Legacy...Ebonite International

Legacy

When I saw the video released by Ebonite international, frankly I wasn’t really sold to this ball.

Reason being the promo video was more of a coaching video rather than a ball promo video.

So I just kept it at the back of my mind, and could not even remember what it looked like until I was at the pro shop that day, and sitting at the display near the door way was this green/brownish looking ball, screaming out to me, picked it up and saw the word “LEGACY” printed on it.

Immediately went online and did some quick specs research and found out that it actually compliments the pivot quite well with the TOTAL NV core, so I just told my ball driller to do it up like what he did to the pivot, throwing it into the machine, shining it up (without sanding down or up, just shine it up) and laying it out the same as per normal.

So far only had one game on this ball, and my I was impressed with the ball, for it being a mid end ball gives the bowlers the results of a high end ball, and it actually handled surface change quite well, for even in medium oil conditions, it shined brightly as a star.

Having the Hammer First blood, Ebonite pivot, C300 Ransom and C300 ransom demand, and with this legacy down, it actually fills the gap from mid to heavy oil, I might just punch up the freeze hybrid and the cyclone, coupled with the blue hammer urethane, taboo polyester and true blood polyester, I might actually have the whole Ebonite International umbrella arsenal, oh well maybe I will add a Track 400A with it too, I simply love the pearl white color on the ball.

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Don't let its name and color fool you....Lane #1 Pink Panther

Pink Panther

Before other brands came out with colors like pink or names for targeted for lady bowlers, I think Lane #1 has the winner in the PINK PANTHER.

Though the color and name seems very fitting for lady bowlers, but this ball itself is definitely not a pushover.

As usual I had this baby punched out at 75 x 5 x 40, shined up from its OOB condition.

Originally I was to use this at the house where the lanes were dry, but I decided to give it a try at a house with 40ft heavy oil.

First shot out of the bag, I was expecting it to act like any other superbly shined up ball that I had, going straighter begin making a small turn at the breakpoint due to the heavy volume of oil, but man I was wrong, it made such a violent turn at the pocket that I decided to swing the ball out in my next shot.

The ball worked as if it literally had teeth as it cover stock and it just revved up the moment it touches the lane, going on and on towards the 2^nd board before it made a 90degrees turn into the pocket, smashing the deck.

Well, so now we know how it works on fresh oil, so how about playing it with carry down?

The 3^rd game into the series, I pulled out the pink panther again and threw it the same line I did for the previous two games and mine oh mine, this ball just couldn’t expend the energy enough!

It just kept going and going and going and despite the carry down with the shined up surface, it just never loses its bite and just turn the corner and smashes the pins once again.

It is as if that the shined up surface and the carry down is practically in non existence at all.

I have the black panther, let’s just see if it’s just as worthy as the sister itself.

It’s just a pity that such a good brand is not PBA registered.

I think it’s really time for the PBA to relook at how they have bowling balls companies register with them to use on the tour.

For me, if it good enough to be used on the lanes because it has been approved by the USBC, it should be good enough for use in any tournaments or tour.

P.s Ball might be discontinued and seems irrelevant for a relatively new ball review site. But I am sure we can still find some old ones lying around or some undrilled ones at some shops.

Anyways, I have tons of discontinued undrilled balls, so it would just be fair if I write a review after I drilled them up.

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Answers

I have got a few emails asking me if i am being paid to do all these.

Well first off let me clarify this,
i DO NOT get any free stuff from any companies,all reviews were done based on the balls i have.

A lot of the reviews might be from balls that were either discontinued or even so old that some of the official web sites already had them taken down.

I hope you can bear with me on this for the reviews on the old balls.

The only companies that i am affliated with are the following

Jetbowling.com
BowlerX.com

For jet bowling, i am their current distributor in South East Asia, but due to the fact that i am not on staffer hence not restricted to the use of balls from other brands.

For BowlerX.com, i am their first Asian Staffer.

And being on staffer for BowlerX.com i means i gotta write ball reviews on various sites.

I came up with this idea because all the ball review sites were done with reviews on lane conditions bowled in either the USA or Europe and non in Asia, therefore i came up with this idea of writing my own Asian based reviews.

But why Storm/Roto most of the time?
Reason is simple.
My pro shop only orders the non Storm/Roto stuff upon my request and it doesnt make sense for me to go to another pro shop to buy the ball and go to my pro shop to have it drilled up.
Its just not a wise business decision for me to do that,and i am not going to just give up on my ball driller to go with another pro shop just to have balls from other brands.
On the other hand,you will also see that not all reviews on the balls i write are good.
The balls might be meat to other bowlers but they are definitely poison to me if i say they are not good.

So that's why you will see that the reviews on other balls are very limited.

Not to mention that i am very picky on models of balls from other brands,so i wont be just buying any ball that they come out with,paying good money for it,just to write reviews on them,unless the companies are willing to send me testers.

That having said, if i were to get a ball from another company,it will only mean that the particular ball is definitely worth having.

Thank you for all the support.

P.S please give me some time to do up the page nicely, i am an idiot when it comes to web page designing, so i am asking a friend who is more apt than me in doing web pages up to help me do this page up.

P.P.S thank you for all the support and comments.

Thank You.

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Even a human wont mind a little bit of blood in this ...Hammer True Blood

Hammer True Blood

Well if you are a fan of sookie and vampires you will definitely love this ball,

Not just because its name is taken after the vampire series but how the way this ball attacks the lanes with its precise and deadly accuracy.

