OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Victas Koji Matsushita Offensive: review

Today my blade arrived from Australia (OOAK-shop), only 6 days after ordering it. I had a choice between two different weights and I chose for the heaviest. Fantastic service !

Official marketing stuff : The 5 ply wood contruction of the new Koji Matsushita Offensive uses slightly stiffer Mahogany veneers for the surface to provide more power when initializing attacking strokes. The softer inner and core veneers guarantee that control for chops and pushes is not affected. This unique construction allows to absorb the incoming balls energy for passive strokes on the one hand, but also delivers extra power for active offensive actions. A new era for the modern defensive game. Each of these outstanding blades is created individually in a complex manufacturing process - hand-made in Japan.

Physical properties

I will compare this new VKM Offensive to the old 'normal' VKM (between brackets) which I have played for more then 1.5 year. Note that there is also a new Victas Matsushita Koji Defensive, which is supposed to be slower than the normal VKM, so I'm not really interested in it.

Blade size: 155.5 x 164 mm (156.5 x 165 mm)
Handle size: 28 x 22 x 100 mm (30 x 24 x 100 mm)
Weight: 91g (88g)
Thickness: 5.9 mm/5 plies of wood (5.6 mm/5 plies of wood)
Wood outer plies: Mahogany (Limba)
Wood medial plies: ??? (Japanese Cedar Fir)
Wood core: Ayous (Ayous)
Speed rating: OFF- (DEF/ALL)

The blade looks fantastic. The shiny dark colored Mahogany wood is esthetically beautiful and looks hard and strong. I don't know what medial plies are used, but I assume the core is Ayous, just like the normal VKM. The shape of the blade is also similar to the shape of the normal VKM, so different than the Butterfly defensive blades that are a bit smaller towards the top. The handle has a nice look, but I'm a bit disappointed that it hasn't got the same firm size as the normal VKM. The handle is significantly smaller, in fact it has the same thickness dimensions as Donic Defplay, which for me doesn't feel comfortable in my hand (I hope this is mainly due to its hollow handle).

Pictures





Review and playing characteristics

Good blade. Played it with Joola X-plode Sensitive 2.0 on FH and Curl P1r 0.5 on BH. I won all four friendly matches against equally rated players tonight. I also played against one higher rated player (C0, around USATT 2300) and I won 3-2. I had no adjustment issues coming from JSH + Yanus 2.0 + Octopus 0.5. Against 2 of the 4 equal players I played first two sets with JSH, and the other sets with VKMO or vice versa. Results were in the same line and the feeling was only slightly different: JSH is harder, has a bit more catapult, bit faster. VKMO has a little softer feel without being so soft like VKM. Offensively better then VKM and even for defence I like the feeling and speed of JSH and VKMO more than the feeling I had with VKM.

The handle didn't disturb me much, although it is clearly smaller than VKM/JSH/DefII.

Quick comparison of the defensive blades I tried so far:

Speed: Defence II > JSH > VKMO > VKM > Defplay Senso > Xiom Aigis
Stiffness: Defence II > JSH = VKMO > VKM > Defplay senso > Xiom Aigis
Hardness: JSH > VKMO = Defence II > Defplay Senso > VKM > Xiom Aigis

[added 7/2/2014]

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Can't wait for the review, very curious of this blade. Have you tried Joo? Might be a good reference.

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Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack | Getting better - health and game |
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The grip seems standard size, is it really shorter than on the normal vkm? That handle was very uncomfortable for me but that may be because of the large area where the handle connects to the blade.

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Competition bats:
Win-tec power def Tibhar 5Q sound Power Update 1.8 * Spinlord Agenda ox
TSP Balsa 3.5 Tibhar Genius+Optimium sound 1.8 * Grass D-tecs ox

Put to rest:
Galaxy T10 Bluefire M2 2.0 Palio Ck531a ox
Victas Koji Matsushita Tibhar Genius+Optimium sound MAX * Spinlord Dornenglanz ox
Donic Defplay Senso Tibhar Aurus Sound Black max * Grass D-tecs ox

Check out my quest for my new blade here: http://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=23241
Current standings:
Butterfly Matshushita powerdefence * Joola Chen Weixing * Nittaku KVU * Nittaku Shake defense* Tibhar stratus power defense * Victas Koji Matsushita * Yasaka Sweeper * Win-Tec power defence

Did you have the issues with your thumb? My got cut open after 1 month of playing with the VKM, dont know why it started. I used sandpaper to smooth the bit rougher edges at the top of the handle. I compared it with other blades and the connection of handle and blade seemed to be a bit lower and larger with the VKM. Now I dont have issues anymore.

