The Retro is a stylish and amazing value pen from Chinese brand Kaco. The unusual hooded nib helps to keep plenty of ink close to the tip, while giving the pen a style reminiscent of classic vintage pens like the famous Parker “51”. The cap features a rather different style of clip – a single metal rod, tipped with a plastic ball in a contrasting colour to the barrel, adding to the retro style.

The great value continues to the whole package – the pen arrives in a sturdy plastic box which can be useful long after it has protected the pen on the way to you. The box also includes two cartridges and a converter to use bottled ink – a very rare thing to see included with a low cost pen.

There’s a small ink viewing window between the barrel and grip section – you’ll probably still find it easier to unscrew the barrel to get a good view of the ink level, but it should save you having to do that just to see that there’s still some ink inside – often all you really need to know.

148mm long capped, 127mm uncapped, 146mm posted. 11mm wide. Weighs 12g.

Kaco describe this as an extra-fine nib (0.3mm – 0.4mm line width). In our opinion these write more like a European fine/medium.