One of the places I bowl league in is usually bone dry and even lowest end of the reactive balls would also over hook so, the only balls that can be used there is either urethanes or polyester with core in it like the hammer taboo or the hammer true blood.

I already had the taboo polyester and this time round I needed something stronger with a polyester cover so the true blood was my choice, besides the urethanes.

I have this drilled up at 55 x 4.25 x 35 and kept in oob.

This layout gives me an earlier roll as compared to the usual lay out I used, and also considering that this is a polyester cover stock, definitely need an earlier roll with this.

I did some practice when I had the ball and the usual getting the ball into the pocket having it to strike was nothing to boast of.

But what amazed me when I had a few splits.

Remember how frustrating it is when u leave a big 4 and you try to slide your spare ball just at the side of the pin 6(for right hander) and pin 4 (for the south paw) to take out the pin 10 or pin 7 so that the pin 6 or pin 4 can slide across the deck taking out the 6/10 or 4/7?

But most of the time its either the spare ball will over hook because you gave it too much a lift to ensure that it doesn’t skid off the lane into the gutter or without an lift the ball will just head straight to the gutter.

I did try a few times on the big 4 with this ball and I was amazed at how good this ball is at keeping its line.

Once it did the turn, it just went straight on brushing the pin 4 on the shoulder (I am a lefty trying to convert the 4-7-6-10 and 4-7-10 and 4-10),did that 8 times and 5 times it just brushed the pin 4 not touching it, I told myself this has got to be the most stable polyester ever threw, the other 3 times were I pulled the shot and it went straight into the pin 4 taking out the 7 but could not slide the 4 across the deck.

The next time round my friend had a 4-10 and I asked him to let me try, this time round I made the ball tilted more by giving my wrist a tad more turn instead of lift and it did what I wanted it to….made the turn went straight but because of the slightly more tilt, it actually turned a bit more, this time round, hitting the pin 4 squarely on the side and slide the 4 across the deck taking out the 10, it is just like watching a beautiful piece of art with a stroke of mastery added to its final touches.

Kudos to hammer for being creative enough to pin strong cores in their polyester apart from the usual pan cake core that other companies are using, you actually made bowling more fun when it comes to lanes where urethanes also over hooked.

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FUSE THIS BALL.....STORM IQ TOUR FUSION

IQ Tour fusion.

This ball is really fused with power

With its hybrid cover stock, you never go wrong with anything that has got the word IQ with it.

Cover stock: R2S hybrid reactive
Core: centripetal c3 core (hope I did not get ti wrong for I got this translated from a japanese website)
RG: 2.490 (15lbs)
Differential: 0.029 (15lbs)
3-5 inch flare
Hardness 73-75
Color blue / gold
1500 grit polish surface finish
12-16 pounds
Fragrance: blueberry muffin

What struck me first when I saw the ball was the fragrance, it was so nice smelling that I could not help taking a second look at it

The blueberry muffin smell really makes me think of the muffins at breakfast.

Went online and did some research and was quite impressed with the specs, I am not being biased but I find that the Master line worked a lot better as compared to their Premier Line in recent months especially the Marvel and IQ series.

As mentioned in my previous postings, I like the IQ tour GOLD so much that I have two of them punched up nut sad to say they have met their early demise one week after another (but that’s besides the point) cracking up while sitting there do nothing.

Back to the TOUR FUSION, after seeing it at the shop, I had an opportunity to see someone bowled with it in league the next day, and boy I was impressed with the ball, for the person using it was able to play it well on 40ft relatively thick oil, talked to the bowler after the league and found out that he was actually using it out of box condition, and it actually was very clean through the thick head and mid lane, the ball revving up like the rest of the IQ and I took no hesitation in making my decision to drill up.

 I had this drilled up at 42 x 4 x 53 which is what is the 4 x 4 x 3 ( on the storm drill chart ) to compliment my MARVEL S which has the same lay out.

First game out of box gave me a 268 in which I threw a couple of shots out to see if it was able to make the turn like the MARVEL S.

It was not as strong as the MARVEL S when I missed the target out, but it did do a strong turn off the target and came in carrying light but it never created splits.

I love the way the ball rev up, it’s just like how you would drive a muscle car or a high powered car, ever increasing in the power and its like it have endless energy even after hitting the pins.

This ball really lived up to its name of FUSION, the fusion of the solid and the pearl.

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Thank You

Thank you for all your support, as much as i like to write the reviews in lightning speed, i cant do it that fast for i am quite tied up with my work at this point of time, but be rest assured that i will try to input as many reviews as a i can in the fastest possible time.

thank you

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Beasts of nature ...Storm Natural and Natural Pearl

Storm came out with one of the best urethane balls in the natural series in recent years.

Like I mentioned in my other posting on urethane balls, the naturals are the ones I used most frequently on super dry lanes.

Got them drilled 33/8 x 33/8.

With the natural pearl complimenting the natural, I have no qualms of going to them when the lanes are so dry that even the lowest range reactives will overhook.

Not jumpy off the breakpoint, giving me a smooth arcing look down the lanes, sometimes I even use them in place of my spare ball.

One thing I don’t understand is that my natural bleeds oil, even after oil extraction, after one session, faithfully cleaning it, leaving it in the bag for a day or just leaving it sit there, the oil just bleeds out, if only pharmaceutical companies can come out with such a product that allows the body to “bleed” out the oil, that way we have will have no qualms in eating all our favorite oily food.

If you find that the natural is hooking too much and the pearl is skidding too long, you can go for the supernatural to fit the gap in between these two balls.

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