Hero 200A Review (Cheapest Gold Nib Pen)

[Honeybadgers]

Bought a 200a for about $30 on ebay several months ago, with a 14k gold nib wondering how bad could it be? As it turns out, quite bad. Which is a shame, because this pen has a lot going for it.

 

It's clearly a knockoff of some kind of parker, with a handsome arrow clip and nice arrow chasing around the cap top and bottom and bottom of the pen. The body is a nice brushed stainless steel.

 

It uses a rather sad squeeze converter. It works fine, removes for easy cleaning, but is not swappable with any of my dozen other converters. Tried a few off brands and other proprietaries but no luck.

 

The cap itself has a REALLY nice snap. perfect tension. It posts deeply and securely and is well balanced. Overall, the fit and finish is really acceptable.

 

The nib is a pretty wet, smooth fine/western EF. It writes quite nicely. But there is ZERO flex. I tried flexing it a bit and noticed that it sprung. IMMEDIATELY. This stuff bends like it was made of pure 24k gold. Out of curiosity, I checked the density at the chemistry lab one day at school. Sure enough, it's gold. It's just the worst gold alloy I've ever seen. Even medium-heavy writing pressure will spring this bugger. That said, treated like a nail and used with a fairly light touch, it's a nice, smooth, hair of feedback without scratchy, nib.

 

Quite comfortable to hold, I like the solid knurling of the grip towards the nib. It's thin, but nice.

 

It had two problems. One was fixable. The other, unfortunately, was the death knell of the pen.

 

Firstly, I pulled the cap off and the cap tensioner came with it! turns out that it just unscrewed from the cap. I unscrewed the finneal, stuck it back in with a screwdriver and added a touch of blue loc-tite and put it back together. Hasn't been an issue since.

 

Second, this pen dries out. horrendously. Every time I left it overnight, It would be stone dead dry in the nib and needed to be primed by unscrewing the barrel (which requires 12.5 rotations. Because of reasons?) and priming the feed.

 

The latter is a real bummer. If this pen didn't dry out every single night, I'd honestly really recommend it to people as a good, tough little tossaround. I don't love the converter but it does hold plenty of ink, the nib writes well, the cap is secure, posts well, the pen is thin and looks nice, is nicely balanced, but every morning you have to start by priming it.

 

So unfortunately, the pen comes close, but ultimately falls flat. Gotta give this one a pass.

[catbert]

Thanks for this.

 

The nib and section look like they were inspired by the Parker 75, a pen not noted for flex.

[Bluey]

 

Second, this pen dries out. horrendously. Every time I left it overnight, It would be stone dead dry in the nib and needed to be primed by unscrewing the barrel (which requires 12.5 rotations. Because of reasons?) and priming the feed.

 

 

This is due to an air hole in the cap, same as it is on the Hero 100. Plenty of threads about it:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/11189-hero-100-issue/

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/308637-how-to-seal-up-the-cap-on-the-hero-100/

[tamiya]

looks like a 30yo Sheaffer/Sailor Sentinel...

 

http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab148/ge09/sailortargaclip2.jpg

 

http://www.peytonstreet.com/pens/sheaffer/sh_japan_grey_fp_6.jpg

 

...with a Parker clip welded on

 

 

(Hmm... if it were cheaper i'd be tempted to try see if parts will fit my oldie, Sentinel needs spares)

[Honeybadgers]

This is due to an air hole in the cap, same as it is on the Hero 100. Plenty of threads about it:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/11189-hero-100-issue/

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/308637-how-to-seal-up-the-cap-on-the-hero-100/

 

Sadly, nope. This is what the inner cap looks like on the 200a. It doesn't surround the nib, just holds it in place.

 

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c101/popnsplat/pens/20170613_002903_zpsaw41bl9r.jpg