Monami Super Gel-Q Gel Ink Pen Review

I was writing up this post on the Monami Super Gel-Q Gel Ink Pen with blue-black ink when I noticed the Pen Addict beat me to it with a review on Friday (great minds and all that). I decided to still go with mine for one reason, which I'll get to later.

First, thanks to JetPens for sending this pen to me, I appreciate their generosity.  I don't think I have to urge many of you to visit their web site, but if you haven't visited please take a look.  I can't think of any site I like wandering around more than JetPens.

On to the review.  Like many others I'm a big fan of the Pilot Hi-Tec-C, so I definitely liked the look of the Monami Super Gel-Q.  I'd reviewed a set of their Love Pet Pens, which have one of the best designs I've ever seen.  The Pet Pens tip is a needle point but the colors give it a bold line, which I liked.

The Super Gel-Q Gel Ink Pen also has a needle point tip and the 0.4mm line is thin, making this perfect if you want to do some very fine writing or drawing.

I love the blue-black ink color, and I thought it wrote very well.  The Super Gel-Q pen boasts that the ink dries three times quicker and in my test there was no smudging at all.  So far so good, but as Brad notes in his review there was a problem with the pen:  it stopped writing.

That hadn't been my experience on the first try, so I decided to write another page and see what happened.  The pen started out fine, and then the ink stopped. In the above picture I think you can see how hard I pressed down on the paper to get the ink flowing, but no matter what I did it wouldn't write.

In the end I got the ink flowing by rolling the tip between my fingers and warming it a bit.  I was annoyed and my fingers were ink-stained after that, and I have to say I'm disappointed in this pen.

The design is cool,  the color selection is good, and I liked the needle point tip--but the pen won't write consistently and I can't really recommend it.  Maybe it's there's a problem with the blue-black pens, a bad batch of ink or something.  But if you decide to take one with you to a meeting or something, bring another pen just in case.