Hinoki blades with Chinese rubbers?

[lodro]

Yeah, Loki did the same thing with the Rxton 3 blue - radically different topsheet and sponge, but given the same name as the regular rubber due to their common pimple architecture... but with the R3Blue, it also made it a better rubber.The R3 was always pretty good, but the R3 Blue is a cracker! 😎 Very fast, spinny, and tacky with a good short game, but just like the T3 you need to play it in heavily to see it at its best (..and, just like the R5, it's far superior in both performance and longevity to a stock-standard H3).

As we are already off-topic : Don't know if you noticed that Loki quietly and sneakingly also brought out a new RXTON V with blue sponge, which they claim to have imported from Europe.

The number remained the same, 158-007 but the sponges are blue AND you can only get the rubbers if you purchase a complete racket
the LOKI 7 Star.

www.aliexpress.com/item/4001245035400.html?spm=a2g0o.store_pc_groupList.8148356.7.4ef5143bWn9IjV&pdp_npi=2%40dis!NZD!NZ%24 88.17!NZ%24 53.47!!!!!%40210321c716751558765735609e19e4!12000023404735052!sh

First I was going to get a unit just to score thew rubbers then got tricked into buying a DINGTIAN blue sponge version.

 

[Wakkibatty]

As we are already off-topic : Don't know if you noticed that Loki quietly and sneakingly also brought out a new RXTON V with blue sponge, which they claim to have imported from Europe.

The number remained the same, 158-007 but the sponges are blue AND you can only get the rubbers if you purchase a complete racket
the LOKI 7 Star.

www.aliexpress.com/item/4001245035400.html?spm=a2g0o.store_pc_groupList.8148356.7.4ef5143bWn9IjV&pdp_npi=2%40dis!NZD!NZ%24 88.17!NZ%24 53.47!!!!!%40210321c716751558765735609e19e4!12000023404735052!sh

First I was going to get a unit just to score thew rubbers then got tricked into buying a DINGTIAN blue sponge version.

Wasn't aware of that, thanks for the heads up. IIRC, I think they did something similar with their Rxton 3 rubbers fitted to their own blades as well.

The LARC number staying the same makes sense, as apparently the ITTF only authorise the top sheet, not the sponge (or so I hear).

If that's correct, it means Loki can quite easily swap sponges to get a different performing rubber sheet, as well as change the formulation of the rubber used in the top sheet (which they have done numerous times now -- the Rxton 1 now also has a special version with an open-pored carbon sponge, not their usual cake sponge).

It seems so long as the pimple structure in a rubber remains unchanged there's no problem with these changes, and they don't need to issue another LARC.

...which tells me that logically, the ITTF don't really authorise the end result rubber per se -- what they really authorise is the rubber mould which the top-sheet comes from.