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JUIC Leggy vs TSP P-1R
2008-03-25 23:36:00
I've finally decided to change over to JUIC Leggy 1.0mm from the TSP P-1r 1.2mm. Although they are similar in many ways and both excellent pips, it's one unique property of the leggy that suits my game particularly well that's helped me decide. The main differences are:1. The main reason I've changed to Leggy is the remarkable amount of backspin I can generate from a backspin ball. if someone pushes to the LP, you can push back hard with a little flick of the wrist (which I used to be real good at with inverted) and get quite good backspin and it's easy to keep it low.. and if you keep it deep it often forces another push which you can attack, or a weaker loop which you can either attack, or get into you chopping mode. If I push the backspin ball back lightly, it reverses the spin very much like most LPs, so that option is still there.2. Chopping away from the table both LPs play similar, with the Leggy offering a bit more reversal, but the P-1r more options to manipulate the s...

Changing to thicker sponge long pimple rubber
2008-01-18 06:39:00
After having played with TSP P-1r 0.6mm for at least a year, I thought I might give a thicker (1.2mm) sponge a go. One thing I'm hoping for is to be able to generate more backspin on retrun of serves, as this can mean the difference between yuor opponent powerlooping one past you, or a slower spinny loop which is what you want...I only had one session so far, of more of a social hit, but here some of my impressions:1. Returning serves: I don't think the control has changed a lot, perhaps a little less, but I did feel I could put more spin on the ball. My returns against deeper and faster balls seemed to generate more floaters, which my opponents had more trouble with than with 0.6mm. Although this is a bonus, i need to work more on variation with this, so that I feel in control of what I'm doing...2. Chopping: It's a little more sensitive to incoming spin, so as this rubber is already quite sensitive compared to others, it's something to be weary off. A softer touch is the answ...
More About: Changing , Long , Rubber , Sponge

JUIC Australia website
2007-12-27 23:04:00
JUIC is a Japanese company that manufacturers professional table tennis equipment. Having tried a range of their products, I find them of very high quality, and certainly as good as any of the other top Japanese table tennis equipment manufacturers, and they've shown some great innovation for some of their products too!Because there is so little information on their products, I've put together a little website here:JUIC Australia onlineI've included a range of JUIC blades and JUIC rubber descriptions and reviews, and also further information on some of their unique products, like the Ecolo Expander II.I thought it would be useful to provide some suggestions on JUIC blade and rubber combinations as well, since it can be hard to choose something suitable out of such a wide range.JUIC has also just released a range of their Tune-up rubbers, which will be reviewed on this site shortly.Any feedback on this site, and how I can further improve it would be very much appreciated!
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Spinmax reviews, tests and FAQs
2007-12-03 01:53:00
I'm becoming quite a fan of Spinmax, and use it regularly now. I've done quite a few test and experiments, to determine how well it work, and what the differences are between the original Spinmax Red and the new Spinmax Aqueous.Instead of writing another article on it, which will probably just get lost and forgotten, I've set up a little website on a subdomain, with descriptions of the products, instructions on how to use it, and a FAQ section for new users or those that may want to try it; Spinmax OnlineI will continue to do more Spinmax reviews and tests and try it on different rubbers, and will add any further questions to the Spinmax FAQ section. Feel free to ask questions here or within a section of the table tennis forum so that questions (and answers) can be added to the FAQ section.
More About: Reviews , Tests

Is JUIC Ecolo Expander II still worthwhile?
2007-11-23 06:14:00
With the introduction of a variety of VOC free speed glue alternatives, some have said that the JUIC Ecolo Expander II (EEII) is no longer a viable option for those looking a little more performance out of their rubber.I don’t agree and I do think the EEII has it's place, but it can't compete in terms of speed glue effect. It really depends on what you’re looking for and what you expectation are… and the trouble is… most people don’t know…For those that currently speed glue their rubbers with a few layers, and looking for a VOC free alternative, I would not recommend the EEII, as the effect is simply not strong enough. These people would be better off looking at other VOC free alternatives, like the VOC free glue Falco Tempo Unlimited or sponge treatment liquids like Falco Tempo Booster or Tibhar Clean Tuning, as the effect of these really is very close to several layers of speed glue.However for those that perhaps use a light layer of speed glue, or have not glued be...

