foreign
lines my name is Doug and I'm back with another fountain pen review last summer inquiring minds
member Ed Anthony sent me a care package full of goodies I've done a review of couple of the pens
that Ed so generously sent me like the very cool paper skater and the retractable land B2 today
we're going to look at another pen Ed sent me this is the hero 565 now I've already reviewed this pen
quite a while ago but this is a new and improved model hero 565. one of the things that complained
about with the original hero 565 was the aromatic filling system as it's a pain in the classified
ads well the sheriff gave his gun to the professor the professor gave it to Earl and Earl Professor
right in the classified ads no ads but Hero has updated the 565 to a cartridge converter
if you are unaware of the hero 565 you can think of it like a fat four dollar Parker 51.
join me and see why I'm impressed by this four dollar fountain pen right now [Music] [Applause]
one of the things that continues to amaze me from the inquiring minds fan group is you're
amazing generosity good wishes and people send me notes like this wonderful note I just got
from Miss Marilyn darling dear Doug thank you for being awesome you're awesome too thank you
very much and this package that just arrived from Ed Anthony who is a member of the inquiry
Minds Channel thank you very much thank you to all you members who are so generous
in supporting my channel but he sent me a whole raft of things and I'm going to open this and
hopefully be able to describe all of the things that are in it because he sent me a long email
describing all the things that he's sending and his excitement at me having them [Music]
foreign so what do we have Ed the packing list a paper skater too another I tell you
blade pen three two each other disposable pens a blue Len B2 6051 retractable fountain pen I
was looking forward to that number five a jinhao 1001 long tailed pen in Black a hero
565 new design I was just looking at these the other day we'll do separate videos on
some of these pens two types of pencil grips that might augment the grip size
of the Lambie tube enjoy it I'm sure I will and I'm sure our inquiring minds will enjoy as well
it's like Christmas in August
okay so this is the hero five six five and I'm just gonna open that up because
take a look at that later I'm very interested in this pen I have a hero 565 I love them there are
Parker 51 style actually a Parker 61 Style with that little arrow on them and they're a lot fatter
than a 51 but my 565 has an arometric filler which I really don't like and this apparently comes with
an upgraded yep it comes with a converter and it looks like standard international I might be wrong
but it's the one of those push-pull converters these things are fraught with difficulty as well
you can really have an accident on your hands but I'm fascinated to try this out I've been looking
online for them and they're cheap like borscht these pens but they actually write very very
nicely so that's going to get a whole video on its own thank you Ed for that that's terrific and
what I'd like to do today is show the parts and features of this pen show some size comparisons
and some measurements and then provide a writing sample after the writing sample please stay tuned
as I will talk about what I like and what I don't like so much about this fountain pen but before
we look at those pins parts and features let's look at it next to its inspiration
the Parker 51. here's my 1948 Parker 51. you can see how much thicker the hero 565 is in
fact it's a full millimeter thicker at the bottom of the hood so for those of you that feel that the
Parker 51 and clones like the wing sung 601 and 616 and the jinhao 52 are too slim you might enjoy
the bigger grip on the 565 and Hero has some other hooded nib options like this model 616
it has a Parker 51 type clip and it's very close in size to the Parker 51 itself and it
has an added feature of a tiny ink window right there it's also an aerometric and then there's
the hero 612 it doesn't have the ink window is a little bit Slimmer than the Parker 51. it doesn't
have the Parker Arrow clip but does have double jeweled finials of course the 612 the 616 and the
old style 565 are all arametric fillers which are a pain to fill and almost impossible to
keep clean let's look at this new model hero 565 more closely from the top we see the steel cap has
a relatively flat top finial and then the cap tapers up quickly and then is straight for its
length there are eight courses of four engraved vertical lines in the stainless steel cap which
has some Chinese characters right there which I assume mean hero Pen Company or something like
that and 565 in a hollow font which is the model number and the clip is spring loaded and nicely
springy and very usable and this is a nice feature for such an inexpensive pen there's a very tiny
step down to the barrel but that edge of the cap is very sharp I'll get to that in a moment it is
something I noticed on the old version of the 565 as well the black injection molded plastic barrel
is straight until almost the end where it tapers sharply to a rounded and finial that has a hole in
it at the bottom this shows that the barrels of the 565 new and old models are exactly the same
the hole is there to equalize the pressure inside the barrel because the arometric plastic sac
it actually isn't needed in this pen as it has a converter now the cap slips off to reveal the
black plastic tapering section and the hooded steel nib the 565 utilizes a design feature
from the Parker 61 model an inlaid gold medal stripe that points towards the nib making it
easier to orient the nib properly when you're writing here is my Parker 61 with that inlaid
arrow on the section Heroes just refined it by making it a trapezoid the section is much
chunkier than the Parker 51 as we saw in the comparison this paint is full of ink so I'm
going to use my older model 565 to pull this nib now don't try this at Home Folks because this does
make marks on the nib as you can see right there I'm going to take my nail clippers and just pull
and out comes the nib the feed and the breather tube and yes folks I do clip my nails I just keep
them long on my thumb and these three fingers so I can serenade you all on my guitar no extra
