This set of 20 Magnetips fineliners with magnetic ends was a Kickstarter project that I backed over a year ago, and they finally showed up about a week ago.  Magnetips come in a nice solid box and have additional chrome balls that you can buy separately to help you build things with them when not drawing with them.

The backside of the Magnetips fineliners box shows a few things you can do with them that doesn’t involve writing, and it also shows you the 20 different colors they come in.    I’ll show you my interpretation of that house later on in the review.

Inside the box, the 20 Magnetips fineliners are stuck together in a nice cascading rainbow presentation.  These were available in two versions.  One version with all black bodies where the colors were indicated by the band where the cap and body meet (the black stripe in the photo above) and this version that I picked up where the caps and bodies indicate the color of ink with a black seam where they meet.  Take note that to the far right there is a black version there too, it just blends in really well with the black background.

There are literally 100s if not 1000s of different ways you can stack, connect, and design things with the bodies of the Magnetips fineliners.  Above is just a simple stack, but remember that the magnets have different magnetic fields so some of the tips will attract and others will repel which might impact your design efforts when building something with these.

The nice thing about the ends of each Magnetips fineliner being magnetic is that it also allows for you to post the cap.  The magnets on these are pretty strong, so the cap really snaps into place as soon as you get it anywhere near the back of the fineliner.  It also stays in place nicely, and it doesn’t do anything to upset the balance of the pen in your hand while writing with it.

While I obviously haven’t had the need to buy new refills yet, they do offer refills that will be for sale which is great.  They pens just twist open and the refills come in and out easily with no springs, spacers or other things to fidget with.

As I mentioned earlier, you can buy accessories like these bags of 10 chrome balls which add to the flexibility you have when building things with the Magnetip fineliners.  For some reason I bought two bags of them which is probably overkill, but sometimes its easy to get carried away with Kickstarter projects when they look so cool.  The blue and black fineliners in the bag were an extra that I didn’t have to pay for which was nice.  A little site not on packaging, I love how the hole for the chrome balls to hang on is actually a hexagonal shape to match the shape of the pen bodies.

Here is a quick look at the house shape that you saw on the back of the package before.  Although it looks simple to make, it did require a little advanced dexterity to keep things in place as you build it.  It did however make for a fun exercise and on top of that, the amount of time spent fidgeting with these could be looked at as a good thing or a bad thing.  Its a good thing when I’m on a phone call for work and need to fidget with something to keep occupied and engaged, but a bad thing when I’m on my own time and should be doing other things besides being distracted by my new toy/markers.

Magnetip Fineliner Writing Sample:

Each of the 20 colors of Magnetips Fineliners are pretty vivid, although sometimes hard to distinguish between in some cases at a quick glance.  The color names on the left are my own interpretation of the color as I see it, so if you think they are wrong, don’t judge the folks at Magnetips, judge me.  The fineliners write pretty smoothly with a little bit of tooth behind them, but the colors did not bleed or feather at all.  I also rubbed a bead of water across the paper and although a light smear of the colors was left behind, the original lines appeared to stay behind and not be significantly impacted by the water.

Overall the Magnetips fineliners are (in my short term use) a great performing tool that are also fun to fidget and build with.  Besides being markers you can use the magnetic ends to convert them into a standalone pen cup on your desk, or just leverage the magnetism to help you keep the entire set together.  Although they are a Kickstarter project that was recently funded, they will also be for sale soon directly from the manufacturer, so check their site out where you can sign up to be notified when they become available.

©2017, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.