Hi, I just received my order of M9000s from Eric and just thought I would shed some light on the similarities and differences between the Yonex model it was modeled after. The "feathers" (sorry don't know what they're actually called) seem to resemble a mixture of the Mavis300 and the Mavis350 by Yonex. As for the stiffness of the feathers, it was on par with the Mavis350s and quite a bit off from the Mavis2000s Won't be able to play with them until Saturday so I'll write more about them then. Below are some pictures comparing the shuttles. For the pictures with three, order is Mavis2000, M9000, Mavis350 For the pictures with two, order is M9000 and Mavis350 Wallace
Ok so I got to play with these shuttles today. Played a few games with these shuttles, then a few more games with both the Mavis 350 and 2000. So here goes.... When I first played with the M9000s, it felt pretty good, but a bit fast. Not extremely fast, but faster than a brand new 350 or a brand new 2000. They were all medium speed shuttles (blue) and under the same conditions (same setting) so that was a bit surprising. I personally thought the shuttles felt a bit different from the 350s. They somehow felt more.... light? Not sure what it is, but you know how sometimes you play with one bird for a very long time and the "skirt" (thanks what07 XD) becomes all mangled? Sort of like that feeling but not as extreme. I personally thought it felt more akin to the Mavis 2000 but that's a personal thing and I can't really put into words why that is. Now this is very important.. DURABILITY. I don't know why (and my friends would agree), Mavis 350s break really, really easily. Either the skirt gets destroyed really quickly or the cork falls off/ gets loose really easily. Now I'm no pro, but I know I'm not that bad. Even in matches with little to no mishits, the 350s tend to self destruct. Perhaps it's a poor batch, has anyone else had this problem? This is not only with one tube... Now onto the M9000s. Extremely durable. Played a one set (3 games) using one shuttle, no noticeable damage whatsoever. Skirt was fine, cork was fine. But I wasn't satisfied so I decided to hit it against the wall, hit the ceiling a few times, still good. Just to compare, I did the same thing to a Mavis 350 and it got wrecked. Compared to a Mavis 2000, I would still prefer it over this just because of the speed. It just seems a bit unnatural but it's not too bad. For the price, I would pick it over the Mavis 350 or 300 any day. As for the 2000s, although expensive it still offers the complete package, but the M9000 is not far behind. One thing I really liked about these shuttles was that it totally dies after a clear. What I mean by that is that similar to feather shuttles, once you lift it, it will just drop straight down. Imagine a diagonal line going upwards, and instead of making a parabola, it dropping at a steeper angle. (dont know if that made sense) This is my preference for nylon shuttles right now: Mv350 < Mv300 < M9000 < Mv2000 I would definitely recommend these shuttles to anyone who want to save some money and get something that will last. Although a bit fast, this can be offset by getting the slower "green" version. Best to just test it out for yourself and see whether or not you like it as we all have different preferences =P Wallace
$7.95 + $5 shipping = $12.95. Even you buy 10 tubes, average is $11.15 how much cheaper is this compare to 350/300???
Got the shuttles, superfast shipping as usual. Review: All comparisons made with Mavis 350 blue cap. Its a collection of feedback from my local club. Speed: The M9000 blue cap is quite a bit faster than the Mavis 350 blue cap. The green cap when new is very slightly slower than the 350 blue. Once the green cap was played in for a while it got a bit faster. The beginners/elderly players thought the green cap was a bit slow. Where as the more advanced players thought even the green cap was sometimes faster than the blue cap 350s. This is probably why the speed changes as the shuttle is played. The top one is used and you can see the skirt is deformed, The brand new one is circular. The deformation of a 350 is less so that probably why it keeps speed a bit more consistent. Feel: The shuttles felt more heavy than the 350 on impact which is more similar to feathers compared to the 350. Tight net shots felt more easier. If you hit the sweetspot bang on the shuttles flies very nicely but if slightly off it sorta just dies, so in a sense it's a bit less forgiving than the 350s. Clears: The trajectory has sharper droop towards the end similar to the feathers which is very nice. Smash/Drives: Smash speed is fast, as with all plastics. But the M9000 compared to the 350 has a faster initial speed but slows down quicker towards the end. This made defence of midcourt smashes and drives a bit hard as it was going a bit fast. Durability: Very good, much better than the 350s. Used 1 tube tonight, 1 came back all split, the rest were still playable with no wobbles. so 5/6 after maybe average 1 hour of playtime per shuttle is very good. Overall summary: The M9000 plays more like feathers compared to the Mavis 350. Durability is much better than the Mavis 350s. Would definitely recommend as a replacement for the Mavis 350. If you are currently using blue 350s for semi-competitive play I would suggest the green M9000s. Price wise it is very competitive compared to the 350 in bulk. I wont disclose the bulk quotes Eric provided me but if you order enough you can save over P compared to the 350. Once I show these to some other local clubs Eric can expect a very large order from me.
Thanks to this review, I'm going to order a tube of the green M9000's to see how they compare to the Mavis 350 blues that we usually use on my team. Thanks for your reviews and comparisons, cycilver and kingzzz.
yeah i've ordered some. The reds (slowest) are closest to real feathers in my experience. Mind that I play when its 34 degrees out there
No, red is fastest. Did you mean that you ordered the greens? [h=3]GREEN label (SLOW speed): 22--33 degree C BLUE label (MEDIUM speed): 12--23 degree C RED label (FAST speed): 0-13 degree C [/h]
Got my tube of M9000's recently. Shipping was extremely fast from Eric, it took only about a day or two to arrive in the US. Pretty impressive. One thing I notice immediately is that the greens still seem to be faster than the Mavis 350 Blues that we usually use at practices. The cork is also much harder. Maybe it'll loosen up after more hits and move at the proper speed once broken in. Price-wise, if you buy in bulk, these are much, much better than Mavis.
Hm, interesting, so I hit a bit with these today and they were actually at about the same speed as the 350B's, or maybe ever so slightly slower. Nice and stable flight, I liked them. I only tried them out for about 5 min so I can't comment on durability yet.