Hero 160

February 2, 2014

As a relatively new fountain pen user who happens to go to university, I really like Chinese fountain pens. They're cheap, they're fun, and sometimes I feel like I get pretty lucky. While I feel like Hero gets a pretty bad rap for the blatant copying they do of designs (such as Lamy or Parker), I ended up buying this 160 on eBay. I mostly dabbled in Jinhao, and while I like them, I decided to spend a bit more and see if I liked these better.

This is my first review, and I'm by no means a photographer, so I apologize if some of the pictures aren't quite as good as what you're used to seeing!

First Impressions:

The pen came in this pretty simple green box. These kinds of boxes I've received before so it's nothing really extravagant or special, but I do like it. It gets the job done and it's pretty nice.

You open the box and once again you have this fairly cheap material protecting the pen, but the pen itself I think is very attractive. The clip is nice and springy, and the top of it has a small five petaled flower design. All around the cap you have these grooves of various lengths that stretch downwards towards the barrel of the pen.

The body tapers towards the end, and on the barrel you have a shiny chrome band that says "Hero" and under it "160" with the same Chinese characters that appear on the box.

Construction:

Note that all my attempts at close-up shots failed, so sadly there will not be any photographs here.

The cap is simply a pull off, not a twist sadly, but it functions very well. Not much force is needed to actually remove it, and it is secure enough so that it will never simply accidentally come up when trying to remove it from your pocket or pouch. Overall, the construction is extremely solid. Nothing rattles, the barrel screws on and off tightly, and the whole body seems to be able to stand up to some abuse.

Filling:

The pen uses an aerometric converter which I had some problems with, but I suspect that those were issues related to my own inexperience with the system rather than the converter being at fault. For now, I removed it and have a Parker converter installed, which fits fine. Note that standard international converters don't seem to fit. The use of a Parker converter was a necessity.

Nib:

The nib is great. Honestly, I love it. It is a 12k gold semi hooded nib, and it writes excellently. I never experience any skipping or hard-starting, it has a nice, juicy sweet spot, and it provides a kind of feedback that I really like. I've had some Jinhao nibs that are smoother, but I rather enjoy this one more. It's not scratchy, but you feel that you're writing which I think is great.

In my experience it's a nice, wet nib that can lay down a nice patch of ink despite it being a pretty fine nib. There is little to no line variation, so if you're a flex freak it's really not for you, but since line variation and lecture notes don't particularly go hand in hand, I don't find that it detracts from the experience at all.

Writing Sample:

I'm no calligrapher, but I tried to make it as nice as I could for you guys!

Overall:

I adore this pen. I absolutely love it, and this is one that's always going to be inked. It's very affordable, it's very nice, it's not a boring black, and it just gets the job done. When I was contemplating buying one I couldn't find any reviews on this model, so hopefully this can be helpful to someone who is in a similar situation as I was. Maybe they aren't completely ethical design-wise, but if this is any indication, they make one hell of a pen.

February 3, 2014

Thanks for the review! How much was this pen? Interested in that it has a gold nib

February 3, 2014

The pen cost me about 20 dollars plus shipping I believe. I don't think there's much of a choice when it comes to nib sizes though. They probably only come in fine.

February 3, 2014

hero pen writing sample.jpg

I'm going to get this one now that I see a real photo of it. Looks nice. But...did you write that the fox jumpr over the dog?

February 6, 2014

I think I found one here: http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Hero-160-Silver-Chrome-Fountain-Pen-New-In-Box-12kt-Gold-Fine-Nib-/350569537164?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item519f929e8c&_uhb=1

It looks very nice, but I must hold off buying it. I'm going back home to China for the summer and will probably find these pens scattered all over local markets. I find snap caps pretty annoying, as they take effort to remove and are the most fragile. For desk pens and pens that are expensive (scared to shove into a pocket), I prefer screw-on caps, as they don't come off easily. For cheap notetaking pens, I prefer slip on caps, as they are the least hassle to remove and are fairly durable.

Also, show us some nib shots, please!