Ontopic:
Really curious about the feel of the blade. Because I play with a really soft rubber (nimbus sound), the 2.0mm would be more suited for fh. With my normal attacking blade I often played with 2.0mm fh and max on backhand. With the VKM the 2.0mm didnt have a great feeling when looping against other choppers, or if people would push back my chops. Also my flicks didnt have enough pace in my eyes. So I really hope the offensive version is faster on the forehand while it still has great chopping ability.
The blade should have the same size, cant find the dimension of the handle on the Victas site.

As you can see in my signature, I'm playing the Joo right now, since the beginning of 2014. I like it a lot and my game has improved; I'm winning more league matches. The old VKM made me focus on defending and kept me a bit away from attacking, the JSH makes me focus on attacking while my defence is even better compared to VKM. I hope the VKMO shares a lot of characteristics with JSH...



It isn't shorter! Both VKM and VKMO have the standard 100mm length, like 95% of the blades. Defplay is an exception as it is 102mm. But the handle of VKM is thicker and firmer than most other handles, and it's indeed also a bit different where the handle connects to the blade, which might make it 'feel' shorter.



Well, the size isn't the same. It's only one mm difference and it's not detectable with the eye, but it's a difference. Both my old VKMs are 156.5 x 165 and my new VKMO is 155.5 x 164. The blades are said to be hand-made, so maybe this explains little differences between the blades? Anyway, handle dimensions are VERY different from old VKM and you can see that immediately. It is both thinner and narrower: just a completely different handle.

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I had someone translate the Victas site info about the VKM Offensive. She isnt familiar with tabletennis, so sometimes she was searching for the correct English words (when using table tennis terms) as native Japenese speaker.

In short:
The core of the blade produces the stability. Because its made of wood, it avoids that the ball reacting against the vibrations on impact with the blade.

Then they compare it to 2 swords. Saying you have 2 ways of fighting, offense and cutting/chopping. And they say: Arent you aiming to be a "cutman' with 2 swords. So more freely translated, with this version of the VKM you have 2 weapons, chopping and a better attack (probably compared to the normal VKM).

About the materials they say: By using mahogany which can be used for offense, it makes sure the blade is worthy of the name offensive

And the main line (the big white text on the folder) says: To be a more aggressive chopper this is a blade with aggressive gears.

I have been waiting for a review of the Off VKM forever (Thank you!). Just when I thought I was settling down again... something happens to spark the EJ.

I really like OX chopping with the VKM, and am worried that changing the outer ply might effect the dwell time and chopping in OX dramatically. Is there any chance you will play with OX LP on it Pipsy?

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VKM
Tenergy 05 2.1
Feint Long III .5

Interesting to have the original text translated, Denniz! Did she translate it from this site: http://www.victas-jp.com/home/blade/Koj ... taOFF.html ?



I had a Palio CK531a OX on the old VKM for about 1 year. I tried that same (fantastic) rubber on several defensive blades and found VKM was superior, especially for chopping, due to the softer outer plies and the good dwell-time. Then I made the switch to grippy LPs with 0.5 (and 1.0) sponge, in order focus more on chopping & playing modern defence. But then on VKM, the Curl P1r 0.5 felt a little hollow/mushy and slow compared to Octopus 0.5 on JSH. I won't return to OX in the next period of time but my guess is that for pushing and OX-chopping (not blocking), you are better off with the old VKM then with the VKMO.

PS: I won't be able to test my blade until Tuesday night. I will mount the Curl P1r 0.5 & DHS H3 National on it, this is the set-up I recently used on VKM.

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He Pipsy, it is indeed a translation of the link in your reply. Just gave her the official Victas page to translate to see if it was any different than the European promotion text.

