OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I was over at the Spin Mantra website and Vargese (spelling? sorry!) says, in regard to fakes: ""The ITTF’’s instruction to every manufacture is that they have to assemble the racket coverings or rubbers with sponge in a factory before releasing it to the market. This is done at a factory."

Interesting. I have bought several sheets of RITC 802, some in sponge and some in topsheet only. (from ZeroPong and from SpeedyBats.) I have received two distinctly different topsheets both claiming to be 802. One sheet has smaller pimples. It feels thicker and less pliable, heavy. The other style has wider pimples, a richer black and a more elastic, stretchy and lighter rubber. The packaging for the ones with smaller pimples looks aged and yellowed, whereas the packaging for the wider pimples appears fresher. Could this be an updated version of 802??? brought in a few years back with the 40mm ball? I like the wider pimpled one with the lighter more elastic topsheet. Unfortunately I have now got a bunch of the other stuff as well. It's irritating ordering what you hope is one thing and getting another. Anybody know what gives with the two versions both saying 802? Thanks.

That kind of thing is one reason I play with Butterfly Raystorm (which has the characteristics that you like -- soft, elastic, wide pips). It is expensive, but it is always the same.

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Butterfly Viscaria Black tag
2.2 mm Nexy Karis M on FH and BH

When I first read it I thought it would of been the 802-40 and the 802, but I can see that the rubber is both labeled 802.
I know in the past with normal rubber they would change it and it would vary from batch to batch, perhaps this is the case with your one Joe.

As with Varg, I dont even know what he is on about. Of course you can assemble the rubber yourself it does not need to be applied only in the factory.

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the re-evolution of war
Bty Gergely Palio Macro Era 42.5 Max DHS H2 Max

I have not heard of a change to the version... possible one is a fake?

No idea what Varge is on about either... sheets are sold by the factory with and without sponge.... the pips should be exactly the same, only the basesheet is sometimes reinforced on the OX sheet, which is allowed...

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I've had the same experience with 802, except I had an original sheet and the two replacements I ordered were different from each other and from the original sheet I was replacing so there were three different rubbers. The one red sheet was obviously different and the two black sheets were similar but still noticeably different, maybe batch or cut variations?. There's been some variation with 563 sheets as well, but all five of my 799 sheets are the same.

The one thing I did notice on the ox sheets was that the address on the packaging was different, one was:
No. 15, Hai-Tai North-South Street, Hua Yuan Industrial Park. The other was:
No. 9 Shuanghai Road, Beichen Economic Development Area.

What I do now is buy the mystery sponge versions and peel them off the sponges if I need to, so far all the topsheets have been the same.
Maybe Friendship has or had different factories or moulds for different versions of the same rubber?

I'm glad I'm not the only one! I too have three versions in front of me but I wasn't sure how to describe them as two are close. One version (in red) has smaller pimples which are not cylindrical but slightly conical! (The other two versions both have larger, cylindrical pips.) The tops of the pimples are smaller diameter than the bottoms. So when you look down at them from above they appear rounded, if you know what I mean. It came in the older style of packaging (not the picture of the eagle but the red grid graphics ala 2001 A Space Odessey (the end where the guy is going through the wormhole/lightshow or whatever it is). The packaging is so old it's kinda yellowed and faded. This one came with the 729 medium sponge. the ordinary orange one. The black I ordered at the same time also came in the same packaging but was not faded and yellowed. This black came with a white sponge labelled "729 Super Soft Sponge 35 degrees". It has much larger pimples than the conical pimples red sheet and slightly larger pimples than the other black sheet. It's the rich-black, light and elastic one I described earlier. The third rubber I have in black and red and came without sponges. They are identical to each other but not to the other two. This third version has cylindical pimples, larger than the conical pipped version but smaller diameter than the rich black version. And guess what. The pimples are shorter! than the other two versions. Yikes. I suspect that (supported by the yellowed packaging of the smaller conical version) at some point RITC changed 802 for the larger 40mm ball but that they continue to send out old stock. This doesn't explain 3 different versions. So yes, three different molds and maybe some variances in rubber formulation. I guess Baal says it all, to paraphrase, you gets what you pays for.

Note: All sheets say only 802, not 802-1 or 802-40, just plain "802". Annoying.

They've always had different packaging for the OX version (ie the eagle) as compared to their sponged version (grid in space), although I've seen them mixed up in the past.

All the ones I've seen look very similar... I have not looked closely enough to notice any differences, but I will next time I see one....

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

One of the consequences of the Durban ruling which enforced the rule about minimum pip height (1 mm) and width to height ratio was that some versions of short pips needed to be redone. I remember 889 (not 889-2) falling below the threshold, along with 652, 802 and 563 so they needed to come out with new versions with slightly longer and/or wider pips.

Here's a link to the discussion: http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.asp ... &tid=17279

So my guess is that shorter versions of 802 are older stock that didn't get sold. Of course Friendship may also have updated 802 and didn't say anything about it, like DHS updated 651.

As to the sponge/topsheet thing, the ITTF only approves topsheets. Sponge simply has to adhere to rules such as being a single layer which keeps maximum thickness below 4mm for the complete sandwich sheet. I don't think Varghese knows what he is talking about.

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-- Andrew

Spintech All Around Penhold blade
Spinlord Keiler II 1.5 black
Nittaku FastArc G1 red

729 all around blade
Tibhar Grass D-Tec S Red
Nittaku FastArc G1 black

Thanks for the link. Am reading the discussion with interest.

Please, post pictures of the two rubbers including the logo.

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Senkoh 5
Radical 1.8.

Hi Strategist - I tried taking a picture of the rubbers when I started the thread. I was hoping for a nice sharply focused close-up like I see other people post. Mine's blurry and uninformative I'm afraid. Lack of photo-taking skills and crap camera probably. I may try again some day...if I can find the bloody camera.

Hello!

Actually, there are at least 3 versions of the RITC 802 topsheet. All professional players use the one which has a line above the logo. See below:






The topsheet on the last picture is of highest quality and pips show no deviations from the pattern. The million dollar question is where to buy it.

Very interesting ChichoFicho, and welcome to the forum!

Weird why they would make a different version just for the Pros...

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Friendship 802 with line can be bought from Zeropong.

Hello haggisv,
I didn't say they made a different version aimed at professional players. They are, after all, not allowed to do so, at least with regard to the topsheets. It is just that all professional players use the one with the line above the logo. This is the version that chinese players bring with them when coming to Europe. All 802 topsheets that I have ordered from different sites does not have that line and are of worse quality compared to the version on the picture above.
My understanding is that different versions are produced in different factories around China.