Attack of the Clones

Mechanical Pencil clones - there’s lots of them about, but to me clone isn’t really the right terminology, since to my way of thinking they are either variants or copies. By variants I mean they are made by the same manufacturer with just some minor alterations, and by copies I mean made by a different manufacturer. Then of course there are outright counterfeits, but that’s another subject. But anyway, clones is a great word, so much better than boring old ‘copy’ or ‘variant’. After all Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, has got plenty of us Kiwis in it, and the clone army are New Zealanders, so I should be happy with the word clone.

Today I want to have a look at 3 rather similar mechanical pencils.
From top to bottom:
Faber-Castell Grip Plus
Penol Jumbo (1.3mm lead)
A No Name No Identification Unknown pencil

At first glance these are all very similar pencils, the only feature that obviously separates them apart is the pocket clip which is a classic variant component. Keep the body, mechanism, etc all exactly the same and just put a different pocket clip on to make a different variant that you can sell under another brandname.

A second glance reveals that the rubber grips are not quite the same either. Penol & No Name are very similar to each other, but a little different to Faber-Castell - I doubt your average man in the street would pick up on it though.

So, putting aside colour schemes, brandnames, etc that’s pretty much all that separates these three clones to the casual observer.

Right, lets take a serious look and play spot the differences. I’ve done my best with the photography, but some of it was really beyond my camera and "lighting facilities".

Rubber Grips
Penol and No Name are very similar, but close inspection reveals differences in the grooves. They both have 16 grooves per side, but you can see differences in alignment, depth, etc between the two. Internally the two grips are quite different. This would suggest they are not the same manufacturer as each other. Eraser Cartridges
Pull the cartridges out and No Name has some side grooves and depressions that the other two don’t have. The other two are very similar, even having mould cavity identification letters in the same place. I’d suggest therefore that Penol and F-C eraser cartridges were made by the same factory. Hopefully in the enlargement below you can see the grooves depression in the main shaft of No NameMetal Tips
All three metal tips are very similar, but under close inspection No Name’s tip is a little longer and thinner. Unscrewing them reveals significant differences. No Names tip is clearly completely different. Penol and F-C are quite similar, but see how the shaft on Penol is slightly longer than F-C. Internal mechanisms
The black housings that screw into the main body are all quite similar, although No Name is different because of its different metal tip.

Now if we unscrew the black housing and pull out the mechanism. No Name and F-C are different to each other. Penol and F-C have different white storage chamber shafts, but this could be a difference caused by the difference in lead diameters. Mould markings on the black housing section really make me think Penol and F-C are the same. No Name’s black housing is clearly different when held up against the others. All three mechanisms actually screw back into any of the three different bodies! It’s basically to close to call, but I’ll go with the theory that Penol and F-C are the same.

So, where does this leave me. I could carry on dissecting and investigating, but I’ve had enough. So at this stage, my guess, and it’s only a guess, is that Penol and F-C are made in the same factory. They just make the body in a different colour, use a different pocket clip, a different rubber grip moulding, and print different brandnames on them. I’ll explain the metal tip difference as just part of the difference between 0.7mm and 1.3mm mechanisms, but I admit it’s the weak point in my theory. Thus I would say Penol and F-C are variants of the same manufacturers pencil, and No Name is a copy. If I’m wrong then one of Penol or F-C is a really close copy of the other, almost worthy of the name Clone.

Many brands we think of as manufacturing their own products actually source some finished product from other manufacturers, and I'm sure all would buy in a lot of components from sub-contractors, e.g. pocket clips, internal mechanisms, erasers, etc are often made by sub-contractors who then supply the same item to many different assembly factories.

Another view on this clone

For the record – Thanks to Henrik from Denmark for sending me the Penol Jumbo and No Name.