HISTORY
The origins of the Alpino brand date back to 1933, when the Spanish Masats brothers started to use pieces of wood from their family toy factory to produce pencil cases together with homemade leads. The business started to be fruitful around 1942, and one year later they called their brand “Alpino”, moving to Barcelona three years later. Since then, Alpino has continued growing to offer quality products that are well known by Spanish children for being one of the first brands that we use at school.
It is impossible to know since when do I own the 16 pencils set that I have rescued for this entry. I still keep many more Alpino pencils from my school times, but this is the only carton package that has survived. There are hundreds of oranges, reds, blues and yellows, some of them bitten, others practically consumed… I am sure I am not alone in that line. I felt very happy when I gathered all the pencils, sharpened them and put them in a box. It is like going back to childhood again.
SPECIFICATIONS
These pencils are hexagonal, for a better gripping and to prevent them from rolling on the table and fall. I don’t have any information on the wood that is used to manufacture them, and because the Alpino pencils are a student brand (I believe they don’t produce professional pencils), there is not much information on it. However, the official site states that they have leads of 3 mm, with a total width of 6,90 mm and water-resistance. These pencils are wax-based and painted on a colour that matches the lead, and has the Alpino brand name engraved in the barrel, together with the letter “M” (which I presume it stands for “medium”) and the manufacturing country in English (Spain). The top of the pencil is not covered, so we can see a well-centered lead. I am not sure whether they originally have certain scent, because my pencils have been sleeping in the cupboard for too long. If I trust my memories, I believe they have.
PERFORMANCE
Alpino pencils are light, ergonomic and they don’t smudge. They can be blended depending on the colour and they don’t spread crumbs when being pressed against the paper. They can be sharpened without problems.
Because they are wax-based, some colours are less noticeable on the paper than others, such is the case of the yellow tones, while darker tones such as navy blue work better.
In this sample, I have blended 2 different tones of blue:
SETS AND PACKAGING
These pencils always come in carton packages, which makes sense because they are pencils for children and they are inexpensive. If we take a look at the official site, they come in sets of 6, 12, 16, 18, 24, 30 and 36 units, although I am almost certain that I have seen bigger sets in physical shops. They are commercialized in both standard size and mini size, for small hands. They all come pre-sharpened and arranged by colours.
One thing that has remained the same since the origins is the traditional cover picture. The packages are green, they feature the brand in red letters and a beautiful alpine landscape that includes a deer and a giant pencil with a panel that says “10 kms”. Such panel has made many people wonder what is the meaning of it, and apparently it is related to a beautiful nearby town that was 10 kms away from the dream place of the Masats brothers (who loved alpine landscapes). With the passing of time, the town disappeared, but the illustration with the panel remained.
COLOUR CHART AND DEMO
Here is the colour chart for the 16 pencils set:
CONCLUSION
These pencils are ideal for children because they are inexpensive and handy, and they are presented into different sizes. It is a beautiful memory in the mind of several generations.
WHERE TO BUY
Alpino pencils cannot be purchased individually, but this is not a problem as they are very affordable.
Amazon Spain sells them for a very cheap price, less than 5 euros for a set of 24. On the other hand, Amazon UK sells the set of 24 pencils for around 9 pounds, which is not too bad.
Alpino pencils in Amazon Spain | Alpino pencils in Amazon UK
PROS, CONS AND RATING
The best: traditional pencils suitable for school usage.
The worst: some colours work worse than others.
Rating: 5/10
MORE INFORMATION
Learning to draw 