Palio Thor's impressions and reviews

Ndragon88 wrote: icontek wrote: Welcome back! I'm not sure how many years you have been gone, but like you, I had a hiatus from the sport (3-4 years). Here's a quick recap: Palio was a trendsetter. I can't speak to the current Thor's quality, but I will tell you that the market is now FLOODED with Chinese-style topsheet/German-style tensioned sponge hybrids rubbers that were inspired by Thor's. Joola's Golden tango feels legit like a boosted H3.  Tibhar's K1 Hybrid has a range of variants from Euro feeling to Chinese feeling - my favorite control rubber. Chinese companies have stepped up their game as well though! A while back, Sanwei made an interesting hybrid rubber Target National which has a touch gear and a driving gear. DHS is no slouch either, producing rubbers for Stiga (Genesis M, which was like a quality controlled version of DHS TinArc) and even updating their beginner rubbers like PF4 with an elastic sponge. Also, Kokotaku Tuple 007 Pro has a distinct hybrid feel (Chinese topsheet, tensioned sponge) - my favorite attacking rubber. Cheers! PS: the ball is still not as well made/consistent as celluloid: Nittaku Premiums play more DIFFERENTLY from any other brand than celluloid 2* vs 3* did. DHS also makes some good balls, but you have to pay NITTAKU Premium prices to get them. Other companies, like Butterfly, still make gimmicky feeling balls like the G40 (wow-the sound!) and S40 (wow-the spin!) series.  Haven't played Since early 2012! Except 2 and half years ago for a few months before having my last 2 knee operations. A lot has changed, I didn't keep up to date with TT much tbh, just watched some pro matches here and there. I have seen very recently a lot of new rubbers its crazy, also the price of Tenergies and this new Dignics! Well now that I have no £$£$£ to spare anymore I will not be EJing at all anymore. Was playing with my old league bat Donic WSC, Regular H3/Thors until I settled on playing with the faster blade Stiga Clipper with the only brand new rubbers I had left. I will stick with what I got until they die (which is like 6-12months lol). I don't know how any of these new rubbers play now but Thors is about as fast as I'm willing to go tbh, it's very quick on my Clipper. If i don't get chances to try any of the new rubbers I will very likely just stick to Thors and TG3 Neo (maybe just use either one on both sides even), or perhaps try Hurricane 8. I would love to learn about some of the rubbers though. Friendship 729 08 looks interesting, tibhar hybrid k2 looks VERY interesting but a bit pricy. As I read through this entire thread again I saw that Thors has been changed, wondering if anyone has tried the new one?

Ndragon88 wrote: Welcome back good old forum and thread! I'm back 4 knee surgeries later and looking to take TT serious again and guess what I've been using....THORS. Still performs beautifully FH and BH on a Samsanov Alpha and a Donic Waldner Senso Carbon, I only had 1 new sheet of Thors to put on my Stiga clipper but I can tell you now it feels amazing both sides again. Where is Nicefrog? Is anyone else still using this Rubber?

Ray wrote: Anyone tried Thor's with the plastic ball?

Jeez, time seems be getting faster these days.
Is it really 2012/2013 that we discussed this rubber? Four whole years ago?

Anyone tried Thor's with the plastic ball?

Yes JUIC 999 turbo,.

neutronbomb wrote: Just feels like a normal chinese rubber to me. Great when your active in every shot, but when you really need it for a block, it will let you down.

Just feels like a normal chinese rubber to me. Great when your active in every shot, but when you really need it for a block, it will let you down. 

Haggisv,I see your FH rubber is Thors perhaps you could share your experience using it, thanks

Hello everyone, I was advised to use this rubber on a butterfly defense 2 blade with DTec s on  BH. can anyone help me. I am an overdrive player (drive too much)  and I love H3 Neo

Glad I could help.

My philosophy is that my BH is there to keep me in the rally and to place the ball in a way that it forces the opponent to return a weaker return. When I get that weaker return I pivot and use my FH to solidify my advantage.
I don't expect my BH to win me points and in my experience my BH is much better suited at controlling the game rather than making points.
Sure I can punch the BH with some good speed but it's still 65%-80% of what my FH can do.
My BH however does have more control than my FH. it's easier to place shots, it's easier to block, it's easier to push. My FH can do these things but not as well as my backhand.

