‘Victas’ is a recently introduced Japanese table tennis brand. It had originally been ‘TSP’ that is the traditional Japanese brand, and one of the biggest table tennis brands in the world. But, it was acquired by Svenson Holdings in 2009 after facing a management crisis in the early 2000s, and then launched new ‘Victas’ brand in 2011. Although there was some trial and error in the beginning, awareness is rapidly increasing after adopting a unified CI. In 2017, the company name was changed to Victas, and in 2021, the existing TSP brand was abolished and all major products were incorporated into Victas. One of those products is ‘Swat Power’ which is the high power version of ‘Swat’ which was originally the best selling 7-ply wood blade of TSP brand.

‘Swat’ was launched in 2012 under TSP brand as the variation of ‘Swat’ series. ‘Swat’ is the 7-ply wood blade which broke the stereotype of 7-ply wood blade and realize the characteristics of ‘holding the ball well and providing high stability’. As the variation of ‘Swat’ series, ‘Swat Power’ provides more power of topspin while keeping the concept of ‘Swat’. ‘Swat Power’ also holds the ball very well with high level of stability, differently from ‘Swat Speed’ that was launched together with ‘Swat Power’ but aiming at fast attack by smash and block. ‘Swat Power’ can be directly compared with modern 7-ply wood blades from other brands. ‘Swat Power’ is especially recommended for skilled amateur or professional players. ‘Koki Niwa Wood’ which was the former blade of Koki Niwa is based on ‘Swat Power’.

‘Swat Power’ (right) is the 7-ply wood blade that can make more powerful topspin than ‘Swat’ (left). We can observe that the construction of ‘Swat Power’ is thicker than that of ‘Swat’.

The new CI of Victas is being applied for Victas ‘Swat Power’. The theme of new Victas CI is splitting. The printing on the head, the color blocks of handle and the Victas logo in the lens represent the splitting image. The name of blade is written above the left side, and the specification and technology are written below the right side of head splitting image. It is interesting that product name isn’t written in the foreside lens at handle. This graphic theme is being applied for most of Victas blades.

The construction of blade is based on classic 7-ply wood construction of ‘Clipper’ type, and the thickness is close to that of current ‘Clipper CR’. Top layer is heat-treated Limba, middle layer is Ayous, and three core layers are also Ayous. Differently from ‘Swat’, the layers except for top layer are not heat treated. Overall thickness is around 6.4mm. (Thickness is written as 6.6mm on the catalog.)

The size of head is around 158mm x 151mm.

The width of FL handle is arouond 26mm ~ 26.5mm (at bulge) ~ 26mm (at the narrowest point) ~ 35.5 (at handle end), and the thickness of FL handle is around 24mm at thumb and around 26mm at the end. Because the handle end is wide and thick the grip is quite stable and firm although the middle of the handle is somewhat narrow. The size of ST handle (not shown in this article) is around 28mm (width) x around 23mm (thickness). The upper and lower face of ST handle is almost flat.

The transparent lens with the printing of ‘Victas’ logo is applied at foreside of handle. This lens is common for most of Victas blades.

There isn’t any printing on the backside of head. But, at the backside of handle, there is a lens that includes the name of the product.

The name of the product is printed in the backside transparent lens.

At the end of handle, small aluminum plate that includes engraved Victas logo mark is applied.

The design theme of printing on foreside is applied for most of Victas blades. It is a very unique design and is consistent for every product, anyone who sees it can tell at a glance that it is a Victas blade. However, to disinguish between individual products, customers much check the name of the blade at the left side of head or in backside lens if they don’t have any prior knowledge on the blade construction.

Left one is ‘Swat Power’, and right one is ‘Swat’. The design concept of ‘Swat Power’ is 100% same as that of ‘Swat’ except for the product name and the description on specification.

The rebound level (or playing character) of ‘Swat Power’ is OFF+ in Victas standard, while that of ‘Swat’ is OFF.

‘Swat’ and ‘Swat Power’ are the representative of Victas 7-ply wood blades. Because of the reasonable price and the power higher than typical 5-ply wood blades, ‘Swat’ and ