OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Butterfly Raystorm short pimples: very grippy, soft tensioned short pimples





Butterflyonline says:

Softer pimples give more spin but they are often not fast enough. This factor has now been overcome through Butterfly's
original technology "High Tension," which adds enormous tension within the molecular structure of the rubber. Raystorm provides
a high level of control and great spin, while the "High Tension" adds the speed you always missed in a softer pimpled rubber sheet.

1. The reviewer: Intermediate level, inverted FH, short pips BH. Loop/hit. Only six months worth of SP play, though.
Played Butterfly Raystorm both on an Avalox P500 and P700.

2. Physical Properties: Red, 2.1mm, probably soft-medium hardness sponge, great quality sheet, very grippy feel
on the pips and ITTF stamp. Relatively big pips.

3. Speed:
- Speed on slow strokes: Slow-medium, bordering medium
- Speed on power loops: fast
- Speed on power drives/smashes: fast

4. Spin:
- Spin on a loop: approaching some inverted levels, especially when the sponge is also engaged.
- Spin on serves/pushes: Easy to generate heavy spin and variations. However, the no-spin variation might be a little tricky
to perform, but is still a lot easier to do than with inverted.

5. Control:
Easy blocking, a bit more sensitive to spin than most short pips, especially classic ones. Speed goes up linearly with
the use of the sponge.

6. Other Playing properties: Throw angle is high for a short pip. Blocked balls aren't very tricky for most people, but ironically,
the reviewer has met someone who uses Raystorm who could scrub off enough spin to make it difficult to sustain an attack using
a basic block. Very easy to hit through topspin, but exchanges that for ability to hit through underspin. There is confidence
for hitting at away from the table due to topsheet and sponge, but is not advised.

7. Reference: 802 on Avalox 40* Magic A 2.2mm red, 802-40 2.2mm red, 802-40 2.0mm red, Tyranno 2.0mm red,
Spectol 21 1.8mm red.

8. Other comments: It might be grippy, but it is still short pips - effects and ability remain. Probably works best with
a very aggressive topspin/flat hit attack style, with the ability to perform fast and spinny rolls. Would not probably suit a more
relaxed block-and-hit style as the blocks tend not to be tricky enough to create an opening for hitting.

9. Why buy?: Starting out to try short pips, this pip is very highly recommended as it makes for an easy transition from
inverted to SP. It's relatively high throw angle (than other SPs) is very accommodating for both fast active blocking and hitting.

It's interesting to see in the Japanese website that they have something thicker than 2.2/2.1mm -- there's a figure for max (4.0mm?)
which would probably mean more sponge, nearing the 4.0mm sandwich rubber thickness limit rule.

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Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.

Raystorm is by far the best short pip I have ever played with, and I have used many but keep coming back to this one. My second favorite is 802-40, and Hammond FA.

Yuz, give Raystorm a try sometime in the black, it is even better than the red version.

The stuff is very spinny, and fast, but controlably soft. I like it in the max thickness, 1.8 mm not bad either.

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

Wery nice review Yuzuki,

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Blade:
F/H:
B/H:

I haven't tried it in black, might be good for me. I personally like black 802 over the red one, odd.

Indeed, very spinny, but retains a lot of the short pip characteristics (hit through spin, blocking). It also allows me to lend someone a bat and have a hit (but don't tell them that they're using short pips, they tend to compensate and hit the balls wrong. )

Wait, you mentioned max thickness -- is 2.1mm the max thickness?

I might try it again black, but I'm pretty afraid of messing up because I keep changing what I'm using.

How about placing your review of Raystorm here, Baal? You have been using this pip for a long time already - a few comments will be welcome!

--

Thanks purger! Hopefully someone finds them useful!

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Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.

Sure.

Yes, 2.1 mm is the max. It is what I have used except for a brief time when I tried the next thinner one (1.8 if I recall correctly). The thinner version felt good, but made me play worse, especially on blocking, something I wrote about at length once and is in the archives of this site.

Raystorm is without a doubt the spinniest SP on the planet because the top sheet is unusually soft, the pips are large in diameter, quite short and very sticky. The top sheet is soft, the rubber is tuned, which is why it retains speed. It is the easiest transition from inverted because it plays most like inverted. However it is a very fast short pip, because of the sponge, and offers most of the advantages of pips on hitting through spin, returning serve, attacking short balls, but it does not give much pips "effect" to your opponent, at least not like some other rubbers. It has an amazing number of gears. You can block slow and flat, or you can hit really really hard. It is great for flicking, rolling, and even looping. The loops can be slow, low, and deceptively spinny. It is very forgiving to the user. It is not likely to provide a great deal of deception to the opponent, although quite enough for me to get plenty of easy free points in every match.

People who are looking for something that will make their opponents miss by hitting in the net will not like this one. But in combination with an inverted forehand it is very effective.

Butterfly Flarestorm is harder, stranger, a bit more like Spectol. If you are looking for a Butterfly short pips that makes people hit in the net, that is a good choice, but it is harder to use.

Raystorm does not always give you the very hard short pips "whack" that some people like, at least not at 2.1 thickness. People who need that feeling (which is really nothing more than bottoming out the sponge) should use it in a thinner version. However, I found myself able to block with more control with the thicker versions that never bottom out.

It is not cheap. In the US a sheet runs about 31 dollars, a lot more than 802-40. If money was an issue for me I would use 802-40 instead. Luckily for me it's not enough of an issue to keep me from using the rubbers I like best, and I like Raystorm more than any of the others. 802-40 and Hammond FA come closet in my experience (Hammond FA is the same price), but Raystorm is like driving a Lexus instead of a Toyota.

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

Raystorm has vertically oriented pips. 802-40 and most of the other spinny SPs have horizontally oriented ones. This could be significant information for some people, I have heard penholders prefer the horizontal orientation, shakehands prefer vertical, that may or may not be significant.

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

Very nice review Yuzuki!

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raystorm is on sale at my local retailer. Should I go for it?

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Xiom Sigma Pro 2.0
Xiom O4 Asia 2.0
Xiom win with us.

You won't regret it for a second.

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

what's a better blade for raystorm Clipper or Gergely?

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Xiom Sigma Pro 2.0
Xiom O4 Asia 2.0
Xiom win with us.

I've never tried them with a Gergely so can't say which is better, but they are really nice with a Clipper. Ought to be pretty good both ways.

Generally my experience is that I pick my blades to suit my inverted forehand since the Raystorm seems to do pretty much the same thing, more or less, on almost any fast blade.

The arylate carbon (soft feel) Viscaria that I play with would be generally considered to be a poor choice for a SP player, but it makes my forehand inverted side better.

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

I've played the Raystorm ( 1,7mm ) for quite a while and after it was declared that BTY will not continue to sell this rubber I've changed to 802-40 in 2,0mm. I'm happy now with this new and cheap FS rubber...btw: perfect review !

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Defense Blade with pimples on one side ...

Where was that declared? I still see it on Butterfly USA web site.

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

i wonder if raystrom is good for a shortpip chopper. say, in 1.3 thickness. how does it compare to challenger attack? thanks!

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Blade: NITTAKU Haneyoshi
FH: Tenergy 64 FX
BH: TSP Spectol

In the US, at least, its not sold thinner than 1.9

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