Hero is a very well-established Chinese brand of fountain pens. They have been making pens for since 1931 and are based out of Shanghai, China. They also are the manufacture for a bunch of other brands, such as Doctor, Wing Sung, Lucky, Huafu, Xinming, Guanleming, Xinhua, and Gentleman. 1 The Hero Pen Company has maintained an outstanding reputation in China and is often regarded as the “best” pen company in China.
The pen comes in a very cool display box. The box has a false fiberglass design that has a high gloss finish to it. It is extremely stiff and very study. The box is also quite heavy and appears durable to even tall drops.
Taking a more playful approach to design, this pen incorporates colored boxes throughout the cap and barrel. These boxes give an interesting contrast with the gold-colored trim and accent pieces, making this a pen that pops out. The pen is finished with a glossy polish and feels very well built. The cap is a click-on and is very secure when closed. The metal (brass), being mirror polished, does have an tendency to develop micro-scratches. Those, however, can be easily removed with a metal/plastic polish.
The pen feels quite strong and durable as a whole. There is a good heft to it and everything locks, turns, and screws in smoothly and securely. The barrel/section threads are smooth and do not lock up. The converter also turns very smoothly, with only minor resistance.
Being a Chinese pen, the only nib option available is a steel Medium (M) nib. The nib on my pen is quite smooth in a dry test, with the tines aligned perfectly on inspection. The pen has not been inked yet, but the slit of the nibs shows it to be wet, but not overly so. There is an intricate flower/vine design on the edges of the nib, very similar to other Chinese brands. I feel like the nib design is simple, but works.
This pen uses a standard #6 sized nib and theoretically can be swapped with other #6 nibs, excluding Noodler’s nibs. This allows you to have a great variety of nib options available to you, including Franklin-Christoph and Goulet nibs, both of which are offered in the #6 size.
This pen fills via a standard international cartridge/converter and includes a converter preinstalled. This converter is a little bit on the small side, so the ink capacity is only about 0.4mL, less than the other converters.
This pen is available for about $22 from a couple U.S. retailers and can be found for even less on eBay, directly from China. This is not a bad price for this pen, but I think it may be a better deal at around the $12 mark.
###Pros * All metal construction * Very nice gift box * Unique multi-color design
###Cons * Small converter * Easily scratched * A little expensive for a Chinese pen