Update on Falco Booster on Globe 999 National rubber
2007-11-22 05:53:00
I wrote earlier about using the Falco Booster on my Globe 999 National rubber, and how I was very impressed with it. Well I've used it for over 2 weeks now, and the effect is still great! I feel it's really helping my game having a glued up rubber that feels the same all the time...I suspect it will last till the end of 3 weeks, after which I'll remove it and re-apply 1-2 layers of booster to see if I can get the same effect. Less booster is supposed to be required to get the same effect, so hopefully I get right or close to it, so that I can get a consistant effect for life of the rubber....I will update again after the next application of the booster...
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Review JUIC Neo Anti
2007-11-12 04:10:00
I tried this rubber last weekend since a friend kindly lend me his bat to try (cheers mate!)This rubber has a very slippery feel on the surface, but the topsheet is thin and the sponge is very soft. JUIC description of the rubber is given below, and I find this quite accurate:'Juic Neo Anti kills the spin of your opponent's ball, and with its dead, slow speed gives incredible control. But the elastic surface combined with special sponge gives the added element of tricky spin when the ball is hit hard.'For chopping the control of this rubber is excellenet, similar to long pips, but it does not allow as much variation as some of the grippier long pips out there. Still I felt I could generate some spin, and it had decent spin reversal.Close-in it blocks remarkable well against fast loops... it seem to take the pace out of even the hardest loops, and return it real slow, mid-table with no spin. The soft and slow sponge is no doubt the key here...wish they used this sponge on some lon...
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Falco Booster on Chinese hard sponged rubbers
2007-11-12 00:04:00
My usual Globe 999 Nat (black) was showing signs of wear, so it was time for a new sheet, and I decided I'd give the Falco booster a go on this, and see if it would be a good enough substitude to my Tibhar Rapid Clean Deluxe speed glue, which I won't be able to us as of middle of next year...I put 3 layers of booster on it over 2 days. The dome was big, basically touching on the ends. After 24h (after the last layer) it still had a decent dome but was coming down, so I glued it down with the Falco Water glue. The dome was still quite strong especially with this firmer sponged rubbers, so it still lifted slightly on the tip but did not lift further... I'll wait a little longer next time...and will take more care putting enough glue on the tip of the blade...Well the booster softened the sponge heaps, and stretched it at least 5mm in both directions. I was VERY happy with the performance, it felt as good as with the Tibhar RCD. The sponge had softened at least as much with the boos...
More About: Chinese , Hard , Booster

New pimples website - PIPS
2007-10-18 07:04:00
With a group of friends we've started a new website dedicated to pimple rubbers and players:http://www.pipfacts.info"Pips is a table tennis equipment site set up by a group of like-minded table tennis players that are keen to educate the table tennis community about long pimpled and other pimpled rubbers. We feel these rubbers add great diversity to our game, and it's something that should be embraced, and not frowned upon or dimissed as a 'cheater's rubber'. "There are already some excellent articles on the website, and more in the pipeline. We will also continue to add more reviews on new and old pimples rubbers. The latest news will also be added shortly.Please have a look at the site and read through the articles, and any feedback would be very much appreciated! Please be brutally honest, we won't take offense!If any of you would like to contribute, that would be awesome! We're not just after people with highly technical knowledge or high level players...Contributions lik...
More About: Website , Pimples

Review of AVALOX AXV MO 0.5mm long pimples
2007-09-28 08:30:00
AVALOX AXV MO 0.5mmFirst impressions:The rubber looks of pretty good quality. The only words on there are AXV, MO and 'made in China'... I'm not sure what the story is between the names Avalox and AVX, but that does nto matter for this review.The colour of the rubber seems a little orange... I've seen a few rubbers like this, so it does not appear to be an issue.Pimple size looks close to maximum length... perhaps a touch shorter, but does not look a lot different to 955 or TSP P-1R. Tips are rough and feel quite grippy. the pimple are a little stiff, probably a grade stiffer than the 955 and a fair bit stiffer than the P-1R.They are spaced out more than both the 955 and TSP though...I've only had a bried hit with it so far, and found it to be quite nice alround but a little faster than both the 955 and TSP. From the bried hit i had I immediately noticed it's quite good for hitting and blocking, but I'd need to adjust to the speed for chopping...I'll get onto spin reversal a...
More About: Review , Long , Pimples

