Mitsubishi Uni Watercolor Series 2 Set of 12 watercolor pencils initial review

The Uni-ball Watercolor Pencil - 12 Color Set - Series 2 is a very efficient and compact watercolor kit. Colors are bright, saturated, and dissolve in water quite easily with the included waterbrush. I would consider this palette more useful than series one since it does not waste two pencils with white and black colored pencils that are virtually never used in watercolors.
Bottom view of the pencil case.
The color name and numeric code are clearly printed in gold lettering on the barrels of the 12 Mitsubishi watercolor pencils.
Dry color chart.
Color chart with dry color swatches partially dissolved with the Mitsubishi waterbrush.
The watercolor pencils can be used as convenient watercolor pans by picking up the pigment directly from the pencil tips with a moistened waterbrush. This technique was used to colored this page of smiley faces on the Moleskine watercolor sketchbook.
The Uni pencils are about 8.7 cm or almost 3.5" long (about half the size of a regular artist's pencil) with 4 mm watercolor lead cores. Measuring 8 mm in diameter, they are slightly smaller than the Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils. Thus the included pencil extender and sharpener do not work with the latter.
After noticing similarities in the names and number coding of the Uni watercolor pencils with my favorite set of Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils, I found several matching pairs. While the hue of their barrels might be slightly different, their lead cores' hues were virtually identical.The color swatches perfectly matched both when dry and when they were blended with a waterbrush.
The perfect color match between the two brands suggests that Mitsubishi Uni-ball pencil company might have outsourced production of their watercolor pencils to the German manufacturer Faber Castell.
Further proof that supports my outsourcing theory: the names for these six colors is identical in both ranges, and the number coding also matches perfectly. The first digit and the last two digits are exactly the same in the numeric codes of the same colored pencils.
These stubby pencils can be more comfortable to hold using the plastic extender included in the kit or a regular pencil extender like the silver Kutsuwa pencil holder pictured above. The other accessories included are a crystal clear pencil sharpener and a clear plastic pencil extender that can also serve as a point protector. There are no cleaning sponges in this set, but the box has room for them next to the pencil extender (personally I do not miss them since I tend to use a paper towel or a napkin to clean my waterbrushes between color changes anyway). The plastic case is sturdy and well designed keeping all the components neatly organized in their designated compartments, and the pencil tray features a recessed well under the pencil ends that facilitates their removal without disturbing the neighboring pencils.
This plastic case would make an ideal final home for my artists' watercolor pencils that are approaching stub lengths which would keep this compact watercolor kit in service long after the original Uni watercolor pencils get used up. Highly recommended for artists and sketching aficionados.