Hero's Safari Clone

[79spitfire]

Mine arrived the other day. I inked it up with R&K Verdigris. It works very well. The plastic on the pen is softer and scratches easier, and the pen is overall lighter.

 

Definitely one of Hero's best efforts to date, I can't help but wonder why they couldn't have come up with an original design that works this well...

[Sailor Kenshin]

Mine arrived the other day. I inked it up with R&K Verdigris. It works very well. The plastic on the pen is softer and scratches easier, and the pen is overall lighter.

 

Definitely one of Hero's best efforts to date, I can't help but wonder why they couldn't have come up with an original design that works this well...

I think this was explained previously, but I can't recall.

 

Mine's a little disappointing.

 

The nib nowhere near as smooth as any of my Safaris, the section somehow manages to make my fingers slip, the cap doesn't post as well as the Safari, and the cap doesn't seat on the pen well at all.

 

This may be a first for me! A Chinese pen I don't like!

 

At least the color's pretty.

 

It may soon go in the Classifieds.

[jptech]

I think this was explained previously, but I can't recall.

 

Mine's a little disappointing.

 

The nib nowhere near as smooth as any of my Safaris, the section somehow manages to make my fingers slip, the cap doesn't post as well as the Safari, and the cap doesn't seat on the pen well at all.

 

This may be a first for me! A Chinese pen I don't like!

 

At least the color's pretty.

 

It may soon go in the Classifieds.

 

 

You must have a bad one. Everything on mine is nice except the posting is a little wonky.

 

The nib isn't exactly as smooth as my lamy nibs, but it's far smoother than any other chinese pens I have with the exception of the 18k jinhao nibs.

[Sailor Kenshin]

You must have a bad one. Everything on mine is nice except the posting is a little wonky.

 

The nib isn't exactly as smooth as my lamy nibs, but it's far smoother than any other chinese pens I have with the exception of the 18k jinhao nibs.

Interesting. I'd have to say the opposite: my little ol' 616s write smoother than the HeroFari.

[rockydoggy]

A purple one that I ordered from Isellpens just arrived. The finish is decent enough (not quite up to that of the Lamy original), but it's the smoothness of the writing that's unexpected. I'd had so much poor luck with Hero pens that I'd stopped buying them. However, this one is easily the best Hero I've encountered in terms of performance. It won't stop me from turning to my Lamy Safaris but it'll likely get regular use.

 

In terms of filling system, it came with a convertor that looks to be a Lamy clone but I've not checked to confirm.

I don't think international carts will fit.

[Sailor Kenshin]

I notice too that the con lacks the little nubs that 'click' into the neck of the Safari section, and the neck lacks the slots made for those nubs.

[chefz]

I grabbed the purple on a whim when I saw it popping up on Ebay. Overall, it looks and feels insanely similar to the Lamy Safari, but there are some tiny issues that remind me the quality isn't the same as I've gotten used to with Lamy. I filled the Hero with Diamine Ancient Copper and started playing. Some pics and thoughts on it:

 

-- Color is a bright medium-toned grape-like purple, a little brighter than my cell phone pics show here
-- Weight is ever so slightly heavier than the Lamy Safari
-- Uncapping the pen is more difficult on the Hero
-- Posting the cap is more difficult - the Lamy has a "flattened" round bottom with two straight sides, while the Hero only has one straight side and the Hero bottom overall seems larger
-- The Hero M nib writes beautifully - wet and smooth and the most butter-like I've had in my Lamy pens in awhile. In my pics here I compare it to a regular Lamy Safari Apple Green M nib filled with Diamine Majestic Purple. I definitely have no complaints about how the Hero writes.

 

 

 

 

[Sailor Kenshin]

Very nice pics!

 

The purple Hero isn't the color it seemed in the online fleabay pics. It's darker and more intense, and not what I was looking for. If anyone owns one of another color and is willing to swap, please let me know! Thanks.

 

I solved the capping problem. Dohh.

[josephchow42]

FPN lawyers... Don't try to talk copyright to Chinese... I am from Shanghai, the same city Hero was founded in. I am fine with Hero's rip-off Parker 51 and used for more than 5 years when I was a kid. Hero is in some big financial trouble these years and if this is the way they are heading... No comments.

Hero used to make cheap affordable one and quality gold nibs as well. I really hope they can out live themselves again. and no more stuff like this...

[rwilsonedn]

Just received, flushed, and inked a bright red example (from isellpens.) My first impression is that the pen is indeed very similar to the Safari. The plastic seems to be of higher quality than what Lamy uses. Perhaps the section shape is a bit more rounded and therefore a bit less annoying. Nib is a slightly wet medium, and beautifully smooth. The feed seems very consistent, and the converter works well. So far, pretty impressive. Were I in the market for this specific type of pen, I believe I would choose this over the Lamy from what I've seen so far.

ron

[Segel]

I have to say that this Safari knock off makes my stomach turn. That members of this forum knowingly desire and purchase these pens astonishes me. This is theft, legal or not, of the intellectual property rights of a decent German firm that provides remunerative employment to its workers by selling an excellent product at low prices to global consumers. Why would you participate in such unethical business practice? Now that Isellpens is pushing these fake Safaris, I will begin to search for another online retailer.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Obviously not everyone shares your outrage. I would look at the entire thread; the situation is more complicated than it appears.

 

That said, anyone who buys this thinking it is a Lamy is kind of walking into it. These are not counterfeits any more than the 616 is.

[Segel]

I read through the rest of the thread and had to laugh at the strangely-appropriate name under which the clone-theft Lamy 2000 is sold: Wancher 807 (pronounced, one supposes, to rhyme with "banker").

 

Seriously, this whole thread has led me to reexamine my pen and ink purchases. It increases my resolve to support Lamy and other companies whose values align with my own, even if it costs a few dollars to do so.

