Collection of Colored Pencils

Cleaning up and organizing the studio. Took opportunity to take a few photos of some of the colored pencil sets collected through the years.
After Prismacolor, Derwent is probably one of the most common brands of pencils found at art supplies stores. Online retailers often used them as loss leaders, so some of these tin sets were found heavily discounted on clearance. The Derwent Color Collection set of 36 with the Studio colored pencils and solid colored sticks (in the style of Prismacolor Art Stix) has seen the most use out of these sets. In general, I find Derwent products to be reliable. Yet some of their wax-based colored pencil lines can be rather dull compared to other brands oil-based pencils.
Also like the handling of the Derwent Coloursoft pencils: they blend well like pastels, but their color cores are fairly strong and sharpen well. Already went through a set of 24.
Probably the nicest thing about Prismacolor pencils is their widespread availability and frequent sales for entire sets at many retailers. The most irritating thing about them is how easily their pencil cores can shatter rendering the whole pencil unusable. The Prismacolor Premier Ligthfast colored pencils set of 24 was probably one of my worst experiences with this issue. I had to sharpen some of them almost halfway to get to a usable part to do some test swatches when trying out a brand new set. Maybe that's why I do not use them much lately.
I really like the bright colors and performance of these oil-based Polychromos pencils by Faber Castell , but I just find their softer watercolor pencils to be even more pleasant to use.
From all the pencil sets I have tried, I probably like the Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils the best for their versatility, bright saturated color washes, soft feeling but with strong pencil points that sharpen well. The set of 36 loaded in a Derwent Canvas Wrap is my first choice for my regular sketching kit.
I consider these single sets more like novelties really rather than frequently used tools due to their rarity, price, and/or handling properties. The Koh-I-Noor Polycolor leads are very smooth, blendable, and fun to use, but there are no refill leads for this set readily available in the USA. The Stabilo CarbOthello are rather delicate as most pastel pencils tend to be (do not sharpen easily with a regular sharpener and I am not too fond of sharpening with a knife), not very watersoluble despite the label claims, and thinner in diameter than Derwent pencils (thus they tend to fall off easily from the canvas wrap reducing their cores to crumbles upon hitting the floor). The Caran D'Ache Pablo are probably the most expensive artists' pencils in the USA and open stock replacement are rather hard to find. Yet with the recent hike in price on Faber Castell artists' pencils, Caran D'Ache products prices might become more competitive in the market.