Hero 825 Fountain Pen

My cousin in China picked up this Hero 825  fountain pen for me at a staionery store. There weren't many varieties available so she just went for two of the more expensive model (at 20 yuan, something around 3 US dollars, the cheaper one are around 6-8 yuan).

The 825, according to the print right on the pen cap, is designed for financial and accounting use and I am not entirely sure why, the pen isn't particularly sharp looking nor the nib is fine enough (for number crunching around the corners).

  The pen body is sleek and somewhat weighty and the cap shuts securely. I learned that when you are dealing with Hero pens, you should never take secure closure for granted...The handle is cone-shaped and very comfortable for my (apparently they are) small hands and the medium sized nib is shiny and pretty. Beside the hideous semi-translucent orange accents, so far so good.

Two weeks after receiving the pen...the metal barrel has detached itself from the orange band (Nice to know that I am not the only one who hate it!). The pen takes international cartridges/converter but there is a catch...The ink well (not sure what it's called) is slightly bigger than other pens (that take international cartridges) so if you use your own converter on the pen, you will have its hole permanently stretched and usable on this pen only...

The Hero 825 doesn't write at all: With a lot of pressure, ink would come out whenever they want to. With my normal writing angle, this skips 80% of the time, making the writing illegible. I was trying to fix it at first but after the barrel fell off...I stopped bother.

Overall: I didn't know that Hero (a brand I knew and trust when I was in grade school) has gotten this bad...

Blue White Porcelain Ballpoint Pen

So a few months ago I asked if my mom had a spare fountain pen (they are much more common in China) she was like "Oh, yeah! I received a fancy one as a gift and I will send the whole gift box to you (via snail mail)!"

A few weeks later, I got this...A ballpoint pen that refuses to write. The no-brand pen seems to be from a manufacturer that does commission by making gift sets for various companies (So they just assume people just gift this around without the intention of actually using it) and when things go wrong...Too bad, they don't care.

 Well, at least the pen looks pretty a few meters away (without my glasses), I thought, not to mention it stands upright for my nature-themed glamour shot!

My first impression is that the pen is really heavy (not a nice, solid weight that stabilize in my grip kind of heavy) that it becomes a burden to use. You can tell from the picture that the cap (and the metal cap pf the cap) are both misaligned and beside the weight/crappy craftsmanship, there isn't really other design flow of the pen's body.

The funniest part about this Blue-White porcelain pen is that, it's actually just white porcelain with blue paint that scratches off very easily...There was a "2GB" flash drive that came with the set which I thought would at least be useful...Guess what? It doesn't get recognized (in fact, no computer reacts to it) by any computer...

I am kind of amazed by how bad Made in China products have become (I have two Hero fountain pens after this, one of them doesn't write another spews ink allover the place...), when I loved using them when I was in elementary school.

Overall: DNW^2 (Does Not Write. Do Not Want)

Lamy Safari Fountain Pen Extra Fine Nib Apple Green

After a decade-long hiatus from the world of fountain pens (it was rather hard to find in North America, especially for a kid without car or credit card), I was ready to embrace it once again...But where to start?

The Apple Green Lamy Safari seems like a good choice, as it's green, limited edition (I am a sucker for this kind of gimmick) and rather affordable...Wait, you call a 29-dollar (a converter costs an additional 4.5 bucks) beginner fountain pen with plastic barrel "affordable" (When you can get at least 20 Hero pens in China)?  Am I in the wrong planet?  Anyway, I quickly got over the price issue as I realize that pretty pen don't come with pretty price-tag.

Apple Green is the special edition color for the year of 2012 (it should still be around til the May 2013 at the very least) - It's bright (borderline-neon), happy and quite easy to find inside a messy backpack. In fact, the color is the main thing that keeps me from hating this pen...Let's head to the lengthy review.

The Body of Lamy Safari is made of two, three if you count the cap, pieces of ABS plastic: It's light-weight (not so much that it becomes flimsy), solid, appears to be (Reads: It's not really) seamless and generally well-constructed, even though it does unscrew/and loosen up by itself occasionally. 

The barrel of the pen, which is cylindrical overall but shaved flat at front at back, comes with two windows for you to monitor ink level. It's a very helpful design (unless you are using a viscous ink that adhere to the inner surface of converter/cartridge) but I usually screw it off to check anyway, just because I am OCD.

The cap comes with a jumbo paper clip styled...clip that's curved outward a little. It's moderately springy and very handy as can can slide it on my tote or pocket in a jiffy. The down side is that the suction created by the cap is on the weak side, so the lid slide out easily. 

Another thing about the lid is that, compared to the rest of the pen, it has a noticeably larger weight per unit length so it will throw the pen off-balance when you 1. use it capped (it's long enough to be used along so it's not really an issue).  2. are trying to do a outdoor glamor shot with its lid on (doesn't apply to most people).

One of the major aspects of the Lamy Safari design is the trigonal grip (curved at base, shaved-off at both side), beside the artistic/hip look, it's supposed to let your thumb and index finger fall naturally and comfortably into the "right" places...