interesting indeed... all the racquets are now 84g and up... fireblade elite (head heavy, stiff), fireblade superlite (emms edition, headlight, flexy), and fireblade superlite (headlight, medium stiff) everything else is 85g or heavier. they're straying away from their usual "must have a 80-81g" racquet in their line-up. powerblade and airblade series has been cut. fireblade and aerospeed series are new, which at first glance seemingly replaces the powerblade and airblade racquets. however, theres both iso and ovals for both series'! hopefully this is a step in the right direction, seeing how the catalog is stamped UK, and not KR. perhaps carlton's bored of the korean market and is now stepping back up to the plate and reclaiming its shares of the badminton market. fans of the lightweight airblade superlites had better get their hands on them now, or else they'll be gone forever, this time for good!
The range looks a bit different from what I have seen in Hong Kong. The NP-9900, NP-9500, IP-8800 and IP-8600 are missing. It is so strange that they are selling a different range in Asia and in the UK.
I like the idea of offering Iso & Classic designs. Often times, when using other brands, I would say "this would be even cooler if it was offered as an oval shaped racquet" Well now that is reality... I'm assuming this has benefits for the parent company as well... It could possibly minimize, the production costs, by allowing the same materials to be purchased in order to produce the racquets. Oh... on the topic of Carltons... I'm rather interested in their synthetic shuttles lol, since i'm back in training, it would be beneficial for me to have a long lasting shuttle. Also on the topic of Carlton... I did a search like 2 months ago, there are still racquets available that Chickenpoodle was looking for... (this was during my quest to look for carbonex 20 long alternatives to no avail; since cab 20 long is all but non-existant now :crying: ) I wonder if Dunlop/Maxfly (or whatever its called); will be making the a big push back into badminton? I noticed from speaking with certain peoples that Black Knight in Canada, has made great strides to sponsor up and comers. Heck, they even indicate a brand new (full) website is in the works. Also with Wilson & Head starting to penetrate the market... I wonder if YY will start to feel a pinch in the upcoming years; interesting to see how it plays out. Sorry for going off topic, I'm a big economics geek.
that is true... i remember theres the mp88, ns8000 and ns6000 i thought might of been cool if they were oval! and i thought dunlop had a handful of companies in badminton already? slazenger, carlton, etc. all owned by the same company i think? oh, and about the carltons i was in search for, you have pm!
remember the old airblade 600? even older than the 600ti? well, i need to replace that. the fireblade tour(oval obviously) looks like its probably a good replacement. Any opinions or reccommendations?
not sure. i couldnt find any in HK when i was there few months ago. (ended up buying a at700 instead- worked out really well actually ). oval has that lovely whipping through the air but i seem to make better shots with iso. best to email carlton to see if there is a US stockist i guess.
Until now Carlton rackets have been pretty hard to get in my country (Belgium), but the new Fireblade series show op on various online shops. I don't know of this means anything, but it's possible they will soon be easier to get in the USA also.