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[729 fx]

A simple review on the Tulpe 007 (Japanese sponge) rubber 2.0mm.

This rubber is a collaborative effort between the Japanese company Kokutaku, and the Chinese company Tuttle. This rubber uses the Explosion III technology, which is designed to offer explosive power on higher impact strokes. The topsheet is definitely "Chinese" due to its tackiness and comes with Japanese and German sponges combine to produce a tacky rubber with a euro type feel.

Surface Appearance - The topsheet looks tacky but not as much as some other Chinese rubbers(as compared with 729 rubbers). I find that it is more then grippy but less than the tackiness of a H3. The pip spacing is very similar to the 729 topsheet and they are both horizontally aligned. Overall the Topsheet is of good quality.

Sponge - not that hard and its around 32 - 35 degree's in my opinion (need confirmation from the manufacturer or other independent lab.s). Being a white Japanese sponge, it is springy. It has a very high quality and light sponge with very fine pores.

Review on Strokes :

Pushing/Flipping - pushes and flips can be done easily due to the topsheet. It also allows imparting some spin over the table when pushing. Flipping is also easy as long as you got the timing right for the tacky top sheet. If your timing is slow, the ball can be easily dumped in the net because of the tackiness.

Counter hitting/Blocking - acceptable. The rebound speed for the 007 is fairly acceptable compared to other stiffer Chinese rubbers like the Guo Qiu inverted rubber. Nothing spectacular on hitting but it does what its meant to do. The same goes for blocking too as it is stable and have a controlled feeling.

Looping/Loop driving - simply outstanding.It gives a very soft and insulated feeling when looping with control and some spin. The speed on the loops rely on the stroke used, that is If you tend to let the ball sink in and rely on the rebound speed, it will be slow with not much spin; but if you use the top sheet to grip the ball and guide it over the net, the resulting ball will be adequately fast.
Loop driving is fair just like most Chinese rubber.

Conclusion:

Its a great allround rubber that can do everything(pushing,blocking,driving,looping etc) consistently. In the past I think only Sriver, Mark V and Mendo MP can do it all but none with a Chinese top sheet. I would rate this rubber highly as an all rounder. For those dedicated choppers, look elsewhere as this rubber is not specialized for this purpose.

[varghese]

Good review.

Don't Kokutaku have different sponges like Japanese and Chinese? Do they have something like German sponge?

I had some Kokutaku rubbers which gave out to the club. It was hard to follow the different combination they had.

I had some Kokutaku blades also. There is one senior player using a Kokutaku blade for months, while another close to the table broke the paddle already.

[729 fx]

Yes, Kokutaku's sponges comes differently like German or Taiwan or Japanese sponge. Its hardness differs, for example Chinese sponge is harder as compared with the others.

[rokphish]

tried one of these before... just so so... can't even remember which version i tried, either germany or japan sponge...