Post your latest EJ purchase

[Zwill]

The funny thing is that the best stuff I bought are from fully irrational carvings or just from #yolo.

You know like you get ready for the new BTY stuff to release like Dignics or same caliber stuff from ESN etc etc, and you buy it and expect it to be like Ma Long blessed you since you read that said gear is great and all. And when you receive it it is pretty mediocore compared to the previous stuff you used. You try to justify all the moneiz you spent but after the forced justification wears off they are not the stuff for you.

At the same time you buy something on a whim, a totally random purchase a 12 dollar runt, from a company that barely exists in ITTF's eyes and you feel that this cheap dogshit is giving you more joy and success than anything before.

My latest yolo purchase is Yasaka Thunder Dragon, and I bought it since I did like Hovering Dragon a lot and it is a very light easy to use rubber. The Thunder Dragon should be a bit faster and even lighter possibly designed more for the BH side rubber, which if it is then I will be delighted.

 

[Scarfed Garchomp]

I’m also looking into getting a Franziska ZLC, as soon as megaspin replies to my email about the weight.

Megaspin acts as a 3rd party ordering service, no shade to them as they run a solid and communicative operation, but me personally I would pick Paddlepalace or Butterfly Online as I'm pretty sure that they have their own in-house stock. Last time I ordered from Megaspin they sourced my order through Tabletennisstore.us (whom I no longer wish to do business with, which is unfortunate because they are currently the only USA based Xiom and Victas distributors) which I was not aware of until I received the package with their shipping label on it.

 

[DukeGaGa]

Megaspin acts as a 3rd party ordering service, no shade to them as they run a solid and communicative operation, but me personally I would pick Paddlepalace or Butterfly Online as I'm pretty sure that they have their own in-house stock. Last time I ordered from Megaspin they sourced my order through Tabletennisstore.us (whom I no longer wish to do business with, which is unfortunate because they are currently the only USA based Xiom and Victas distributors) which I was not aware of until I received the package with their shipping label on it.

I know how megaspin works. But I’d rather not order directly from Butterfly USA since they’re very slow to respond, and have sent me wrong products multiple times, not to mention they canceled my pre-order once because the price increased quite a bit between the pre-order went live and the release date. But it seems like they do communicate fairly fast if they’re talking to a distributor of some kind, and also I’ve never had one bad experience with megaspin.

Also there’s another shop that sells xiom in the states, xiom.shop, which is the official xiom distributor, I bought my tmxi pro from them. Not sure when their website will be back online though.

Paddle palace is a good one too, but they didn’t have the blade, and their stock of innerforce zlc wasn’t the weight I wanted.

 

[jammmail]

I look forward to heating your thoughts once you try it - mine just feels really good in hand as well as very controllable to play with.

So not a full review as I played the majority of my training session with my usual bat (TBS - D09c) but tried the Franziska for the last 10mins or so. First impressions I really like it. I would like to try it with D09c so it can be more comparative but I really liked the Andro rubber too. C48 is really grippy and generates good spin. R45 was safe but more direct and I love the green

The blade though feels really nice in the hand the handle is maybe a little more comfortable than the TBS squareness (both ST). Only downside setup was a little heavier (195gms) than my other bat and that is almost a little heavy already (about 10gms lighter). Felt very controlled - did feel that woodier style. Think i might transition to my main blade when the league is done.

 

[Wrighty67]

So not a full review as I played the majority of my training session with my usual bat (TBS - D09c) but tried the Franziska for the last 10mins or so. First impressions I really like it. I would like to try it with D09c so it can be more comparative but I really liked the Andro rubber too. C48 is really grippy and generates good spin. R45 was safe but more direct and I love the green

The blade though feels really nice in the hand the handle is maybe a little more comfortable than the TBS squareness (both ST). Only downside setup was a little heavier than my other bat and that is almost a little heavy already. Felt very controlled - did feel that woodier style. Think i might transition to my main blade when the league is done.

Nice - I am pleased you like it.

Mine is a 94g blade and so bat weight is 197g, which is a little higher than I am used to - but it feels lighter than my Viscaria despite this.

I am also enjoying the feel of T05 very much on this blade whereas previously I have found it a little lively if I am not playing well.

I have a sheet of C48 too which I have used previously along with an R48 in green - I liked them both on BH but prefer Rakza 7 or even a T05 or T80FX now.

