Maker: Hero.
This pen is one of a whole pile of variations on the theme of “Derived from a Parker Hooded Pen”; see also the 100 and 616. The combination of section length, tail shape and decoration suggest this pen is trying to evoke a 61 rather than a “51”.
This pen has the strange and hard to quantify sensation of being made of low-cost materials. In my experience, it works with fair consistency, and does not put ink anywhere it wasn’t told to with any notable regularity. It’s a slightly better pen than the Wing Sung of similar type I’ve got, in that it takes longer for the point to dry out in the poorly-sealed cap. It would be a great pen for a middle or high school student, balancing function and looks against expendability, and I imagine that is precisely the sort of market it’s aimed at.
I bought an example of this pen more or less as an exercise in sympathetic magic. I was taken with the urge to get a Parker 61, and none were presenting themselves. So, since I couldn’t get the 61, I decided to get something similar (and, as it happens, dirt cheap) in an atavistic hope that like would draw like.
Not a month later, I got my hands on a 61. Make of that what you will.
Production Run: Hard to figure; I’ll guess c. 1965 – present, but I’d not swear to either end of it.
Cost When New: $5 to $10 in the 2000’s, in North America. I expect a whole lot less in the home market.
Size: 13.7cm long capped, 14.5cm posted, 12.1 cm uncapped.
Point: Rumour suggests low-karat gold, but at the price I doubt it. One day I’ll take off the hood to find out.
Body: Polystyrene.
Filler: Press-bar, capacity approx. 0.9 ml (1.2 ml with the filler cage removed and treated as a bulb-filler).
Hero 330 - the pen of Star Fleet.
The not very impressive box in which the pen comes. That sounds mean, but I really like the east Asian esthetic it represents.
If you are relying on the preceding information to win a bet or impress a teacher, you should read the site’s scholarly caveat. Remember, this is the internet, and it’s full of bad information.