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I prefer to play with this ball over any other plastic ball, and I have tried all known types of plastic ball, and have played almost exclusively with plastic balls since April of 2014. I have had a bunch of these good Nittaku balls last for long periods of heavy play. They are smaller than other 40+ balls. They are also the lightest 40+ (weigh an average of 2.67 grams compared to 2.80 for Chinese seamed balls and 2.76 for XSF). They have slightly smaller diameter measured with calipers. Seam is very very small and only can be seen if you shine light through them. They are dusty out of the box. In my opinion, these balls provide the best overall playing experience and without any doubt are the most like celluloid. I have been using them more than any other ball since June of this year. They are expensive (but less than Butterfly G40+). For a long time they were back ordered everywhere but that is not a problem now.

Everybody at my club, from Jimmy Butler, Niraj Oak, Viktor Subonj and Darko Rap (all current or former US team members) to ordinary guys like me would rather play with these balls than any other if playing properties are the only criteria.

I hope these are the ones that will become the standard for competition.

I have been wanting to get a Nexy blade for a long time now but recently a local distributor started bringing them in. Finally! I decided to get the Oscar since I have never owned an ALC blade. I glued a Xiom Sigma 2 Pro for my fh from my Xiom Vega Pro blade and a new DHS H3-50 soft for my bh.

I have been playing it for a week and here are my impressions.

Quality/finish (10/10)
The blade is very high quality.The hinoki surface is smooth. The handle is well sanded. There were no ALC fibers sticking out. Personally, I do not really like the color and design of the handle but this is just my preference. I had to sand the part of the head where my hand rests because it is quite sharp. I do mind this because I like to sand it to my personal taste anyway. The handle is also quite chunky. I have a medium-small hand and the blade can feel a bit chunky for my hand but after playing it for a bit, I have gotten used to it already.

Feel (10/10)
The blade is very well balanced. Even with the 2 rubbers, I don't find the whole setup to be head heavy. The hinoki top ply is thick and soft. With the same sheet of S2P on the Vega Pro, the rubber feels hard, I can barely feel any compression. Also, S2P gives a buzzy, electrocution type of vibration with VP. On the Oscar, the same sheet feels soft, kind of like a degree or two softer. Although the feel is soft, but it give a sharp feeling. It is very odd (but good). I can almost tell where the ball is hitting on the face of the blade. This is very good for control. On weak shots, it feels soft and subdued, but with more powerful shots, the blade feels crisp and direct. I thoroughly enjoy how it feels.

Speed (high end of OFF?)
The Oscar is a fast blade and the S2P makes it even faster. But it is still very possible to do slower more controlled shots. It is possible to push short, it is possible to serve short, it is possible to do a high arcing, slow, spinny loops off a chop, but all the while I can sense that there is a hungry wolf waiting to attack. Once I get past a certain power threshold, the blade turns into a different animal. The speed category goes up a notch. We all know Xiom Axelo is a fast blade and the top end of the Oscar is close behind. The thing that sets them apart is that the trajectory of the Axelo is very flat and the Oscar is arcing. Loop drives are piercing and smashes are direct.

Spin capability (very high)
I am not an TT equipment expert nor an expert in physics, all I am doing is recording my observation. I never bought in to the idea that the blade can have an effect on spin until now. I am comparing the exact same sheet of S2P on VG and Oscar. Serving backspin with the Oscar, I can stop the ball from going off the table more consistently vs VP. My coach, who never had problems with my serve was pushing the ball in to the net a number of times. In doing actual game scenario such as I would serve backspin, he would push long, I loop back, and he block; he would on a number of times block the ball high and long. I can't recall this has every happened before. He even commented that my spin is very strong. I don't understand how different a blade design would affect spin but my theory is that that top ply is soft therefore grabbing the ball for a micro-second longer thus imparting more spin. I really don't know. My theory could be wrong but the results are observable.

Block (very stable and accurate)My previous benchmark for a good blocking blade is Xiom Axelo. With that blade I feel like I am blocking with a wall. But the speed off the block is faster or fastest. With the Oscar, I can get vary the speed a bit more and I can also control the direction better.

Conclusion
This is an excellent blade - very high quality and very good playing characteristics. If I am forced to find fault it would be the color of the handle and the design of the lens - I am just not liking it. This is a blade I would keep and play with until it breaks. If anybody plans to buy the Oscar, I would suggest go with slower rubbers. The S2P can be quite a handful.

