"hero 100": A Conflicting Cheap 14K Nib Pen - A Review

April 8, 2016

Hi All,

As I was checking my mailbox for a Franklin Christoph I've been waiting for, I found something I ordered a while back and forgot: a Hero 100. Inked it up and I have to say, love it to death. I mean, it's a $26 14k gold nib pen.

Background and History:

The Hero 100 looks knock-off of the Parker 51, I'll just say that right off the bat. A lot of Chinese folks fervently argue that the technology behind it is a self innovation and not stolen; from what I read and know, it's somewhere in the middle like Columbus: the Chinese of the 50s discovered something others already have.

It was first produced in 1958 during the bloody Leap, and sold 1.62 million in 2 years.

*Personally this pen is very important to me: my grandfather used it in his younger days and rose through a country peasant to a well respected government official in a board of education, (who championed education's importance with devotion, and was a honest and righteous man); my father used it in his younger days and went from a son of factory workers to a Ph.D. in engineering. And now the same model is in my hands as I struggle through my first year college finals. This is the pen of knowledge and heritage to me.

"First" Impressions:

I've seen this pen a million times... My personal one was an original from back when if you make a bad pen you might just get shot. Quality was the word back then. But I'll speak of the new 2015 model.

It came a nice box. You might get different ones as they're in transition right now. Nice enough. The first thing I do is to toss it in a trash bin. It's what I do. It's a box. Though on second thought, I'm saving it so I can ship my old hero to a nibmeister to make it even more perfect; it's a very sturdy box.

Score 1/1 (Seriously who cares... if it's not the Visconti HS Demo's piano lacquer box, then idc)

Hero by Kevin Guo, on Flickr

Appearance and Design and Build Quality

The pen is available in a lot of finishes, (a lot of gaudy ones that I'd call unholy but hey, preferences) I chose the cheapest, most original one to get the old timey feeling; simply can't risk carrying the actual one from my grandfather with me. A popular one nowadays is the complete stainless steel one.

It has hero 100 and a plum flower imprinted on the cap; I bought mine off the official retail store in China and had my name engraved for free. It also says "made in china" but for once I'm kinda proud.

Hero by Kevin Guo, on Flickr

They finally got rid of the Arrow clip! ANNNNND the clip is spring loaded! I love this so much. Very nice tension and all, just perfect. Nothing like the Visconti arch clips but this does not feel cheap.

Hero by Kevin Guo, on Flickr

The back is also a metal part; rather nice. I like the maroon color; just what I remember from elementary school.

The top of the cap is raised into a point; I used to think it's for smashing car windows in emergency situations, but it turns out to be for the pretty cool spring cap insert: inside the cap there are four spring bars, that when you close the slide on cap, the spring gets pushed by the taper of the pen and it's a super smooth action. I love doing this all day long. I don't know if the stainless steel version is this smooth. I love this.

Although even Richard Binder said the pen has some improvements over the 51', the design is without a doubt lacking in originality. And that I hate. (i.e. I refuse to buy black cigars; I have one sailor and it was a gift from a friend).

Score: 17/20

Weight and Dimensions

The pen is exactly as long as an Al-Star. The resin version is perfectly balanced, the tiniest bit back heavy when posted, but oh man how it posts! Super smooth slide on action. I'm guessing that all together the pen is around 20g? The metal sections inside gives it a better heft than you'd think. I think the all stainless steel version would be just perfect. This is a thin pen, but my hand size is "smaller than average" for a woman's hand size and I'm a guy. So yeah... perfect for me. You might want to pass if you have large hands.

Score: 9/10 (I'd probably like the ss version just a bit better)

Filling System

Absolutely the crappiest filling system ever devised by mankind since the birth of the concept of "dipping branch in water and write on sand".

You'll struggle to fill this; if you use it for ten years straight (like my dad) you might become a pro but this sucks so much (not ink ), ugh!. It actually holds a fair bit of ink (I have very low expectations), maybe a short international's worth? But it is a fine nib and is not wet so should last you a good while.

And they sent a manual for twist converter, to mock me?

*In case you're wondering, it's a built in squeeze converter.

On the plus side, the built in converter gives a good heft, and I guess it makes your pen usage an "experience of skill".

Hero by Kevin Guo, on Flickr

Score: negative a million.... sigh... more like 2/5 I've never given anything else anything less than a 5/5

Nib:

The name of the game is: what can a company do with a 25 dollar pen and a gold nib? The answer is: make the nib super tiny and polish it really well to make it feel good. The nib comes in only one size, the sticker says F in the front as in the English letter and "medium fine" in the back in Chinese. After testing this wtih all my pens here's the verdict:

Hero by Kevin Guo, on Flickr

1. Finer than a Lamy Safari's F, wider than a Safari EF, closer to the EF.

2. Much much smoother than either

3. More of a nail than either (I did not know this was possible)

4. Moderate wetness by my book, probably a bit on the dry side for the most of you, but I tested it with Pelikan 4001 Black so it's probably a moderate wetness pen.

5. It just glides. I'll put a writing sample in the end.

6. Came with some oil residue on the nib so some skipping, rinsed it (AHHH IT WAS SO PAINFUL TO USE THE SQUEEZE THING) and it wrote perfectly.

Seriously, this was soooo smooth for basically a EF, it's quite unbelievable. It is perfectly aligned and the shape is exactly what a perfectly smoothened nib should be. It's slightly better when written in a higher angle, like all Asian pens, but I hold my pens below 45 and still found it great.

