[haggisv] Best of Brand series - Joola

What Balsa blades is most popular?

yeah just Read it

Thanks ttkenny! Yes you're right, we all experience the rubbers differently. The description can be guide in some cased, but in most cases, particularly chinese rubbers, it's pure marketing.

Yes you're right, the translators can be quite helpful sometimes... still nothing better than getting people's personal opinions, which is why I think this series is really useful...

Anyone else got any comments before we go to the next brand? Cheers!

Gekogark1212, thanks for the review.

I get so frustrated to read this thread. Why hasn't anyone mentioned the excellent Joola Cat blade? Perhaps its because its been (or is about to be) discontinued?

I found it to be an excellent allround blade especially suitable for pips play.

It seems to me that most people tend to recommend the more extreme rubbers and blades and we all tend to forget that there are excellent allround equipment as well...

I suspect that Joola has very high demands on quality as I've played with 4 different Cat blades and they all felt exactly the same, unlike others were I have tried two blades and felt a noticeable difference in them.

if anyone in this thread wants to buy a Joola K1 in great shape for cheap pm me, looking for $21 shipped in US, feel free to make me a trade offer or an offer at a lower price and we can see what we can work out

I noticed a few stores don't even carry the cat or panther anymore... have they been discontinued?

sigh, you guys cost me alot of money :). I had to order the Panther and Sheik before there was none left

dimitris wrote: haggisv wrote: I noticed a few stores don't even carry the cat or panther anymore... have they been discontinued? Not only these two, the K1, K3, Carbon SWE, Carbon Pro, Sheik and many more have left the arsenal of Joola. I see them now as stock leftovers in a few shops, mostly on sale. This company seems to be renewing their offerings pretty often. And many of the discontinued blades also seem to be pretty nice. But probably did not sell as much as Joola would like... The cat and panther had actually pretty decent reviews on the net, especially for their price, while I have found also carbon pro to be an excellent blade, with thick soft outer layers, big sweet spot and relatively light and slow for a carbon blade, which makes for a sweet choice for several type of players. Now actually at $45 in a couple of places it is a really good deal...

That's good information, thank you!

For me, Mambo series, Sama serie and Joola Panther

Here is my summary of the most notable / special rubbers and blades from the Joola brand. This is not meant to promote or criticize the Joola brand or products in any way, it�s simply a summary of opinions of the more famous and highly regarded products of the brand.

Overview:
The brand JOOLA has its origin in the 1950s when it was popular to combine the names of companies and cities. The sports section of the department store JOOss in LAndau was involved in the production of the first table tennis tables in 1952. Joola has grown to become a major player among the table tennis manufacturers, offering the complete range of equipment, and having shown some great innovation in their products.

Their blades are believed to be made in Germany, Hungary, Sweden and possibly some in China. A large portion of their rubbers are made in the German ESN factory, home to the majority of top Tensor (Tensor is a trademark of ESN) rubbers in the world. The remainder of their rubbers are made in Japan and China.

After talking to many people, and getting lots of great feedback from people on the table tennis forums, I�ve summarised the most popular Joola rubbers and blades below. Although the popularity can be biassed by marketing and availability, there are some that many agree on to be great products, so there must be something to it�

Rubbers:
Joola Tango has been without a doubt the most popular Joola rubber. It was one of the first Tensor rubbers released onto the market, and the unique feel and inbuilt speed-glue effect made it very popular. As demand for more speed grew, Joola released the Tango Extrem, a considerably faster version of the Tango, which also became quite popular.

The Tensors appear to be the most popular Joola rubbers. The Energy Green Power in particular, and more recently the Energy X-Tra and Air Rosnet have enjoyed moderate popularity. Only very recently Joola released the Express One and Express Two rubbers, but it�s too early to judge how good these new rubber are. With several other major manufacturers releasing Tensor rubbers, it is getting harder to retain a competitive advantage.

Tensor are not for everyone, and Joola has released some other rubbers with reasonable success. The Japanese made like Mambo, Mambo H, the Samba and Drum all enjoyed some popularity, but don�t stand out as much as the Tensors. With the speed glue ban now in place, they may become less popular as some of these need glue to really come alive.

The Tango Ultra is one of the most successful short pimple rubbers, offering great spin potential and control, thanks to the wide pimpled grippy topsheet and the Tensor sponge. Joola Snabb also deserve a mention.

For the more defensive players, there is the Joola Tony Hold Antitop which is held in high regard. Some of the long pimpled rubbers, like the Fakir and Razor, did not survive the ITTF frictionless long pimple ban, although Octopus, rumoured to be made by TSP Japan, has gained some popularity since it�s release.

Blades:
Joola is not one of the most popular brands for its blades, although they have enjoyed some success with some of their range and are generally regarded as high quality blades. The Balsa core blades appear to be the most successful. The Joola Kool, Panther and Cat were quite popular for a while, but the Kool appears to be the only one still made, as is easily the most popular of the three. More recently the Joola MC1 and R*1 have gained some popularity too.

The K-series appeared to have been very popular in China, although only their most popular, the K5 appears to be still made. A few others like the Fever, Viva, Guo 3C deserve a mention, but have never become very popular. Similarly some of the Rosskopf blade, like the Fire, Force & Allround deserve a mention.

For a modern defensive blade, the Chen Weixing is easily the most popular and highly regarded blade from Joola. The Hold White deserves a mention as well and has a small following.

Final words:
It is likely that a player of any level and style can find something appropriate from the Joola brand, but this is the case for many of the other major brands too. Hopefully this summary will be useful for Joola fans or those that only have this brand available to choose from. Joola do have a range of other table tennis related items, in fact they pretty much sell everything related to table tennis, but blades and rubbers are the extent of this write-up.

You may be right, but since almost no-one mentioned it, it could indicate that this is not the case in other countries or areas, or it's not so popular anymore. This writeup is simply a summary of all the feedback I've received from players I've talked to and from the 3 forum, so that is what it's based on...

Nice write up, the more expensive ones are definatly very high end blades as far as quality goes, it allways seems to be the case with the Euro blades :0 (and best of all they fit Euro hands) this is what the world is waiting for China to catch up on (quality) they are trying hard but still have a way to go yet

Skyline wrote: haggisv wrote: You may be right, but since almost no-one mentioned it, it could indicate that this is not the case in other countries or areas, or it's not so popular anymore. This writeup is simply a summary of all the feedback I've received from players I've talked to and from the 3 forum, so that is what it's based on...   it is but probably not in australia asia and usa. in europe allround blades are much more popular.

If they are good you better start a petition to get them back in production :!) as far as I can see from someone that doesn't use glue, balsa blades maybe soon in for a comeback :D