Colour Me Obsessed

As a kid (around age 7-8), the two things I wanted most were
a) a tiger cub to raise at home (apropos of the fact that this man was my childhood hero)
b) a set of Colleen double-ended colour pencils, round ones if possible (i.e. not faceted hexagonal).

The latter are a much more achievable and likely object of schoolkid desire than a carnivore cub, it's not hard to see why. The quality of the lead was superb, which meant prettier pictures during art class- and it helped that the entire thing was packaged so beautifully. The real draw, though, was the fact that there were so many colours- and the double-endedness meant each pencil carried a minor colour juxtaposition that informs the way I mix colours in my clothes, all the way into my twenties. I mean, just look at the pictures:

It also helped that the colours were meticulously named on each coloured half of each pencil (see below). There are colour combinations in there that are incredibly happy-making to look at, even today (lilac and leaf green, carmine and magenta, yellow and green, red and purple, and blue and brown are just a few).

The pencils, which are a Japanese brand, got a relaunch about two years ago, which makes me very happy- I hadn't known they were out of production in the first place, but I'm glad I won't have to miss them any more, even if I am no kid and colour pencils have no justifiable place in the life of my drawing-challeged self except to help me pick out the right shades of lilac and leaf green to wear together.
images from penciltalk.org and hois.evilsmile.net