Spinmax Aqueous - new VOC free spinmax
2007-09-09 07:37:00
Spinmax have come up with a new and water based version of their popular Spinmax cleaner, called Spinmax Aqueous.This appear to be the same as the Joola Spinmax Green Power, as when you check the Material safesheet data sheet for the Joola spinmax green power, it shows the Spinmax Aqueous.Although spinmax is technically classed as a rubber cleaner, it's more than this... it tends to enhance the friction coefficient of the rubber surface, making it tackier / stickier. For chinese style tacky rubbers this is great as it leaves them stickier for longer. Although many use it for non-tacky rubbers as well, you should remember that it will make these rubbers tacky as well, which is not what they were designed to be like.There are some details on this new product here: Spinmax Aqueous but I will do a full review shortly, when I've had a chance to test it.... I hear it's already quite popular in Japan and Germany, so I can't see why this new one should not be popular either...The fact t...
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Update on the experiment with different cleaners
2007-08-26 13:49:00
Well I proceeded to give the old rubber a real, good coating of the same olive oil. It take about 15min before it started to soak on several places on the surface.As recommended by those mentioned before, the oil should be spread out again to prevent some minor markings on the surface. The next day I checked the rubber and there were no marks, and all the oil had been soaked up.Testing the rubber the next day showed the rejuvination processes worked really well. Although it did not feel as good as a new rubber, it felt better than a rubber with just a good clean...I would not recommend you use this procedure on a regular basis, as I suspect it may soften the topsheet more and more, and will make the rubber heavier as well. But for a occasional good clean it seemed to work really well! Plus it's cheap and every tends to have this in their kitchen... according to others most vegetable oils work well, so I don't think it needs to olive oil.
More About: Experiment , Update , Cleaners , Rime , Diff

Experimenting with different cleaners
2007-08-19 09:59:00
I've heard many stories of players and friends using all sort of liquids to clean or rejuvinate their rubbers. I decided to put some of these to the test.I found an old rubber (Dawei Sprungfeder A-4) which has had a lot of use and is well worn. It's now totally non-tacky and has even lost a lot of it's grip... feels quite smooth. As you can see below I have divided up the rubber into 4 sections with masking tape, each section can be treated with a different cleaner so that we can compare the results. I know water will not revive this rubber, so I won't use this as a test.Here are the 4 cleaners I decided to use:I used a seperate cotton cloth to wipe the liquids in. In hindside something less absorbing and lint-free would have been better, but I don't think it will affect the results.Thanks goes to hookshot, pongcrazy, LawOCG and a few other (see forum thread, sorry if I missed you) for all the excellent suggestions and advice.The results are not as conclusive as I had hoped... ...
More About: Cleaners , Rime , Diff

Table tennis videos
2007-08-11 00:55:00
I'm working on making a collection of YouTube videos, and organising them all on a series of web pages. YouTube videos are good in that that are easy to embed into any webpages, and you don't have to download the video to see it.I'd like to organise the pages into catagories of Defenders, attackers and clips from some of the all-time greats and some of the current top players. I would also like to set aside a section for videos of us novices, so that you can share with others...This is what I've collected so far (I've only just started): Table tennis videosIf you have any comments or suggestions on this, it would be very much appreciated! Also if you have some of your own table tennis related videos on YouTube and would like it to be shown on the website, please send me the links.This is fun!!!
More About: Videos , Tennis , Table Tennis

The elusive DHS Hurricane National / Provincial version rubbers
2007-07-20 07:06:00
There is no doubt that the DHS hurricane II and III rubbers are one of the most popular in the world. No doubt the marketing and sponsoring by DHS has a lot to do with this, but the fact the many of the top Chinese players use this rubber does indicate that they have some very good properties.It is well known that the top Chinese players may not be using the same version as the commercial version that’s available to the public. DHS has special versions of the hurricane rubbers for their Provincial and National team players. Whether these rubbers are actually manufactured differently, or whether they are hand-picked as the best ones from the production of the standard version is unknown. However according to DHS they ARE hand picked from the normal production run.The standard commercial versions have an orange sponge for both the red and black rubbers. It is well known that there is significant variation in sponge hardness between batch to batch, or possible within each batch. This...
More About: Version , Hurricane

