Review Yinhe Moon 12 Blue

[longle]

Hello, thank you for your information.
I am playing Andro Plasma 430 on BH. Would be Yinhe Moon 12 similar or significantly slower or totally different characteristic? And which hardnes would be the most close to Andro 43°?
Thanks and have a nice day!

I tried that rubber years ago so maybe my points are not accurate. But I think Moon 12 Blue M+ will be the most similar. It's a bit faster than Plasma.

 

[Zwill]

I tried that rubber years ago so maybe my points are not accurate. But I think Moon 12 Blue M+ will be the most similar. It's a bit faster than Plasma.

Even the Moon 12 M- is significantly harder than Plasma 430. 430 should be like FX-S and Rakza 7 Soft.

 

[Yenda]

Even the Moon 12 M- is significantly harder than Plasma 430. 430 should be like FX-S and Rakza 7 Soft.

Ok, thanks. My FH rubber is Reactor Tornado v5. BH should be just a little bit softer, so is M+ or M- better? And do you know what is the sponge thickness?

 

[Zwill]

Actually I don't know this Reactor rubber so I can't comment on that.
But the Moon 12 M- is closer in hardness to Plasma 430 than M+. Despite this is the softest Moon 12 it still will be a bit more hard than the Plasma 430.
To me the M- felt around 45-46 hard in ESN hardness standard, Plasma 430 is 43 degrees.

 

[Fnub]

Ok, thanks. My FH rubber is Reactor Tornado v5. BH should be just a little bit softer, so is M+ or M- better? And do you know what is the sponge thickness?

What hardness is V5? I own M12 M+ and V5 37,5(the hardest one). I feel M+ is quite harder, I'd say 3 ESN degrees harder. I think M- could be an option.

 

[U871247]

I had a bad experience with my moon 12 though. So I purchased it last month and put it on my BH to replace my rakza 7 but when I do hard chops in the short game I feel the ball slides a little on the topsheet and it really bothered me a lot like it even annoyed me to the point where my focus is getting affected. So I just removed it and ordered h8-80 and was super satisfied with how grippy and tacky it is. Maybe I just had a bad batch of moon 12 blue

 

[mshadabalam]

I have been using Moon 12 blue for quite a time. I have Hurricane 3 NEO 40 (black) for FH and Moon 12 blue for back hand. I use Stuor Long 5 ZLC. Below are my observation.

Facing ball,
1 Slow speed = You really need to use force in order to push tha ball over net. If you think, sponge will take your ball off the net, then its your misconception. It wont do nothing if you just touch the slow ball and it will hit net guaranteed. Serves are very hard with slow speed either. Chances are you will hit the net.

2 Medium speed= This is the area where moon 12 excel. You will love its bouncy mechanism and it spin will get activated when dealing with medium speed ball. You will have an excellent amount of control and can play variation of shot at medium speed. Service will be great too at medium speed with some good spin and curve.

3 Fast Speed= well, as reported by many members, you will feel like you are playing with wood. When you smash hard, a tic sound will come from the wood and will penetrate rubber + sponge to the wood. Speed wont be as fast because at fast speed, Sponge rebound mechanism deminishes and mostly force will come from my carbon wood. Serves are very good with fast speed but keep in mind, Somehow you are prone to lose accuracy in highspeed serves.


as fas as hurricane 3 neo (unboosted) is concerend, i found it extremely good for both FH and BH. When you smash hard, both wood and sponge will work together in H3 NEO 40. You will get explosive amount of speed and ball will go on fire. The best part is, you dont even lose control even at high speed which is kind of crazy.

 

[Grumms]

What is the Stuor Long 5 ZLC? The Stuor Long 5 are not advertised as ZLC usually.

 

[mshadabalam]

What is the Stuor Long 5 ZLC? The Stuor Long 5 are not advertised as ZLC usually.

Here in this link, you can see https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006249146927.html

Well its a fake raplica of Stiga cybershape. Due to shortage of money, I opted for this copy.

Some link also advertise stuor long 5 as Yellow Carbon as you can see in below link.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006584297333.html?

 

[Larshos]

Should I go for the M+ or M- for a blade like YEO?

 

[mocker88]

Should I go for the M+ or M- for a blade like YEO?

Well. Both of these will work fine with this blade. The M+ is closer to the Big Dipper 38deg than the M- for you to compare.

 

[longle]

Should I go for the M+ or M- for a blade like YEO?

YEO is a soft blade, I think it will go better with H-

 

[Larshos]

YEO is said to be a pretty hard blade, no? Hard, but flexible..?

 

[longle]

YEO is said to be a pretty hard blade, no? Hard, but flexible..?

yes it can be as you said, top layer is hard Walnut wood, but the overall blade is flexible. I'd prefer it with medium hard rubbers (I used the blade with H3/Rakza 7 years ago)

 

[NetProphet]

Should I go for the M+ or M- for a blade like YEO?

The M- is very soft. It offers good spin and good control, control in so far as you have to put all the power into the ball as the sponge is not adding much. Compared even to Rakza 7 it's a pussy cat. So it depends on your level.
If you want something with just a bit more attacking potential then I would choose the M+

 

[Larshos]

I'll go with the M+ then

 

[Tyce]

I think this rubber is overhyped and performs worse in basically every aspect than an AK47. Which if I'm being honest isn't fit for intermediate play either.
Grip is low, the only reason it seems controlled is because the topsheet is practically anti compared to a Rakza 7, Vega Europe and even ak47.
You have to hit through the topsheet to generate any kind of decent ball, which is fine in itself, but that quality is much better with a rubber that's actually tacky.
Ak47 makes up for that by having a grippier topsheet, but it's still not good for a grippy rubber, nor good for a tacky one (because it's not tacky) basically these rubbers are the worst of both worlds.
It's the only rubber I chucked straight in the bin after a couple of hours testing.

