Unboxing The Cult Pens Stationery Advent Calendar 2024

[@myepictbr6968]

Thank you for the video! I am a bit torn about this calendar. In pure monetary value, I say it is worth the price tag (a lot of the brands they feature are either premium like Caran D’Ache or solid midrange ones), but the actual items are kinda … boring? Totally usable, but also things that belong in an office business supply closet. I guess personally I want something a bit more frivolous from an advent, something I wouldn’t necessarily justify buying for myself.

[@fernandachristensengama5245]

“Caran D’Ache” is in French so would be something thing like “karândách “. The pencil could be used as aquarela. “Kaweco” fountain pen is German. Highly recommended and the nib could be platinum. Design “light” is to promote less stress and fatigue for beginners in calligraphy. You’re enthusiasm is adorable and make me feel like I’m opening Christmas gifts. Thank you.

[@thesquigglyone]

In my experience these Advent Calendars are good value for money if you are stationery curious. The value is well above the cost price of the Calendar and you get a great mix of pens and stationery that are great to share among a family if you don't want them all for yourself. This is the first year I've seen a converter pen and bottled ink included, which is pretty exciting.

[@BlueBearWood]

I agree. I really enjoyed opening this Advent Calendar. Myself and my family, (not so much them as I like all the products 😂🙈) will easily use everything that came in it.

[@catherinecarreiro3955]

Like the calendar. Could use less shaking but fun video

[@kterinkacz]

the bubbles in the converter of the pen, were most probably because you were shaking the ink a lot. You just lightly rotatate it up an down, especialy with the sparkly particles. Its not recomended to shake it so much. the pen you got from Faber Castel its on the pricier side arround 120 EUR+ easily

[@helena-rosehouldcroft871]

I absolutely love your use of technical language. I am so happy to add rubby outy to my vocabulary. I am enjoying watching your unique selection of Advent calendars. 🥰🇨🇦

[@BlueBearWood]

😂😂 A rubby outy pen sounds so much more interesting than a boring friction/erasable pen 😂😂 language can be so much fun!

[@rinl.6924]

OHHHH another great Cult Pens advent! Last year was quite a bit of Japanese and this year seems very German/Swiss ... I wonder if they will switch it up every year to avoid repeats from the previous year. As mentioned by another comment, the ink needs to make its way down the feeder. I am kinda surprised they delivered a Fine nib, usually Mediums will show more of the shimmer. But this shimmer might work! Diamine ink is an exceptional company and make some of my most beloved inks. The only thing that I did not like was the notebook. I even looked at the box description on their website, they do not mention the paper type. I think that is a bit disappointing coming from a stationery company with a wide selection of papers/notebooks they sell (like Clairefontaine). But that is my personal opinion. Very enjoyable! Thank you.

[@louisacoote2337]

Kah-ran-dash is how you pronounce Caran d’Ache. They are a pretty high end/fancy brand for coloured pencils etc.

[@paulhowarth5830]

Yes. They are top quality artist materials too.

[@bethmegansmith4642]

​ I have the 20 box of the Luminance coloring pencils and the 84 Necolor2 Aquilla crayons ,I love Caren D’ARCH

[@DistanceTraveled]

I think this is a very fun calendar!

[@joshalexander416]

legami pen are all I use for uni fantastic pens come in loads of different colours and patterns I loved this advert calendar good selection of pens and bits in for ant stationary lover

[@jrr442]

I like this Advent Calendar and your video. I'm a stationary fan as well😊 All the brands inside are of very good quality. And all German brands are well known here for many decades. Best wishes from Germany.

[@BlueBearWood]

Hello Germany and thank you! 😊 I really enjoyed opening the calendar. It's a great way to discover new products and I love that Cult Pens seems to do themes based on countries.

[@stephsupr]

The orange pen has rulers with different scales on them. They are very helpful with architectural plans or paper maps to measure distances without having to convert them. I'm an imperial user so I don't exactly know the correct conversions, but I am guessing 1:20m means that a 1cm section is equal to 20m in real life. (In the US our ratios are structured like this: 1/2"=1'-0", so 1/2 an inch on the drawing is equal to 1 foot no inches in real life.) It looks like a good pen.