Super Priming your rubbers - Giving your rubbers a boost!
2007-07-17 05:04:00
A lot of players see the task of gluing rubbers to a blade as meaningless procedure simply to attach the rubbers. They will also often find that rubbers take a long to time be ‘worn in’, meaning it takes quite a number of sessions for the rubber to reach peak performance.However some applications of table tennis glue and the right procedure, you can get the best performance out of your rubber almost immediately, and may well give you performance that you did not think possible! See here for more details:Ultimate guide to priming and gluing - Super priming
More About: Giving , Boost , Prim

Review XIOM Guillotine .S long pimple Part 2
2007-07-09 06:19:00
I testing it on my Stiga Energy wood WRB, finally had a chance to try it:In general this rubber has very good control, and is an excellent alround long pimple rubber. The 1.0mm medium soft sponge gave the rubber soft feel and it felt springy, but it did not suffer that much in the short game...Return of serve: Control was pretty good, was a little sensitive to incoming spin, but not bad at all. This rubber has real good grip... the harder to brush the better the grip.Generate spin: I did not feel I could generate a lot of spin with this rubber on serves, although the fact that it's almost a year old might be a big factor. You need to dig the ball in a little further to get more spin.Blocking against loops: Control is good for this, and produced a good sink effect. It reminded me a bit of the Curl TSP p1-r 0.6mm although it was faster and more lively. I could actually feel the tensor effect in the sponge... felt quite nice and seemed to enhance control.The bat face must be closed a ...
More About: Review , Part , Long

Review XIOM Guillotine .S long pimple
2007-07-05 03:28:00
A friend (thanks Greggy) kindly lend me his sheet of XIOM Guillotine.S 1.0mm black. Here are my first impression, followed by a review when I've had a chance to try it. The sheet looks of good quality, and in very good condition considering it's almost a year old! Pimple are long and narrow, probably a bit shorter than max length. tips are rough and quite grippy. The pips are fairly soft, probably not quite as soft as Cloud & Fog III or Dawei 388d-1, but definitely softer than my galaxy 955. Running my finger over the tips it feels very grippy, meaning you can probably generate decent spin with this rubber. Bounching a ball on it it also feels quite bounchy. I immediately noticed the tensor mark on the topsheet, meaning that at least the sponge, or possible the whole rubber is made in Germany. The sponge feel a little firm, but not hard. I would expect it to be more of a choppers rubber away from the table, because of the soft grippy pips, but the tensor sponge my well give it som...
More About: Review , Long

Review DHS C8 long pimple rubber
2007-06-30 13:34:00
I testing the C8 red 1.0mm on my Stiga Energy wood today. My main comparison is to my favourite Galaxy 955 0.6mm, on the same same blade.First impressions: The pimple are quite firm and stiff, a lot more than the other DHS LP Cloud & Fog III. Pimple are fairly tall and skinny, probably close to maximum aspect ratio. It has a 1mm orange sponge, which feels quite firm.The pimple feel quite grippy when you run your finger over them The sheet looks of good quality.Testing the rubber:In general this rubber has very good control, despite the fact that it had a 1.0mm sponge.Return of serve:Control was good, was a little sensitive to incoming spin, but not bad at all. The spin reversal is not great on this, it produces more of a dead ball, but the control allowed good placement, and the grip allowed me to keep it real low. Against topspin a quick block was quite easy to and with good control. Against backspin, attacking was harder, it felt a little too fast, probably due to the stiffer pip ...
More About: Review , Long , Rubber