My first impression after some ball bouncing with red Curl P1r 0.5 on BH and black DHS H3 on FH is that VKMO feels both harder and stiffer as VKM, as advertised. Sound is sharper, less hollow. But compared to JSH (+ Octopus 0.5) it still has a softer feeling with a louder shrill sound. JSH seems to have a little more catapult and seems to be little faster. Altough both blades are relatively stiff, I have the impression that JSH vibrates just a little more than VKMO. Tomorrow I will play some matches and on Thursday I will probably play VKMO with Bluefire JP03 on FH (which will be more comparable to the Xiom Yanus that is currently on my JSH)

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Here's my review:

Good blade. Played it with Joola X-plode Sensitive 2.0 on FH and Curl P1r 0.5 on BH. I won all four friendly matches against equally rated players tonight. I also played against one higher rated player (C0, around USATT 2300) and I won 3-2. I had no adjustment issues coming from JSH + Yanus 2.0 + Octopus 0.5. Against 2 of the 4 equal players I played first two sets with JSH, and the other sets with VKMO or vice versa. Results were in the same line and the feeling was only slightly different: JSH is harder, has a bit more catapult, bit faster. VKMO has a little softer feel without being so soft like VKM. Offensively better then VKM and even for defence I like the feeling and speed of JSH and VKMO more than the feeling I had with VKM.

I liked Joola X-plode sensitive from the first hit. Very linear rubber. Good spin, good feeling, good control at every distance. Compared to Yanus on JSH maybe a tad slower for looping but at the same time a little sharper and less spin insensitive while playing short.

The handle didn't disturb me much, although it is clearly smaller than VKM/JSH/DefII.

Quick comparison of the defensive blades I tried so far:

Speed: Defence II > JSH > VKMO > VKM > Defplay Senso > Xiom Aigis
Stiffness: Defence II > JSH = VKMO > VKM > Defplay senso > Xiom Aigis
Hardness: JSH > VKMO = Defence II > Defplay Senso > VKM > Xiom Aigis

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Have you ever tried it with exactly the same setup as on ur VKM? Is it a lot faster? And what about the vibrations while looping after a backspin push from the oppenent?
I had a 88gr and a 94gr VKM. I would have prefered the lighter version, but when I chopped and the oppenent would push back, my forehand loop felt a bit weird. With counterlooping I didnt disturb me that much. The 94 gr version had less vibration and a less "hollow" feeling when looping through heavy backspin. Didnt expect that just a few gram would make such a difference in feeling / speed of the blade.

Yes, I first had P1r on the classic VKM, and now I have it on the Offensive. The offensive version has noticeably less vibrations and a harder feel. Speed is also higher. The classic VKM (88g) felt much hollower compared to the offensive (91g). My preferred blade at the moment is still the JSH (102g), especially for FH.

What I dislike about the Koji Offensive is the handle being both thin and narrow Wonder why they changed that? It is totally different than the firm handle of VKM classic (thick and wide). JSH has the same width as the VKMO but is noticeably thicker, which is also ok. It's the combination of narrow and thin that I don't like (I hope I'm using the right English terms here)

Here's two pics comparing the handle of the normal VKM and the VKM Offensive:

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Hey Pipsy,

today I'm getting my hands on VKMO too. Are you sure that Def II is the fastest one here? I somehow always thought that Joo blade was faster.. (I haven't tried Joo personally, so it's just my assumption for no reason )

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Setups (click on writings to read reviews):
1) Defence III / TSP P4 (0,5) / M3 (2,0)
2) Defence II / Joola Octopus (0,5) / M3 (2,0)
3) Ross Leidy "White Shadow" / P1R (1,3) / Hexer PS (1,7)

Hey Justas,

glad to hear from you again. Take my speed rating of the Defence II with a grain of salt; it has been a while since I played with it and it was with Palio CK531 OX on BH. In my memory it was about as fast as JSH (my current blade), maybe even a tad faster. And stiffer too.

Since things are going well with my JSH (yesterday I managed to beat a B6, which would be comparable to 2400 usatt), I haven't played the VKMO much lately. I'm curious to hear a comparison with Def II from you...

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Exclusive OOAK-Interview with Joo Saehyuk | Masato Shiono | Panagiotis Gionis