Hope my review is helpful.

EJ season has started!
After seeing how Yuya Oshima have performed lately I got curious of what was so special about his setup? I did some investigation and found his blade, the Mizuno Fortius FT (Fine Touch), for a reasonable price.


Unboxing the blade:
The Fortius FT comes in a nice presentable box from Mizuno with a lot of Japanese wording which I do not understand. With the Fortius FT you get high quality for the money. Looks like Mizuno does comprise with anything. The blade just looks stunning with the selected colors lens and the beautiful logo in the end of the handle. The sample I got weighs 93g which were the lightest they had.

















Composition is: Limba-Ayous-Ayous-Ayous-Ayous-Ayous-Limba


For testing I decided to pair up the blade with the new GF series of rubbers from Mizuno the T48 on FH and T45 on BH both max. The numbers indicates the hardness of the rubbers. Andro 2* Polyballs were used for the test.











The following impressions is after one training training session.


Counter drive: When counter driving I had to adjust as I kept hitting the ball into the net. After some minutes the balls were hitting the other side of the table again. One thing I noticed from the Fortius blade was the amount of feel and control it had. When going back to an all wood blade I always get reminded of how the feel is.


Loop: Here I got amazed how this setup was performing. The GF rubbers creates this awesome click sound when looping like in the good old days before the SGB. The trajectory was in between medium/low with the T48 in FH and I would say it was medium with the T45 in BH. The outer limba the its job right giving a very good dwell time so you can generate spin in the ball. Sweet spot were very good for an all wood blade.


Block: In this aspect of the game the Fortius FT is very balanced between feel control and speed. Block is a child's play with the setup without any comprises.


Short play: Is very easy with this setup. I even thought the GF rubbers were insensitive for incoming spin compared to Tenergy rubbers which made the receiving game easier.


Flicks: With the limba top ply and the rubber combination getting grip in to the ball did not feel too difficult even on heavy backspin serves. Big thumbs up!


Mid distance: Here the Fortius FT is very balanced playing balls in low/medium arc. Trajectory was very decent, but it lacks in terms of speed compared to my W968 or Viscaria.


Conclusion: The Mizuno Fortius FT is a blade in the -OFF/OFF range. I will recommend this blade to players who plays close to mid distance from the table. It is minded for a close to the table looping game where spin and speed is very balanced. The blade has a medium feel and is relative stiff. It does not have a lot of vibration and have a lot of dwell. Compared to similar blades like the Stiga Clipper this blades have different thickness of plies and it does feel different from the Clipper. The Fortius FT is a heavy blade but balanced well even heavy rubbers. I would say this blade is a great value for the buck.

OK, here are my impressions of the G40+, specifically in reference to Nittaku Premium 40+ Japan (NP40+) and also XSF. I played with it for two hours today on Tibhar Smash 28 tables.

G40+ bounces about the same height as an XSF ball, which is a little higher than NP40+ (and a lot higher than Chinese seamed balls). Personally I like this, but if you are used to NP40+, you will need to keep this in mind.

It is hard to see the seam in a G40+ unless you shine light through it, which is also true of NP40+ (and very different from Chinese seamed balls). However, the seam in a G40+ is quite a bit bigger than a NP40+ (the amount the two halves overlap). Butterfly says that even though they have a seam, the inner diameter does not increase where the seam is. Nittaku Premium has a very very small seam.

Another really obvious difference I can see right away with two new unused balls right out of the box is that the surface of the G40+ ball is a lot smoother than either NP40+ or XSF. It is instantly discernible when you take two balls and rub them together. The sound of two NP40+ (or XSF) is greater than G40+ and you can feel more vibration.

As everyone mentions, G40+ has weird sound (like old seamless prototypes or Ipong practice balls), but after about 5 minutes you stop noticing or caring. Once you realize the ball bounces normally and not like a broken ball, the sound stops mattering.

The good news is that this is a perfectly decent ball and my partner and I had fun playing with it today. Also, new balls right out of the box will not put any dust residue on your rubber!! (Very different from NP40+).

Some people may consider the next thing bad news; it does not really play all that much like an NP40+, it is not really like a XSF either, and it is definitely not like a Chinese seamed ball (thank goodness). The G40+ is unique, which means that there is even more variability in the playing properties of plastic balls, and this is really a fourth class of ball. All in all it is closest to XSF (but seems faster on most shots) I think but still has unique properties. That is the bad part. We are living in an era now with a lot more difference in ball properties than we ever had in the celluloid era. (I have seen ITTF officials try to downplay this, but it is obvious).

