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Hands down it's one of the best tt shoes in the market: Very comfortable, excellent grip, lightweight and beautiful looking.
They do have a disadvantage in durability though, as the rubber sole wears off pretty easily.

you need to give a try, this blade is a very cheap diamond!

Butterfly Garaydia ZLC
Composition: Hinoki-ZLC-Balsa-ZLC-Hinoki
Head size: 157x150mm
Thickness: 7.1mm
Handle: Straight
Weight: 83g
Rubber used: STIGA Genesis M and STIGA Mantra M

First of all, I have to say that I really like the look of this blade. The surface is smooth and I think the natural wood in the handle looks great together with the lens.

If you look closely on the handle you can see that it’s build from two pieces but together which gives the handle a line in the middle, except from that the handle is super smooth and feels great in my hand. The other side of the handle got a light green holographic lens that really gives the blade a high-quality look.

Speed/Control: The blade fits in Butterfly’s offensive category and I must agree with that. It’s a fast blade but nothing extreme. It has a good balance between speed and control which makes the blade easy to tame even in the short game. I did not feel any vibrations even in my hard strokes away from the table, and in some strokes, it could be a little hard to feel the touch.

The control in loop against loop away from the table was good even if the blade got a lot of power, I think that must do with the soft Hinoki on the outer ply.
It felt good in the block and I think it would work good for players who prefer to stand close to the table. The blade got a large sweet spot which you really feel in the loop from mid-distance.

I think the blade feels good in the short game due to the soft feel from the Hinoki. I felt a much better contact with the ball in the short game compared to my stroke from mid to long-distance.

My conclusion:

What I like the most of this blade is not how it plays but how it looks and feels in the hand. I really love the look of natural wood and the finish of the blade is super.

I also like how it plays but I’m not as impressed of how it plays as I am about the look. I would recommend the blade for offensive players who can handle offensive blades and for players who prefers the feel of soft wood. I think it suits close to mid-distance players best but of course that is very individual. Over all I’m satisfied and even if it won’t be my first blade it will surely be a nice blade to have in my collection.

STIGA Mantra M
Thickness: 2.1 mm
Style: Offensive
Hardness: Medium sponge
Blade used: Garaydia ZLC
Made in JAPAN

Look and first impression: The rubbers comes in a high quality looking package which gives me a great first impression. When opening the package, I notice that the topsheet of the rubber is covered with a thin paper with the big Mantra logo on it.

The top sheet feels spinny but not quite as grippy as the Genesis topsheet. The sponge looks like a classic red sponge with small air pores when looking at if thru a magnifier.

This is the fastest Stiga rubber I have tried and I directly loved the power in these rubbers. I really liked the feeling and sound in loop from mid and long-distance and Mantra got a high arc compared to many other rubbers.

Compared to Genesis this rubber is faster but does not have as much spin when looping against heavy underspin.

The feeling and high arc remind me of Tenergy and this rubber exactly like Tenergy is suited for experienced players who can handle great power.

Even if the rubbers are very fast I still think the control was okay due to higher arc. I usually prefer medium to hard rubbers and I think the sponge of Mantra gave the ball a nice catapult effect in hard strokes due to the small air pores I think. The feeling and control in the returns and serve felt great in the combination of the Mantra rubbers together with the Garaydia blade.

My conclusion: I’m really impressed with the Mantra rubbers overall, everything from sound and feel to power this rubbers can generate. I really like that Stiga has made two kind of different offensive rubbers, Genesis with tremendous spin and Mantra with extreme power.

I have only played with these rubbers for a couple of practices and my first impression is that these two rubbers are really a great step forward for Stiga. It will be hard to choose but I think I will keep the Mantra on forehand for speed and Genesis on my backhand for spin in my backhand loop against underspin.

STIGA Genesis Rubbers M
Thickness: 2.0 mm
Style: Offensive
Hardness: Medium sponge
Blade used: Butterfly Garaydia ZLC
Made in CHINA

Look and first impression: The package and design looks good and the rubbers got a thin plastic protection film which you must remove. I was surprised by the grippy topsheet and the great looking surface, almost the same like Tenergy where the sponges is visible thru the surface even without booster/speed glue.

