The Hero 370 cost a whole $4, and believe me, it was worth every penny. It's a small, simply designed pen constructed of a light weight metal (aluminum, I'm guessing). The cap is of the snap variety and has a garish advertisement for the company covering most of it. It has a steel extra fine nib.
It uses an aerometric filler, but also takes cartridges. I've tried it both ways with pretty much the same results.
The craftsmanship on this pen is shoddy all around. The cap, when on rotates freely, although there doesn't appear be any danger of it falling off. It's the same minor complaint I had with the 160, only in this case much more pronounced. It posts securely, but I mostly leave the cap off when I write, so that's not a huge concern for me. The nib also is of questionable quality. While the size is just about right, the ink flow is poor and often skips, and it is scratchy to write with. Also, the feed part of the nib doesn't sit flush against the body:
I don't know if this is specific to my pen, or if they are all like that but it doesn't inspire confidence. I pulled the nib apart and tried to fix the problem, but no luck. Plus, because of the thinness of the pen, it hurts my hand to write with for any length of time.
I wasn't expecting much from this $4 pen, and my expectations were met. Needless to say that this pen is headed for an early retirement.
Today I ordered another Hero pen, this time the 100 which is a knock off of the classic Parker 51. It has received rave reviews on various pen forums so I was curious to test it out. Once again I ordered it through ISellPens.com. I'll post a review after I've had a chance to play with it a bit.
I think next time I'll stick with some more of the inexpensive pens in my collection and review the Ohto Tasche that I bought from Jet Pens.
Labels: fountain_pens, reviews
