Hero 369 - Small Pen, Big Features

November 25, 2014

Well, thought I'd try my hand at a review. I've bought (and used) countless pens from different manufacturers and recently have been on a kick of buying Chinese pens. I decided to dedicated a small amount ($20 CDN) to see how many inexpensive Chinese pens I can buy and just what you can get for your dollar these days. I'm up to 7 pens purchased and I've got $3 left, so, well, you can at least get bulk.

Of the pens that have arrived so far (Jinhao 599, Jinhao 250, Baoer 517, Hero 369), the Hero 369 has easily been the most surprising, as not only is it the cheapest of the lot at the princely sum of $1,45CDN shipped, but has some really interesting features.

Scores are out of 10

Appearance/Finish (7/10): The Hero 369 has a very classic, slim appearance in brushed aluminum with chromed metal accents. The cap has no finial or jewel, just a flat section of brushed metal. The clip is chromed metal, and the the Hero logo and model number (369) appears around the bottom of the cap.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r181/jekostas/Hero2_zps69b9bcc0.jpg

There's a small centre band in chromed metal, and the body tapers down slightly to the end cap, also of chromed metal. I quite like the looks overall, a very simple, elegant and modern pen. Fit and finish on the outer body is quite good with no marks on the matte finish of the body or scratches on the chroming.

Here's the first big surprise, the clip is spring-loaded! It's firm, but with more than enough play to comfortable pull it out of your pocket.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r181/jekostas/Clip_zpsc701a70a.jpg

Opening the cap we see a black plastic section with a shiny finish (pretty common) and two chromed metal rings near the nib that act as the holder for the cap. I quite like the nib, it's small, first, and secondly it's not hooded, which is pretty rare for these low-end Heros. I know some people prefer hooded nibs, I don't. I like to see the nib. The nib is quite interesting as well, being very narrow and in shiny stainless with a good ball of tipping material included.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r181/jekostas/Hero_zpsa19e7b4f.jpg

I quite like the looks, personally. Where it falls down (a little) is the finishing. The cap has a fairly sharp edge at the bottom, and the threading of the section is somewhat rough and some plastic shavings came out when I first removed the section from the body (not a great sign, generally).

One last nice point on the finishing is the cap - there's no white plastic inner cap that endemic to low-end Chinese pens, instead the cap has four metal springs that clasp the section when closed and the end cap when posted. The pen posts very securely with no rattle.

Size and Weight (6/10): Let's not beat around the bush - this is a very slim pen. The thickest part of the body is 9mm wide, and the body tapers down from just below the centre band to the end cap at 7mm. The section is, of course, very small as well. The thickest part of the section near the body joint is 8mm, and tapers down to 7mm by the chrome clutch rings near the nib.

Despite being very skinny, the pen is decently long. Capped, the pen is 133mm long, uncapped 119mm, posted 144mm so at least in length it should fit just about everyone's hand. I don't have a scale to measure the weight, but the pen is (as you could probably imagine) very light. It's comfortable enough to write posted or unposted but let's be honest - you probably don't want to be writing essays with this sucker. It's just too thin. As a quick note-taking pen or something to keep in your cheque-book I imagine it would do very well.

Nib Performance (9/10): Now we get to the meat and bones of it. Does the pen write well?

I'm happy to say yes, yes it writes extremely well and even has a few surprises up it's sleeve.

After a quick rinse with warm water and filled with Higgins Fountain Pen India (a very "wet" ink) the pen started up immediately, and wrote with a smooth, medium-wet line. The nib size is probably somewhere between a Western F and XF and has a reasonably large sweet spot. The feed keeps up well with fast writing (as it should with such a small tip). Full disclosure - the nib was a little scratchy when I first got the pen but about 5 minutes with a little micro-mesh and it's smooth as butter. The tines came perfectly aligned out of the package.

Now for the big surprise: There's some line variation! Not a whole lot mind you, but it's definitely there. Check the writing sample below and you'll see some of what I'm talking about.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r181/jekostas/Scan0001_zps5eb4a098.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r181/jekostas/Flex_zps04e785a0.jpg

Paper is sugarcane, ignore the awful handwriting. There is a little feathering visible but that's likely a combination of wet ink and (not great) recycled paper.

Filling (8/10): The 369 uses a permanently attached aerometric converter with the metal cover/squeeze bar. I didn't expect it to work well, but I have to say it surprised me - this filler did substantially better than aerometrics I've used in cheap Hero pens in the past like the 266 and 616. It seems to have a shorter breather tube than other Hero pens I've used with aeros, and 3-4 squeezes will fill the sac a good 3/4s full. The feed is reliable and keeps up with fairly fast writing but it will railroad if flexing the nib constantly, a little bit of which can be seen in the sample above.

Value (10/10): Did I mention that this pen cost me $1,45 shipped? And that the nib has some flex, it's an aluminum body, with a sprung clip and a (surprisingly usable) aerometric filler? I've used some great low-cost Chinese pens but for me, this one takes the cake.

Conclusion (8/10): An absolutely solid pen and very fun. Perhaps a little too thin to use every day but it's super fun to play with. The only negative that I can think of that can't be overlooked for the price is the thinness, but that's a function of the design.