Uni Kurutoga Advance Upgrade Model 0.5mm Mechanical Pencil, Gun Metallic Body (M510301P.43), Black

I’ve been using the Uni Kuru Toga Advance Upgrade Model 0.5mm mechanical pencil for a bit now, and it’s easily one of the best pencils I’ve owned. The standout feature is the rotating lead mechanism—it keeps the tip consistently sharp as you write, which makes a noticeable difference in how clean and precise your lines look. It’s especially great for neat handwriting and detailed work. The build quality also feels like a step up from standard mechanical pencils. The metal grip adds a nice bit of weight and balance without being uncomfortable, and it gives you a more controlled, premium feel in hand. The grip itself has just enough texture to keep it from slipping, even during longer writing sessions. Another thing I really appreciate is how well it prevents lead breakage. The tip design and internal mechanism work together to make writing feel smooth and reliable, even if you tend to press a little harder. Overall, this pencil strikes a great balance between smart engineering and everyday usability. Whether you’re taking notes, sketching, or just want a consistently sharp writing experience, this is a solid upgrade from your typical mechanical pencil.

Expensive for a mechanical pencil but once you get used to writing with this it’s impossible to go back to regular pencil. The metal body feels premium and durable. It metal grip is comfortable. It auto rotates the lead so you don’t need to keep rotating your pencils to the sharper side. Perfect size and weight distribution. 10/10 and worth the investment

Just received my Kuru Toga Advance Upgrade 0.5 mm mechanical pencil. TL;DR = What an Excellent Pencil! And the W-speed engine makes a big difference. Prior to owning this, my "go to" pencils were: (1) the Pentel GraphGear 1000 0.5mm (limited edition black), (2) the Pentel GraphGear 1000 0.7 mm, and (3) a standard Uni Kuru Toga 0.7mm (black barrel). My standard Uni Kuru Toga *works*, but is a distant 3rd place because of two issues. First, the lead sleeve doesn't retract, leaving it to poke holes in my pockets, digging into me if I move wrongly, and/or accidentally getting broken off on a hard surface. Second, while the Kuru Toga engine *works* (and is awesome), it was designed for writing Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. Those use MUCH shorter strokes than the Western (Latin) alphabet, so the lead is turned more gradually than I would like. Enter the Kuru Toga Advance Upgrade. PROS It has the new W-speed engine. (I assume the "W" stands for "Western Scripts.") This rotates the lead roughly TWICE as fast as the standard Kuru Toga engine so that it stays sharper when writing in English. I can confirm this works, and works well. The lead sleeve is retractable. I could wish that it had the niftier mechanism found in the Pentel GraphGear 1000, but it certainly works well enough that I can carry it in a pocket without breaking it or having it stab me. The lead sleeve "rides" up with the lead as you write. This little trick reduces the number of times you have to click to feed the lead, and is a welcome feature. (If you want a true auto-feeding pencil, Uni makes the Kuru Toga "Dive" which advances the lead every time you lift it from the page. It even has a feed speed adjustment!) The color is vivid. Mine is a deep vibrant red and the metal and plastic parts all match without color variation. It is a beautiful, professional looking writing instrument. CONS The Kuru Toga Advance Upgrade is both shorter and lighter than my GraphGear 1000. This may be a "PRO" to you if you prefer a less-weighty pencil, but I would spend an extra few dollars in a heartbeat if they made a heavier, all-metal version. The sleeve requires pressing on a hard surface to make it retract. This is just a MINOR nit! But I prefer how the GraphGear auto-retracts when I squeeze the top of the pocket clip. Coolness Factor? My standard Kuru Toga has the window that shows the engine. When I pull this out in front of any fellow pen/pencil afficionado, they ALWAYS immediately ask about it! Of course, my "Advance Upgrade" pencil looks a WHOLE lot more professional... but I'd certainly buy a version that had the clear window around the engine. Better yet? Sell a version that has swappable lower barrels -- you could then "dress it up" for professional meetings, or "geek it up" when you want the coolness factor. (Are you listening, Uni?) .

I have always loved 0.5mm sized pencil lead, and thought it to be the perfect-medium in line thickness when writing, yet most pencils do not allow this to happen, as after several strokes, the lead flattens out at the angle you are writing, and becomes thicker. The Uni Kurutoga pencil solves this by rotating the lead as you write, allowing the tip of the lead to remain thin enough to sketch/write at the desired thickness. It does take some getting-used-to, as if you write too lightly, the trigger mechanism for rotation will not activate, and if you push too hard, it will break, but this should not take too long. I have broken the lead many times, but I think I just write with too much pressure. Beyond that, I love the weight of this pencil, especially that its concentrated towards the bottom, making writing motions much easier. However, the grip does get pretty uncomfortable after being held for a while. Overall, this is a very high-quality pencil, especially for the price. I will likely never buy another 0.5mm mechanical pencil.

