Review - Nexy Ikarus

Received the blade along with Chaos 0.5mm from Mr. Moon of Nexy for testing and review. Very quick shipping and neatly packaged items. I forgot to take picutres initially but the nexy website has some amazing pics of the blade and I don't really think I can do any better. However I will try and add some pics later.

About Me: My current USATT rating is 1828, but I usually fluctuate between 1800-1900. I play at Charlotte Table Tennis Club where we have 10 Butterfly tables on hardwood gym flooring. We have about 100 regular members with atleast 20 players rated higher than 1800 and about 5 over 2000. I usually play a modern defensive style, chopping on my BH and looping and counter-looping on the FH. I have usually used controlled defensive blades like MPS, JSH, Vioncello and CWX. I also play a blocking and hitting style with my pips when close to the table but would like to improve. I was using a Bty TBS with T64 and FLII OX for this style of play which is what I'll try to compare with.

Equipment:
Blade: Nexy Ikarus FL, Weight: 78 gms, Thickness: 9.1mm
Rubbers: FH-Tenergy 64 2.1mm, BH-Bty Feint Long II OX
Glue: T64 glued with free chack, FLII has Bty Glue sheet

First Impressions and Construction: Blade looks beautifully constructed with no sharp edges and good craftsmanship. Wings of the blade need to be sanded a bit, but that the case with most blades for a custom comfort fit. Construction of the blade is a combination effect with a faster forehand and a relatively slow BH. the ply structure is as follows: Koto-Balsa-Carbon Fiber-Balsa-Balsa-Koto. Other combination blades that I've played with before are Hallmark Aurora, Giant Dragon Kris, Dr Neubauer Combination Effect and some others. The difference in speed is probably the highest compared most of the blades I've played with. On a 1-10 scale I would put the FH at a solid 8.5 and the BH at 6.5. Its hard to put a number for control as it has more to do with a players style and capability. The blade feels very balanced and the handle is very comfortable. The blade is very light and takes some getting used to, but after putting rubbers on it feels very playable.

FH Side:

Serves and Short game: Lot of control when serving while still generating a good bit of spin. I think it has more to do with rubber than the blade, but I did have to adjust a little from the TBS as some of the serves were long. Pushing game was excellent as the ball just jumped off the rubber heavily loaded with backspin. I was drawing a lot of unforced errors with the players inability to judge the extent of spin. Short flips were a little iffy as the blade has a lot of spring and balls seemed to go long.

Opening Loops: Had to make a lot of adjustment from the TBS as blade has a lot of "bounce". TBS in my opinion is one of the best looping/counter-looping blades out there. But after a while I got used to the throw, the opening loops were spinney and stayed low (I would rather they be a little high) and most seemed to go to the end of the table. Definitely better in the looping department when compared to Aurora or the Kris.

Counter-looping and smashing: Being a defender I usually seemed to get pushed away from the table and feel more comfortable there (~4-5 ft from the table). Because of this I like a blade that has that kick from mid distance and this blade has more than enough. This is where the springyness of the Blasa kicks in and you can make some "monster" counter-loops with this blade. Don't get me wrong, I still like the TBS but this has that extra OOMPF. This blade is not even in the same ball park as other combination blades in terms of mid-distance looping ability. Smashing was effortless. When playing a blocking style more often than not you'll get a lot of pop-ups which have to get converted to blazing smashes. In this department this blade reminded me of an old Gergely "Slam-Bam-Thank you Mam".

Blocking and Chopping: Blocking was easy with minimal adjustment required. Blocks on spinney loops stayed low and a little fast for my liking. What I really liked was twiddling the racket and blocking loops down the line on the BH side. A lot of twiddlers would like it as the handle is comfortable enough for multiple twiddles. Chopping on the FH was a bit of a task (its hard to chop consistently even with the TBS). I'm better at it with my chopping setup anyway, but would like the ability when the opportunity arose. Chops sailed long most of the time over the table and on heavy loops I had very little margin of error. This is where the springy balsa and carbon really hurt.


BH Side:

This is where it can get very subjective as everyone's style is different and not to mention the sheer number of long pips available. So for this test I stuck with the Bty Feint Long II OX which I was using before for a relative comparison knowing fully well that it is not known for its spin reversal, blocking and "funky" capability unlike others out there. In the future I will test it with Bomb Talent, Tibhar Grass Dtecs, CTT National Pogo, Dawei Saviga V/388D-1, Friendship 755, Double Fish 1615, Meteor 8512 and Milky Way 955/Neptune (all in OX, I have more but they have sponge under them). We also have a bunch of blockers/hitters in out club and I will try to get their opinions as well. I will try and be as descriptive as I can regarding a certain ability which can be attributed to the blade or atleast a combination of the blade and pips.

Serving and Serve return: Flat serves (no spin) seem to stay nice and long and can be very tricky. A fake topspin serve (if you know what I mean) is very easy to perform and is a very important weapon in my arsenal. Receiving serves was not all that difficult and very soon I was able to judge the speed and trajectory of the returned serve. FLII is a relatively easy LPs to receive no spin serves (usually no spin serves give me nightmares). The speed of blade makes it easy to roll the ball down the line while on a 90deg block it deadens the ball fairly quickly dropping it very short.

Pushing and Chopping: I think every defensive blade should be good at these two factors. Pushing felt weird and I seemed to pop up a few balls on heavy backspin balls and it seemed a little erratic. FLII is a good control oriented pip, but I was struggling a bit keeping pushes short and heavy. Chopping was a bit of a battle. I'm more of a chopper and its one of my strengths and I was making a lot of high chops and many just floated long over the table. Even after 2 sessions I was still struggling. Surprisingly the TBS performed better than the Ikarus in this department.

Blocking and Chop-blocks: This is the probably what this blade should be designed to out-perform and it did not disappoint. Blocking heavy topspin took a little adjustment but I was in my comfort zone very soon. On passive blocks the ball just died and dropped short makes re-looping very troublesome. Two of my opponents actually came over to see if I was using anything illegal and were very surprised to see I was using FLII (now thats a sign of a good blade ). Hard blocks on loops were easy as well and seemed to aid a lot to the LPs spin reversal. Chops-blocks right off the bounce were very threatening and showed signs of good reversal. However blocking no-spin balls seemed to trouble me (but I think I need to improve anyway). I'm sure the Bomb Talent and Grass DTecs will pair very well with this blade and will be a lot more effective than the FLII. Side swipe attacks and blocks was another variation I tried and seemed to work flawlessly adding a bit of side spin.

Top-spin roll and Hitting: I roll the ball a good bit during game as a way to change the rhythm and spin. Here it seemed to give me some trouble and I got blasted in more than one occasion. Maybe with a different rubber it might have worked better. Hitting was a breeze and I was drawing so many errors that I had this evil grin the whole time. At one point I just felt like changing my game to being a hitter but then reality kicked in and my opponents started playing me with less backspin and more of slow and high loops with minimal spin. It was still very functional, but I had to really pick the balls to hit. The carbon on the FH side does seem to add to the hitting ability even through 3 plies of wood.

Overall View: I really like this blade if your main focus is playing close to the table and blocking and hitting. I do not think this blade is going to suit most choppers (but there might be many who are more talented than I am). I would highly recommend this blade especially since it is so good for LPs on OX. Its has a very balanced feel and the handle makes it very easy to twiddle frequently. On a scale of 1-10 for combination blade and an active player I would rate this blade an 8.5 (the EJ in me always thinks there is going to be a better blade ). Thanks to nexy for making a beauty.

Edited by metallikviper - 10/19/2010 at 2:50pm