OOAK Table Tennis Forum

After playing few years with the DHS hurricane 3 prov blue sponge I changed in April this year to 729 Battle II.

I liked the Battle II from the beginning and for me it played even better than the H3 and it was easier to get a genuine one and for a fraction of the price from the H3. The speed is in my opinion higher with the B2 and it was also easy to control. It felt less death on passive strokes and smashing was better/easier. I tried different versions of the B2. The normal one, the prov one, the one with the blue sponge and the new 2018 blue sponge one. The differences were not great but I liked the slightly more lively provincial one. The new 2018 blue sponge one plays more or less the same as the H3 blue sponge.

Then I saw in an other forum that there was a new rubber from 729, the Bloom Power that plays more or less the same as the B2. I ordered it directly and now playing a month with it. It's even tackier than the B2. Spin and speed are better and even chopping on heavy topspin balls is still very good. Spin over spin is also much easier than with the H3(when you are having a very good Technic and footwork the H3 will be better). Smashing with the H3 is hard, the B2 is better but the bloom power is a lot better. T

I played in the past with with a lot of German/Japanese rubbers but the combination of very good pushing/chopping with a lot of control and attacking is so easy(good) with these Chinese rubbers and that is why I like to play with them.

Speed : Bloom Power>B2>H3
Spin : H3=Bloom Power>B2
Control : H3=Bloom Power=B2
Push : H3>Bloom Power=B2
Chop : H3=Bloom Power=B2
Spin over spin: Bloom Power>B2>H3
Smash :Bloom Power>B2>H3
Block : H3=Bloom Power>B2
Stickyness : Bloom Power>B2>H3

All together: Bloom Power>=Batlle II>H3

Above ratings are how they feel for me and are not exact science.
Sorry for my English.

Greetings

How would you estimate the sponge hardness and the weight of Bloom Power compared to B2 and H3?

The all are quite heavy, approx 50 gram cut on a offensive frame.

You can get the bloom power in 42 44 45 47 hardness. I got the 45 hardness.

The battle II in 38 39 40; Always play with 39

H3 in 39 40 41 hardness; Always play with 39

The Battle II 39 feels like a bit softer than the H3 39.
The Bloom power 45 is more or less the same as the B2.

Guys... if you want to try Bloom Power here's your chance to get it for a little under USD11. All the other listings on AliExpress seem to be over $19! Yes, this is one of the Eachengs.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2018-NE ... 79765.html

Good god.. look at the options. It's not just Bloom Power that's available, there's also Bloom Arc, Bloom Control, Bloom Speed and Bloom Spin. Have to resist the temptation to TRY ALL OF THEM!!!! That would be serious money. Maybe the Tajny people can review all of these back to back...





Note - NONE of these have ITTF markings. In the LARC, there are only two Blooms listed - Bloom Power (27-012) and Bloom Spin (27-013). How to decide which one to get? (I think I like the mauve sponge on "Spin" best... ) There's nothing on the back of the packets to tell you either, it's all in Chinese. Each is available in two sponge hardnesses. I wonder if these are on the same scale as the other 729 rubbers. They seem to be on the same scale as Battle II.

By the way... they added Battle III to the LARC...

Iskandar

I suppose, if we're talking about the Blooms, we should also mention the other new 729 rubber - Presto. Comes in Speed and Spin variants (27-010 and 27-011). Not available from Eacheng yet, and still in the $20-30 range. XVT has it, though:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Origina ... 85450.html



These DO have ITTF markings, and are "non-sticky".

Iskandar

No ITTF stamp, no numbers - So they're only useful for training or testing... No wonder that one of the shops is selling them at +-$10

The Presto looks nice but comes with a pricetag that almost touches the price of Xiom Vega. Yinhe Moon/Mars/Sun are at +-$11 which looks more interesting for bargainers, albeit there's not much noise around these rubbers lately.

Prices may get down once the 'Black Friday Sale" is done.

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Red is blogging here >> http://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=30522

There's only ONE store selling it for $10+. Everyone else (even other Eacheng "branches") wants more like $19+. Better grab one while you can (if you want it) - it's listed at 50% discount and the sale only lasts another 6 days..

