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Kokuyo Notebook Review (Gambol 5 Subjects)


a.zy.lee

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Gambol 5 Subjects notebook (from Kokuyo)

 

My Subjective Rating: 2/5

My Objective Rating: -1

Pros:

  • cheap (+2)
  • easily available (+1)
  • wire-bound (+3)
  • good value (page per dollar) (+2)
  • divider every 40 pages (+1)
  • rounded corners (+1)
Cons:
  • feathering is quite severe (-3)
  • bleedthrough is quite severe (-3)
  • only good for dry fountain pens/ballpoints/pencils (-3)
  • single-wire binding (-1)
  • soft cover is not durable (-1)
Price: RM6.90 (1.90 USD/1.60/£1.30)

Binding: single-wire binding

Size: A5

Number of Pages: 200

Printing: 7mm lines (24 lines/page)

Gsm: (not specified)

Cover: Thick paper (soft)

Page colour: white (slightly greenish discolouration)

Additional Information :

  • blank yellow paged divider every 40 pages.
  • index page
  • Blank lines at the top of each page for number and date
  • No margin
  • Ruling does not start and end at the end of the sheets

Photos:

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Edited by junkstuff
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Please give lots of feedback for the review itself, as this was my first. Thanks for reading and I hope this was helpful.

Edited by junkstuff
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Excellent review, thanks. Pictures always tell most of the story. I have had some Kokuyo notebooks that were excellent like their Campus range. Just shows you can never assume by brand that a notebook will be FP friendly. Keep up the excellent reviews.

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Excellent review, thanks. Pictures always tell most of the story. I have had some Kokuyo notebooks that were excellent like their Campus range. Just shows you can never assume by brand that a notebook will be FP friendly. Keep up the excellent reviews.

Thanks very much! The pictures that I took were high resolution and the feathering was very obvious. However when I uploaded them here, the resolution was reduced and the clarity of the feathering was also reduced.

Edited by junkstuff
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Whoa - I use Kokuyo notebooks and paper regularly, and they have always always been stellar performers with fountain pens - almost exactly the opposite performance that you report for this notebook.

 

I buy my Kokuyo brand products only from Kinokuniya book stores here in Jakarta. That way I am sure I'm getting real branded products, not fakes (I have heard more than once fakes exist).

 

I wonder if Kokuyo has been opening and/or buying factories in China and India like other companies these days. Maybe that's where these poor performing notebooks are coming from.

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Yeah, I would stay away from those Kokuyo "Gambol" notebooks. A quick search turned up what I suspected. Kokuyo acquired the Gambol brand when it bought out a Chinese comapany: And Kokuyo is doing the same thing in India...

 

http://www.is-guide.com/news/kokuyo_makes_new_acquisition-8151.aspx

 

 

Kokuyo Co. is to acquire the notebook business of Chinese manufacturer Hotrock Stationery Co.

The acquisition, made through the Japanese stationery maker’s Chinese subsidiary, Kokuyo Commerce (Shanghai) Co., will include the Gambol notebook brand. Financial details of the transaction have not been announced.

The production facilities of Hotrock Stationery will be utilized at a new factory to be set up by Kokuyo in Shanghai next summer. Hotrock Stationery has sales of around 8 million euros and sells its products through a network of 5,000 retailers across China.

 

Also, in October 2011, Kokuyo bought a 50.74% interest in Dehli, India based Camlin.

 

http://zeenews.india.com/business/companies/kokuyo-completes-acquisition-of-50-74-stake-in-camlin_32609.html

 

I just ran across some $8 USD (from Engeika) 60ml bottles of "Camel" ink (complete with a picture of a Camel) that bear the Kokuyo brand name. The label on the bottle itself says Kokuyo-Camilin. These are made in India.

 

post-52315-0-10517600-1420538450_thumb.jpg

 

The really scary thing is that on the Kokuyo-India web site there are pictures of "Campus" brand paper and notebooks. Man, I hope they aren't making these outside of Japan and trying to sell them as original Kokuyo quality products.

 

Good thing I recently stocked up on real Japanese-made Kokuyo paper.

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Camel, which was originally Camlin sells some very good pens and inks, of which I prefer the blue to Waterman or Pelikan.
I'm looking for the Kokuyo notebooks, and will inform you of my findings.

PS: When I found out they acquired Camlin, I was very nervous about the quality of their fountain pens dropping, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

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  • 2 months later...

For anyone still interested, I found one of the notebooks yesterday. It's priced the same as all the other student notebooks in India.
I used a few inks on it with my broad nibbed pen and it was smoother than the other notebooks, with no show through or bleed through.

Anyway, I would recommend the Camlin notebooks, and I think I've finally found the notebook I'll be using with my pens.

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