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51 of 51 found the following review helpful:
 Surprisingly Good! Really! Dec 01, 2009
By Ray
"A Reader"
I recently picked up a set of these colored pencils "on a lark" to use as supplemental to my other, more expensive sets, and was pleasantly surprised - no, nearly shocked - at their quality and performance. It's not that they are better than the best Koh-i-noor or Prismacolor pencils (because they aren't), but the truth is that, for their price, they are very difficult to beat. But price alone is not the determinant factor here: if a colored pencil is cheap but performs poorly, then there is no point in picking it up. But what I quickly discovered with these Crayola pencils is that not only are they inexpensive (they break down to only about 20 cents per pencil, compared to anywhere from $1 to $4 per pencil for the more expensive brands), but they perform exceptionally well, to boot.
What do I mean by "perform exceptionally well?" Let me break it down to a short list so I can clearly present what I discovered with these pencils:
1. The pencils have a generally good laydown of color, with the caveat of the few colors that don't work well (true also of my most expensive colored pencils, I must say). Laydown is smooth and uniform, with bright, rich color.
2. The pencils sharpen very well, with ease of cutting through the wood casing and with the color lead core supporting a very fine point when desired.
3. The lead core seems generally resistant to breakage (a problem that can occur with most pencils, even the most expensive).
4. The pencils are physically light.
5. The set comes in 50 colors, which is a great size for lots of drawing without committing to large collection sizes.
Are these pencils as good as the best Swiss, French, and German colored pencils? No. But they are close, and actually much closer than one would ever think, given that these are marketed as kid's pencils. The price is right, the colors are great, and the performance is really good. How can you go wrong? Five stars for price, five stars for color selection, and four stars for performance.
27 of 29 found the following review helpful:
 The best things in life can be cheap! Jan 23, 2006
By Smeequat
"Ash"
Never assume colored pencils are for children. Never assume that a cheap art item is a poor quality art item. Crayola, for me, are best known as the most afforadable and widely ranged set of pencils on the market.
They have hard lead that gives very smooth laydown. With these pencils, it is always best to start out light and layer your colors until you get a sleek, natural result.
The problem with Crayola is that the lead is too hard for blending, i.e, 'pushing' the colors into one another. If you are the type of artist who is into such things, I suggest Prismacolor pencils. But you can mix a little with a white Crayola pencil, so give it a try if you like.
Overall, wonderful for hardcore traditional artists or beginning scribblers. It definately won't burn a hole in your pocket.
29 of 32 found the following review helpful:
 Even when you get what you pay for, you'll still end up losing. Oct 22, 2009
By eCognition
I purchased a 12 pack of Prismacolor pencils and then I purchased a 50 pack of these crayola. Not only is the lead in the Prismacolor longer lasting than the Crayola's, but you can also forget sharpening them. No matter how soft I tried to sharpen the Crayola's the lead kept breaking. It would take me 3 broken tips for every one decent tip. The lead is so brittle, that it breaks while sharpening like you wouldn't believe. I tested the strength by using one that had already been shapened, and made one light twist. Just one. It came out broken. I would lose over an inch and a half with each sharpen. Being that the Prismacolor's are twice the cost of the Crayola's-yet the Crayola's are shorter lasting, break-easily, and lay more lead per stroke-that makes the Prismacolor a far better buy. This doesn't even take into account the soft detail of the Prismicolor's. Unless you have a Crayola bumper-sticker on your car, own stock in Crayola, or just have a fetish for non-stop utensil sharpening, buy something else. Now, if you'll excuse me; I have a colored-pencil to sharpen and I only have 15 minutes to do it in...
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Among the best Aug 18, 2011
By Allen Smalling
"Constant Reader,"
Over the past month, for various reasons including curiosity, I've had occasion to buy and test the basic dozen or more of colored pencils from Prang, Mercur, Crayola, RoseArt, Cra-Z-Art, Staedtler (Norris Club), and Prismacolor Col-Erase. These Crayolas are above-average in my estimation.
PROS: -- Sharpens well with hand-held sharpener. These folks who had their colored pencils chewed up with every re-sharpening, were they using an electric sharpener? Because you shouldn't, not even on kid-type pencils like these. I prefer the two-hole manual Staedtler barrel sharpener (SKU 31901 93963) because it has a regular hole for lead (which they call, more correctly, "graphite") pencils and a slightly larger one for "graphite + colour." Designed in Germany, manufactured in China. The user can sharpen a colored pencil conservatively to expose as little tip as possible or more aggressively (grind harder) to get more of the side of the color rod showing for shading purposes. I have sketched these Crayola colored pencils in an art book and tried each time to overwhelm or break them under pressure, and they didn't; and then I hand-sharpened them to expose as much color core as possible; they still didn't break but left nice shaded color.