[@BlueBearWood]

It's beautifully made and feels lovely to hold which is an added bonus. I'm sure it would be useful to anyone drawing technical plans and is definitely a conversation starter!

[@LizatHome]

The little chunky pencil is called a Stabilio Woody and its a water soluble well pigmented color pencil.

[@sarrit494]

I have had such mechanical pencil for over 20 years, it's very good! And also the multicoloured pencil type I have had so long, I use it to underline for example addresses, but also have given it to a child to colour something in, they like when the colour suddenly changes.

[@BlueBearWood]

I used the multicoloured pencil on a Halloween colouring page I have on my blog and it worked really well. A great way to teach kids and adults about using different colours in the same block.

[@jenniferwallace7484]

I subscribed because you have the world's greatest pencil sharpener in the background. I liked the video too. HAHAHAH

[@BlueBearWood]

That is one legend of a pencil sharpener. I'm glad you approve! 😆

[@daniipieper2486]

The (golden) Stabilo Woodys are really versatile. You can also use them on many surfaces, like for example glas if you like window drawings that can be erased later. I recommend checking out tutorials on those. They started like "kids pens", but they can do A LOT 😀

[@joyhana3542]

I love Cult Pens, we order from there a lot. Not sure about their curated pieces though, like this advent calendar. I love fountain pens. You'll find each fountain pen ink has different personalities and reacts to fountain pens differently, depending on the size and make of nib and whether it's a shimmer, sheen, water soluble or permanent ink. A new fountain pen might need a wash as some of them have a coating which can make the first few strokes (unwashed) scratchy. I find from experience too, EF nibs (extra fine) don't work well with certain shimmer inks. Anyways, that's my two pennies there..

[@BlueBearWood]

Thanks for your two pennies worth. It's been really useful having people give advice and top tips. The shimmer ink is working well now that it's fully flowing through the nib and looks great. I know have a huge desire to write letters!

[@sassytbc7923]

I like this calendar becäuse it hólds items that

[@BlueBearWood]

I think it's the more interesting calendar. I'm going to do another video showing the products from all three side by side.

[@PerfectlyImperfectColour]

For then magic KOH i NOOR Pencil, they are actually a lot of fun. Whenever you get a pencil, one should always sharpen the pencil because the manufacturers tend to put a coating on the tip to insure it wont break in transit. This coating tends to block its pigment from performing correctly. Its annoying but understandable. Thank you for doing this review! I had no idea cult did advent calendars. Im in the states so it might not be the best choice financially but i do love Cult Pens! IDK if i say it correctly but ive heard it many different ways but i say it just like its read.. "Kar-in Da-Sh" but ive heard "ka-reen da-sh" or "ka-rene -D-ash" idk, we all know what you mean though!

[@Poisonmiezi]

This was so much fun to watch! I love your excitement :)

[@JohannaInTheCorner]

‘I watched KAREN DASH across the road’ is how many pronounce it, but I do hear it pronounced more as CAR. Do love the brand!

[@MsLrenee937]

Great video, just one suggestion. You don't have to shake each one before you open. The sound is loud and quite annoying.

[@julianarincon4488]

I actually wanted this calendar, but the shipping and taxes fees to Colombia are absurd 😢

[@quantquill]

Amazing how many of the items are dinged or bent -- others mentioned it looks like they tossed a bunch of leftovers in the boxes, but from great brands, I agree. Karen Dash is pretty much how I hear people pronounce Caran d'Ache.

[@Ari_Kle]

Not sure why you would shake and potentially damage every item.

[@juliangelus]

I got this calendar last year and loved it! It's pronounced Karen Dash (caran d'ache) if that helps :) Great video thank you. WIth the last fountain pen, you're supposed to take the converter out to fill with ink so you did it correctly in the end. Be careful with the sparkly ink though as it can clog up the nib.

[@BlueBearWood]

Thanks for the pronunciation help. That's really helpful. I was surprised how much I liked the calendar. I really enjoyed opening it. Even with all the ink-chaos! 😂

[@doxieowner2571]

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching your unboxings!

