Last year I declared the Bic Cristal “(Arguably) the Greatest Pen Ever Made.” Clickbait? Maybe, but I also didn’t get much disagreement. The Cristal has been around forever, beloved by everyone from students to accountants to artists. This past year, the Cristal refill even spawned its own Kickstarter project - a machined aluminum barrel called the “Baux Pen”. (It’s awesome, by the way, and any Bic devotee should consider picking up a couple once they hit the open market.)

No I didn't get shortchanged. These Kikkerland “Retro” pens are sold in packs of five, but one of the pens is living in my travel backpack.

But while millions of Bic Cristals are still produced every year, is it really the most beloved and/or iconic Bic pen? That’s questionable, considering how much people love the Bic Clic, the retractable ballpoint pen that you’ll recognize instantly if the name itself doesn’t ring a bell. The Bic Clic was the original quick-deployment pen used by reporters, doctors, attorneys, clerks, cops - well, you get the point, pretty much anyone who needed a reliable pen that was easy to use “in the field.” Bic ballpoint refills pretty much last forever, and you’ll run across boxes of vintage promotional Clic pens at yard sales and flea markets, many of which still have working refills 20 years later.

Look familiar? It’s a slightly nicer version of the pressed metal Bic Clic clip and nock. The Kikkerland version has a brushed texture.

To the dismay of many, Bic no longer makes the classic “Clic” pen for the regular market. If you want the classic, vintage-style retractable Bic pen (and have it actually be branded “Bic”), you’ll apparently need to spring for a large volume order of customized pens, or purchase someone else’s private-labeled version, like the ubiquitous Field Notes click pens or, as pictured here, the generic Kikkerland version.

Another shot of the clips and a close-up of a couple retro colors

Personally, I like the 1960s-esque retro styling of the Kikkerland pens. It looks as though they’ve tried to make an “upgraded” version of the BiC Clic, with a more finished clip, and nock mechanism that feels solid. There’s no rattling and the pen extends and retracts with a solid “thunk” and an audible - pretty loud, actually - click. Students and fellow office monkeys will be glad to know that they can annoy the heck out of someone with this pen in a boring class or meeting. In terms of the refill, the Kikkerland version appears identical to the Bic refill in one of my Field Notes pens.

Takeaways and Where to Buy

I like these pens (and Bic Clics in general). The Kikkerland pens are slightly pricey for what they are (a disposable ballpoint click pen) but the price wasn’t particularly egregious and the nostalgia factor sold me. No regrets here for this Bic fan.

I’ve stopped trying to predict where I’ll see Kikkerland stationery products “in the wild.” I occasionally run across them in bookstores, which is where I picked up this pack of Retro Pens. If these interest you, Amazon is probably the easiest way to grab a 5-pack and they currently qualify for Prime shipping. Kikkerland also sells metallic versions. Other old-school retractable ballpoints include the Bic-Clic branded Field Notes Pen I mentioned above, and the “government-issue” Skilcraft ballpoints that everyone seems to love but that I’ve never used. I really should do another guide/list sometime!

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Have you ever wondered how the pens you used in school would stack up against the pens you use today? So over the holidays this year I was helping my parents clean out their garage (by reclaiming boxes of my stuff that had been stored there for 15 years) and, of course, I found boxes of pens from high school and college. I quickly tested them, and tucked the ones that still worked into a drawer in my desk until I got a chance to see how they still compared. I pulled them out this afternoon and here's the best of what I found:

The pens, not the Field Notes. From top: 2 Bic clic stics, Sanford Uni-Ball Onyx (fine), Sensa X400 Rollerball, Bic Atlantis ballpoint in blue, Sanford Uniball Micro, Bic Atlantis ballpoint in black, Uniball Vision Fine, Pentel RSVP RT, junk hotel b… — The pens, not the Field Notes. From top: 2 Bic clic stics, Sanford Uni-Ball Onyx (fine), Sensa X400 Rollerball, Bic Atlantis ballpoint in blue, Sanford Uniball Micro, Bic Atlantis ballpoint in black, Uniball Vision Fine, Pentel RSVP RT, junk hotel ballpoint, and Pilot Precise V7.

1. Sensa X400 Rollerball: The best of the lot, partly because it's got sentimental value as the first "nice" pen I ever purchased. I had put it aside at some point in college because the refill had run out, and for whatever reason I could not find another one at the time. I recently replaced it with a .5 mm Schmidt rollerball refill (with the same ink as the famous Retro-51 Tornado). It writes a nice clean line in the Field Notes with minimal bleed. Comfortable to use, like a high-end Dr. Grip with a good refill. This pen will find its way into the rotation.

2. Pilot Precise v7 Rolling-Ball Liquid Ink: This pen used to be my workhorse, that is, when my parents would actually buy them for me because they were so expensive. I see these referenced as the "Pens that Started It All" by multiple people. You know what? It's still good. I'd probably opt for the .5mm these days but I still have a few packs of these around and I still use them.

3. Uniball Vision (Fine): I hate these things and always have. People love them, and buy them in droves, for whatever reason, but I've always found that they feather, bleed through, and smear. They write a really messy line, and always make my handwriting look terrible. At this point you might as well write with a sharpie marker. The Vision Elite offers a better experience.

4. Uniball Onyx (Fine): Slightly better than the vision, in part because of its jet black ink (Onyx, get it?), but still performance problems. They were cheap, and we used to have dozens of them sitting around the house.

5. Uniball Micro: The best of the Uniballs, and a pen I would probably use today if I had to. It writes a cleaner line and doesn't bleed through or feather nearly as much. I used to use these a lot in college because you used to be able to get a box of a dozen for under $10, and they lasted a fairly long time for rollerballs.

6. Bic Atlantis: These are probably pens I used in college or law school, because they seem relatively new and I don't remember Bic making an "Atlantis" pen earlier than that. Both the blue and the black started right up, and they left clean lines for ballpoints with no skipping. The black pen was slightly better than the blue. Certainly not my favorite, but a quality ballpoint has its place in the car, taking notes in the kitchen, or clipped to my field notes and stuffed into the pocket of my jeans.

7. Bic Clic Stic "Swanky's Taco Shop" Limited Edition: I had to include this one, for obvious reasons, and to be honest it's my second favorite out of the bunch. The ink's a nice bright blue, the refill is smooth, and it works great on the field notes paper. There's a reason the Bic Clic, in all its various iterations, remains a classic pen. (Of all the cheap pens available, they're the ones that Field Notes chose to brand and sell with their notebooks. I have a pack of those and they're also great.) This pen was immediately clipped to the front of my Field Notes.

8. Pentel RSVP RT Ballpoint: I don't even know where this pen came from. Even back in the dark ages, when I was using pens swiped from hotels, I didn't use pens this bad. The pen writes, but the blue ink is so light and the line so inconsistent that I tossed it in the trash. I didn't bother disgracing my Field Notes by entering a writing sample.

Sorry Uniballs, but you don't measure up to my current standards.

There you have it. All things considered, my past self did not embarrass me as much as I originally feared. Most of these pens are still "keepers," in that none are going directly in the trash, and the Sensa will be restored to a position in the rotation. A more thorough review will probably come soon.

Also, my apologies for what I know are terrible photos in this review, but the iphone was all I had handy.