The rubber is made in China but does not have the super tackiness like many other Chinese rubbers. Stiga is marketing the rubber as a combination between Chinese and Europeans feel.

Genesis is fast but not super-fast. I think it suits offensive players who prefers control the best. What I really like is the spin, extreme spin when looping against underspin, very easy to put heavy underspin on the table compared to many other European rubbers.

The spin also make the rubber great in serves and I could easy keep the ball short in returns due to the great ball contact. I have only played with it for three practices so it’s too soon to tell for me but from what I have read the topsheet is very high quality with great durability so I hope that’s true.

My conclusion: This is a great rubber for offensive players who likes control in combination with spin. I think this rubber can also work good for younger players who develop their game since the rubber is offering such a good control (of course it’s important to not match it with a too fast blade).

I can agree that the rubbers feel as a good combination between Chinese and European feel. The sponge is not as hard as a Chinese rubber Hurricane but the topsheet is still much spinner than most other European style rubbers.

The FPBE blade is a very interesting blade, I promised myself that I would only EJ after my competitions and here I am lol. I am fan of Vladi so I really wanted to test this blade wondering if I can emulate his superb control and blocking and I was right (psychologically)

I used MXP on fh and Tenergy on backhand in the first sesh but had a change of heart afterwards and glued a Hurricane 3 commercial rubber and Rakza 7 on the bh side. The flared handle feels very nice to hold and the blade is really balanced. There are no sharp edges as it is sanded for comfort.

At the first hit of the ball one thing struck me, the blade feels soft or maybe a carryover effect from using carbon but nah the last blade I used was the Apolonia. The blade feels direct so I can place the ball anywhere I want with ease. The control and feel is fantastic cause I feel like Vladi at times lol. The proper term to use for it is not feel but sensation, as if the racket was part of my hand and there are rubbers glued on it haha
Once I started spinning, the blade flexes at hard impact making it easier to impart heavy spin and direct the ball. The blade feels stiff at light brushes and blocks. Blocking is one thing I liked with this blade the feel is so superb that blocking was made easy, block like Vladi. The only thing I don't like about the blade and Apolonia cause they share the same characteristics which is difficulty of using a hard rubber on the backhand. It is not a gluing problem but 05 or MXP feels really dead or just preference to softer rubbers caused I changed from 05 to Rakza 7 and Rakza feels softer than 05.

During matchplay I had a lot of confidence in using the blade cause the ball goes where I want it. I can continually attack the opponent and vary the placement with ease (something Vladi would do). My consistency went up after using the blade due to the sensation of the blade, every contact is felt and "sensed".

This blade is best suited for players who really likes to:
- Attack with a lot of placement
- Humiliate the attack of an opponent with a punch block
- Block around
- Feel each ball
- be like Vladi

P.S. In the future I would like to us the Force Pro: Light side edition too hehe

A rubber designed for only beginners. The rubber is slow and not spinny which is perfect for people who are just starting our table tennis. Gives you the ability to control the ball wherever you want to whilst producing the minimal amount of speed and spin for starters.

Definitely not recommended for experienced players looking for speed and spin.

I bought a packet of 3 G40+ balls and I have to say, this is the weirdest ball I have ever tried in my career.

First, the sound of the bounce is extremely high pitched that it almost sounds like a cracked ball and honestly hurts our ears.

Second, the bounce is one of the highest ever. Bounces higher than normal plastic balls and even celluloid balls.

Third, the speed of the ball is extremely fast. Faster than normal 40+ balls. Literally feels like the speed of the 38mm balls but less spin. Definitely not normal.

Fourth, although it's extremely hard, it wears off easily. Your reaction to this might be: 'wha? Table tennis balls can wear off?'. I know, it might sound weird but after a few hours of playing, the ball sort of looses its grip to the ball and tends to skid across the table. Only capable of a few hours and it's done. Again, it doesn't break, it wears off, just like how table tennis rubbers do, but in a much much much faster scale.