[@lindyashford7744]

A really nice selection of mostly quality items, I do would be disappointed in the notebook. The various colours are fairly seasonal as a collection, and if you couldn’t help yourself peeking. A small set of blank cards would have been nice, for seasonal greetings, thank you notes or even for the rest of the year, birthdays etc. I won’t be buying for practical reasons, I Already own more than enough stationery! However I loved the two fountain pens and the pencil pot, as well as the gold woody crayon. I have the pot in Matt black, it has lasted very well and in spite of a lot of use still looks very good. It was not cheap. I suspect the erasable pen is a few quid too. Cult pens do a very different calendar each year, one year it was all ink. The last item the gorgeous fountain pen is fabulous, I love its chunky look Thanks for the interesting video.

[@skylark1772]

I like this. Not all cult pens are fancy. They are definitely nostalgic for pen fans. Not bad at all. I’d buy that.

[@BlueBearWood]

I like it. I get some people feel it's a bit industrial/office like and in many ways it is which is probably why I like it. It reminds me of school, grandparents and my first few office style jobs!

[@NAVYWhistleblowerAssassin]

The Kaweco fountain pen is 🖋 ✒ is stunning. Love that blue color..😊 Love this package. I am in the US so no Cult Pens for me. 😢

[@patlarson5986]

It takes a little while for the ink to go through the feed, that’s the part behind the nib. When you first started writing what you had was just the residual that was on the tip when you dipped it in the ink. So if you write with it a bit more it’ll come out, heavier and darker and you’ll see the shimmer

[@BlueBearWood]

That's good to know. I had another play with the pen and ink and gave the ink pot an extra meaningful shake to disperse the shimmer. That made a big difference with the shimmer now obviously visible and the ink marks are now much heavier. 😊

[@judithtrigg1694]

The last pen of faber castell would cost around 80 pounds + and those caron d ache pencils look like they soluble with light fast rating of 5 brilliant.

[@theempath8244]

You have to do water in them first. Then it will suck the ink up.

[@mmmeaks2245]

Shimmer inks work best with thick wet writing pens. I use extra fine nibs and shimmering inks don’t work for me at all.

[@Glawnerd664]

This is a lovely calendar! ❤❤

[@roserose45]

Thanks for this video. I appreciate your detailed descriptions. I'm a bit disappointed with the amount of pencils and small filler items that feel like a lazy afterthought.

[@judithtrigg1694]

Good price for quality products.❤

[@karaslater7877]

Love these! TFS!

[@Paperworms2nd]

Staedtler, Stabilo, Schneider and Faber-Castell are quite common in Germany. Every student uses those pens. And some of the pens you received are quite cheap. I assume they chose them for cost efficiency while trying to sell these to you as "something from a different country". A typical marketing strategy. 😅 Number 24 is good though. This fountain pen costs 66 euros.

[@scottcullen2832]

Hi, it’s Karen dash phonetically speaking, it’s generally top end stuff they make the luminance colouring pencils if you’re into art as well as stationary I’d get in touch with cult pens as they generally don’t send out dinged products. I’m sure they could replace that from stock for you ❤️ ❤️

[@BlueBearWood]

Thank you. I'm more of a crafter than an artist, although do like to dabble and there is some cross over with materials.

[@Mamadrawk]

The pencils that are bright green and yellow are great highlighters that can be erased

[@BlueBearWood]

oh, that's a good use for them!

[@noghostx]

this feels like someone went into an office supply cabinet and said "let's just make an advent calendar out of all these extras so we can get rid of them"

[@quantquill]

That's what I was thinking. Especially with that wonky Stabilo. "Bent sausage" lol. 100 pounds and 24 days of gifts works out to 4.2 pounds a day. It is probably worth the money if you want a rando collection of stuff (but from great brands).

[@voluptasoculorum]

💯

[@Laguidesophie]

I totally agree. I am really disppointed by this year calendar. So, for the 1st time, I won't go with Cultpens :(

[@rozettemori]

I was thinking the same thing watching this. Disappointed.

