OOAK Table Tennis Forum

This is a new a new rubber from Sanwei. Sanwei have been around for many years, but recently seem to have become a bit more serious about rubbers. Fellow member and friend Pimple Lover, who runs a shop and Thai website (http://www.pimplelover.pantown.com) kindly let me try a sample of some of the Sanwei products, so that I could review them here.

The new T88-TAIJI rubber comes in one of the new vacuum sealed packages as shown below. This one is not one of the factory tuned rubbers that some of the other manufacturers use, but I personally would like to see all new rubbers use this type of packaging, as I'm sure it keeps the rubber fresher for much longer and protects it from the elements.











I like the very clear markings about thickness, hardness, which should be done for all rubbers IMO.

I forgot to measure Sponge hardness, but I would guess it's a little softer than the GEARS rubber, perhaps around 38deg, with reference to my Sponge Hardness Table.

Upon opening the packet, the sheet looked in fresh and excellent condition. It was cut very clean and no signs on any imperfections. Sponge colour looked yellow/orange, and similar to many Japanese sponges I've seen used by other Chinese manufacturers. It looked a little more porous than typical Chinese sponges. Topsheet was smooth with a bit a of a shine, and the print was very clear and sharp. It felt a little firmer than something like Globe 999 but not really hard. The topsheet came with a very thin adhesive plastic protection sheet, which when removed showed a completely non-tacky but very grippy topsheet.







The rubber had a slight dome, but this seem to be mainly due to the plastic protection sheet.

I glued the rubber onto my regular TSP Balsaplus 4.5 blade, so I can compare it other other rubbers I use regularly. On the other side I have the Air UPUPUP U5 Long Pimple. The sheet glued and cut easily. The topsheet and sponge are glued together VERY well, which is sometimes a problem with some Chinese sheets.

To be continued shortly...

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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

So how does it play?

Well when I first bounced a ball on it, it feels more springy than most Chinese tacky rubbers (which tend to have a 'dead' feel'). Hit it harder and the sponge starts to kick in, giving it quite a bit more speed.

For pushes and servers, the rubber felt very grippy, almost like a tacky rubber, so the spin was high, and the control excellent.

For looping, the rubber feels very nice, and really spinny. The topsheet is obviously quite soft and elastic, as you can really feel it grip the ball. A slower brush loop comes off very spinny and slow, almost like the 999 rubber, which I really liked. Brush loop a little harder and you get more spin as well as speed. Near the top end the spin seems to drop off a little but the rubber has pretty good speed. It has plenty of speed for close to medium distance from the table, but does not quite have the power for a long distance looping game.

This is a nice looping rubber and great for spinny controlled looping. I had the ball kicking off the table quite nicely a few times. The throw for loops seems medium-high.

For blocking the rubber was quite good but not outstanding. It seemed fairly insensitive to spin, and a passive block takes the pace off real well, while an aggriessive block produces good pace and is still very controllable but you have to watch the incoming spin a little.

Similarly for hitting and loop drive the pace was good and control/accuracy very good as well.

Even chopping was quite well controlled with this rubber! It truly a very nice alround rubber, with the focus on spin.

This rubber is somewhere between a euro and Chinese rubber, and certainly far from a typical Chinese rubber. It does not have any glue feel, and you have to generate most of your own pace, like many Chinese rubbers but the springy sponge certainly help in generating speed.

What does it feel close to? The closest that comes to mind would be Galaxy Venus, which is another rubber that I quite liked, although the topsheet on this one grips better (feels more elastic) and it's a little faster.

What style does it suit? A controlled and spin based looping game is probably clostest, but really it's a very nicely balanced rubber, so it can be used for most styles.

I'm not quite sure what he price of this rubber will be, but it's certainly worth considering as it seems of high quality and has some very nice characteristics. I would like to try it on another (faster) blade to see that it plays like on that, and would be happy to send it onto to anyone that would like to try it as well.

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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

Thanks for the review Alex.

Quite impress which is helping me confident to stock more since the price look reasonable for me (~ 15 USD).

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www.pimplelover.pantown.com

It seems to be close of the DHS Memo III no ?

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Blade = Butterfly Kong Linghui 'Special'
FH = 61 seconds Super 999T-1 2.2mm
BH = Yinhe Pluto 1.5mm

I have not tried that 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

In one week or less time, I will be trying both Memo 2 and 3, sadly without weight and hardness measuring since I lack that technology >_<

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"Si se imagina, se puede ^^"

Galaxy T-11+
FH: Donic Bluefire M3
BH: SpinLord Dornenglanz II (OX)

Are all of these vacum packed rubbers made in the same factory?

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Chasse Patate

I don't think so. I went to Sanwei factory where they made all Sanwei rubbers , they has a vacuum seal machine there. So, I assume that each manufacturor should have it. It's not so expensive.

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www.pimplelover.pantown.com

Did someone else try this rubber ?
Apparently it is a very popular one in China but I barely found any other information...

I have it as RPB on Sanwei Su Type. It is designed for BH. Priced pretty cheap in China but high quality. A decent classic Euro/Jap style Chinese rubber. Soft to the touch.

Ok
Do you know if it is slower than the Sanwei T88-I without the target sponge ?

Only one other Sanwei rubber I have is T88-II which is tacky for FH attack/loop. Taiji is meant for control with adequate speed and spin. T88-I should be the fastest of the bunch with big pips for fast attack players. Are there one without the Target sponge? I see all packages come with the same Target logo.

Isn't that a negative dome (or a, um, what term would one use - a bowl)? The sort of dome you get with speedglue is where the sponge side bulges out.

I've got some of the T88 "training" rubber coming - it comes in the vacuum pack, too. Don't know what it's called because what comes after the "T88-" is a Chinese character, which I can't read. The packet is blue. The main reason I went for it was because I was curious about the packaging, and it had that "copycat tensor" symbol. A price of $5 a sheet was an added incentive (it's usually sold for more than that).

Iskandar

Yep you can also buy T88-I without the fast target sponge (for example on ebay), this is my fh rubber. I'll probably try the Taiji on my backhand, it seems very interesting...

That blue package T88 is for children training according to description and like half the price of other T88. The Chinese characters said "Max Spin".