Edited November 1, 2013 by Segel

[Renfield]

I have to say that this Safari knock off makes my stomach turn. That members of this forum knowingly desire and purchase these pens astonishes me. This is theft, legal or not, of the intellectual property rights of a decent German firm that provides remunerative employment to its workers by selling an excellent product at low prices to global consumers. Why would you participate in such unethical business practice? Now that Isellpens is pushing these fake Safaris, I will begin to search for another online retailer.

 

Segel....... In the words of the bible "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone"

 

In the words of Belfast "Wind yer neck in"

 

Lamy have either:

a) Allowed their international patent to run out, in which case it is legal. And saying it is theft, legal or not, doesn't work, as if it is legal, it is not theft.

Not allowed their patent to run out in which case they will sue. And win.

 

Who first come out with a converter? Did another company take that idea and use it in their pens? Under your guise, that must be theft of a companies intellectual property?

 

How about Edison Pens releasing a vacumatic button filler, which as far as I understand is a Parker invention. Should we boycott Edison as it is theft of Parker's intellectual property?

 

You were happy enough to use Isellpens when they sold Baoer 388 and Kaigelu 356 which are clones of the Parker Sonnet, Kaigelu 316 which is a clone of the Parker Duofold and probably other pens if I bothered to look harder, but for some reason the safari is enough to make you stop using them?

 

Could you clarify the distinction?

 

Ren

[WirsPlm]

I have to say that this Safari knock off makes my stomach turn. That members of this forum knowingly desire and purchase these pens astonishes me. This is theft, legal or not, of the intellectual property rights of a decent German firm that provides remunerative employment to its workers by selling an excellent product at low prices to global consumers. Why would you participate in such unethical business practice? Now that Isellpens is pushing these fake Safaris, I will begin to search for another online retailer.

You need to re-learn English. If it's legal, it's not theft. I'm not even touching the hypocrisy in your statements about isellpens, or how you assume that Hero also doesn't 'provide remunerative employment to its workers' (do you think Hero pens appear out of thin air or something?).

 

I don't think the emphasis Chinese culture places on copying vs differentiating is a healthy cultural trait, and am generally uninterested in Hero pens. But that doesn't mean I think slinging hysterical accusations around is acceptable either.

[WirsPlm]

Lamy have either:

a) Allowed their international patent to run out, in which case it is legal. And saying it is theft, legal or not, doesn't work, as if it is legal, it is not theft.

Not allowed their patent to run out in which case they will sue. And win.

 

I agree with most of what you said, but a point that's worth noting here is that Lamy probably won't win a case against a Chinese company in Chinese courts, especially not on a matter of intellectual property (Chinese culture basically doesn't hold that there is such a thing as intellectual property rights for foreigners - this is changing, but slowly). There's a reason many companies don't do IP-dependant manufacturing in China, preferring instead to use other (smaller, less powerful, less notorious for IP theft) Asian countries, and for the definitely-sensitive keeping it in the EU, US or Japan.

[Segel]

Ren, I agree that I should have been more aware of other pens that are theft-or-not-quite-theft of other manufacturers. The Safari knockoff seems wrong to me, personally, because the Safari is the bread and butter product of a firm I admire and a tool I use daily. It damages one of the pen and ink community's most respected producers. I find it difficult to ignore or participate in such harm.

 

Does anyone know why Lamy would allow its dealers to sell the Safari cloned-stolen pen alongside their original? Perhaps I should ask this of Isellpens, a company from whom I have had good service and have previously recommended to others.

[inotrym]

 

Segel....... In the words of the bible "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone"

 

In the words of Belfast "Wind yer neck in"

 

Lamy have either:

a) Allowed their international patent to run out, in which case it is legal. And saying it is theft, legal or not, doesn't work, as if it is legal, it is not theft.

Not allowed their patent to run out in which case they will sue. And win.

 

Who first come out with a converter? Did another company take that idea and use it in their pens? Under your guise, that must be theft of a companies intellectual property?

 

How about Edison Pens releasing a vacumatic button filler, which as far as I understand is a Parker invention. Should we boycott Edison as it is theft of Parker's intellectual property?

 

You were happy enough to use Isellpens when they sold Baoer 388 and Kaigelu 356 which are clones of the Parker Sonnet, Kaigelu 316 which is a clone of the Parker Duofold and probably other pens if I bothered to look harder, but for some reason the safari is enough to make you stop using them?

 

Could you clarify the distinction?

 

Ren

 

Couldn't agree more.

 

It's one thing to be turned off by a manufacturer's or retailer's decision and another going out lecturing on the ethics of other FP users..

[Sailor Kenshin]

For the record, I am an avid collector and user of the Lamy Safari. I quite naturally wanted the Hero Summer Colors so I could compare and contrast...and the more I use the Summer Colors, the more I like it.

 

I just had to figger out that you REALLY need to jam the Hero cap back on. And there are a few other differences, including the fact that the seam is more apparent on the Hero.

 

One of these days I'll do a side-by-side. ^^

 

Of course, anyone is free to either support or ignore any pen manufacturer that exists.

[Pterodactylus]

For the record, I am an avid collector and user of the Lamy Safari. I quite naturally wanted the Hero Summer Colors so I could compare and contrast...and the more I use the Summer Colors, the more I like it.

 

I just had to figger out that you REALLY need to jam the Hero cap back on. And there are a few other differences, including the fact that the seam is more apparent on the Hero.

 

One of these days I'll do a side-by-side. ^^

 

Of course, anyone is free to either support or ignore any pen manufacturer that exists.

http://imageshack.us/a/img17/8696/ndgg.jpg

 

(Mont Blanc 344 - OB ..... Rohrer & Klingner Helianthus)