[@XX-dz5kc]

It's a pen calender and it contained pens... what did you expect? There were some very expensive pens as well.

[@DistanceTraveled]

The erasable pen is my favorite. Followed by the ruler pen.

[@trehs98]

With the shimmer ink with that pen. It’s really hard to see. When storing lay it horizontally that way it doesn’t get clogged.

[@BlueBearWood]

Good tip storing horizontally. The shimmer shows more now that I've used the pen plus I gave the ink bottle another huge shake!

[@JustJohnnyCreations]

Hey thanks for the video, was thinking of getting that. Noway hosay

[@Xiroi87]

The yellow and green Caran d'Ache pencil probably are watercolour pencils.

[@craftyhobbit7623]

It's expensive, but fantastic, compared to an American stationary advent calandar which was supposedly worth $125... The American one had three sets of stickers with it, washi tape and a pack of playing cards (completely useless...)

[@bethmegansmith4642]

I have lots of some Care D’ACHE Luminance color pencils 20 of them very expensive !The Neocolor 2 Aquarelle Crayons . Lagmi Pens the come in lots of colors and are re-fillable. the Swiss color are Student grade Art supplies. I use Diamine ink ,in my fountain pen it is violet color I love it . Thank you for sharing

[@dees3179]

Have a look in the instructions, it might say something about preparing the nib of the pen before 30th, it could have a protective coating on it for preservation. It looks lovely, I’m very envious. Cult pens website is normally very informative so it wouldn’t take a second to look up for stranger items and see what they are supposed to be used for, I feel you get more out of this calendar if you did. I agree the items such as the staadler school pencil or a bit pathetic, they should’ve at least put a box of six in if they were going to be included. But many of the other things are pretty good. It’s nice to have a yearly theme. Personally, I think they should’ve put better paper in and probably more than just that one big blue notepad. It would’ve been nice to see a black or coloured paper block, especially as they had a couple of gold items.

[@BlueBearWood]

The pen works really well now the ink has purged through and you can really see the sparkle. I'll try and do a video of all three calendar products side by side for comparison and show the pen working properly.

[@Truth1561]

The final pen at £75 is virtuallly the cost of the calendar yet seems the least user friendly.

[@BlueBearWood]

I've been playing with it since the video and now the ink has properly purged through it works beautifully and the ink really sparkkles. I'm going to do another vodeo with all three calendar products side by side

[@wendystarr561]

A box of beautifully presented samples....

[@polina_ts9264]

Fun fact: in Russian, we call pencils karandash. I thought that maybe it came from Caran d’Ache brand name, but actually it's the other way around: "When Arnold Schweitzer took over the company in 1924, he renamed it after Caran d'Ache, the pseudonym of the Russian-French satiric political cartoonist Emmanuel Poiré - who in turn took his pseudonym from карандаш (karandash), the Russian word for 'pencil', itself of Turkic origin."

[@BlueBearWood]

Oh I love that fun fact! Caran d’Ache is soooo much better than Fabrique Genevoise de Crayons.

[@mauramaguire8262]

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned it, but I saw online that cult pens does a calendar of all inks. It says that some of them are even scented. I'd love to see what you think of it.

[@BlueBearWood]

Watch this space... 😊

[@thesquigglyone]

That would be the Diamine Inkvent Calendar, which isn't a Cult Pens exclusive. It's usually fab, I get it every year. I recommend a dip pen for testing each day's colours, glass dip pens are especially useful as they're easy to clean and hold a good amount of ink.

[@bovnycccoperalover3579]

In US dollars it's $124.60. Fun to inbox for that money I would prefer to buy a mid level fountain pen! I would never buy mystery boxes. That Kaweco may be a Perkio It sells for $12 on Amazon about half the price of a Kaweco Sport.

[@thesquigglyone]

But Cult pens always post a "spoiler" post for their Advent Calendar, so you're not buying a mystery box unless you want to. You can, if you wish, see what you will be getting before you place your order, which is why I didn't order it this year (I don't like such chunky fountain pens so the lovely Faber Castell would have been wasted on me)

[@karenirving7088]

Love the calendar. Great brands. Would have liked a more informed review and less shaking.

