Real Versus Fake Hero 616

[Mister John]

There is a lot of discussion on this forum about telling real Hero 616s from fake. I thought I would share my experience with real/fake 616/doctor Heroes. I bought a 10 pack of 616s from eBay. Before purchasing, I did a study of counterfeits in this packaging and knew to avoid the ones with the Earth or the circle on the packaging. I paid $14.00 with free shipping for the 10 pack. Around the same time, I bought a 3 pack of Hero/Doctor pens, these cost around $10.00, again with free shipping.

 

The 10 pack arrived without the Earth or the circle, the usual giveaway signs of fakes. It also had the correct bar code, so I was pretty happy until I started inking the pens. Pen #1 was scratchy, had poor flow and was generally awful. Pens 2 and 3 were the same. Pen 4 was okay. So I figured this was just QC problems at Hero. Unfortunately, pen 4 was the only one that was okay. The rest were dogs as well. I'm fairly sure these are fakes, but clearly the counterfeiters read the internet and have fixed the packaging problems.

 

A few days later, I got the Doctor branded pens. What a difference! These were all smooth and nice right out of the box. There were also lots of small differences in quality. The cap jewel on the real ones was larger and obviously better made. The press bar for the filler was smooth and nice on the Doctor branded ones compared to the roughly machined press bars of the fake. Still, at a glance, you'd be hard-pressed to tell the real from the fake. Most of the comparisons use photos, but I thought careful measuring might provide greater precision in telling real from fake. so here are the measurements I obtained. As you will noticed, for some, there is barely a perceptible difference, while for others, the differences are obvious.I put * next to obvious differences.

 

Length of pen capped: Real = 140mm, Fake 141mm

Length of pen uncapped: Real = 127mm, Fake = 129mm

Section length*: Real = 35mm, Fake = 43mm

Barrel length*: Real = 85mm, Fake = 80mm

Diameter of barrel at widest point: Real = 7mm, Fake = 5mm

Sac length*: Real = 50mm, Fake = 45mm

Cap length excluding tassie: Real = 58mm, Fake = 60mm

Tassie diameter: Real = 8mm, Fake = 6mm

 

The main differences are that the section of the real 616 is much shorter, and real 616s are a bit wider than fakes. Looking at the innards of the pen, the differences are obvious, but clearly these cannot be inspected when buying online.

 

Hope this proves useful.

[asaha]

Really nice job. Helps a lot

[tomgartin]

I had the same experience. There is a lot of quality variation in the 10-pack, some of the caps sit crooked on the pens, and the nib slit is usually cut off center (since a fine nib has such a smaller margin of allowable error this is usually looks pretty drastic). I also ordered a "doctor" version of the Hero 616. By contrast, this doctor/jumbo version was much better constructed. It's a bit thicker, the section is shorter, the filler is larger, and the cap jewel is a bit larger. Personally, I think those traits are why this variation of the 616 is branded as a "jumbo." I hypothesize that they are both legitimate products of the Hero Pen Company, but represent two quality levels. Naturally, any theory to account for the extreme difference between the standard 616 and the 616 doctor/jumbo is going to have a lot of support to dig up. However, I'm glad I'm not the only one who had this experience, and I think we can all agree that it's best to specifically opt for the "jumbo" version and avoid the others. I think the success rate will be much greater when buying the jumbo (99%) than with the 10-pack version (40-60%).

[BruceS]

I agree very much with Mr. John.

 

I have a number of Hero and Jinhao pens.

 

Regarding the Hero 616, Key identification items are

- Real has a shorter section. I have only seen Fakes that long sections

- Filling mechanism on the Real is much better finished and is does not have a shoddy look or feel.

- Real Jewel is large.

- All of the fake 616 have nibs that appear to be untipped. The real 616 has noticeable tipping material.

 

Just buying them off the internet is a iffy. Be careful of who your seller is

[Harlequin]

Any chance on pics comparing the two- real to fake?

[tomgartin]

Here are a couple of my own pics of the two side by side.

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8096/8482578021_51e06cf607_o.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8227/8482578605_1835a8de05_o.jpg

[Harlequin]

so are any of those 3 fakes tom?

[tomgartin]

I don't believe so. I think the standard and jumbo are two different product lines. One is pretty bad. The other is decent.

[tguk911]

I think the fake Hero 616's have straight clips and have Wen Feng written on the pens from what I've read. I think a lot of people just assume they got fakes since a lot of them in the 10 pack are crappy but I think they are real Hero 616's just they probably are made very poorly compared to the Doctor/Jumbo version but this is merely speculation on my part.

[tomgartin]

I've wondered about that too, tguk911. I just haven't had a chance to handle the plain-clipped variants, and I really have no interest in pursuing them based on how happy I am with my current pens. Maybe someone else can chime in when they find this thread.

[Nonsensical]

I have bought the 10 pack hero 616s, 'vintage' 616s, regular jumbo 616s and gold cap 616s. Only the 10 pack was of poor(er) quality. I haven't really seen the 10 packs over here in China, though.

[lovemy51]

hello. thx MrJ for the input.

 

the following comment is one i have trouble accepting.

The main differences are that the section of the real 616 is much shorter, and real 616s are a bit wider than fakes

the way i understand it, only the Jumbo's section is shorter. the standard's and the fake's are about the same. of course, the Jumbo is also wider than the others.

 

... i could be wrong...

[ycpen]

I have sold Hero pens for a couple of years. I am sure that one Hero 616 pack sold at USD 14 with free shipping to another country must be fake. Nobody wants to lose money by doing business on Ebay. Hero has the big size 10 616 pack and supermarket pack (doctor). They are the same but different package. Mr. John did a great job to list out the difference between real Hero 616 and fake Hero 616. The biggest problem of fake Hero 616 is scatchy.

[EenyBear]

I have sold Hero pens for a couple of years. I am sure that one Hero 616 pack sold at USD 14 with free shipping to another country must be fake. Nobody wants to lose money by doing business on Ebay. Hero has the big size 10 616 pack and supermarket pack (doctor). They are the same but different package. Mr. John did a great job to list out the difference between real Hero 616 and fake Hero 616. The biggest problem of fake Hero 616 is scratchy.

 

Hello "JewelryMathematics" Thank you for excellent service in the past. I shall soon order a Hero 360 pen from you. Best regards.

[lsmith42]

There were massive numbers of fake Hero pens at the LA Show... Farmboy did his best to get them under control.

[FarmBoy]

There were massive numbers of fake Hero pens at the LA Show... Farmboy did his best to get them under control.

True, so true. Though I now know them to be fakes, I was compelled to purchase.

[79spitfire]

More of those ratty 'Parker' fakes again I would imagine....