I disagree they're "not useful" - Bloom Power and Bloom Spin ARE listed in the LARC, and there are many, many, many sheets listed in the LARC that don't even have numbers assigned to them let alone have the numbers on the sheets. Besides - there are a lot of us who don't attend tournaments in any case..

Iskandar

LARC has 012 Bloom Power and 013 Bloom Spin - these rubbers at Ali say RITC007 resp. RITC005 for Bloom Power resp. Bloom Spin. ITTF logo is mandatory so I doubt these rubbers are authorised according to the ITTF rules.

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Red is blogging here >> http://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=30522

Actually they're numbered RITC003 (Arc), RITC004 (Control), RITC005 (Spin), RITC006 (Speed) and RITC007 (Power). No idea what 1 and 2 were, unless they were Presto. Power and Spin should be ITTF approved and legal for use. Maybe the others are pending, we don't know. Sky Wing has been "operating" without a ITTF stamp for years - apparently it came out before it was approved. Obviously 729 doesn't have their act together but there are apparently already people playing with Power in Europe. Probably not the top props (you know what THOSE use) but players nonetheless. As long as they don't run afoul of Igor they should be OK - after all it's not long pips or frictionless...

Iskandar

OK, I've done it.. ordered a sheet of Power and a sheet of Spin. I'll glue these onto one blade and see if I can tell the difference...

Iskandar

Nice Iskandar! I am interested in the Spin version too.

If u play the rubber the first day when they are new they are so tacky. I love it! Most tacky rubber I've ever seen. Some kind of moist is coomming out of the rubber. Booster?!?
The heavy tack will disappear but playing with it is so easy.

Maybe I buy a new rubber every month next season............

Remember this?



I can tell you how to restore the tackiness...

Iskandar

How can you bring the tack back?

I had a tip from Jim Weiland....

When I was playing last (around 1998-2001 or so) fingerprints were BAD - people said to avoid touching the rubber, because the oils your fingers left behind would hurt the surface of the rubber. So part of rubber maintenance was to use dishwashing detergent to remove the oils. Now, the consensus seems to be the opposite - some people actually wipe oil ON the rubber (or the sponge) to soften it or to "boost" it. Fingerprints are actually GOOD, and dishwashing detergent is BAD. Go figure..

In any case.. the trick, apparently, is to get some of those sticky rubber protector sheets. These are supposedly ONLY to be used with non-tacky rubbers. If you use them with tacky rubbers (mainly Chinese rubbers), they leave some of their glue behind and make the sheet really, really tacky. (This, by the way, is how I think tacky sheets are made tacky - they apply glue to it, and the glue rubs off, which is why the tackiness goes away!) Never actually tried it myself, except - well, I bought some shelf paper. This was Made in China shelf paper, with a sticky side. I thought I'd try this as a tacky protector sheet. The rubber? Well, Yasaka ZAP (made by Palio and sold by Eacheng) is SUPPOSED to be non-tacky, right????? The result is... well, that's what the video was. I had great fun with this (see the comments section - someone asked what rubber it was. Hurricane 4, of course.... ).

Iskandar

Yikes! Recently i used lemon oil on a red h3 original topsheet and it became faster ... not much difference in tackiness.

Not sure why it dint become super tacky, maybe becos lemon oil either penetrates too fast or evaporates in seconds?

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Backup C-pen blades:

• TSP Black Balsa 7.0 :
  1. FH/BH-YRakza9/XOmegaVT
  2. FH/BH-TSP Spectol/Yinhe Qing OX
• 729 Bomb C-P : FH/BH-DHS H2 Orig/DHS H3 Orig
• TSP Versal :
  1. FH/BH-XOmegaVA/YJupiter-II
  2. FH/BH-*blank*

Fun blades:

• Yasaka Battle Balsa(ST) : FH/BH- DHS TG2Neo/Gewo HypeXT 47
• Dr. Neubauer
  High Technology
  Cypress-Carbon(ST)
  ***************************** : FH/BH-YRakza7/YRakza7

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