[@quoll4961]

Oh they put the standart german school equipment in an callendar 😂

[@LeeLee86]

Faber castell and caran d’Ache are actually really good, expensive brands.

[@SimonC273]

Is this a German advent calendar? Most of the Brands are German; al lot of my pupils use these.

[@bovnycccoperalover3579]

Seems to have some Swiss Pens.

[@BlueBearWood]

It's an Alpine theme this year containing brands form Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France. I haven't been through and checked which brands come from where, although I do know the more common place brand names.

[@soopresident]

If I opened this I’d keep the puppy erasable pen and the gold marker, and give the rest away. Even with my love for pens it was a bit boring.

[@SimonC273]

131€ is a lot of money for this calendar.

[@darkmoore05]

Well, that E-motion fountain pen, when not "on sale" is already 110 Euro, you get another fountain pen (the Kaweco) and store exclusive ink. Plus, have you looked at what prices Caran d'Ache has?

[@50kwords]

@@darkmoore05 In Germany, the Faber Castell fp reatils for 66 EUR as sale on their own website. The Perkeo is around 15, sometimes even 11/ 12 EUR in some webshops. The blue Faber Castell mechanical pencil is something around 4/5 EUR on Amazon, and the Troika pen is around 10 EUR. Haven't seen the Caran D'ache coloured pencils before but I have bought their professionell coloured pencils called Luminance for 3,79 EUR, so these are surely much less. Everything else is in the 1 to max. 3 EUR price range. You may get your money's worth in the end. But I wouldn't want my Advent Calendar to be mainly filled with cheap everyday stationery, tbh. Better to have only 4 quality items than all this filler stuff.

[@shelleyannefogarty9436]

I pronounce it "Karen Dash" but I can very well be wrong.

[@WarboysWitch]

Dear me a few cheap items there. I can’t believe one day was a cheap stadlter yellow pencil. They are so cheap and boring

[@puffy9257]

European stationery has really fallen behind Japanese offerings.

[@1RealRoyalPain]

I would never waste my money on an advent calendar like that. It’s like someone went to the supply closet in the office and just took a bunch of crap and put it in boxes with little numbers on it to make it look pretty.

[@Xiroi87]

Caran d'Ache or a Faber Castell fountain pen are random crap office supplies? Ermm, no, those are reputed European brands.

[@Emily_Linka]

It’s a shame they’re not doing the Japanese brand advent calendar this year because it’s a lot more fun. The final fountain pen has an RPP of around £90-95 if I remember correctly - it’s just a shame it looks like something you’d give as a retirement present to an accountant. I think this is one of their weakest calendars I’ve seen for a while. The HB staedler pencil feels insultingly bad

[@bradylady2000]

This is an art advent calendar.

[@judithtrigg1694]

Faber castell and caron d ache are high end products,great for crafting and arty people.still not worth the money.

[@SarahLewis-zo2pw]

The number 4 gives me OCD 😬

[@bovnycccoperalover3579]

You're supposed to clean a new pen before inking it!

[@emilyirisbowen9169]

This looks like an enjoyable and practical calendar but...£95?! Did I mishear that? That means it's about £4 per door on average. I would feel a bit disappointed in a lot of the items for that price. I would expect more "special" pens. A lot of these feel a bit basic for the price. But I do like the idea of a more practical usable stationery calendar

[@lilithmoody7356]

Pronounced "Karen Dash"

[@holdmyhand2009]

phoenetically karan dash

[@catweazle9593]

Why does she shakes every package 🙄🙄🙄

[@BlueBearWood]

Because it's fun. I shake presents as well. 😂

[@woodchuck94og]

They did it finally The most useless advent calendar ever🤣

[@choochmagooch5200]

I liked the products, they’ve given a good sample of items in case any of those brands or products are new to you but the overall price seems steep to me. I found the shaking very irritating and I couldn’t help but focus on the dirty fingernails. Otherwise, good for you being open minded about the new products you got.