Hero 336

[sljm12]

This is my first review here, hope i didn't do too badly . Please pardon my pictures, it's my first time photographing a pen.

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1 First Impressions (7/10) – It's a bit heavier than what I imagined it would weigh as the whole pen looks very plasticky. But what caught my eye was the gold cap and the price of $1.20 SGD/Singapore Dollar for a fountain pen.

2 Appearance & Design (7/10) – The Hero 336 follows a Parker 51 kind of design. The pen cap is gold in color and the pen body is in plastic. The filling sac inside is made of semi transparent plastic and is covered with a metal body. The nib itself is hooded like the Parker 51.

3 Weight & Dimensions (7/10) – The pen is about 12cm and with the cap posted 15cm. The pen feels more balanced if the cap was posted while writing. The pen does feels abit light for me when i write and i do tend to prefer a heavier pen.

4 Nib & Performance (6/10) – This pen writes with a fine/extra fine tip. It is not stated anywhere what size the tip is other than it's made of iridium. Filled it with Pelikan Black and Noodler's Eel Blue. The nib is quite scratchy and very hard. There were some postings on the internet that they used it as a dart in school!. It writes dryly, tried it ion normal printing paper and in my journal (A journal bought from Ikea) doesn't soak through at all. The nib size is small enough for me to do my morning paper's sudoku on my way to work.

5 Filling System (7/10) - It uses a non removable Aerometric filling system that means you can't use carts with it. It takes probably about 10 squeezes to fill the pen. And with the sac being transparent, you can see how much ink is left in the pen. Nothing wrong with it, it gets the job done.

6 Cost & Value (8/10) – I brought it from Mustafa Centre in Singapore when I bought it there weren't that many left but when i visited about a week later they seem to have refilled the stock. So i guess that the supply is quite constant. The price is $1.20 SGD or about 0.83 USD.

7 Conclusion (Final score, 5/6) - For 1.20 SGD it's great value for money and great as a knock about pen for use in daily work. They nib is abit scratchy, although i hope constant use would make it smoother in the long run.

[graceaj]

These are decent little fellas for the price, just that some are better than others. As for supply, Mustafa stocks them by the dozens, which you can also purchase at a price that works out to be slightly less than if you were to buy 12 seperately.

[lovemy51]

well done review (IMO)!!! i have a few of these hooded nib models from hero and like them very much. i would like them more if i can get them for .83 cents USD!!!! congrats!!

[someonesdad]

My wife just bought me 20 Hero 616 pens for 65 cents apiece delivered in the US. I haven't gotten them yet, but when I do, I'll post a quick note on them. I have three Hero 332's left from a batch of 12 I bought 10 years ago for $10 and use them every day. They work well for me and I'm looking forward to modifying a few into eyedropper pens. With inexpensive pens like this, I can't understand why I paid hundreds of dollars for a MB pen 20+ years ago...

[Aman Syed]

Cool review

[pienaar]

Nice review, remember you can always polish the nib a little.

[isellpens]

Great review!

We just replenished our stock last night and sell them for $2.88 each at isellpens.com.

Best Regards,

Todd

[Seele]

Great review!

We just replenished our stock last night and sell them for $2.88 each at isellpens.com.

Best Regards,

Todd

 

Todd,

 

Being in Australia it does not make a lot of sense for me to purchase from you due to postage cost, but based on my first hand experiences, I have to say most Hero pens are indeed very fine and work much much better than their modest prices would suggest. I use the "Star Trek" models quite a lot in my rotation and have to say they are nice; currently I have the four classics: 329, 330, 331 and 336; finding an example of the mercurial 130 at a sensible price is of course a wild goose chase.

 

However, some Chinese-made pens (and other products) are bogus; it is well known that the Hero 616, 329 and 100 are extensively forged. After digging around online at places where angels fear to tread - or very nearly so - I also found that more models are also being forged, including some of the classic "Star Trek" models.

 

I am certainly not saying that the OP's example was one of them, what I mean is that very convincing bogus examples of a fair few models are known to exist. For that reason I would also say that buying from a vendor like you who stands behind what he sells would be preferable.

 

Also: among certain circles the long-discontinued - and relatively unknown - Hero 612 is said to be a formidable performer; I'd do my research and see how that works out; in the mean time I hope to land a 332 as well.

[mehandiratta]

amazing review...

[mehandiratta]

I am also using Hero 336.... it is amazing smooth writer.....

My review of the same is here HERO 336

HERO - 336

Hero 336