Review Higher III
2007-06-24 12:23:00
I had a bit of a go with the Higher III rubber from 729. This is the same topsheet as the normal 729 Higher rubber, but with a quality Japanese sponge.As mentioned before in other higher III reviews, this rubber is indeed a great looping rubber, but this is not all it's good at...The Japanese sponge feels quite different to the normal higher transcend sponge... a fair bit softer and more flexible. A single layer of my Tibhar long laster glue gave it a huge dome, and softened it up a fair bit more again.My loops had a loud clicking sound... with plenty of pace and great spin. It felt much more like a euro type looping rubber, as I needed to dig the ball into the rubber a little more to get the speed and lift, or it would go into the net. Once I got used to this it felt great!The surface of the rubber is tacky, but only mildly. This made is very good for serves and the short game.Blocking and counter looping was awesome, and it seemed quite insensitive to incoming spin... Also smashi...
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JUIC Masterspin Special Part 2
2007-06-24 12:00:00
Although this rubber does not really suit my style, my review may not be that comprehensive or complete, but I figure it's better than nothing, so here it goes:Firstly as a long pimple player I was amazed by how well I could drop shots with this JUIC rubber! On slow blocking or touch it's slower than my long pimple rubber!It has very good grip, almost tacky, allowing me to impart fairly heavy backspin, similar to a spinny short pimple rubber.Returning serve worked well too, I could even flip some short backspinserves. The grip and soft feel really help here. It was a little sensitive to incoming spin, but this was to be expected of course... you can't have it both ways! Against loops I could chop, but it felt quite a bit faster then, so harder to control, I don't think this rubber is ideal for this, but it's certainly possible, especially on a slower blade.Blocking against loops was consistent with good control. There was little spin reversal, most balls returned had no spin, w...
More About: Special , Part , Mast , Aster

JUIC Masterspin Special
2007-06-23 01:45:00
This is a review of the JUIC Mast erspin Special 1.0mm red, thanks to a friend who lent me his bat (Thanks Alan if you read this!)First impressions:It looks like a quality sheet. Pimples feel soft, flexible and fairly grippy. As you can see from the picture, they are conical near the base and then cylindrical towards the tip.Pimples are probably somewhere between and short and medium pip.Sponge is yellow, feels fairly soft, but hard to judge the hardness of a thin sheet. The sheet has a strong smell of some sort of glue.I would expect this to behave much more like a short pip than medium/long...After gluing it onto a blade, a 729 Hao Shuai Champion Carbon Blade it actually felt quite soft and a little slow, which was a little surprising. It may be because the pimple are a little tacky, gripping the ball.Review will follow shortly...
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Long pimple ban update
2007-06-08 15:30:00
There have now been several 'unofficial' announcements that the treated long pimple ban will be effective as of 1st July 2008. A list of affected rubber will be produced.Of course a large number of long pimple rubbers will NOT be affected. Most, if not all, of the long pimple rubbers by Dr Neubauer and Hallmark will most likely be banned and well a a range of other obvious frictionless rubbers.There is still no official announcement by the ITTF...
More About: Update , Long

The long pimples ban
2007-06-08 08:45:00
The long pimple banThe proposal by the ITTF to ban certain long pimple rubbers was announced well over a year ago now. The reasoning was that some long pimple rubbers were treated, making the tips of the pimples less grippy then the sides, producing different spin depending on how far you bend the pimples. The rubber properties are supposed to be consistent throughout, so they propose these types of rubbers should be banned.Trouble is, it very hard to test if a rubber is treated or not. Because most of the treated pimples were designed to have little to no friction on the tips, the ITTF proposed to simply set a minimum friction level for long pimpled rubber, anything below it would be illegal. A device that could measure the friction coefficient was not too hard to design, and could be used at tournament for testing. They admitted that this may result in some non-treated rubber to be banned as well, but this did not seem to bother them…Since this announcement there has been very l...
More About: Long , Pimples

Speed glue ban
2007-05-27 13:00:00
The President of the ITTF released another statement regarding the ban of speed glues containing VOCs, shown below, after a player suffered serious health issue and this was blamed on the use of speedglue.This seems another dubious decision made by the ITTF, and is the timing really helpful for the players? I'm not arguing with the decision to ban the glues, but they should be decisive about it. The decision to ban starting Sept 08 at least gave us a firm date, giving everyone time to adjust. How can you expect to adjust by an announcement that's made overnight? How many of us are in the middle of a season, and have been training for some upcoming event? What are we supposed to do now?Firstly as far as I know ITTF approval for glues is meaningless, as any glue is perfectly legal to use as long as it does not contain illegal substances (which are listed on the ITTF website somewhere (the new website design will probably make it impossible to find!). ITTF approval merely means the I...
More About: Speed