charge and you can see that the nib and the feed on the 565 are larger than the normal
hooded size here's a normal size hooded nib for our Parker style fountain pen it is a Chinese
replacement but it's the same size as the Parker and you can see how much bigger the hero 565 is
you can see that there's some Chinese lettering on there that I assume say hero and then of
course the the plastic feed and the breather tube and we just slip that right back into the
pan so pulling the nib is possible but finding Replacements isn't that easy the section unscrews
to reveal the main improvements on this model 565 a cartridge converter it is labeled hero and it's
a push pull converter like that the new 565 will accept both Parker long Lamy long and two Parker
short cartridges one in the section and then you put the other one down into the barrel
and you can close the pen now that does actually make that extra cartridge stick in there but
that's where that little hole becomes really handy you just take a paper clip and give it a push
through that hole and that cartridge comes right out so that's really convenient and the section is
clear plastic I've not tried to take the hood off I assume it's glued on there but it might be glued
on there with something that you can actually heat to release but I'm not going to give it a try so
this was the biggest drawback for the hero 565 previously you couldn't use cartridges now you
can and you don't have to Source them from China either you can purchase Lamy or Parker from your
local stationery store and the inside of the cap shows a plastic cap liner to seal the nib
from evaporation you can see those metal fingers that clutch the section when it caps I mentioned
this in passing earlier but this edge of the cap is annoyingly sharp so I'm going to fix it right
now I'm going to take some 4000 grit micro mesh and I'm just going to take that edge off that cap
just at a slight angle all the way around
there now it's not so annoyingly sharp that edge isn't really an issue until you post the pin and
that's where you feel that sharp edge when it rests on your palm the pen is very comfortable
posted especially now that it doesn't shred your hand unposted the pen is plenty long enough to
write with comfortably that seam between the barrel and the section can't be felt at all
the new hero 565 is available on AliExpress for around four dollars U.S and comes in five
colors black gray burgundy green and a pale blue there seems to be only one nib option which isn't
graded the old model 565 is now only 56 cents for those of you who enjoy squeezing your sack
now let's look at some size comparisons and here is the new model hero 565 with
a 1948 Parker 51 a wing song 601 flighter a wing song 616.
piston filler and a jinhao 85. now let's look at them posted and here they are posted they
all post nicely with the exception of the jinhao 85 which is a copy of the modern Parker 51 which
is itself the least like the original Parker 51 of any of them and you can see that the hero 565
is thicker than all of them and actually shorter when posted now let's look at them unposted and
here they are unposted these are all steel nibs with the exception of the 51 which is a 14 karat
gold nib now let's look at some measurements and I'll be back with a writing sample
[Music]
and we're back with the writing portion of the review this is
clairefontaine 90 GSM paper and this is the hero
565 and it has a medium steel nib
let's check the wetness
I was surprised at how wet this nib was and also surprised with how very smooth this nib is
just a hint of feedback in the ink today
is Waterman's
serenity
blue and here are some close matches to this ink from inkswatch.com
that's the line variation well don't expect too much out of this it's a very stiff steel nib as
these steel hooded nibs are very stiff even a vintage 14 karat gold nib on the Parker 51
is still like a nail this nib rights between a 0.5 and a 0.6 millimeter line which is a western
fine to medium or a Japanese
medium on my Richard Bender line width chart which
you can find Linked In the description and for our quote
and for some reverse writing
and it's very scratchy and very Skippy and for some quick writing
this pen has no issues whatsoever keeping up so what do I like and what do I not like about
this fountain pen well I like the original hero 565 but for the arametric filler which is a pain
to fill and almost impossible to clean now hero have made the pen not only with a converter but
also it accepts Lamy and Parker cartridges just that Improvement alone makes me want
to recommend this pen but in addition it's only four bucks and it writes like a dream I was very
surprised and this clip I just love the way this clip works now your mileage may vary as
I have no idea whether this was just the luck of the draw with this particular nib but buy one of
each color and for a total of 20 bucks you'll probably get one that writes like this perhaps
you'll have five one for every day for your work week and if you lose it you can replace it for
less than half the price of a cup of coffee there are two things that are still a problem with this
pen for me and that's the lack of nib options or even being able to swap the nib out for another
one and the sharp edge on the cap the cap Edge can be solved easily with a little light sanding
if you're okay with a 0.6 millimeter line then the nib options are not a problem anyway I like
the thicker grip on this pen as the Parker 51 is a bit on the thin side for me there's one other
issue for you OCD sufferers out there the cap is a fingerprint magnet so if that bothers you avoid
this four dollar pin and there you have it thanks go out to Ed Anthony for gifting this pen to me
and drawing my attention to the new model 565. so if you like this video please like And subscribe
and don't forget to ring that Bell to get instant notifications whenever a new video is posted and
please look in the description for a link to gold spot pens as I'm now an affiliate of the
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Badges and sneak peek unboxing videos as well and that just leaves it for me to say thank you
for watching [Music] and that's all she wrote [Music] I made this