OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Player and pimple skill aside, from the video Hellfire X and Unicorn seems to be a good combination for long pips players.

Looks to be a serious amount of under spin chopping from further away

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Tsp Black Balsa 3.0 Tenergy 05 1.9 388d ox black

It does seem to work alright.Congratulations to Sauer & Tröger! .However,I now prefer softer pips because they perform much better for pushing the no spin ball.Also, the price is not appealing but I understand that searching for a new kind of pips must be hard enough to put a hefty tag price on .

Besides,pips like Dawei 388-D1,BT,Saviga 77M,DG, do work very well with the new ball and you can get 2x DG,2x Saviga 77M ,about 3 x BT and about 8x Dawei 388-D1 for the price of one sheet of Hellfire X.

Finally, can you imagine nearly everybody playing with Hellfire X? people will become used to it and know how to play against it.This is what happens when many people use a pip that works.It seems it has been happening the same in Sweden where DG is massively used?

It sounds I am against Hellfire X.No,just mention that all that glitters is not gold .

I explained this in a different thread, but just wanted to post an update here, since this is the thread devoted to this rubber. After having previously tried out the Hellfire X on my Re-Impact Tachi Plus 2019 blade (a soft, asymmetrical balsa blade), I decided to give it a try on my Nittaku Shake Defense blade (a harder blade known to be good for OX blocking that has carbon layers but is still light). I found there to be a world of difference:

- The spin reversal is still very high (possibly even a bit higher, the highest spin reversal I've seen in the post-ABS-ball era), but in contrast to what I saw with the balsa blade, the ball comes back very low. On strong loops, you often get a low, fast, often swerving trajectory with good spin reversal on your returns.

- If you chop-block, as opposed to blocking passively, the spin reversal increases substantially, of course.

- Attacking against underspin or no-spin was a tiny bit harder with this blade -- basically, because there is less dwell time than with the balsa blade, grazing doesn't work as well, but once you get the right angle down, you can pretty much just hit through most balls.

- The main difference between the Hellfire X on the two different blades, however, was chopping. As you can see in my previous comments in this thread, the main problem I had with the Hellfire X is that I couldn't chop consistently, an issue for me because against certain opponents or in certain situations, I find chopping to be more effective than blocking. Some people agreed with me, while others noted that they had no problem chopping with this rubber. Well, it looks like the issue was the blade+rubber combo. As soon as I switched to the Nittaku Shake Defense, chopping became super easy and consistent, and I get decent underpin on chops, not the highest I've ever seen (the Bomb Talent on my balsa blade created massive backspin and total consistency on chops), but enough to pose a good challenge to most opponents, so that they can't just tee off on the incoming ball.

With the chopping problem having been solved by the blade switch, I'm decently sure I'll stick with this rubber unless some new, miraculous innovation comes along. It seems to have everything I need: great low, decent-reversal passive blocking, easy chop-blocking, consistent chopping with decent spin and no problems attacking. The Hellfire X is on the slightly faster side with this blade (a bit faster than with my balsa blade), so it's a bit harder to keep the ball super short than with some other rubbers, such as the Bomb Talent, but with the right technique, you can still do 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

It would be great if you could report on durability. It seems the pips are medium hard , right?, .... hence, durability should be average or more than average ,....Also, it would be interesting to know how thick and sorft / hard your sponge is on your fh ,...

Can't tell you about durability thus far, since I've only been using this rubber for about three weeks, after having initially tried it for a week or so before that. Yes, the pips are medium-hard.

My forehand rubber is in my profile. It's the Fastarc C-1 with a 1.8 sponge. I was using the Fastarc G-1 with a 1.4 sponge on my balsa blade, but I found that with the harder, less bouncy surface of the Nittaku Shake Defense, the G-1 in 1.4mm was too hard and bottomed out too much, but the softer C-1 variant in 1.8 mm works very well.

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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

can't help but agree a 100% with this

I tried it but didn’t like it. It has a pretty low trajectory and great placement and control, but no spin on blocking at all. As soon as my opponents figured that out they would just start hitting instead of looping. The feedback I got was that the rubber is very predictable. I usually play with Spinlord BS on Andro Defcon and it’s a much trickier combo, in my opinion.

Must be the difference in blade, then, because I found it to be some of the highest spin reversal in the post-ABS era.

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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

I've lost five pips in the last week. My total time with this rubber is probably under three months, but I do play a bunch of times each week. Annoying that the durability isn't great, but I may stick with this one anyway because I find it so effective for my game.

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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

It seems it is not so suitable for a hitting LP game due to lack of durability.By the way,Spinlord Zeitgeist is great for that matter.Besides,you can get 2 x Spinlord Zeitgeist for the price of 1x Hellfire X .

Is a frictionless LP?

No. It has friction

I played against a couple of players that used Hellfire X in no sponge over the weekend at a tournament. It's a very tough pip to play against. Gave good reversal against my loops, and my opponents were able to attack effectively with it, especially against my anti spin. It created a lot of problems for me. I feel like it didn't have quite as much reversal as Grass D Tec, but the attacking possibilities that they had were better and more consistent.

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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

Coming from d.tecs and now using hellfire x, both in ox, I can agree with your findings.

Hellfire is like a slightly higher friction, slightly stiffer d.tecs rubber. The pure, passive reversal isn't as high - but it is also a tad slower, a tad easier to control. Plays somewhat similar to feint long 2, but with less grip.

I began missing a number of service returns due to the added spin sensitivity, coming from d.tecs. for me, the hellfire x has better control on all shots until the spin increases! Then you have to be more careful compared with d.tecs.

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SOULSPIN CUSTOM BLADES
Fh: Spinny rubber
Bh: Not so spinny rubber...