Freak369's Full Review: BIC America SCWB11 Rd: Widebody Retractable Ballpo...
Call me thrifty, call me cheap but I love to hit places like Big Lots, Dollar General and Wal-Mart to look for pens and toys. It’s a crap shoot most of the time; you never know what you are going to come across. One of the local places is called Family Dollar and they are the bottom feeders of ‘dollar stores’. The aisles are always filled with boxes, the employees aren’t exactly customer friendly and I have never heard of a single brand of food that they carry ... but does that stop me from going there? Not a chance in hell. For what ever reason they were getting rid of a lot of pens - and not those cheap ‘no name’ pens ... I’m talking Bic, Pentel, PaperMate and Sanford Sharpie products. They only had a few packets of each color of them left but they were all half off their regular selling price. When I saw that they had all three colors of the Bic WideBody pens I had to laugh. I’d seen these at Staples a few weeks ago and was tempted to buy them to try them out but I was glad that I didn’t - I got them for .50 cents a pack [two in a pack].
Bic Red Ink WideBody Retractable Rollerball Pen
The oversized barrel of this pen is one of the things that makes this stand out visually from others on the market but simply seeing it and writing with it are two different things. There’s a rubber comfort grip at the base of the pen that makes it a pure pleasure to write with, a definite plus for students. One thing that I found really bizarre about this was that the grip can be rotated without unscrewing the pen; press lightly on the rubber grip area to turn it, press harder on it to unscrew the pen. I have no idea if Bic makes refills for this pen but I am assuming that since you can unscrew the sections, they do make them or at the very least have plans to make them. Considering the price that I paid for these, buying the refills would probably cost more than stopping by the dollar store and getting new pens. The barrel of the pen is slightly see through but that is just eye candy; the ink cartridge isn’t see through so you can’t tell how much ink is left in it. It’s a pretty tough pen too, this got stepped on a few times and didn’t crack or show any fractures.
Of course the true test of a pen is the ink. You can have the prettiest color barrels or the slickest design but if the ink sucks, what’s the point? Thankfully this follows most of the other Bic pens in regards to the ink; it flows evenly but does have the occasional clump - usually when the tip gets ink build up or the tip isn’t retracted and dirt or dust gets on it. The package doesn’t say whether this is acid proof but chances are that most scrapbookers aren’t going to be using this type of pen so it’s not a huge issue. This writes on almost every type of paper; the only time I had any noticeable trouble was on deep grain card stock or anything glossy. Outside of those two specific types of paper, this writes well. Overall this is something that I recommend for anyone that needs a larger sized pen to write with, especially for those with arthritis or who have trouble gripping regular stick type pens. If you do a lot of writing then the rubber comfort grip is a true perk but I do have to mention one possible trouble that you may have with this. If you’ve never written with something that has a wide body barrel like this, it make take a while to get used to it but I can almost guarantee that once you do get used it , you will love it.
Price
As I mentioned, I got these on clearance at a local dollar store. They are official Bic products, not knock off’s or imitations. When I saw these at Staples they were selling for $1.79 for the two pack, the price at the dollar store was fifty cents for a package of two. These were being phased out of their inventory, that’s why they were on sale for such a low price. When I called Bic they said that they had no plans on discontinuing these pens so this was a judgment call on the part of the manager of the store; more than likely to get rid of them to make way for other items. Are they worth it? The oversized barrel makes it easier for people with hand problems to grip them and the comfort gripper lets you write for long periods of time without pain or cramps.
The Bottom Line
All three of the colors [red, black, blue] are nice to write with, I’d had some previous experience with the black WideBody so I pretty much knew what to expect from this one. The ink dries fast, flows evenly and there’s almost no smudging unless you are writing on a slick or glossy type of paper. I wish I could have found more of these at the dollar store, at fifty cents a pack they would have been great to stock up on. When I gave these to the boys to try out they weren’t all that impressed with them. They didn’t care for the thick barrel but said that the ink was ‘nice’. If you decide to give these a try you really don’t have anything to lose; Bic backs all their products with a nice guarantee that you will be satisfied with their products or they will replace them at no charge to you. You can read more about that on the backs of the product cards or check it out at their website [www.bicworld.com]. If you come across these on sale or clearance make sure you stock up on them, for some mysterious reason if you leave one of them sitting on your desk it disappears. Yes, the theft level on these run high so either hide them or buy a ton of them.
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