729 Blue Sponge

Is this the same rubber as the original 729 rubber from the 80's?

I remember that rubber being extremely slow.

I've played with it when returning to TT after my 30 year hiatus, hoping to find a semblance to the 729 rubber I used in the 80s - eggplant-coloured, very tacky, supple, well-tempered but not too slow. I still have a blade with an old sheet on it, and if I clean it it lifts the ball for a few seconds, even now, and it still plays well. As does the 30+ years old Sriver L on it, which after trying modern day Srivers that went unplayable in a few months makes me think things changed. But I digress.

Today's 729FX didn't play anything like the original 729. 729 FX/BS is a very hard rubber. The top sheet is not tacky and won't even begin to lift a ball. The blue sponge is only available with the black topsheet; in red you get an orange sponge which feels less hard. That I don't like, I like to start out with the same rubbers on both wings and then see where that leads. Not an option here.

Both are slow, and I couldn't squeeze much spin out. The red one even less so than the black one.

I don't boost; I didn't like speedgluing back then, felt the insecurity and volatility it created was detrimental to my focus. And I still don't like it now. So I can't speak about that, and it may be entirely possible that there are rituals to modify these rubbers that improve their playing quality for a little while.

There's a 729FX Super Soft, which has its merits as a beginner-level rubber. It's relatively affordable, controlled, and has sufficient grip to support all basic techniques. The regular version, not so much imho.

Nope. I heard of that it is just wasting booster. It does improve the performance to a limited extent, but why not using Hurricane? Hurricane is better in any way.

For me, boosting a training rubber doesn't make any sense.😁

The 729 blue sponge is harder/denser compared to the Hurricane blue sponge. The 729 blue sponge does react the booster better compared to the orange.
The 729 FX BS is definitely slower compared to hurricane, and I agree with the posters above, it's not nearly as tacky as it used to be in the 80s.
One thing with 729 rubbers is that they're usually glued together quite well, while with DHS (commercial versions ) it can be hit or miss, which makes it less risky to boost.