Gambler Polyblended Balls?

Noticed on ZeroPong that the Gambler Gold/Platinum balls are now "polyblended".
http://www.zeropong.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=44&products_id=323

Direct Quote: "Note these balls are now POLYBLENDED - they have plastic incorporated into the celluloid manufacturing process, and while the bounce is very close to the old ball it is a slight change in order to better mimic the bounce of a tournament polyball. ROBOT USERS: These balls are TRUE 40mm and will not cause ball jams like the 40+ as these balls are still classified as celluloid, and hold true to the 40mm standard."

Has anyone used these yet, and if so, how do they compare as preparation for serious play with the typical Nittaku 3* / XSF balls? Hoping these can be good "plastic" robot balls.

yeah, I see that.  wonder how long that's been.  I opened a bag of white and did think they seemed a little different, whiter, harder.  

Useful product for ball machines. Still no reasonable poly solutions there. I purchased these a few weeks ago and seem fine. I notice no difference in my machine. I might have noticed a difference while serving practice, tho. However new balls just act a little different from the older balls anyway.

I purchased the white and orange 3 star ones. I find the 2 star fine but the 3 star just handle abuse better, they do feel thicker.


Edited by wilkinru - 01/06/2016 at 11:49am

Must've just been a transitional product

Spot on! Cell is on the way out and it is expensive to make new productions, we toyed with blended balls but they still have nearly the same bounce and are still rated a hazard. The gambler cell balls were a great product, we needed this last production of them to properly find a good pure poly trainer.

Strangely enough the biggest hurdle is the treatment and care of pure poly balls, anything above 38c or around 100f will pretty much instantly start to damage them (all plastic balls not just ours), also cold below freezing damages the plastic and makes it weak. Seamed balls exposed to high temps get a barbell effect where the sides expand but the seam stays smaller, seamless balls just get bigger and in some cases dent where the balls rest on each other. Our 3 star balls shipped to say NV or AZ in the summer have had instances of expansion when put in the mail box or the customer puts them in the garage. We have always had storage for the 3 star balls however now we must provide dehumidified air conditioned space for containers full of practice balls, also for our "toy" balls as they are plastic as well, fortunately we have this all done and everything is now kept at an ideal temperature and humidity level.

I'm not sure why you would label them transitional when they still have the bags of blended balls.  Does this mean, Tom, that you're going to stop carrying the bagged gambler "blended" balls when stock runs out and just go to plastic and plastic training?

It's ok.  Just wanted to know the plan.

Ringer,

I have never had one of our balls jam our robot due to size, It took me a while to figure out what players were talking about saying the balls were too big, I measured them and they were not. That said, the players that claimed the balls were too large were correct, however this was not poor quality or anything to do with our production values, these were all cases where the balls got baked in the heat. The new 3 stars are actually even smaller now with better tolerances, but I have no doubt if you leave them in your 115F garage in NV you will end up at 41mm.

Has anyone tried the 

GAMBLER 40+ POLY MULTI & ROBOT BALLS - PACK OF 72?