Was hard to take picture with my phone through a loupe while holding the pen but it gives you an idea...

Hero by Kevin Guo, on Flickr

Score: 15/15

Untitled by Kevin Guo, on Flickr

Cost and Value

I got this pen for 25USD shipped to Canada. You can find similar prices on ebay. It writes better than Lamy Safari, feels better than a Lamy Safari and is more interesting than the Safari. And if you care (I don't), the nib is technically 14k gold (with a small albeit bigger section inside the body.) Hero has a 1 year warranty on this pen I think* where they'll replace your nibs pen bodies caps clips broken hearts etc. for free. But you pay the shipping. So.... If you're in China, send the pen to them every now and then just because LOL? It's at a price where you won't go wrong, and you won't.

Disclaimer: There are quite some fake ones out there. When you buy on ebay, get it from reputable seller and make sure it comes with a box. Make sure of that. The boxes vary, but generally two kinds: the ones in the picture with a paper in fold, or the one with a gold colored coin and outer shell is yellow stripes.

I don't know how they found a way to make quality products without shooting people in the face. Hm, maybe a collapsing reliance on foreign trade for cheap goods.

Edited April 8, 2016 by ICantEvenDecideAMajor

April 8, 2016

Ha ha ha .... thank you for your review... especially your sarcasm on the filling mechanism and I totally agree with you... were you by any chance able to pull out squeeze converter....???

BTW what seller did you purchase from... ?? care to share link...

April 8, 2016

Ha ha ha .... thank you for your review... especially your sarcasm on the filling mechanism and I totally agree with you... were you by any chance able to pull out squeeze converter....???

BTW what seller did you purchase from... ?? care to share link...

Nope can't pull it out. On ebay they sell tools specifically intended to do that, like a wrench. But even then an adaptor is needed and I'm not sure if those wrenches come with one. It's a mess. I'll do it if I need crafts project, I was reading a tutorial on this and it is quite complicated for a pen.

I actually purchased this through a company that catered for overseas people and goes around ordering the stuff in China for you then ship it to you for a fee. I just ordered another one in stainless steel through an ebay seller, laonan123 I think? (no aff. etc.) If you can wait, I'll get back to you once I get them in 2~3 weeks.

Edited April 8, 2016 by ICantEvenDecideAMajor

April 8, 2016

Nope can't pull it out. On ebay they sell tools specifically intended to do that, like a wrench. But even then an adaptor is needed and I'm not sure if those wrenches come with one. It's a mess. I'll do it if I need crafts project, I was reading a tutorial on this and it is quite complicated for a pen.
I actually purchased this through a company that catered for overseas people and goes around ordering the stuff in China for you then ship it to you for a fee. I just ordered another one in stainless steel through an ebay seller, laonan123 I think? (no aff. etc.) If you can wait, I'll get back to you once I get them in 2~3 weeks.

Perfect... I will wait...

April 8, 2016

Ha ha ha .... thank you for your review... especially your sarcasm on the filling mechanism and I totally agree with you... were you by any chance able to pull out squeeze converter....???

BTW what seller did you purchase from... ?? care to share link...

To change it into a twist converter you'd basically have to use the wrench to open up, use pliers to pull off the sac, then insert a cut section of the original sac's connecting section, cut the feeder tube shorter, and there's a o-ring somewhere that you have to figure out and silicon grease, then stick a con-50 on it. Quite an engineering project.

If that sounds too easy for you, another tutorial shows how to do it with a rollerball refill and lamy z26 converter...

Edited April 8, 2016 by ICantEvenDecideAMajor

April 8, 2016

To change it into a twist converter you'd basically have to use the wrench to open up, use pliers to pull off the sac, then insert a cut section of the original sac's connecting section, cut the feeder tube shorter, and there's a o-ring somewhere that you have to figure out and silicon grease, then stick a con-50 on it. Quite an engineering project.

ha ha ha... yeah... quite an engineering project

Edited April 8, 2016 by mehandiratta

April 8, 2016

"I don't know how they found a way to make quality products without shooting people in the face."

If the plundered Chinese antiquities that ended up in US collections are any indication, Chinese culture has always had a strong tradition of pride in craftsmanship. Maybe all they had to do was stop threatening people, and the pride began to resurface.

In any case, thanks for a great review. I have a feeling that we are just beginning to see what Chinese manufacturing can actually accomplish.

ron

April 8, 2016

"I don't know how they found a way to make quality products without shooting people in the face."

If the plundered Chinese antiquities that ended up in US collections are any indication, Chinese culture has always had a strong tradition of pride in craftsmanship. Maybe all they had to do was stop threatening people, and the pride began to resurface.
In any case, thanks for a great review. I have a feeling that we are just beginning to see what Chinese manufacturing can actually accomplish.
ron

Yeah, I was rather proud of this pen as well. That was just some sarcasm I'd like to poke at the state of affairs of modern Chinese manufacturing in general. This pen is largely the product of earlier generations. For millennia Chinese crafts were among the finest, and even in the twentieth century, there were generations that did their work with passion. And I think that's what we lack today: When companies pay low wages and copy designs and try to make the cheapest pen possible, people (the workers who make the pens) simply don't care.

Of course the "shoot in the face" was an exaggeration, but the 50s and 60s were a time when although people had abnormal ideologies, they really believed in what they were doing. Parts of that can be despicable, laughable, pitiable, admirable, or all.

Edited April 8, 2016 by ICantEvenDecideAMajor