LEGO Belville Pen - Write Like A Princess!
Written: Dec 30 '02 (Updated Jan 06 '03)
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Pros: Cute! Nice color scheme, neck lanyard, adorable elements.
Cons: Bottom portion of the pen shows pressure points and marring.
The Bottom Line: If you have a little princess in your midst, pamper her with one of these absolutely adorable Belville pens!
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| Freak369's Full Review: Lego Belville Pen |
The Belville line from Lego didn’t catch on at first and in fact it wasn’t until the second series was released that people stopped to take notice of all the wonderful sets that were available. Targeted at young girls, the series started out with princesses, evil witches, an enchanted forest and tons of cuddly little creatures. The second portion of the series divided the series with the introduction of The Cold North and Princesses lines and ultimately carved out the elements chosen for the Lego Belville pen. Chances are is this pen was created from the first part of the series, it would have been a little less imaginative and has less of a ‘girlie’ feel to it.
What Is It?
Some people might see the suggested retail price of $14.99 and fall over. Granted, this is steep price for pen, let alone a kids pen but once you see it and get your hands on it – you might just change your mind. The Lego Writing System was designed to give kids something new and creative – something my brood have completely fallen in love with. No longer do they do their homework with boring Bic pens – they break out their Lego pens, change a few of the pieces around and hit the books.
The main feature of the pen is the screw off top; this is removed from the pen to expose the connecting rod that holds the Lego pen elements in place. Depending on the pen that you have – you can have six to nine pieces on the pen at once. For the most part all of the pen elements are the same height -
The Case
Your Lego Belville pen comes complete with a hard plastic case, see through front cover, molded black interior holder and individual slots for each of the extra Belville accessory pieces. There is also a special section just for the carrying lanyard, a very nice touch! Much like all the other pens in the Lego Writing System, getting the pen in and out of the molded interior section is a real chore. After about ten times you will notice that it will start to get warped and eventually the edges will buckle.
Since is pen is relatively new it has a different type of front lock on the case. It looks the same and serves the same function but unlike the ones that came with the first series of pens, these are much easier to open and close. The clear portion of the case will get scratched easily and there is no really way to avoid this unless you don’t use it. Fingerprints will also take their toll on the plastic so don’t get too freaked out when you notice the case showing some real signs of wear and tear.
One of the main functions of the carrying case is to keep all the unused pieces safely tucked away from when you want to rearrange them. As is the case with all toys eventually one of the elements will turn up missing, if this happens you can purchase extra official Lego Writing System pieces from a variety of online brick vendors or brokers. Depending on the pen that you own or the piece you are looking for you can expect to pay between .50 cents to $3.00 per piece.
Interchangeable Elements
The core of every pen in the Lego Writing System is the ability to change the overall aesthetics of the pen. There are a total of twelve pieces that can be mixed and matched in an unlimited number of combinations. The four square pieces feature the Belville logo, butterflies, a bear and a cute little snowflake that could also be considered a flower. There are only two clear round elements in this set, one is plain translucent pink and the other light blue with a stenciled flower on it. The rest of the pieces are small round flat pieces that help to separate the different Belville components.
In addition to the twelve interchangeable elements that are included with this set you also get a very cool lanyard cord that can be used to carry your pen around or used to attach it to your backpack or knapsack. The cord is a very pretty shade of blue and is attached to a stenciled pink snap on top. If you don’t like the color of the cord or it gets worn out it can easily be replaced with cross-stitch floss or any other type of cording.
The Ink
You would think that a pen that retails at $14.99 would have a very nice ink cartridge, guess again. This is a real improvement over the first pens released but still needs a lot of work to justify the hefty price tag. The Lego Belville pen comes with a blue ink cartridge with, what I am guessing, is a medium type point. Unlike the Adventurers ink supply, this wasn’t goopy and didn’t throw out ink clots while writing. Part of the problem with the first series of pens is that they sat on shelves for so long [do to poor advertising and the price] that the ink took a turn for the worst. Well, that and it was cheap ink.
Comfort
This is the same as all of the other pens in the Lego Writing System, the comfort is there but it does take a little while to get used to the overall bulk of the pen. The boys had very little trouble getting used to using the pen and when I would use theirs to write with I was able to use it for an extended period of time without any hand cramps or pains.
The Down Side
I only have two real complaints about this pen, the first one is standard for every pen put out in the Lego Writing System. The open and close silver tip is extremely small, hard to get a grip on and a real bugger to operate. We now have several pens that we’ve collected and this is something that is present with every single pen. You basically have to turn the pen over, get a real good grip on the tip and turn it with a little force. If you have wet hands or any trace of grease on your fingers you can pretty much give up on getting the ink nub to come out of hiding.
The Belville pen is one of the few that feature a see through finger rest near the bottom of the pen. The light blue color is very appealing – until you bust open the case and take a close look at it. You’ll see that there is some moisture trapped between the pen and the rubber finger grip – something that can’t be removed no matter how hard you try. Since it is impossible to remove the rubber finger grip I tried to pull the top portion away from the pen to see if it was moisture or just trapped air. It was moisture and I had to make a choice between trying to exchange it for one that wasn’t screwed up or just dealing with it and hoping it would fix itself. I went back to the store and saw that all of the Belville pens had this same little glitch so I opted to keep the pen and hope for the best. Three weeks later and things haven’t gotten any better, but on the bright side, they haven’t gotten any worse either.
Instructions
The small fold out instruction leaflet that is tucked under the black molded interior gives you the basics of how to take you pen apart, how to properly place the pen elements, reattaching the top of the pen and how to change the ink cartridge. You should keep this leaflet in case you need to return the pen for repairs since this has all the information you need to obtain a replacement. Should you need to ship this back to the manufacturer you will have to send a check or money order for $5.95 to cover shipping and handling fees, something that I find absolutely preposterous. Don’t bother trying to contact Lego about any defective pens since they don’t directly handle the sale or distribution of them, this is handled by a third party – CDM. If you are having trouble dealing with CDM in regards to getting a replacement for a defective or non-functional pen then by all means contact Lego about this since it is their reputation on the line.
The Bottom Line
When I first saw this pen I wasn’t all that thrilled. I’m not really into ‘girlie’ stuff and passed on picking it up until Michael’s ran a coupon for 50% off any one regularly price item. Since they sell them for $12.99 [plus tax] I was able to pick up the pen for less than $8.00 with the use of the coupon. Since the boys had already gotten the pens that they wanted I opted to pick up the Belville pen so I could have one that they would never want to “borrow” [which usually means borrow for an indefinite period of time – like forever].
As always, thanks for the visit!
^V^ Freak ^V^
© 2002 Freak369
If this pen is a little to “girlie” for you – check out the ...
Lego Adventurers Pen
http://www.epinions.com/content_75390422660
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): See Review
Type of Toy: Other
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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