I used Thors on FH and Blitz on BH for well over a year.  3-4 months ago, I switched to Vega Europe on BH and immediately fell in love with it.  To each his own. I hope that Xiom Vega China has the same affect.

Since Thors are tacky they are a bit more reactive to spin. Unfortunately I have a minor ankle injury so I've only been able to put around 2 hours of play on the Blitz (about a total of 2 matches).

Blitz is definitely not a tacky rubber, if anything it's grippy.

As far as I can tell, this is why I am having an easier time with Blitz on BH.

When a backspin ball hits my rubber it wants to ride down the rubber and off my blade before I can lift the ball with a brush stroke.
With Blitz this effect is a bit less and since it is also softer I can push the ball into the rubber and lift it.

With Thor, on my backhand, my stroke is not good enough to generate enough blade speed to match or exceed the spin on the ball..so the ball doesn't get lifted enough.

That's my best explanation. The Blitz definitely generates less spin but it gives me more variety on my backhand.
Push is less deadly, backhand loop is less spinny but I am able to flip more short pushes, loop more long pushes and the ability to punch down loops is about the same as Thors. Maybe better because it seems like the Blitz picks up speed with medium low to medium high effort and then bottoms out shortly after.
Thors tend to be very dead at low to medium low effort, moderate at medium to medium high effort and very fast at high to maximum effort.

In the end Thors feel like they have a higher range of gears but it takes a lot of effort to put them into super fast mode.
Blitz feel like it has a lower range of gears (around the same low gear as Thor) but requires much less effort to reach its maximum potential.

This is exactly what I am looking for in a BH rubber. I am not able to generate as much power on my BH so I do not want a rubber that requires a large powerful stroke that requires me to twist my body. I want a rubber where I can generate good speed with nothing more than my arm using a punch motion or simply rotating my forearm (like a clock) with some raising of my shoulder.

On my forehand however I love generating power using my legs, hips, torso and arm and so that's why I love Thor's for FH. It rewards me for a good stroke while allowing me to play a very soft control game when my opponents start dropping the ball short (I can keep the ball low, have a very heavy low push etc...).

Blitz + Thor looks to be my new combo now.

P.S - If you've played Thor FH/Thor BH then you will have little to no problems going to Thor FH/Blitz BH. They play very similarly, you'll notice a little extra kick and you'll notice loops and flips getting easier but you may pop the ball up for the first few sessions.

gatorling wrote: On the BH though I would not recommend the Thor - at least for me I am unable to consistently generate a massive BH loop (my BH motion is much tighter and is more of a punch block BH, flip BH or top spin BH). With this I feel uncomfortable looping long chops to my BH and instead go for a push. For this reason I ordered 42deg Blitz and I hope that will make my BH a bit more deadly. Currently all my opponents do is chop to my backhand knowing that I am very likely to just push it back.

The difference between the old and new Thors is pretty small I think. I didn't do a direct comparison by examining the sheets but I have been playing with Thors since about April 2011 (so it's been over a year).

I've noticed that it's ever so slightly to loop with the new Thors. They feel a little more playable and I swear that my flat hit has improved. All in all they feel very slightly more European.
This effect is not obvious at first and the first time I played with the new Thors I felt that maybe I did not get the new formulation.
After about a week I notice that my shots were a bit more consistent.

It is still a technically challenging rubber to use but the pay off is good. Even after a year I still have problems looping VERY heavy underspin balls. Medium to light underspin balls I can absolutely kill (the throw on this thing is amazing, I'll do a 45 degree loop and the ball clears the net by maybe 1/2 an inch with lots of speed and spin).

On the BH though I would not recommend the Thor - at least for me I am unable to consistently generate a massive BH loop (my BH motion is much tighter and is more of a punch block BH, flip BH or top spin BH). With this I feel uncomfortable looping long chops to my BH and instead go for a push.

For this reason I ordered 42deg Blitz and I hope that will make my BH a bit more deadly. Currently all my opponents do is chop to my backhand knowing that I am very likely to just push it back.