Now, that's not saying there isn't a market for these rubbers, as apparently they sell well. I just want to get some nuance on the expectations here. Certain hype trains exist on these forums, raising expectations in some people's minds, and Moon 12 blue has been one of them. Ak47 another, but I'm actually still using that to reasonable success.

 

[Angerer]

My experience with Moon 12 (medium) was also a disappointment. Maybe it was the rubbers I compared it to, but it felt like several leagues below the competitors (Hammond Z2, Omega 5 tour, and H3N Nat Bs 40) during a 3-4 hour session. I think the rubber is made solely for the backhand, because it just plays bad on the forehand.
I will try to break it down a bit:

1) grip - good, the rubber feels semi-tacky and grips the ball well.
2) blocking - good but not excellent. I expected the block to be a bit better, especially after I applied 2 thick layers of booster. Without a booster the rebound was so low I was scared I wasn't going to send the ball over the net. So it's pretty easy to block the balls, the rubber kills the incoming spin and returns slow awkward half-long balls. However, an experienced opponent can keep going with attacks as such blocks don't pose any threat.
3) flat hitting - average. Although it's pretty easy to hit the ball, the speed has its limits, which aren't high.
4) topspin/spin - just BAD. It's easy to spin the ball to a certain degree, but the amount of that is spin low. At no point was I or my partner able to spin the ball where it would be dangerous.
5) serve/receive - below average. The rubber produces little spin on serves. While it's good at ignoring the incoming spin during receiving, you also don't produce much of your own.

The rubber felt much deader than I expected. For me, it only became playable after a booster, and even then it was much slower than soft European hybrids.
The feel was very similar to softer versions of Jupiter 2 but way less tacky.
I think it's a decent rubber for beginners and I even wish I started my TT journey with this rubber instead of Venus/Mars/Mercury/Jupiter. It's all about control but it also doesn't cause trouble for opponents.

 

[Attitude]

I think this rubber is overhyped and performs worse in basically every aspect than an AK47. Which if I'm being honest isn't fit for intermediate play either.
Grip is low, the only reason it seems controlled is because the topsheet is practically anti compared to a Rakza 7, Vega Europe and even ak47.
You have to hit through the topsheet to generate any kind of decent ball, which is fine in itself, but that quality is much better with a rubber that's actually tacky.
Ak47 makes up for that by having a grippier topsheet, but it's still not good for a grippy rubber, nor good for a tacky one (because it's not tacky) basically these rubbers are the worst of both worlds.
It's the only rubber I chucked straight in the bin after a couple of hours testing.

Now, that's not saying there isn't a market for these rubbers, as apparently they sell well. I just want to get some nuance on the expectations here. Certain hype trains exist on these forums, raising expectations in some people's minds, and Moon 12 blue has been one of them. Ak47 another, but I'm actually still using that to reasonable success.

I hardly disagree.
Especially the tacky=quality aspect. That is just wrong on so many levels.

I cant say anything to your AK47 comparison because i never played that rubber.

To the other statements:
Grip is low - either you picked a hard(er) version of the rubber that you cant penetrate or we need to reevaluate your definition of grip. Grip especially is something that Moon Blue 12 is quite good at.

Anti compared to... - Rakza 7 is faster, but far from grippier, especially Vega Europe is on the same level at best. But i would rate it lower overall (maybe same speed).

Just to put it into perspective - i relearned and developed my backhand with it, which is now one of my strongsuits. I will probably be able to post a longer video with LAC and my current backhand level. Here is a little clip for that, in case it helps to compare yourself.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

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[Attitude]

My experience with Moon 12 (medium) was also a disappointment. Maybe it was the rubbers I compared it to, but it felt like several leagues below the competitors (Hammond Z2, Omega 5 tour, and H3N Nat Bs 40) during a 3-4 hour session. I think the rubber is made solely for the backhand, because it just plays bad on the forehand.
I will try to break it down a bit:

1) grip - good, the rubber feels semi-tacky and grips the ball well.
2) blocking - good but not excellent. I expected the block to be a bit better, especially after I applied 2 thick layers of booster. Without a booster the rebound was so low I was scared I wasn't going to send the ball over the net. So it's pretty easy to block the balls, the rubber kills the incoming spin and returns slow awkward half-long balls. However, an experienced opponent can keep going with attacks as such blocks don't pose any threat.
3) flat hitting - average. Although it's pretty easy to hit the ball, the speed has its limits, which aren't high.
4) topspin/spin - just BAD. It's easy to spin the ball to a certain degree, but the amount of that is spin low. At no point was I or my partner able to spin the ball where it would be dangerous.
5) serve/receive - below average. The rubber produces little spin on serves. While it's good at ignoring the incoming spin during receiving, you also don't produce much of your own.

The rubber felt much deader than I expected. For me, it only became playable after a booster, and even then it was much slower than soft European hybrids.
The feel was very similar to softer versions of Jupiter 2 but way less tacky.
I think it's a decent rubber for beginners and I even wish I started my TT journey with this rubber instead of Venus/Mars/Mercury/Jupiter. It's all about control but it also doesn't cause trouble for opponents.

The mentioned rubbers are far from being a competitor to Moon Blue 12. Completely different department of rubbers and most certainly a whole different kind of level of player. While most the mentioned rubbers are quite advanced, Moon Blue 12 can be played for developing things, and to control stuff.
In my review i wrote several usecases for that rubber, that are far from the ones mentioned by you^^

And yes that rubber can be played for fh by beginners (maybe) but if you developed some kind of decent fh, you need the harder versions or better - a total different rubber.
For bh however it can be used quite well.