Dan's review mentioned that the ball flies very straight in the air. I agree, in fact it is one of the things that seems to me to be different from either NP40+ or XSF. Perhaps this has something to do with the unusually smooth surface of the G40+? I also had the impression it flies fast through the air. Is this really the case or an illusion of some type? Hard to say but that's how it seemed. If you are wondering why surface texture affects ball flight, bear in mind that (as with golf balls) a rougher texture could creates a thin turbulent boundary layer of air that clings to the ball's surface. This allows the smoothly flowing air to follow the ball's surface a little farther around the back side of the ball, thereby decreasing the size of the wake. Table tennis balls are a lot lighter, so it may be that smaller changes in surface texture are sufficient to affect blight through the air -- see http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...es-in-golf-ba/).

I felt like the ball had more spin after the bounce on the table, and that it jumped less off the table as a result of spin. This could also be due to smooth surface. My guess is that it is heavier than NP40+ (I will weigh precisely next week) but also a lot harder than a XSF, so it will seem lighter when you play with it. At times it felt somewhat intermediate between XSF and NP40+ but when you flat hit the ball or blocked with authority, the ball seemed to move super fast.

My suspicion is that the very smooth surface of the ball is part of the reason it plays differently. But it is not everything. The G40+ also played a bit differently from a very well worn NP40+.

A couple of really good players on the next table (Jimmy Butler and Niraj Oak) hit with one briefly, the first impression they had was not altogether positive, but they didn't give it more than about 5 minutes. I very much value the opinion of very good players, they just see and feel things more accurately.

I am not sure if people will like G40+ better or worse than NP40+ or XSF. To be honest, I am not entirely sure myself how I feel about it.

The one thing I am sure of is that it is certainly as legitimate an effort to make a decent plastic ball as either XSF or NP40+. There were no grossly bad bounces (I am very accustomed to 40+ balls, have used them exclusively for 18 months). Didn't break one in two hours.

I will write more after I have played with it some more, and also after other people in my club at various levels have had a change to try it out. But if you held a gun to my head and say rank order the balls, I would say NP40+ > XSF = G40+ >>>>>>>> any Chinese seamed ball.


Edit added. Second two hour session this evening, this time on Butterfly tables. Nothing really struck me as different except I think I like the ball better this time. After this second session, from purely playing characteristics, I think I prefer it slightly to XSF. The linear ball flight is still an impression I have.

Anyway, I am perfectly happy with it. I enjoy using it. And my impression is that the ball is pretty durable. Time will tell on that.

Another thing I should mention is that I now have information on weight. A sample of 6 balls had an average of 2.76 grams, which meets 2016 standards. That turns out to be exactly the same as XSF and significantly more than Nittaku Premium. Don't let anyone tell you that the G40+ is a light ball, if it were any heavier it would be illegal after January 1 of this coming year. It also has a bounce height identical to XSF. So that is why those two play somewhat similarly. However, ball flight of the G40+ reminds me more of Nittaku Premium, and I think the G40+ retains more spin after it bounces on the table.

Coach had us train with this ball, well, every brushing stroke I did stop on the net. I think that happened cause my rubber couldn't grip with this ball. It's like the ball had powder on it, like all new balls. But other new balls you can spin. When during the topspin the ball did push into the sponge then the ball had some spin. I will try edit again after more use.

A completely different ball compared to all others right now. It is crisp, light and with a good bounce. It does sound broken on contact, as the sound is brighter. I believe that this ball is the closest we have to the old celluloid ball, which is a good thing.

So I felt that anyone who likes the XSF ball will like the G40+. The sound is distinct but my guess is that over time we will all get used to it. My hitting partner felt it was spinnier than the XSF ball and I seemed more consistent with it (this is also true for me with the Nittaku Premium). The ball feels and sounds hard but some people say it plays light.


I didn't feel I need to play any differently and I wish this ball was used at the Butterfly NA Teams. IT's just a much better looking and play product. Consistently round, a nice box and packaging for the 12 I got. I didn't play a lot with it though I used it in some hitting drills with an another older amateur. I did a bounce test next to the newer batch of XSF and the heights were pretty similar.


