The Sad Truth

I have personally tested out dozens of brands of colored pencils over the years and what I have had to admit to myself - and am now letting you know - is this: All of the black barrel, dipped end colored pencils are basically the exact same pencil, just stamped with a different brand name.
There also appears to be a low, middle and high end offering from these manufacturers that is a difference in the amount of pigment vs filler/binder. Kind of like if you order an art print online and you can choose the quality of paper and ink you want used, it is my personal belief (not verified, just supposition based on my use of the pencils) that the manufacturer allows the different buyers to choose the level of lead quality for the pencil sets they order with their logo stamped on them. It also appears that they can choose to get a slightly larger barrel and/or core as well for the higher end sets.
The pencils that I have compared and can say that they are, at the very least, coming from the same manufacturers, just stamped with different brand names, are listed below. A (1) after the name means that the brand seems to me to have a higher percentage of pigment vs filler/binder than the sets not marked. Just know that the difference is not a lot. While you can tell, it does not really make the other sets less capable of being used to get similar results. Over all I really like these sets.
Colore (1)
Castle Art (1) - these are IMHO the best of bunch and do have larger barrels
Kalour (red box set) (1)
Brutfuner (180 black barrel set) (1)
Soucolor (1)
FLOwood
Cool Bank
Creyart (1)
Shuttle Art (1)