Hero "huafu" 186 Informal Review

[truthpil]

Hello again to all my FPN friends,

 

Here is just a quick write up I did of my impressions on this lovely pen that I've been enjoying for the past few weeks.

I found out about it from the hot tips here:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/295491-chinese-pens-show-and-tell/page-50?do=findComment&comment=3957350

 

and here:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/304037-hero-haifu-186-any-one-might-tell-me-how-is-the-pen/?hl=huafu&do=findComment&comment=3565597

 

Dimensions:

 

- Capped = 137mm

- Capless = 122mm

- Posted = 152mm

- Weight = 23g

 

Photos

 

 

 

 

From the Taobao seller I purchased mine from:

 

 

[https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.0.0.3d59f006LXXAbr&id=549487132934&_u=52lkvpjhfc75]

 

 

Review:

 

[Seele]

TruthPil,

 

I agree with your assessment of the pen, even though I still insist that it is a "Wolff" rather than "Huafu", as there was indeed another brand called Huafu but romanized from other Chinese characters.

 

Did you find the longitudinal mould parting lines down the section bothersome? I certainly lost no time in removing them.

 

And by the way, I got soooo frustrated as they did not put the original "globe and pen" logo on the pen...

Edited January 6, 2018 by Seele

[truthpil]

TruthPil,

 

I agree with your assessment of the pen, even though I still insist that it is a "Wolff" rather than "Huafu", as there was indeed another brand called Huafu but romanized from other Chinese characters.

 

Did you find the longitudinal mould parting lines down the section bothersome? I certainly lost no time in removing them.

 

And by the way, I got soooo frustrated as they did not put the original "globe and pen" logo on the pen...

 

I understand about using "Wolff" and should have mentioned something about the company and Hero's acquiring of it. Since the only Chinese characters on the pen are 华孚, I just went with the Pinyin (albeit without noting the tones like I should have haha).

 

I find it interesting that the only indication that the pen was made by Hero is the little logo on the cap, clip, and nib, which is then oddly put right next to 华孚. They should have either used the 华孚 original logo or at least said "Hero" or 英雄 somewhere to make that clear.

 

The moulding lines on the section are noticeable, but aren't sharp and don't seem to line up wear my fingers go so I have let them be for the moment. The same lines are actually a bit sharper on the GLM 961, so I think I'll have to do something about them for that case.

[Mech-for-i]

Well, that probably is not that much of not including any information regarding the origin, one had to rekcon that the Hero logo is very well known in their home market and that alone is enough to tell the intended customer where this pen came from, and no less back then the pen was always referred to as the Hero-Huafu not just Huafu, just as GLM was often referred to as Hero-GLM

[truthpil]

Any idea if this pen popular back when it came out in the 90s?

[Mech-for-i]

AFAIK, not exactly popular but not exactly sluggish seller either. At the time the market is largely shifting towards using Roller Balls, and sooner the Gel pens. Fountain pen , in the mid to late 90's even in China is seeing decline and rapid slow down in term of volume of sale. But the volume obviously still stay well above the threshold of viable business need and that period, and up to the late 2000's is when many wre weeded out and folded / going under including plenty of big names. But also gave rise to a number of new ones which tailor to this changed and changing market

Edited January 6, 2018 by Mech-for-i