If your hearing is decent, you can tell when we first switch to the ball in the video below (about 2:30 to 2:40 in) and you can hear the higher pitched plastic sound. All in all, I like it. If we got rid of the Chinese seamed, we have 3 good options with relatively similar playing characteristics in the market. Will have to wait on durability though.

High quality rubber, but didn't suit really well for me. Bluefire M2 is good for players who like to hit the ball with a flatter contact. I found that I was really struggling to play with more spin using this rubber. The speed is good, the arc of the ball is also good. It gives you a long arc of the ball so you can drag the opponent away from the table. I think this rubber suitable for advanced player who like to play from mid-distace players. Serving is not too bad, but i cannot generate a lot of spin on my serve. Looping backspin from both BH and FH is pretty easy because this rubber has a quiet high throw. I think is rubber is excel in counter-hit and blocking department. Blocking a heavy topspin is very effortless. Counter-hitting the ball also easy to do with this rubber.

I am kinda dissapointed with these balls as all of the ball were definitely not round and were unplayable as the bounce is very inconsistent.
Not suitable for match play but if you dont mind the inconsistency they are quite durable.

Hello All!

I'm happy to share my early experience of this blade. To clarify I have only done two sessions with this blade, so I won't tell you many things now, but I will update, my review.

First impressions
My blade came in a nice box, which is solid in design and quite minimalistic. I can see the Spruce Pressing Technology (=SPT) emblem and made in Germany tag on the gray paper box. Inside there was my blade with flared handle, it can be pulled out like a drawer. The design is simple, not very fancy, like top Butterfly blades. The blade itself is 89,64 gramms. I found that the edges of the blade had to be sandpapered, because there were some rough spots on the edge of the top veener. Other aspects were fine. The handle (FL) is very comfortable, it is a smaller handle, which is becoming popular nowdays, but fits my hand perfectly. To be honest this handle is not a simple flared handle, it is conic also. So it starts flat with a 2mm bump to grab with your thumb, than comes thicker and rounder with each mm to the end of the handle. The end of the handle is nearly round, a very bit oval, when I swithed back to Liu Shiwen FL blade I felt especially with my pinky that this hadle is flat, and my pinky has no or less grip. So overall as many forum states, this blade has a very thin and comfortable handle, which absolutely makes you forget that this blade is almost 7 mm thick.

Assembly
I have read, that this blade requires medium-hard to hard rubbers. So I trided it with Donic Bluefire M2 on both side. the blade feels a little head heavy, my rubbers were boosted with oil, so they were actually at the same weight like a Tenergy 05 or an MX-P. This head heavyness is not that severe like a Donic Senso handle blade has. It is similar to a Butterfly head heavyness for example MJ SZLC with T5&T80. Yet, when swinging it feels perfectly balanced and transfers enough power for an attacker. When just bouncing the ball on the blade only the 1 cm edge of the blade feels a bit off centre, the rest is pure sweet spot. To be honest this blade works better with the plastc balls, but celluloid balls are fine too, but I will discuss it further on.

Let's play
I used a limba top weener looping blade before with the same rubber sheets and when warmig up I just hit my balls into the net. then I realised what I read on other forums and from the manufacturer, tha blade has a soft touch, like hinoki blades. Well it does, I had to give a slightly bigger swing to my hits and they were where I wanted them to be. then came the loop. Only when I have a brand new sheet of rubber I feel the same... I have time to touch. Actually playing agains a chopper was very easy, the lifting of the ball was very nice, and easy. When counterlooping came in I hit many rolling balls. Well on my other blade I could not do that with M2, on this blade I could. And the sound... just like back in the previous speed glue age, every hit every loop, your blade tells and dares you to hit one more stronger and louder. In short game the blade plays like an ALL blade, because of the soft touch. After five minutes I was total aware where I hit the ball, and no matter what it will land on the table. My previous blade which is a characteristic OFF- blade had one range of speed, this blade has one from ALL+-to OFF. I had to get used to this, because some flat hits require a quite clean stroke, but loops require no effort and knowledge with this blade. Simply the feeling is built in the blade. When playing with plastic this ALL+ characteristic of the blade changes to an OFF-- and flat hits become a bit more similar which I was used to with my previous blade. Blocking and dropsots are quite good, the blade can absorb speed quite efficiently.

