Something that’s exploded on the scene in the past year or two is the presence of pens that are copies inspired by popular models. The Parker 51 is no exception to the copy frenzy. The ’51 was marketed by Parker as “the most wanted pen in the world” – and I think it still lives up to that status. So it is no surprise that there’s a plethora of Parker 51 ‘inspired’ pens out there at the moment. I am reviewing 6 different pens, all of which, bar one which is made by Wing Sung, are made by the Chinese brand Hero and are all similar to the ’51 design.

I’m going to give a brief overview of the pens and then I’m going to compare them all at the end of the review. Before I dive in, if there are any other pens that fit this criteria that you’d be interested to see in this list then drop me a message on Twitter [@7heDaniel] or email me at 7hedaniel@gmail.com

The pens I am comparing are:

Hero 616

Hero 616 ‘Doctor’/’Jumbo’

Hero 616 MK II

Hero 329

Hero 612

Wing Sung 618 (full review here)

616

The 616 was the first Parker 51 copy that I was aware of. What drew people in to this design is how economical it is – I managed to get 10 of these for £5 (shipping included) to my house. because you have the opportunity to buy in bulk (though can purchase singularly), the quality control is not amazing, and the clip can be slightly bent upwards on some of the pens.

The nib is fine and slightly scratchy, though it’s not the worst of the bunch. It’s super wet – insanely so. It has a silver cap and a Parker style arrow clip. The body comes in a choice of black, red or green. The pen tapers ever so slightly and rounds at the bottom. The hood is long and there is an ink window which separates the hood from the barrel.

616 Doctor/Jumbo

I’m not too sure why this is also dubbed the doctor pen. It’s thicker in girth, so perhaps it’s a pen your doctor would prescribe you if you had arthritis and needed a thicker pen (I am absolutely convinced this is not the case, but whatever)? There are a few differences between the Jumbo and the regular 616 model. For starters, this pen is wider in girth – as I said. The other difference is that on the Jumbo, the hood is shorter, but the barrel is longer, while the opposite is true for the regular 616 (longer hood but shorter barrel)

The nib is a fine nib but smooth. Again, there’s a parker style cap which is silver. The body tapers down to the bottom where it rounds off, but there is a hole at the bottom. Even so, I’m not sure how easy it is to remove the sac so I think converting it into an eyedropper is already out of the question. The aerometric filling system is the best out of the others providing you with a very good fill that you can keep track of as there is an ink window. Because the hood is shorter, you might end up holding it at the ink window, which feels weak and gives a cheap feel when writing.

Hero 616 MK II

The Hero 616 MK-II has a fine nib which isn’t too scratchy but definitely provides some feedback; it’s the finest of the lot. It’s also the smallest with a short hood and barrel in comparison to the others. The pen has a silver cap, but a gold clip. The imitation jewel on the finial is also a different colour as it matches the colour of the barrel. Unlike the 51 MK-II the barrel rounds at the bottom, while the Parker is squared at the bottom. There is an ink window and because you have a short hood, you rip the pen on the window. In comparison to the Jumbo it doesn’t feel cheap or weak.

Hero 329

This is quite easily my least favourite out of the 6 pens I’m looking at in this review. It has a strikingly vintage look, which I do admire, but on the cap band it reads in very big, bold letters “FINE LINE” and I have absolutely no idea why it’s on there because it looks awful.

The 329 is the most unique out of the lot (along with the 618). It has a flat top and flat bottom, which reminds me of the MK-III rather than a MK-I like the others. The cap is silver but doesn’t have the Parker style clip, but still has a vintage look to it. There are gold finials at either end of the pen which gives a nice contrast between the red (in my case) and the silver on the cap. If it was silver then I think it would make for a horribly ugly pen. What does make it look ugly (other than the cap band) is that the nib protrudes further than the nibs on the other pens and I really don’t like how it looks. I wouldn’t go far to call it ‘semi hooded’.

The nib writes as a (skinny) medium; which makes me even more annoyed about the cap band. The nib is, however, rather smooth and pleasant to write with. The hood is long and the barrel remains a reasonable length, which makes it the second largest pen uncapped between the five (third when you consider the 618). This pen has no ink window.

Hero 612

I would describe this as a Sheaffer-Parker love child. In fact, stick a white dot on the clip and you’d have me fooled. Speaking of the clip, it’s spring loaded and feels very sturdy. The cap is rose gold which deviates even more from the Parker 51 as they didn’t come with a gold cap as pinky as this one. I’m comfortable – I love a bit of pink and rose gold is my jam.

