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4.5
I was a little disappointed with this set. On the one hand, you really can't go too far wrong with a giant box of Crayola products, and my set actually had a few extra pencils. Only about ten pencils out of the whole set had their points badly broken in shipping, and they resharpened easily with just a basic manual sharpener like the ones included.On the other hand, I bought these to sort into individual packs with one of each color, but found that the number of pencils per color wasn't equal. The product description doesn't mention this fact, but the side of the box says that the set is supposed to have 35 of some colors (red, yellow, blue, green, orange, black, white) and 31 of the others. When I sorted them, I found that there was one extra of most of the colors, but not all of them, and brown was one short. I ended up with a total of 473 pencils with the following breakdown of colors:30 brown32 red-violet32 yellow-green32 red-orange32 blue-violet32 purple32 green-blue35 white36 red36 yellow36 blue36 green36 orange36 blackSo even though there were several extra pencils, I only got 30 complete sets of colors instead of 33, and a bunch of leftover pencils that don't add up to a complete set.This set is probably fine for classroom use, because an uneven number of colors won't matter all that much if multiple kids are sharing the same box, and it makes sense to have extras of the really basic colors that will get used up fastest, like red and blue. But if you want to make individual packs for individual kids, you might be better off waiting for back-to-school sales and just buying individual packs to start with. Back-to-school prices will very likely work out to be cheaper and you'll have a better chance of getting the correct assortment of colors.(By the way, if you're wondering how the colors in this set compare with Crayola's other colored pencil classpack, which has 12 colors instead of 14, the two sets have 11 of the same colors: red, yellow, blue, green, purple, orange, brown, black, white, yellow-green, and red-orange. The 12th color in the 12-color set is sky blue. This 14-color set does not have sky blue, but does have red-violet, blue-violet, and green-blue.)Look - I've taught Visual Arts in public schools for a quarter century.Good ol' "Montessori" may have the luxury of letting her students psychologically analyze and evaluate these pencils; I, on the other hand, have 7 classes of 25+ kids a day.No time to be nitpicky!!These sets are good (not great - but good) for three reasons:1) I often teach color theory. This set obstensibly includes 11 of the 12 basic colors in the traditional color wheel (if you are willing to bend the rules slightly). Believe it or not, most classpacks of ANY brand rarely have 8 to 10 of them. These are top-notch for that reason alone!2) Use a decent quality electric pencil sharpener and they sharpen fine. Yes.... there can be some "shredding" on the ends; but honestly, at roughly .13 cents a pencil what do you expect? These are meant for CLASSROOMS not professiional artists! I'm lucky if I make it through a day without 20 of them on the floor under the tables anyway!3) Once I've gone through a 462-classpack in a few dozen illustration, color-theory and/or color-blending projects they are great to "dump" into old pencil boxes (or one big box/tub) for less detailed projects or assignments.What art teacher doesn't occasionally need a handy - NON messy - medium for quick projects or free drawing time?Again - at .13 cents a pencil these are cheaper than Wally world!!Random number of colored pencils. The quantity of each color doesn't match either the description or the outside of the box. The above description states there are 33 of each color where as the info on the box says 35 of 7 colors and 31 of the other 7 colors. I bought these to supply a summer camp where I needed to separate into 30 sets. At the end I was left with 1 of some colors, 2 of some, 3 of some, 5 of some, 6 of some and even 7 of one color. Although they went straight into pouches from the box, I thought I had somehow made a mistake, so I spent another 30 minutes going through each pouch to make sure I didn't do something wrong. Nope. Thankfully there were enough to make the pouches for the 1st week as I did have 30 of each, but it leaves the camp unable to equip for up to 33 which is what the product description states. So major heads up if you need to divide the colors equally for a classroom, camp or other use. You may not end up with enough of each color.I like having the quantity of pencils and colors for my classroom. The case isn't the most sturdy; I'd like the colors to stay in the area they are supposed to be in instead of mixing up when I carry the box. Otherwise, I'd recommend.The pencils sharpen easily to the desired point. The colors are not easily unidentifiable. The quanity means more pencils for users. The package arrived on time and undamaged.I ship these overseas about 3 times a year. I have 2 cousins who are Public school teachers and anyway these are a great price compared to what they can find back home and the items are always as described. It's a good price for what you receive. You may want to just keep it in your cart to see if you get lucky on price every once in a while it maybe a little cheaper than another time - so you have to keep your eyes openThe pencils are great, but according to what the package says it included I was missing 1 yellow-green, 1 violet, and 4 whites. The box did not include a total of 462 pencils. This makes it difficult when you have plans to make pencil packs for kids.I am always in need for bulk of certain colors for projects in my class. This was a much cheaper and efficient way to have the supplies I need for the class and I like the bonus sharpeners.This the best value for quality colored pencils for a classroom or summer camp. They sharpen easily and color with bright and consistent color. The leads were not all broken inside as we often see with smaller, lesser quality brands. Crayola always comes through, especially in these bulk packs.love it, i teach art at home and these are really great for refills, the kids love it when there are always new pencils and they never run out of the most popular colours!As expected.Granted I didn't read the description well enough when I had purchased this set as it only has 14 colors but they are of great quality you'd expect from crayolalike
