Rands tests and reviews 6 gel pens. Rands clearly prefers gel pens to other kinds of pens. I'm still on the fence: It's clear gel pens have benefits over traditional ball point pens in terms of consistency and reliability, but I haven't met a gel pen that didn't slather the page too much. Every time I use a gel pen I feel like I'm making a mess. Rands disqualifies the fine point gel early in his trials, but I'm eager to try one after his review, because a fine point might win me over.

Via John, who also noted online Japanese-imported pen store JetPens.com as one of few places to get an ultra-fine point (0.38mm) Pilot G-2, though he later discovered you can now get them at Staples.com. Rands declared the 0.7mm G-2 the winner of his trials, though he didn't like it as much as his old pen.

While browsing JetPens.com, I noticed there is such a thing as a Pilot Dr. Grip 4-color multi-pen! U.S. office supply stores don't tend to carry multi-pens except for the occasional classic blue-barrel fine-point Bic 4-color multi-pen (readily available at Amazon.com from various sellers), and I thought I struck gold when I found the rare orange-barrel ultra-fine variety at Amazon.com once (which I can no longer find). JetPens has a multi-pen category with 9 varieties, none of which are Bic and all of which look like substantial serious-use pens. JP also has a couple of 6-color multi-pens for kids.

Sadly, the Pilot Dr. Grip 4-color is out of stock for the time being. I ordered a Pilot Hi-Tec-C black/red multi-pen to tide me over. I'll try not to get my hopes up on either pen: Twist-style multi-pens tend to feel flimsy because of how the swap mechanism works. I associate the Pilot Dr. Grip with a robust feel (though not everybody likes the wide barrel or the squishy grip), so I'm wondering if a Dr. Grip 4-color has the best of both worlds. A 2-color multi-pen seems like a better candidate.

Someone on Everything2 likes multi-pens, and recommends the Rotring 600 Trio, which includes two colors (blue and red only?) of pen and a mechanical pencil. PensAndGifts.net claims to have the Trio, as well as other Rotring products. PensPlanet.com appears to have a selection of Rotring pens for sale, including multi-function pens, including a couple of black-pen/pencil/highlighter combos, though none of them are the Rotring 600 Trio specifically. An eBay search for 'rotring multipen' brings up a few listings from this store, though their actual site doesn't have anything under the Rotring name; they have other multipens that look like they might fit the bill of a sturdy multipen, though I don't recognize any of the names. Joon Pens has refills for the Rotring multi-function pens (Rotring 600 Trio, Quatro and Esprit) but not the pens themselves, as far as I can tell. I gather these things may be sold under different names, so they may be more available than I can find after 30 minutes of web searching.

Speaking of the classic blue-barrel Bic 4-color, if you have a kid who likes to draw, I recommend pairing Doodlers Doodling by by Rita Golden Gelman and Paul O. Zelinsky with a Bic 4-color and a pad of graph paper. If you have multiple kids, you'll need multiple pens and pads.