 

[SleepyMaster]

This one ( it didn’t attached the photo for unknown reason) Franziska zlc with dign09c forehand and dign05 backhand. Kinda interested how it will be compared to innerforce zlc, and apolonia. On a paper it should be pretty similar with a little bit softer touch, but will see tomorrow

 

[DukeGaGa]

This one ( it didn’t attached the photo for unknown reason) Franziska zlc with dign09c forehand and dign05 backhand. Kinda interested how it will be compared to innerforce zlc, and apolonia. On a paper it should be pretty similar with a little bit softer touch, but will see tomorrow

Considering there are even individual differences among the same model, I'd say they're the exact same blade imo, other than the handle design. This is also what Yin Hang (a former CNT player) said recently in a live stream, claiming that Butterfly blades of the same composition is and has always been the same, just different handle design. The difference one can feel between a Viscaria, a FZD ALC and a ZJK ZLC, can be replicated among three Viscaria as well.

 

[SleepyMaster]

Considering there are even individual differences among the same model, I'd say they're the exact same blade imo, other than the handle design. This is also what Yin Hang (a former CNT player) said recently in a live stream, claiming that Butterfly blades of the same composition is and has always been the same, just different handle design. The difference one can feel between a Viscaria, a FZD ALC and a ZJK ZLC, can be replicated among three Viscaria as well.

Yeah, it can be true. Actually i’ve heard that a lot. But i own innerforce zlc and apolonia and they pretty different in feeling, ball flying trajectory and speed. But ofc there is similarities in them as well. Apolonia is definetley harder and faster than innerfoce zlc. But maybe if a had two of the same model in hand - they would played differently too. Who knows?
Actually firstly i bought apolonia, and couldn’t handle it. I played for few sessions and it went to my closet. At the same week i went to the shop and took for myself innerfoce zlc and it goes just right from the first session. It was so easy to control, since it was significantly softer and shorter curve/speed. It became my favorite blade for 2 or 3 month’s. After that i have decide to give another try to Apolonia and in this time a was able to handle it easily and it became my main blade.
So, my experience telling me, that innerforce zlc is more user friendly, just easier to play with - it goes good for amateurs, since it slower and softer. It’s almost like allwood. My first carbon blade.
Now, let’s see how Franziska will show up among these zlc’s 🤓

 

[DukeGaGa]

Yeah, it can be true. Actually i’ve heard that a lot. But i own innerforce zlc and apolonia and they pretty different in feeling, ball flying trajectory and speed. But ofc there is similarities in them as well. Apolonia is definetley harder and faster than innerfoce zlc. But maybe if a had two of the same model in hand - they would played differently too. Who knows?
Actually firstly i bought apolonia, and couldn’t handle it. I played for few sessions and it went to my closet. At the same week i went to the shop and took for myself innerfoce zlc and it goes just right from the first session. It was so easy to control, since it was significantly softer and shorter curve/speed. It became my favorite blade for 2 or 3 month’s. After that i have decide to give another try to Apolonia and in this time a was able to handle it easily and it became my main blade.
So, my experience telling me, that innerforce zlc is more user friendly, just easier to play with - it goes good for amateurs, since it slower and softer. It’s almost like allwood. My first carbon blade.
Now, let’s see how Franziska will show up among these zlc’s 🤓

Butterfly's marketing wins again

 

[SleepyMaster]

It’s just like some people can’t see the difference between 120, 240 and 360 hz monitors, they are the same “fast gaming” for them. But in reality, those are similar but really different stories 🙂

 

[DukeGaGa]

It’s just like some people can’t see the difference between 120, 240 and 360 hz monitors, they are the same “fast gaming” for them. But in reality, those are similar but really different stories 🙂

That's a really bad analogy. No one is saying there is no difference, it's that the difference isn't because of the model is different, since the exact same difference can be found among the same model as well. The difference is due to the material variances for different batches, i.e. wood from different trees or different parts of a tree. Even Butterfly's own chart says they're the same, but people just won't believe that, they want to believe that they spent extra money on something different.

 

[SleepyMaster]

Butterfly's marketing wins again

yeah, maybe but we can only talk about our own experience. In my case it was like that.
I tried few times to came back to innerforce zlc, just for the feeling and curiosity believe me - it’s definitely not “totally the same” like Apolonia bc i play with it almost every day

 

[DukeGaGa]

yeah, maybe but we can only talk about our own experience. In my case it was like that.
I tried few times to came back to innerforce zlc, just for the feeling and curiosity believe me - it’s definitely not “totally the same” like Apolonia bc i play with it almost every day

then you should test a few different innerforce zlc and try those, then blind test all of them to see if you can tell which one is which.

 

[SleepyMaster]

That's a really bad analogy. No one is saying there is no difference, it's that the difference isn't because of the model is different, since the exact same difference can be found among the same model as well. The difference is due to the material variances for different batches, i.e. wood from different trees or different parts of a tree. Even Butterfly's own chart says they're the same, but people just won't believe that, they want to believe that they spent extra money on something different.

