collector, I think the fences and gate were worth the money. But I’m not sure I would pay an extra $5-$10 for all of the rest of the junky plastic in the box. The dinosaur, gyroshpere, and net launcher are sub-par toys and display pieces, and the fence is a bit smaller than I think it really should be. I still don’t regret the purchase. I like it, and most collectors know of the problems with the Jurassic World toyline. As a toy for kids it would highly depend on the kid whether or not the set is worth it. It’s just bordering the price line where exactly how much they will like it really counts. Fun can be had with the set, but I might look elsewhere first for higher-quality toys. And as for collectors, I’d recommend waiting to get a deal on this one. It is one of the two pieces of the Jurassic World toys I would say are essential for fans, though, and maybe a little expense is justified.

 

Review – Sharpie Colors Part 1 Neutrals – Black, Brown, Slate Gray

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I’ve taken a look at several of Sharpie’s products in the past, from their regular markers to pens and liquid pencil. But their main product comes in a large variety of colors I have not yet covered. I received a gift of a set of 24 Sharpie pens some time ago, but haven’t looked at them until now due to the fact that I didn’t know what the colors actually were. Sharpie and several other well-known pen brands are notorious for not having their colors easy to identify, so this series took more research than usual. I will say that I might not have identified all of the colors correctly, so if you see something that seems like it has been misidentified here, please leave a comment and I will reevaluate it.

With that said, let’s get to the pens.

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The first set I’m going to look at is the neutrals. There are only a few, which makes sense. But these are some of the most useful: they show on many surfaces, are not an eyesore in general, and are workplace appropriate.

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Black – Black is the gold standard Sharpie color (except for the actual gold ones) and it is very good. It is quite dark and professional. It does have a tendency to shade as most dark inks do, but if gone over a second time there are no problems. It’s pretty waterproof (they all are so I won’t mention that again), has almost no spreading or feathering, and is tied for the least show/bleed-through with navy. It’s a great, well writing color, but it can be a bit dry.

Brown – Next is brown, a color that doesn’t seem that popular (but I’ve ended up with a few, take that as you will). It is a very dark brown, distinct from black in even poor lighting, but it looks more like a gray in that case. It is also fairly dry, and thus feather- and bleed-resistant, though not as much as the black. It’s good for sorting, but not for art, really.

Slate Gray – I don’t know where the trend of having “slate gray” be standard gray started, but it continues here. This is a “just over the dark line” gray. It’s not a very natural color, and isn’t even something you’d really see in a city. It is very wet and really does feather and bleed, meaning it’s not the greatest for use on thinner paper. It is almost the same on both sides in that case, and it even goes through card stock a bit. I’d say it holds the title as wettest, and is just a boring color.

And that’s the neutral colors. They’re good for office use, and for sorting things by color, but for art applications they are limited. Next time I’ll take a look at a few of the blues Sharpie offers.