Stationery review: SUNARRIVE KIDS DOCTOR KIT

For my Secret Santa this year, I was given the stationery kit below:

As I have to sit professional qualifications as part of my job, I found a perfect use for them: to make notes with, and highlighting the stuff I was reading. In fact, the notes I made for this review were done in the midst of revision, so I could report back on any functionality issues with the stationery as I was using it.

I'll start with the good: aesthetically, the stationery was very pleasing. The faces on the vitamin ballpen are adorable and the design of the syringe highlighters is dinky, with the colour of the ink displayed through the clear acrylic. The overall theme of stationery made in the image of doctor's tools was a neat idea, and visually, the designers pulled it off.

Unfortunately, when it came to usability and practicality, the set fell short. The biros didn't write very well, with the quality of the ink often coming out grainy. This was the case on both the syringe and vitamin ball pens, but it was particularly bothersome on the vitamin pens, due to the needle-thin nib.

In fact, there were a melange of issues with the vitamin ball pen. Firstly, their short, stubby design, whilst certainly resembling that of a cartoon pill, did not make for the most comfortable thing to hold when writing. The material it's made of is also incredibly flimsy, and all of the vitamin pens, without exception, cracked during the time I wrote using them.

The products all have poor longevity. Unsurprisingly, since the vitamins are so small, they don't house much ink. The syringe biros and highlighters also ran out disappointingly soon. On the topic of highlighters,  the blue and purple ones were an eyesore, because they were so dark, they basically covered the writing I wanted highlighting, rather than illuminating them.

Thus, whilst I commend the idea, and think it certainly makes for a cute gift idea, the makers really need to reappraise the materials they use in constructing it, because aside from being pretty to look at, they don't cop up to much as actual stationery.

Grade: E

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