Feelings
The sound of this blade is perfect, anyone who wants to relive the previous era of table tennis, get this blade. the control and feeling of the blade is very good, the touch is soft, the blade is firm, very faint woody vibrations, very good feedback of the ball, speed is very dinamycal. It feels like MJ SZLC but a little bit number with the feedback, you can feel the ball clearly, but the vibration is on lower frequency in the blade giving you a very delicate feel. For this price this blade is a nobrainer deal. From agressive allrouners through controlling offensive to full out offensive attackers this blade can suit anyone.

Just like the name giver of this blade = instrument, you can be an aggressive Mozart on the court.

I have had these shoes for 2 months, they are comfortable , great for doing movement exercises , I train 5 days a week so they are hard wearing. Would recommend, shame about the price but they are the best shoes on the market.

This is one of the best looping rubbers out there with a very high grip topsheet. It is a good Tenergy 05 precursor and up to even the USATT 2400 level can replace Tenergy if the focus of the looper is on doing specific things. While it is a relatively slow rubber, it is still an offensive rubber. The benefit of relatively slow rubbers like Baracuda is that the lack of catapult makes the linearity of the response to a power stroke easier to predict. This is very helpful when drive looping the ball.

The rubber is spin sensitive enough that one still has to learn to play actively with it, but it is similar enough to Tenergy 05 in that department, though Tenergy requires a better touch because of the power of the spring sponge.

The catapult makes it harder to hit winners from behind the table and to engage in topspin rallies away from the table. However, for someone who plays closer to the table and tries to win more of his points with short game control, Baracuda is a better choice than many rubbers if the player is not practicing often enough to radically improve their touch and timing. Depending on how you play and what you do, I would recommend it to anyone with a looping stroke or who wants to loop between 1200 and 2400 USATT on either forehand or backhand. That said, it requires effort only to generate pace - the spin is easy to generate and blocking is controlled once the racket angle is set.

It also works well with some boosting though the speed isn't radically improved.

It is comfort and light for me. But it may be a bit expensive though it is worth for it.

As the pros and cons stated. Good for my backhand. It is very spinny and fast.

Unforunately, this is the ball for competition, we must use it though the ball is a bit slower.

The best forehand rubber I have tried out of the following : rasant powergrip , rasant, tibhar aurus, yasaka rising dragon, xiom omega 4 pro, xiom omega 5 tour, tibhar 1qxd, h3neo, skyline tg2 neo ..
Fastarc G1 incorporates the best qualities of the above rubbers :
1. tackiness like 1qxd (this helps a lot over the table short game, server receives, pushes, lifting underspin balls in a controlled manner without overshooting edge of table, sidespin-hook topspins)
2. spin/grip like rasant power grip (provides great spin when brushing looping as well as when you engage the sponge in close/mid/far distance game)
3. med-hard sponge like aurus (not too hard, but not also medium like rasant... this allows you to start engaging the sponge relatively closer to the table, without fear of ball overshooting due to high throw of rubber, or ball rushing to the net due to med-low throw...... the med-hard sponge also ensure adequate power from all usual playing distances)
4. med-high throw angle like rasant (helps in clearing the net easliy from close/mid .... )
5. blocking is also good like xiom rubbers .. no issue in this aspect
6. speed like omega v tour(not overly fast, but good enough for most playing distances .. a 9.1 types speed rating)
from the look, feel, and daily playing experience, it seems pretty durable as well !! Totally satisfied !! Highly recommended !! I m using it as FH on DHS long 5 blade, with tibhar 5Q+(power update) on BH. Great combination.

Using it on Cpen backhand and find it very good. Very easy to hit small stroke fast balls with rpb. I find it a little hard to block with it (still learning) because it bounces very much. I bought mine 2nd hand. Maybe new is even better! I havent tried the other tenergies.

This is a nice rubber for beginner and a little more. Very durable but also very very heavy! Makes a click sound when hit hard.

A soft japanese rubber. I havent used this rubber very much. Ive used it as a backhand rubber for my cpen technique and find the throw a little low for my taste (T64 works better for me). I have also experimented with it using it on cpen forehand attached on a galaxy N-9 blade. This rubber compared to Skyline 2 allows me to have a more upward stroke that I like. Because this is a soft rubber I dont think it is very good for forehand because it bottoms out easily with hard stroke.

Hard to remove glue due to the soft sponge.

This blade is very fast with stiff feeling and very low weight (cpen). I have a hard time pairing rubbers with it. I found it good with short pips but then I need to glue a very heavy rubber on the backhand side to make it heavier and more balanced.