Review: Galaxy Mars II (v.2)

Jim,

Edited by richrf - 01/03/2012 at 1:30am

After two more sessions I took Mars 41 Red off the Ultima - still not enough oomph in blocks close and away from the table, as well as in power counterlooping etc. But that's just me. I put it on Galaxy T-8 and will try it soon... perhaps it will have to wait until after Westchester Open on January 22.

Went back to Mars-41 Black right after that (within one minute) - it is certainly feels a bit harder and consequently faster.

One thing that bothers me, however, is that it plays worse than PME against high spinny opening loops. Its high grippiness works against it - it is hard for me to accurately counterloop such strokes. Solution is to get close to the table and flat-kill the sucker but often I am caught off balance or simply my legs are tired etc. It still works really good when counterlooping lower power loops, very consistent and reliable, a bit better than PME with a slightly adjusted technique.

Also it is definitely better than PME in doing spinny chops, sidespin pendulum-type passive-aggressive strokes like the ones that Patrick Chila does here



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHadcPYYo3A

at time markers 0.10 and 0.44.

Always compromises...

I hope that some of our ace-testers will get it and add their review for this rubber - it deserves it, and it's not expensive at all. If you are playing with T-05, try Black 41, if with medium-hard eurotensors, try Red 41 or Black 39, if with soft tensors - Red 39 or softer. Or smth like that...

vvu.tee wrote: Аlso looping against heavy under-spins was very poor. Another handicap is the is the return on short serves. I guess all these can be contributed to the substantially lower throw of Mars 2.  I suppose this rubber will perform better on more flexible blades. That's just my 2 cents from 3-4 hours of play.

My Ultima is very non-flexible (8 mm thickness) and to do a loop against heavy underspin you just need to readjust the angle of the attack. naturally if you are used to playing with higher-throw rubbers on relatively flexy blades then you will need to do some serious adjustment - it was easier for me as I always played with harder-sponged rubbers on non-flexy (but soft!) blades

Return of short spinny serves simply requires that you do not do a simple push - add your own sidespin or underspin. Flick is indeed rather difficult, unless you are fast and managed to meet the ball on the top of the curve with just the exactly right angle of the blade.

Counterlooping imho is better than with Tenergy - but only for me, I guess - simply because Mars is way less sensitive to the incoming spin. However, if you are a fast powerful looper with very good technique, then yes Tenergy will most likely work better for you in that element of the game. But that's not me - I am too old to be fast enough to not only defeat the other guy's spin but also pit my own on it using Tenergy. Tried it, didn't work well for me.

Played another session with Black Mars 41, and the feeling is returning back. Wasn't playing as badly as on Tuesday.

Jim, you are probably right about the adjustment of the technique. However, I was referring to attacking the short serve, not just returning it. 

Wow, Imago, are you speaking for YinHe as thier representative? 

I am more concerned with the fact that Mars II 2.3 fails thickness check...

Egghead wrote: Just order couple mars2 (max) from china, hope it is ok(cross my fingers)

What hardness did you order, and at what store?

thanks

Egghead wrote: JimT wrote: Egghead wrote: Just order couple mars2 (max) from china, hope it is ok(cross my fingers) What hardness did you order, and at what store?thanks hehe, it is 36degree. I get it from a forum. My coach must hate me when I use it. He is anti-chinese rubber I think it is better to compare it with TinArc 3, instead of Tenergy.Did u let it sat 24hrs before you apply the first layer of glue?

No. Glued them on right after I opened the envelope.

Package for Mars II must have a hardness sticker on it; it could say both 9014 and 9024 but the newer ones have 9024 code. Also - regular Mars has been discontinued for more than a year (or two).

JimT wrote: Egghead wrote: JimT wrote: Egghead wrote: Just order couple mars2 (max) from china, hope it is ok(cross my fingers) What hardness did you order, and at what store?thanks hehe, it is 36degree. I get it from a forum. My coach must hate me when I use it. He is anti-chinese rubber I think it is better to compare it with TinArc 3, instead of Tenergy.Did u let it sat 24hrs before you apply the first layer of glue? No. Glued them on right after I opened the envelope.

It said it right here, u shall let it sits for 24 hrs

Egghead wrote: JimT wrote: Egghead wrote: JimT wrote: Egghead wrote: Just order couple mars2 (max) from china, hope it is ok(cross my fingers) What hardness did you order, and at what store?thanks hehe, it is 36degree. I get it from a forum. My coach must hate me when I use it. He is anti-chinese rubber I think it is better to compare it with TinArc 3, instead of Tenergy.Did u let it sat 24hrs before you apply the first layer of glue? No. Glued them on right after I opened the envelope. It said it right here, u shall let it sits for 24 hrs

Well, they didn't deem it important enough to write that stuff in English...

It was always amazing to me how such a large company as Yin-He doesn't think it is important to spend a few hundred bucks to hire for a couple of days a guy with decent English to proof-read and fix the promotional texts they have on their envelopes.

I mean, Palio did that and they have pretty decent texts on their packages. Yin-He has masterpieces like this one:

MAX TENSE means "deep-strain". It is R&D by YINHE company especially for the Post-internal-energy era without power glue. MAX TENSE use the high energy ‘Arbalest Sponge’ match with high-performance rubber reasonably and dealing with a series of appropriate chemical processes assures that MAX TENSE technology could completely surpass the Ex-common stretchen. MAX TENSE technology creates a myth that makes YINHE to be a new force suddenly rises. It will lead the trend of the Post-internal-energy era.

and this is not even the worst example...

JimT wrote: LED wrote: http://www.ttxonline.com/p-296-galaxymilkyway-mars-v2.aspx this seems to be the old Mars' picture You can see that envelope is marked 9014. TTXOnline explained to me that Yin-He is using both versions of packaging for Mars II, so don't be concerned about that. Unless sponge on your Mars is yellowish instead of red...

by the description at the side, it seems that 9014 package comes with a free rubber protection sheet.

richrf wrote: The confusion I am having is that the YinHe official site they do not have anything about Maxtense on 9014 http://news.yinhe1986.cn/?p=12&a=view&c=87&r=285 Maxtense only appears on the 9024 http://news.yinhe1986.cn/?p=12&a=view&c=87&r=590 Notice the different placements of the Product number, the hardness labeling, the prominent display of Maxtense vs. 9014.

Rich, once again - Mars I (or simply Mars, code 9014) is discontinued but Galaxy has amassed a lot of packaging (envelopes, inserts etc) and they still use it to package Mars II (code 9024). That's it - I don't understand what is so confusing about that...

I got the numbers from my friend with durometer - and they are very puzzling

topsheet/sponge hardness (remember, these are quite approximate)

Mars 39 red 2.3 mm - 37/44 (?? wtf ??)
Mars 41 red 2.3 mm - 32/33 (??)
Mars 41 black 2.3 mm - 41/36

The only one that more or less makes sense is black Mars 41 although it is still not clear but then again - regular durometer is not calibrated to measure such thin pieces of rubber/sponge, so these numbers are useful for comparison only. But when you compare Mars 41 B with Mars 39 R - that is stunning... I dunno what to say. And the fact that numbers for Mars 41 R are so low just doesn't jibe with my own feelings from the play.

Truly important would be getting another Mars 41 B (or 39 R or 41 R) and measuring the numbers again. Perhaps someone still has the cutout pieces and could mail them to my friend? PM me and TIA.

Test 3 times and calculate the average as test result