I don’t really care about spending extra something on my hobby, actually i enjoying doing it. So if these blades has been the same - I’ll easily accepted it and go on. There is no point for me to believe or not to believe in something, because i can just try it - and figured out by myself

 

[DukeGaGa]

I don’t really care about spending extra something on my hobby, actually i enjoying doing it. So if these blades has been the same - I’ll easily accepted it and go on. There is no point for me to believe or not to believe in something, because i can just try it - and figured out by myself

Like I said, Butterfly's marketing wins again

Btw you're clearly believing that blades of same composition, produced by the same company, yields different results just because they're named differently.

Oh and I have to make something clear, I'm only talking about the blades consumer can purchase, not the ones used by the players themselves. If a player is sponsored by Butterfly, or any other company, and uses a custom made blade, those will be tuned to that players liking no doubt. But the consumer blades aren't like that. Case in point, two FZD ALC can easily differ in weight by 10g, that means the density of these blades are very different, which also means the CG is different. All of these affects the play characteristics of the blade.

 

[SleepyMaster]

then you should test a few different innerforce zlc and try those, then blind test all of them to see if you can tell which one is which.

With the same amount of force those zlc’s gives you balls with different trajectory and arc, thats the difference in speed, and it’s obvious in those blades even with a blind test. I’ll easily recognize one from another. But maybe for some one, it would be “the same” we all have different tools and feeling to give a review on something. Someone played 10 years on plus minus same level, another one will progress quicker in one year. And if we asked them about the feeling of game, they would give you different answers

 

[SleepyMaster]

Like I said, Butterfly's marketing wins again

Btw you're clearly believing that blades of same composition, produced by the same company, yields different results just because they're named differently.

Oh and I have to make something clear, I'm only talking about the blades consumer can purchase, not the ones used by the players themselves. If a player is sponsored by Butterfly, or any other company, and uses a custom made blade, those will be tuned to that players liking no doubt. But the consumer blades aren't like that. Case in point, two FZD ALC can easily differ in weight by 10g, that means the density of these blades are very different, which also means the CG is different. All of these affects the play characteristics of the blade.

Ofc blades weight is a important factor for playing characteristics, i always try to pick 88-89 gr. But maybe in realty it’s only a 3 or 4 the same carbon types and compositions of blades with a different names and handles who know? I guess, only bty managers 😁

 

[DukeGaGa]

With the same amount of force those zlc’s gives you balls with different trajectory and arc, thats the difference in speed, and it’s obvious in those blades even with a blind test. I’ll easily recognize one from another. But maybe for some one, it would be “the same” we all have different tools and feeling to give a review on something. Someone played 10 years on plus minus same level, another one will progress quicker in one year. And if we asked them about the feeling of game, they would give you different answers

So you are saying if you find a few innerforce zlc's and test them all, they'll feel different, just like comparing your innerforce zlc and apolonia will feel different? You just proved my point then.

 

[SleepyMaster]

Ofc blades weight is a important factor for playing characteristics, i always try to pick 88-89 gr. But maybe in realty it’s only a 3 or 4 the same carbon types and compositions of blades with a different names and handles who know? I guess, only bty managers 😁

Like I said, Butterfly's marketing wins again

Btw you're clearly believing that blades of same composition, produced by the same company, yields different results just because they're named differently.

Oh and I have to make something clear, I'm only talking about the blades consumer can purchase, not the ones used by the players themselves. If a player is sponsored by Butterfly, or any other company, and uses a custom made blade, those will be tuned to that players liking no doubt. But the consumer blades aren't like that. Case in point, two FZD ALC can easily differ in weight by 10g, that means the density of these blades are very different, which also means the CG is different. All of these affects the play characteristics of the blade.

Like I said, Butterfly's marketing wins again

Btw you're clearly believing that blades of same composition, produced by the same company, yields different results just because they're named differently.

Oh and I have to make something clear, I'm only talking about the blades consumer can purchase, not the ones used by the players themselves. If a player is sponsored by Butterfly, or any other company, and uses a custom made blade, those will be tuned to that players liking no doubt. But the consumer blades aren't like that. Case in point, two FZD ALC can easily differ in weight by 10g, that means the density of these blades are very different, which also means the CG is different. All of these affects the play characteristics of the

So you are saying if you find a few innerforce zlc's and test them all, they'll feel different, just like comparing your innerforce zlc and apolonia will feel different? You just proved my point then.

No, I’m only saying about that models that i own. Not bothering some one else’s. People around me not really into innerforce, they are more Timo Ball alc, and JangJike zlc/szlc types of a rackets. Plus most of them using different rubbers, mostly tenergy 05 and 05fx.
But I’m curious, what you think, Ball alc and Jike alc is the same too?

 

[DukeGaGa]

Back to topic.

Just ordered a Hina Hayata H2 on TaoBao, since no where else is in stock other than nishohi.com, but their price is higher and doesn't have the weight I prefer. Also got the Franziska ZLC from megaspin.