Kokutaku 868 Blutenkirsche German 40-43deg sponge 2.2mm
2007-05-14 00:30:00
I finally had a good session with one of these rubbers. These are probably the highest quality Chinese made rubbers I've seen to date, with good performance to match! I was quite impressed... This is probably why the Japanese Kokutaku let them make their rubbers for them...Although the sheets are a little tacky, they still have good speed and are very spinny. They are not all that fast in the short game (which is good), but have a the benefits of tacky rubbers for that part of the game.When you dig the ball into the rubber a little further, the Germ an sponge really starts to shine, giving good spin and speed. This is where you get a bit of a kick, where presumably the explosion III technology starts (whatever that means?). In general it a very nice rubber for most parts of the game, particularly for looping.When I glued up this rubber, I got a huge dome even from a single layer of my Tibhar long lasting glue. The effects were very obvious, a further significant boost in performance...
More About: Sponge

TSP Curl P1-R vs Galaxy 955 Long pimples rubbers
2007-05-13 03:31:00
I've finally got an opportunity to try this famous rubber, thanks to my friend LawOCG!Well this is another remarkable rubber from TSP, I've been impressed with ALL the ones I've tried! The word out there is that this is one of the hardest rubbers to control but also among the most dangerous. Well the sponge must make quite a difference. I suspect that the word out there refers to the thicker sponge version, because I found the control on the 0.5mm very good!On my Energy wood blade, I actually found this rubber relatively slow with very good control. It was a fair bit slower than the 955, even compared to OX!It's most remarkable property that I found was blocking against fast loops... I got so many more on, and the sink was very good! It does require a positive and forward stroke, and simply putting the bat there made it really grip, and fly over the end of the table... But with a slow forward and upwards stroke, the ball landed on the table even against fast loops, with a real n...
More About: Long , Galaxy , Pimples , Gala , Curl

Testing out long pimple rubber strokes
2007-05-10 08:48:00
I decided to test some of my long pimple strokes against the ball machine, to get a better idea of exactly what and how much spin was being returned off a backspin ball using my Galaxy 955 OX(close to the table).Although I sort of know what it did, i never looked this closely... I set the machine on heavy backspin;Chopping hard produced a moderate amount of backspin, not enough to stop it from reaching the end of the table, but enough to slow it down. You need to adjust the bat angle since heavy backspin does bite in a little... Chopping lightly seemed to produce a dead ball. The ball grip just a little, giving very good control of where to put the ball. Swiping / Chopping the ball with a sideways motion puts a fair amount of sidespin on the ball combines with a little topspin. The curve on the ball was quite obvious, and directing to an opponent so that it curves into the body can be quite effective. Scooping the ball lightly produces a light amount of topspin, once again with very...
More About: Testing , Long , Rubber

Fun way of beating your friends at table tennis
2007-04-06 00:50:00
I've written an simple article for casual table tennis players on how to beat their friends at table tennis using long pimple rubbers... It is aimed towards the basement type players, or those that might occasionally play at work or school, not for the more serious players or those that play competition.I plan to publish this in a few places, and hope to attract more new players to actively play table tennis, by having fun with long pimple rubbers. This could not only bring more players to table tennis, but can also bring more players to long pimples, and encourage others to learn about them so that they can become more accepted in table tennis in general:Fun way of beating your friends at table tennis Please have a read and provide me with some comments. I'd really like some opinions before I go ahead and publish it... Please be honest and totally brutal!Thanks guys!
More About: Friends , Tennis , Table , Table Tennis , Beating

Avalox PUROT
2007-03-27 09:49:00
It looks of decent quality, it was expensive for a chinese rubber. Has anyone tried PUROT before? I will try this rubber myself, but I have no way of knowing if it's any different to the standard version. I guess I can compare it to the Globe national, which seems like a similar rubber and I know it well....Although this rubber is supposed to be a national team version, and the source is very reliable, I have my doubts... There are no special marking on there, except on the back of the sponge it has: TOP- GRADE SPONGE, MADE IN JAPAN, 2.2mm 45deg it does not feel like 45deg to me, probably more like 42deg. The 'Made in Japan' must refer to the sponge, since the topsheet has 'made in China' on it.Well I just had a brief hit with it (not speed glued). The topsheet is soft and tacky, and very shiny. It's the shiniest topsheet I've seen. Looping against backspin, it has quite a low throw and is not that fast, but very spinny. Pushing/serving is very nice, great spin and control. A...