Pencil Problems...(and maybe a bit of hope)

Yes,I have pencil problems. Namely that Pentel changed their Icy mechanical pencil style. I have complained about this before and I will complain about it again. The old Icy mechanical pencil fit in my hand perfectly and there was something about the way the graphite emerged from pencil tip that made the graphite spread on the paper like butter. Here is a photo of the lovely little bugger: pencil porn for those of us that have a tendency to get a bit excited about pencils:



As you can see this pencil is, while somewhat cute, functional and unpretentious. It's just there to do its job and doesn't care about flashiness. It says: "I'm a pencil that is here to serve you. Pleased to meet you--now let's get to work." Unfortunately, all of this has changed with the new Icy pencil. It is all flashy, bubbly and space aged looking and I think very full of itself. It says: "look at me. I'm the new icy. I'm so much prettier and artier than the older model." It all makes me want to vomit. Take a look at it, if you don't believe me:



Yes, maybe it looks more interesting than the old icy, but it's all flash and no substance. It certainly doesn't feel good in my hand and its graphite does not emerge out of the tip like butter. Rather it grates and scratches onto the surface of the paper like an out of tune violin played by a beginner.

Why have I posted this today? Well, because I've decided to take a chance. I was burned once before by taking this chance, but I was feeling rather daring this morning. Anyway, I'm down to only three of the old Icy pencils (Despite my love for them, they're not perfect. They break easily. Wouldn't you if you were made of plastic?) and this makes me feel rather panicked. Last year I found what I thought were the older model on-line, so I ordered a couple dozen. It turned out that the website just hadn't changed the photo, so I ended up with 24 New Icys. Blah, what am I going to do with all of that garbage? And yes, I have given them second and third (and probably even a fourth)chances, but they just don't cut it. What I found on the site today was "Icy pencils" (the old ones were pictured here) and "New Icy Pencils (the new ones were pictured here)." The fact that they differentiated between "icy" and "new icy." gave me some hope, so I ordered 10. Please wish me luck!