Meet the Majohn P136 and the Hero 240. I’ll be reviewing both of these pens during my ‘Fun With Fountain Pens’ segments.
The Majohn is a straight up copy of the Montblanc Meisterstück 146, which Montblanc refers to these days as the LeGrande. When describing Chinese pens I am careful to distinguish between what is an homage and what is a counterfeit. The P136 isn’t a counterfeit, let’s just say it’s unlikely Montblanc are happy about it but also that they’re unlikely to win a trade dispute in a courtroom.
If you’re a lady who likes the style of Montblanc pens but is intimidated by the size of the flagship 149, my review will be one for you.
The 240 is a classic, Hero has been making them in China for decades. It isn’t -strictly speaking- an homage or a counterfeit, rather it is Hero’s version licensed through a commercial agreement way back in the 1970s.
in 1978 or 1979 Parker were looking for a manufacturing partner in Asia to supply the Chinese, Japanese and Korean markets and selected Hero. They provided Hero with their intellectual property for tooling and specifications, and spent five years working with them on quality control before deciding to pull back production to the continental USA. To reimburse Hero for their trouble they licensed Parker designs to Hero in perpetuity at no cost. The 240 is one of the models Hero developed independently based upon Parker’s designs and they’ve been selling them ever since.
Great to have these in my collection and I’m looking forward to reviewing them on SimonTV LIVE.