Despite all these negative aspects, the only thing the ball shines in is the roundness and hardness. However, although its roundness and hardness is achieved, the basic fundamentals of table tennis balls in definitely not achieved.

For those players who do like to boost their rubbers here is the review-

Stigas Mantra S is far softer than the Airoc or Genesis S- you can tell that even as you attempt to hold the sheet -it just flops around!
I prefer to use Haifu oil oil on my rubbers and therefore boosted it as i do with my DHS h3n

I tried the 2.1mm thickness and found the following-

This rubber i found to be fast and spinny- you can really feel the ball sink in to the rubber and therefore dwell time is excellent- especially good for backhand looping v underspin.

Additionally i found pushing and serving to be effective with this rubber from my backhand
Counterhitting and driving is really impressive with much speed and power. And heres the great thing blocking is so good with control and feel allowing for soft hands to get the best out of blocking.

The Mantra rubber is not a heavy rubber so the blade doesn't feel top heavy (DHS HN3) is a heavier and denser rubber.

Although the surface of the topsheet is not as tacky i found this to be a spinnier rubber than both Astro s and Genesis s and i for one will be changing to this rubber- in fact order a couple of sheets to keep me stocked up!!
T

Such a great blade, great for blocking and counter looping, I got given this by my coach and was told to use it, I have played for one year and it has developed my game so much, so much control and feeling, great dwell and control, I will never stop using this blade, you can do literally anything with it, plus it's cheap! Recommended to players trying to play a offensive controlled game

Overall, this is a wonderful blade made by butterfly. Looping on both sides have a lot of control and help create heavy spin, however, lacks some power when very far away from the table. This is a blade made for people who rather play close to mid distance.

Great, always expect great quality balls when it comes to Donic products. Very hard, durable and plays well. When testing, a slight wobble during the spin and it doesn't bounce as high as the balls from Butterfly. However, overall, impressed!

After playing with a few months, trying both BH and FH, I find my spins -- both slow and spinny and powerdrives -- gained a lot. On the backhand, the excellent crisp feel compared with a long dwell allowed my to experiment in variations, and I've added a very slow and very spinny service return/underspin opening to my repertoire. On my FH, I went through the same and added a few more high gears to my countertopspin attacks.

Coming from somewhat harder rubbers, I'm still busy adjusting for all-out flat smashes and aggressive, direct openings. Anything spinny is a breeze. Blocks are also excellent, ranging from very passive blocks (bouncing twice on the opponent's side) to very aggressive speed monsters. These require very little and subtle leg, hip, torso, shoulder, arm, wrist action but can be devastating -- and always extremely precise, and controlled. I'll be seeking the limits of this beasty for an extensive period before exploring anything else. Would buy again and will not change in the foreseeable future.

I've tried it with a Stiga Offensive Classic Carbon, a Timo Boll ALC and an Andro Treiber K. It worked well on all, with the Treiber K winning out on depth of feeling and subtlety of play, the OCC having the upper hand when it comes to sheer explosive power, and the TB ALC inbetweenish (but closer to the Treiber K than to the OCC).

Nice cheap rubber. Great for backhand in it's soft variant. Decent speed, nice control and is spin insensitive. Feels like a slightly lower cross of T05 and T64. I haven't tried a harder version, but I'm pretty sure a harder variant would be usable on the forehand.

When I first tried this blade out with an Tibhar Evolution MX-P and a Coppa Speed. I found it too fast for my liking, and made it almost impossible for me too loop with. As the ball just flew off my racket. I found it really hard to use. So when I tried it out with the aforementioned rubbers. I focused on blocking. On blocks, the speed was really good. Control was nice and the it feel unlike other ALC blades that I have used. Speedwise, this blade is around the speed of the DHS Hurricane Long 5, just a tad bit slower.

2nd time I've tried this blade, I used it with Tibhar 5Q+ and Tibhar Evolution FX-S. With the 5Q+ and the FX-S, I finally gotten to appreciate the blade. I could definitely loop with this setup. It was very easy to use. I could vary spin,speed and placement at will and I could generate a lot of spin with this blade. Advanced players would be able to use it with fast rubber like the Tibhar MX-P, just like Paul Drinkhall(it amazes me how he can control such a speed monster)... For intermediate players I'd suggest that it'll be good to pair this with medium or medium soft rubbers.