Under the cap you have a smooth nib that writes a fat fine. I used this pen after the 616 at one point and actually wrote it down as a “medium” initially. However, in comparison to the 329, I would call it a “fat fine”, while the latter is a “skinny medium”. The 612 doesn’t have an ink window.

Wing Sung 618

I want to do a further in depth review of this because it’s a super interesting pen. I have done a full review of this pen, and you can read it here. There are three striking differences to the status quo: it’s a demonstrator, it’s a piston filler and the cap band is very Sailor-esque. Furthermore, this cap screws off while all the other pens listed above from Hero are all pull-cap.

The nib is fine and writes very smoothly. It’s a lovely writer. The issue I have with this pen is that when you go to take the cap off, you end up twisting the hood at the same time. You can easily twist it back so it’s flush with the nib, but it’s still an annoying thing that you have to do every time. The ink sits in the hood so when I un-ink it next time I’m going to try and fix it by screwing it in a bit tighter.

Review Overview

Ink Windows

Quite a number of the pens have an ink window. This isn’t something that you see on actual Parker 51s. This is great because even though what you have is an aerometric converter (all of the pens have an aerometric converter, other than the Wing Sung), you still have the metal cover and checking the ink level is a bit more involved than with a normal converter. However, it might be annoying because therefore it won’t be true to a Parker 51 (and my response to that would simply be: buy an authentic 51). So if you want the ink window then you have the choice between 3 (four if you include the Wing Sung) pens with the ink window or 2 without the ink window.

Of course – if you’re not sure what you want then go all out and get the Wing Sung 618 where the entire thing is either an ink window or doesn’t have an in window at all, depending how you look at it. Potato potahto.

Filling

If you want a large ink capacity then the Wing Sung is the way to go.

I haven’t measured the ink capacity of the Hero pens, but I do notice discrepancies between how well each converter fills. The 616 Jumbo was by far the best converter filler out of the bunch. I found that the 329 was the hardest to fill.

Writing

As much as the 329 annoys me, the nib performed well. I did find it a little difficult to write with as it sticks out a little further and it makes me feel a little unbalanced while writing, however.

I quite liked the feeling that the 616 MK-II provides. Not glass smooth but you get a bit of feedback. Personally, this is my favourite type of nib. I want to know that I’m writing. Unfortunately compared to other pens it’s not as long as I’d like.

All nibs are steel, which differs from the Parker 51 which used gold. Generally gold is softer so you get more opportunity of line variation (as a general rule of thumb, not always). The nibs aren’t the wettest (with the exception of the 616) and offer minimal line variation.

Appearance

[Yet another moan about the 329 here]

All the pens have the arrow clip, aside from the 329 and the 612 so if you want to get as close as you can to the real thing, I’d recommend ruling those two out. However, that means you’ll have an ink window and that’s not really authentic either. Of course, you could always pair the ink with the section (I never pair on purpose) but then you might feel restricted in terms of inks you can use and I don’t believe that you should ever be restricted in this hobby.

All the caps (with the exception of the 618 which is clear), the 612 is the only pen with a different coloured cap. I mentioned it in the overview, but I absolutely love the rose gold cap. If this came in the blue barrel like the 616 MK-II then I’d be so sold on this pen. The spring loaded clip is also cool, and it isn’t the feather/arrow so it’s not entirely reminiscent of Parker which, again, will either appeal to people or deter them.

I understand this section has become quite long, so I will finish with one final thing: the difference between the regular 616 and the 616 MK-II isn’t really a truly aesthetic difference such as with the 51 models, but a size and girth difference (where the MK-II is shorter and thinner). With the Jumbo/Doctor and the regular 616, the barrel is longer on the Jumbo but the section is shorter and vice versa with the regular 616: both pens amount to the same size, though the Jumbo is larger in girth.

Conclusion

Flat out, the 329 is my least favourite of the bunch. I don’t even have to think twice about that fact. In terms of my favourite, it’s a difficult shout. I like the 618 because the demonstrator quality is awesome and how the ink looks in the section is something that makes me just want to stare at it. For me, the 616 would be a clear winner if it wasn’t for the fact that the quality control was so, uh, crappy. But that’s what you get for buying 10 pens for £5 or so, maybe the individual pens are more trust worthy? The Jumbo would win for me, but I prefer the larger hood in the regular and I don’t like how cheap it feels when writing. It’s a toss up between the two, but I think the 616 just wins it for me. The quality control is disappointing, but the cheapness of the Jumbo doesn’t cut it for me.