Pentel Fiesta AX105 Mechanical Pencil Review

I first got a Fiesta about 10 years ago, and even though it was from Pentel, I wasn’t initially all that impressed with it. However, for review time it was "put aside that old baggage and look at the Fiesta anew".

The Fiesta comes in a variety of colours and in 3 lead sizes - 0.5mm, 0.7mm and the less common 1.3mm. Mine is a blue 0.5mm, and in fact I’ve never seen the 1.3mm version. The tip is clear plastic, the lower body section is transparent coloured plastic and the upper body section is matching opaque plastic. I like the clear tip section as you can see the little lead holding jaws open and close as you operate the push top ratchet mechanism, but over the long term it does become rather dirty inside with graphite powder. You can unscrew it, but it’s still a bit of a drama to successfully clean it out. With no thin metal sleeve extending from the tip section, this is a pocket safe pencil.

There is a good long grip section on the barrel, with raised ridges to help give a positive grip. The ridges are quite smooth and rounded. I think they do a good job without irritating your fingers, as some more aggressive grip patterns can. There is a reasonably large eraser under the clear cover cap on the end of the pencil. It’s fairly successful at erasing out your writing, but when it is worn right down it can be a little difficult to dig it out and refill the lead chamber beneath. The pocket clip is like most integral moulded clips, better than nothing, but not particularly effective.

I think the thing I initially didn’t like about the Fiesta was that discontinuity between the lower and upper body sections. It sort of reminds me of a lobster leg - perhaps I should have bought the lobster pink one instead of blue? I have grown used to the look over time, but I’m still not really all that happy with it. On the positive side though, the long top section means you can hold onto it to use the eraser, and refill the leads, without activating the lead advance mechanism. The Fiesta weighs about what you would expect, i.e. not a lot, and it’s slightly top-heavy.

One thing I have noticed is that this mechanical pencil is rather temperamental when it comes to 0.5mm lead quality. I have had quite a few lesser grade leads break and jam inside the tip section. Still, if you stick to quality Pentel leads you shouldn’t have that problem!

• Best Points – The separate upper body section means you can use the eraser without any chance of activating the lead advance.
• Not So Good Points – A bit sensitive to lead quality, the lobster leg look (but then a lot of people like lobster so…).
• Price Range – Economy.

Dimensions – Length 148mm, diameter 11mm at grip point. Balance point about 80mm up from the tip.