The Acuda S3 is a nice soft rubber when paired with a Stiff blade. It has great control on loops, flicks, pushes and chops. Though because of it's softness. It lacks the firmness and kick needing for passive blocking and caused my blocks to net, which required me to add effort to make sure that the ball would clear the net.

Tested Genesis S 2.0mm on Stiga Infinity and Stiga Celero for 6 sessions of 2-2,5 hr.

Some reviewers mention the slight tackiness , but to be honest, I didn't notice this at all. This rubber is promoted as a CHN/EUR rubber, but it didn't feel that way to me. I even prefer prefer soft rubbers, the Genesis S didn't feel too hard for me. According to Stiga's catalog, the Genesis S should be a fairly fast rubber, however it's actually not. The 2 key major pro's are the control and spin which this rubber can generate. The S is not very sensitive for incoming spin and you block without much effort. Especially aggressive blocks where fun to do.

The Celero blade is an OFF- all wood blade and offers a lot of control. Putting Genesis S on the Celero, gives you a perfect blade for pushing and blocking. But the lack of speed is a major concern for me. I had to put a lot of effort in my strokes to generate speed. So much even, that after the first session, my arm/elbow hurt. Playing for more than 25 years , this was a first for me.

Genesis S on the Infinity felt more comfortable to me. Although the Infinity is not a speed-monster, it's faster than the Celero for sure. Like with the Celero, pushes and blocks where easy to do. The most issue I have, is playing topspin. It still feels like I'm missing speed and have to force my arm movement to generate enough speed. Smashing however is not a problem at all. After some time , I came to the conclusion it's not the speed I'missing, but the catapult. The Genesis S is not bouncy at all and has no catapult effect. Coming from Acuda Blue P2 , it's a big difference.

At this point not sure if I will continue using the Genesis S. Honestly, I want to use it as I really like the control of this rubber. Especially the ease of playing topspin over topspin is amazing. The lack of catapult, which I am used to, is the only thing making me doubt.

This was my first blade and it had a really nice feel to it and I was able to give strong shots while having that control I used Tenergy 05 and Tenergy 80 for my forehand and backhand rubbers. The feeling was really great because I felt like I had a lot of control especially in my loops and my backhand block. Overall this is a good blade

I got this blade with Tibhar Evolution MX-P on both sides. It feels almost identical to the Andro Ligna due to the fact that both have spruce. The Appelgren seems to be better at looping than the Ligna and very good at looping generally. The dwell time is also quite good. Counter-Loops and blocks are simple and easy to do but the counter-looping can go long sometimes. One thing I had liked about the Ligna was the ability to basically slam the ball when backhand flicking. This blade is no less powerful in the flicking department. Overall, if you buy this blade with rubbers like Tenergy, Evolution, Bluefire, Rasant etc. you can't go wrong.

STIGA Carbonado 45 blade
Weight: 93g
Thickness: 6mm
Type: Carbon OFF
Composition: 7 ply
Rubbers used with blade: Genesis M

What’s going on guys, it’s Dan and Tom here from TableTennisDaily. Today we are in the TableTennisDaily studio with a brand new review looking at the STIGA Carbonado 45 and 90 blade.


Written Review:

About the blade

These two new blades are an addition to their predecessors the Carbonado 145 and 190. The main structural difference between the 45 and 90 to the originals is that the 45 and 90 have a thinner carbon fiber layer. The carbon used being STIGA’s signature textreme carbon.

The Carbonado 45 and 90 use 64 grams per m2² (per square meter) of textreme carbon whereas the 145 and 190 use 100 grams per m2² (Per Square Meter) of carbon. This 36% less carbon in the 45 and 90 is designed to give more of a woodier feel than the previous models.