-- An almost incredibly wide range of colors. While the colors are bold and cheerful, they aren't as candy-colored as Crayola's traditional crayons though some of the colors -- or at least color concepts -- are the same (remember "Violet Red"?). This assortment contains seven shades of blue alone, most quite handsome except that I think turquoise is a little too green. Yellow is pretty much a wash-out because of the wash-out effect of our yellow sun; most such art media don't do a good job with yellow. Try "custard" for a little more visibility.
-- Would you like to add Crayola's eight-pack of Multicultural Colored Pencils for free? In effect, that's what you're getting here, because this box of fifty incorporates all of the eight Multiculturals plus some others that can be useful in facial tones, like sand or pale rose.
-- The barrels are round, not hexagonal, sparing big and little fingers alike.
-- Each pencil contains a teachable moment because the color descriptions are trilingual EN - SP - FR for our NAFTA market, I suppose. Actually they were made in Brazil, as were the Multicultural colored pencils mentioned above. Here "raspberry" (a lovely shade) also becomes "frambuesa" and "framboise." The Spanish-language part of the barrel renders brown tones idiomatically into coffee colors; thus "light brown" becomes "cafe claro" (French "brun pale").
-- I think my Crayola 50 colored pencils are well-made and I have had no fractures or core drop-out as of yet. With three or four exceptions (usually the ones that trend more metallic) the color laydown is good and smooth and shading from the side of the color core ("lead") is quite easy -- again, hand sharpen only. I agree that the color goes quickly, but that's because it spreads so well and is vivid. If you want a really hard-leaded color pencil, consider Mercur or Staedtler (Norris Club).
-- My experience indicates that these colored pencils are of very good quality, but if you should have a problem or a question, don't hesitate to e-mail or phone Crayola's Service Department (contact info on back of box). I have found them to be very attentive.
CONS: -- A little too high at the price currently stated, even without taking S&H into effect. I got mine at my closest Walmart for about three dollars less.
-- They do not have ferrule-and-eraser tips, which seems to be the coming trend. They are not easily erased by regular no. 2 pencil erasers, although the non-latex erasers on the better mass-produced pencils like Mirado Black Warriors or Dixon Ticonderoga (yellow-barrel) can erase "harder" brands with relative ease (such as Mercur, Cra-Z-Art or Staedtler[Norris Club]). Ironically, it is these Crayolas (regular Prangs, too) that lack erasers yet lay down color so well for which a side eraser is most needed. A very useful solution is to invest in a separate Art Gum eraser, which can be had here or in stores for $1.50 or less. As it happens, Crayola does in fact make an Erasable Color Pencil (Item No. 68-4412), but that is a hybrid that behaves roughly like one-fifth color crayon and four-fifths color pencil, which drew middling reviews from me and others.
-- None of the brands I've mentioned, including this one, are meant to commit professional art. These are meant to accommodate ages 3+ according to the maker and allow marking and shading, but not partial erasure and blending. That is the province of the transitional Prismacolor "Scholar" line and above that, the pro models like Prismacolor Premier, Derwent and Caran D'Ache. Here is one source of advice on how to get the most out of these more basic color pencils: look for eHow's video called "How to Make Skin Color from Basic Color."
-- When in doubt, shop soon, because the slow retail economy and the competitive back-to-school climate has made for some good bargains and a few great deals, both here at Amazon and in bricks-and-mortar stores too.
PS: Crayola's caption for this item is a little relativistic. These "Long" pencils are quite good, but at seven inches of length they are no longer than most colored-pencil offerings from Crayola's USA competitors; for almost every colored-pencil I've reviewed this season (quite a few), the standard length is -- seven inches! (17.5cm). So are most no. 2 pencils if you subtract the ferrule and eraser tip. Crayola now also offers a demi-length colored pencil set of 3.5" each, and they are termed "Short" in comparison; but while the distinction may be quite useful to Crayola I wouldn't want the public to think that this product is of superior length.
7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Horrible quality on these coloring pencils Feb 19, 2011
By crayola
All the color pencils are broken inside, my daughter could not color with them at all. The tip comes off right away.
You can sharpen the pencil all you want, but the tip comes off intermediately.
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