Hero 616 Fountain Pen

[Mech-for-i]

Cannot really judge by the photo, so to speak, but it look decent enough. One thing you might want to check is the inner screw thread on the barrel end. Fakes are known to have less well tuned thread where genuine Hero had very clean cut thread that usually with 3 to 4 thread in where fakes are known to have less. As a side note, the 616 been with us for decades literally and Hero had made many cosmetic alteration during the time so just by judging a certain element would not be sufficient to tell. Say the Jewel, I known of at least half a dozen variant myself. One certain way to judge the authenticity is to check the nib. The nib should be 19.5mm X 3mm which is unique to 616 and Hero's legend is stamped on the nib ( but you cannot see it unless you pull the nib off the pen ).

 

These days fake 616 are getting less exposure as quite obvious its far more profitable for those in that business to fake something even more expensive and thus get them even more profit.

[bugsydog55]

I have three of the "real" ones and 10 pack of what I think are fakes. They are insanely cheap but there is a difference. The real ones write smooth and consistent. The fakes are hit or miss. Took one of them and transformed it into a "fine" stub that actually writes now. Prior to that it would cut paper cleaner than scissors

[BBMarsh]

I too was drawn to the Hero 616 because I wanted to have a Parker "51"-type pen. I got greedy and bought a 10 pack on Amazon from a seller named "Julius-K9." I too was worried about the fakes, but for the price I couldn't help myself. All of the pens looked nice (and still do) but, as I had read elsewhere on this network, they needed tweaking. The nibs weren't perfectly aligned with the feeds and hoods. Once I got them straightened out, all 10 wrote perfectly! They are wet and amazingly smooth writers. All of them take a full fill of ink too. I gave all but 3 away - keeping one of each color.

I have since been lucky enough to get a very nice real Parker "51" from the first quarter of 1945. I have to be honest here: The Hero's are definitely lighter and cheaper, but write just as well - the only real difference is that they have a smaller "sweet spot" than the "51." Which honestly is kinda irritating for someone like me that fiddles and rolls the pen around in the hand.

Also of note, the caps are interchangeable between the Hero and the Parker. My friend who got one of the 10, was dismayed to see that the real Parker didn't have an ink window like her Hero. I wanted to smile and be condescending, but it actually is a neat innovation.

Would I give up the "51"? Never! But the Hero 616, in my experience, is an amazing pen for the price.

[suman5492]

It is okay for me. I just love hero fountain pens, specially for the aerometric ink filling system. I looked up for Parker 51 on many sites but it's way out of my budget. Yesterday I bought another Hero 221. The nib looks so good, I haven't seen any nib like that before.

[Mech-for-i]

Somehow I think most had forget that the 616 was in its first intent aim to be a workhorse pen instead of a premium. So while its almost always compared to the Parker 51, its probably more like aiming for Parker 21 market sector

[Flounder]

I've had quite a few Chinese pens with breather tube squeeze fillers.

 

Those with the filler proportions kindly photographed by suman5492 all seem to fill very badly, the latest being my Hero 565. Squeezing the sac guard bar seems to make too little difference in volume for much ink to travel up the breather tube. The sac is much proportionally much larger in the 616 jumbo/doctor, and fills with less effort and more completely.

 

[WJM]

It is okay for me. I just love hero fountain pens, specially for the aerometric ink filling system. I looked up for Parker 51 on many sites but it's way out of my budget. Yesterday I bought another Hero 221. The nib looks so good, I haven't seen any nib like that before.

 

Quite opposite here, while I like my 616 Jumbo, I don't get what's preventing Hero from making those pens as c/c. I agree built-in filling systems have their charm, but those chinese squeeze converters are just poor quality and rarely work properly, fill only like half of the sac. In genuine Heros much better than in my fake one, in which the filling system hardly works at all, but still it's not what it should be. If they are so attached to squeeze fillers, fine, but one, make a squeeze converter removable, which makes the pen easier to clean and easier to repair, and two, make the converter work properly. Like the one from Pilot for example.

[Mech-for-i]

 

Quite opposite here, while I like my 616 Jumbo, I don't get what's preventing Hero from making those pens as c/c. I agree built-in filling systems have their charm, but those chinese squeeze converters are just poor quality and rarely work properly, fill only like half of the sac. In genuine Heros much better than in my fake one, in which the filling system hardly works at all, but still it's not what it should be. If they are so attached to squeeze fillers, fine, but one, make a squeeze converter removable, which makes the pen easier to clean and easier to repair, and two, make the converter work properly. Like the one from Pilot for example.

 

Well Hero indeed did made their more up to date ( that is post early/mid 1990's ) models with C/C, I had quite a number of them. What they did with the old model is what I suppose the good old saying : " if it aien't broke, don't fix it " in short, they just keep them as they were and that is what many customer ask for anyway. For if they want the most up to date, there is other model to satisfy. In fact the removable C/C ( still aerometric then ) appear as early as the early 1980's in some of their then new models like the Hero 50.

 

I think the misconception here is that we are taking a pen that's design and released in the 60's and ask it to be like a pen vintage 201X .. that just not going to happen. But if you look at Hero's vintage 201X pens then they are indeed much more inline with the peers.