The compositions of wood within the 45 and 90 are the exact same. The only real difference between the two are how the carbon fibers are applied. The 45’s carbon layer is placed at a 45 diagonal orientation and the 90’s carbon layer is placed at a perpendicular orientation. These different angles affect the trajectory of the flight of the ball.

The carbon layers within these blades seem a lot thinner than other blades. For example here is a close up of the Butterfly Viscaria blade in comparison to the Carbonado 90.

The blades are crafted using STIGA’s traditional look with sharp features and very solid feel. Myself and Tom used both blades in the review using the new STIGA Genesis Rubbers on both sides of the blade.

Speed

Initially we noticed that the ball did not shoot off rapidly like we usually expect from carbon blades. The 45 and 90 both posses more of the popular STIGA wood feeling rather than a carbon one. It was apparent from early on that the blades were not amazingly fast due to the lower carbon ratio, but the high quality textreme technology produces a great sweet spot and clean contact.

When doing an exercise I felt I had to make good use of my body and legs to produce power on the ball. We felt the two blades both fell between medium to hard in terms of density with the feedback being both woody and carbon, a rare quality that we haven’t really encountered before except for the earlier models 145 and 190. This flexibility gave us a lot of feeling and control for our strokes.

Comparison between 45 and 90

The Carbonado 45 and 90 are both very similar in terms of speed, with the 45 producing a touch higher arc in strokes than the 90. When playing topspin attacks with the 90 the ball has a more direct trajectory than the 45 which has a higher throw angle.

Dwell

What we really like about the both of the Carbonado’s in general is the dwell and control. Although the blades have a thin layer of carbon the wood soaks the ball into the core of the blade producing lots of spin. This was evident against backspin. This extra dwell helped with my accuracy on 5th and 7th ball shots. One attribute I noticed throughout was I didn't make to many easy mistakes that you can sometimes find with faster carbon blades.

Open ups

My favourite shot at the moment is the backhand flick, perhaps I was inspired to much by Fan Zhendong in the review of the Carbonado 145 blade. If you haven't seen that review, be sure to check it out on youtube. So yeah, before I get carried away by being mesmerized by Fan Zhendong again, the Carboando’s are great when it comes to putting spinning the ball. Using the backhand flick I was able to put Tom under all sorts of pressure through applying lots of rotation on the ball or through good ball placement. The feeling both blades gave me, gave me accuracy needed to take advantage of the point especially on the follow up with the backhand topspin.

Blocking

Another area where this blade shone was in the blocking department. When blocking you can feel the large sweetspot giving great consistent contact when trying to control the ball onto the table. This is also due to both blades not being too fast.

Conclusion:

The Carbonado 45 and 90 are very solid carbon blades with a lot of control. These blades have not been designed for high end speed with the focus being more on consistency and feeling that the woody feel provides.

For players who like to play with a lot of speed the 145 and 190 would be more suited to them as they are quite a bit faster by maybe 10-20%. The 45 and 90 are faster than a Rosewood blade for example however not as fast as a Zhang Jike ALC. These blades are for offensive players who prefer to have control over speed. They suit most offensive all round players who like to play more tactically and not purely base their game on fast attacks.

Between the two blades I preferred the 90 over the 45 as I liked it’s direct nature. The two blades are both very similar speed wise but the 90 does create more of a direct trajectory which I like especially on my backhand for aggressive punch shots. The 45 felt more suited from mid distance to away from table whereas the 90 worked well from top of the bounce at close range.

As mentioned previously the dwell is high on these blades which works well for producing spin on the ball from serves, to open up type shots.
These two blades are excellent for blocking and mixing up the play where they felt suited for an all round based game with enough speed to play outright winners when necessary. Due to the hardness I think medium rubbers will be optimum on this blade. Such as the Genesis S, Tenergy 05 FX or a tensor type rubber.

The Carbonado 45 and 90 are unique blades in the sense that they are made with carbon yet both are a notch slightly slower when compared to their predecessors and other popular carbon blades like the Viscaria for example. This reduced speed creates more control. The thinner carbon layer lets the ball soak further into the blade making more use of the blades inner wood veneers. This means they both have both a woody and carbon feeling that we really liked.