So, to give some context, I got this for writing, and I got it as a curiosity since I absolutely love the original Kurutoga. I discovered the Kurutogas when I was still in Japan a while back. Due to the way Japanese is written, I was looking for the thinnest possible pencil that was still useable comfortably. 0.3mm pencils are not the best choice since the lead is so thin that it has a bad tendency to break, especially if you like using soft lead. 0.5mm became my go to due to that. The Kurutogas let you write with a thinner line than normal 0.5mm pencils, so it was a great solution to get what I was looking for, a nice easy to use pencil that gives you an extra thin line. I recently fell in love with dark graphite in pencils, since it gets close to the darkness of a nice pen, but it's immensely smooth to write with in most situations. The normal Kurutogas do spin the lead, but 2B is basically the limit for how soft you can go and still get a thinner than normal line when writing normally. I wanted to use 4B lead but it wears down too quickly for the normal Kurutoga engines to keep sharp. When I saw the Kurutoga Advance and I knew that would be the answer. I actually really love this pencil, and I don't think I'll ever actively use any other pencil at this point for writing. The build quality is excellent, it is decently weighty, and it's comfortable to use since there is some minor texturing for grip and it's a little thicker than most other pencils. The advanced engine makes it so using 4B lead is now an option for me. You can actually keep a thinner than normal line at almost all times due to the fact that the advanced engine turns twice as fast. It also has the nice feature of a retractable tip as well, so you are less likely to break it when storing it. Basically, if you are looking for a nice mechanical pencil for writing, and you want to use softer lead while being able to have the thinnest lines possible, this is the choice in 0.5mm.

TL: DR A freaking great high-quality mechanical pencil with many quality of life features that set it apart from everyone else. It has very minor drawbacks with the eraser. Purchase of separate eraser recommended. I have used this for a few months now, and I have to say that this is hands down! The best mechanical pencil I have ever used. I'm going to be honest with you all I've tried using other mechanical pencils after buying this to compare, and nothing besides this feels right anymore. The look fits any environment from professionalism to studying with friends. The weight and is perfect, and the material is top quality. Because of its ingenious lead shield, my lead has never been broken or wasted. The engine mechanism that sharpens the pencil lead as you write has actually improved my handwriting. Kuru toga is absolutely a quality brand that confidently boasts their craftsmanship in their work and is worth every well-spent cent. Now I know I have said nothing but positive things, but there is one drawback. Unfortunately, the high-quality eraser is super tiny and is hard to replace if you get to that point. The next flaw is also eraser-related, so the only way to refill the lead is from the top... yeah, that means no bottom-feeding the pencil lead, or you could damage the mechanism according to the box. The workaround I figured out is relatively easy all you need is to remove the current eraser and just leave the cap on then buy a separate eraser. Now, this other potential "issue" is dependant on your preference; the pencil lead size is 0.5mm, which is not bad, but I know others like 0.7mm pencil lead. Other than that, I have had no further problems with it. If you are looking for something that is high quality from top to bottom and feels great to write with for hours on end stop here and make this the final mechanical pencil you will ever buy.

Japanese stationary is thrilling to explore. I had heard about a mechanical pencil that automatically turns the lead, and I knew I had to try it. Enter the Uni Kurutoga Advance Upgrade Model 0.5mm Mechanical Pencil. This writing instrument is a dream. The body appears to be half plastic, half metal, but it is perfectly balanced. The Uni Kurutoga Advance has a nice weighted feel, that feels solid and well made, but it’s not overly heavy. If you’re a pen person, you’ll appreciate the balance of this pencil. This pencil writes smoothly and doesn’t skip or bump, and the lead is dark and legible. Even better, unlike most mechanical pencils, the eraser stored inside the pencil erased cleanly and smoothly — most mechanical pencil erasers don’t do anything but smear the lead; not so with the Uni Kurutoga Advance. I haven’t broken a lead yet, so the diamond lead might be real. Although I’m not sure the rotating lead really keeps the writing thickness the same, the overall design is so great I have to recommend this pencil. I would be intrigued to try a smaller lead size — 0.3mm for example — and see if the lead thickness remains consistent. Overall functionality: A.

Amazing little pen the material feels good quality, it has some weight to it, feels good on the hand , it may feel a little slippery as it doesn’t have cushion grip or nothing like that. Surprisingly the eraser does a nice job even with 2B led pencil. The pencil comes with 5 sticks included inside the pen. I like it. I hope I don’t lose it tho.

Hafif ve ergonomik. Çok severek kullanıyorum. Eşime de aynısından aldım. Tavsiye ederim.

Best deal by amazon sg. Shopee / lazada (singapore) are selling at a higher price which is around 1.5 times more than how much amazon sells. Came in original packaging too 👍 The bottom of the pencil is all made from metal and only the top is made of plastic. The weight distribution of the pencil is all close to the tip which makes for a very comfortable writing expetience. Didnt realise how much i love and needed the line consistency from the kuru toga as i tried switching back to my old fure fure corone and immediately hated the big fat line and having to manually turn the pencil to get a sharp thin line only to be back to the fat ugly line in just a few seconds. All these problem are solved here with this pencil and the metal premium feel of the pencil is also what i didnt know i needed too 😂 Writing with a plastic pencil and a metal pencil makes ALOT of difference.

My fav pencil

Werkt precies zoals beloofd en is perfect.

C etait pour offrir mais cet objet ma l air impec