Multitools

In concert with my new developing handyman tasks and interests and the accompanying tool acquisitions, I made a number of impulse buys, my most recent being these multitools.  The top one I got a month ago and the bottom one more recently.
Over the years I've owned quite a few of these pocket sized multitools, mostly Swiss-Army-knives and their clones, and a couple of normal Leatherman-plier style clones, and that ilk.  Most were gifts actually, with only a few cheap purchases.  These were the first ones that I picked up that I can actually see myself carrying around and using.

Reasons for the Leatherman Skeletool CX (top one):

• Firstly I admit that I thought it looked wickedly cool, like the spawn of a Giger's Alien and a Decepticon.  That prompted me to take a closer look at their features which I ended up liking.
• It has a reduced tool compliment: Pliers with wirecutter base, a respectable knife, driver bits, and a bottle opener. And those items are actually sufficient for most too-lazy-to-get-real-tool needs. As an emergency device I'd keep in a car, maybe that's a disadvantage, but as a device I'll keep around more readily at hand, it's a bonus. 
• The reduced compliment allows it to be smaller and relatively light while still being rather sturdy and therefore I'm more willing to carry it on my person or pack.
• The carabiner is one key feature that got my attention: It makes it belt-loop and backpack-clip friendly unlike most other tools I've owned.  Also makes it quickly attachable and  detachable from said loop or clip.
• The feature that sealed the deal for me, however, was that the knife is on the outside and thumbable.  Or more generally, I don't have to fingernail it out nor any of the tools which is something I always hated about the Swiss-army and other Leatherman varieties. Even the driver is exposed upon unfolding and doesn't need to be dug out.  Also, the knife is more akin to the kind you'd find in a dedicated pocket knife, not the thin and flimsier kind you'd have to fingernail out of a case.

Only real disadvantage I see is it's asymmetrical design can make it a little awkward to handle.  Otherwise I really like it. I get most use out of the beefier knife which can be quickly opened one-handed.  I now reach for it more often than not when I want to open a package or cut tags and such, rather than going to a drawer for scissors or a blade.  Speaking of, I used to be in the habit of pulling tags out of e.g. clothing because I was too lazy to search for scissors.  I haven't done that since.

As much as I wanted to I didn't take it with me on my trip to HK.  I had some irrational fears of it being confiscated.  Lo and behold, situations arose where having one would come in really handy. I ended up buying a fairly inexpensive "souvenir" multitool that got some use though.  It got me thinking that although the Skeletool is pocket friendly I should get one that is a little more keychain friendly as well.  That's when I discovered that my tool had what looks like even smaller little brothers available.  I got the one that had a scissor base instead of the pliers which I thought would be a nice complement at the time.  It also has a tweezer, a file, and a knife on the outside, but they're the fingernail variety which I'll forgive due to size.  This is more toy than tool for me I admit, but the carabiner at least allows me to quickly and easily detach it from my keys; no more passing around my whole set of keys when someone wants to use the bottle opener.