I bought these on a whim as I remembered them fondly from my younger-ish years. I expected them to be scratchy compared to todays fancy schmancy pens, but on rhodia paper.....its like running your fingers over a freshly waxed and polished car with just enough "feel" to keep your handwriting readable(if it was readable in the first place). I was expecting them also to not have feel/smoothness of modern gel pens and I can say for the money(at little more than a buck a pen) this pen will be hard to beat. It now has a slot in my pant pocket/backpack everyday.Is it the most glorious looking, nay....but for me all that matters is the feel as it glides across the paper. These are just as good if not better than the Pentel/Uniball/Zavras/Sakuras out there. The only thing I wish they would change is the grip. Its plastic. It works but aint the comfiest thing in the world.As for the ink, id say its a darker blue. Uniball and especially Pentel tends to be more vibrant/bright. No skipping has been detected nor drying out nor has it bled through any paper unless I specifically tried to make it do so by doodling and saturating it. Other than that it will do what a pen should and write, and that it does well. If you dont like liquid pens this is your best bet. Pretty sure I had one(ok several)of these back in the late 90s but I could be wrong. But hey, nostalgia won me over and Im so glad it did! Never thought id give such a glowing review of a pen. But here it is..worth the buy if for nothing more than to take a trip back down memory lane when school dances were "sock hops" and you could get a pizza for reading a book at Pizza Hut!