It's all about the core! There's no wood to encase these solid blocks of colouring pencil which means you get lots more colour for your money. Spectrum Very-Thick pencils come with a paper wrapper which provides grip but does not interfere with the pencil's performance. Better than Berol Verithik, these quality pencils come in a range of 24 colours and offer good laydown of colour with strong pigmentation. They don't have a wooden barrel so there's no waste - 7 x 175mm sticks of pure colour that just go on and on. The set of 12 contains 12 assorted colours. The set of 24 contains 24 assorted colours. The Class Pack contains 24 each of 12 colours.