OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Gangster was pretty good with the old ball, but even with the old ball, the ball stayed a bit higher on blocks than with what I saw with the new ball with Troublemaker, and Gangster wasn't as good for attacking. Chopping is also much better with Troublemaker. I eventually switched from Gangster to Desperado 2 (this was still with the old ball) because the ball stayed lower and attacking was easier. I had to stop using Desperado 2 after the ABS ball came in, and I found my control and spin reversal weren't as good with that LP anymore. I never tried Gangster with the new ball, but I strongly suspect Troublemaker is the better choice. If you're not experiencing the issue of pips falling off, I'd definitely stick with it.

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I. Re-Impact Tachi Plus 2019; FH: Nittaku FastArc G-1 1.4mm; BH: Saviga 77 Monster OX
II. Re-Impact Turbo; FH: Spinlord Sandwind 1.5mm; BH: DMS Kamikaze OX
III. Re-Impact Smart; FH: TSP Spinpips RED 2.1mm; BH: Dr. Neubauer Gangster OX
IV. Sauer & Troger Firestarter; FH: Spinlord Waran 1.8mm; BH: Giant Dragon Snowflake OX

Thanks for sharing your experience! Thankfully, I have not experienced pips falling off of Troublemaker yet. My fried who plays Gangster just had to get a new sheet because he had some pips fall off recently.

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"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

I played with Gangster on my Zeus blade last year. This was with the new ball.
I found that with Gangster on the backhand, I could attack well and control was good also. However the returns were high and there was little disruption.
With Troublemaker the control is much better and returns keep much lower and disruption is better also.
I have also played with Hellfire over the past few years using the new ball and of the three rubbers, I would rank Troublemaker at number one, Hellfire at number two and Gangster last.
With regard to pimples falling off, I have had no pimples falling off Troublemaker, Hellfire or Gangster over the past five years, when playing with these rubbers.

I changed to the new sheet of TM ox. It's much slower and grippier than my softened old sheet, that I put surprisingly many shots straight to the net. Many blocks shooted up to the sky. Braking effect is better in chopping. I wouldn't recommed moving to the new sheet right before tournament games.

That is what we call ' to wear out a rubber'.....always advisable, especially before competitions

In my latest tournament Tm + Deluxe Carbon worked really well so continuing my experimental stage I tried the set up suggested by mynamenotbob : Grubba all + + TM . This combination is much better . More control , more feeling with the ball and I reached the round of 16 again in the overall category .I beat players 1 division higher. Some friends of mine from other club were curious about Tm and asked me to lend them my bat for testing. They are choppers but want to defend closer to the table because of health issues, the age ..... they liked the rubber so much, they are thinking about getting a sheet in 1.0 mm .

Bottom line : those who found Tm useless must have used the wrong blade.

I have played with Troublemaker in both ox and with sponge.
I would tell your friends that Troublemaker in ox, is the better option.

My friends play with sponge ( 0.5 mm) and chop in both wings , then they counterattack with inverted when necessary . They tested Tm in ox but said the sponge version would suit them ; they have never played in ox . How better Tm plays with sponge for chopping, then? thank you .

My red TM plays much much better than the black one .Has anyone experienced this?

I have only played with red, charmander, and I really, really like it, especially without the gluesheet. However...just yesterday, lost 2 pips right smack in the centre of the sheet. So the durability issue has raised its head for me, as reported elsewhere. I'm gonna use it in a tournament tomorrow anyway as I don't imagine many will complain as it will be booster city in the hall, but I may have to think about continuing with it considering its cost vs longevity. I don't expect an LP sheet to last forever, any more than I would an inverted rubber, but a sheet of TM costs the same as a sheet of MXP I use on my FH, but has lasted only a third as long. I would expect to get six months out of an MXP barring any disasters and the odd restorative boost, and this sheet of TM has lasted 2 months. Hmmmm...

Great rubber though. Causes far more problems vs strong players with its short blocks and dipping trajectory than Dtecs, though Dtecs lasts forever. And when I used to use Dornenglanz, I didn't mind replacing it every 2 or 3 months b/c it only cost 20 quid or sometimes less. The Doc may need to drop the price to keep people--especially poor public servants like myself!--using it. Dilemma!

I haven't had any durability issues yet.Maybe it is because I don't usually hit much, just block and push and occasional chops .Yes, if durability issues persist I think DG is the better option; but again, you will be buying and changing rubbers every 3 months .

GD National team is just as expensive as TM but it lasts much longer. Also, it blocks great but the great problem is the no spin ball, especially fastish no spin balls .The good thing about TM is that it is slow, DG or GD NT are far speedier so controlling them is more complicated.Tm Is just so easy to play with . It seems some advantages in the LPS that work fine are accompanied by disadvantages .

The perfect pip is still to be discovered , however, i think the brands are not REALLY interested in durability since their goal is to make MONEY .

If DG had long durability, it would cost 40 / 45 € , business is business

I've been using TM since March, so nearly six months. Still no broken pips (I've never had a broken pip on any rubber). Can't really say I enjoy playing TM as much as some other pips I've used because it's not disruptive at all. However, TM has proven to be "best by test." I don't get free points like I do with so-called "disruptive" LPs, but TM is really good at distributing balls around the table and I have significantly fewer unforced errors. So I get better overall results because of the excellent control.

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The MNNB Blog has had some pretty amazing stuff lately. Just click this text to check it out. | My OOAK Interview
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My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

How does it compare with Bomb Talent MNNB? It appears to be slower with better control from reviews. Is that the case? If so, though I am a die-hard BT fan (the long pip I chose and still use as per your suggestion years ago), I am tempted in trying TM at some point. I use a Stiga Bengtsson all-wood all-round blade which according to general consensus is good for TM to work best. Suggestions/thoughts most welcome from the TT Oracle on OOAK forum

TT Oracle. lol. One thing I’ve noticed is that Bomb Talent seems to give problems to people who absolutely tee off on Troublemaker. So BT is way more disruptive and makes opponents play more cautiously. Sometimes you can almost dare them to attack.

With TM you really have to use sharp angles and move the ball around to keep them off balance or otherwise they’ll rip it by you.

For me, both BT and TM need a separate game strategy to be effective. With the ABS ball, the TM style seems to work better against about 80% of opponents.

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The MNNB Blog has had some pretty amazing stuff lately. Just click this text to check it out. | My OOAK Interview
Table Tennis Video Links: itTV | laola1.tv | ttbl | fftt | Challenger Series | mnnb-tv

My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

Thanks MNNB. Although it is tempting to try TM, I think I will continue with good old BT as I very much enjoy using and playing with this pip. Cheers,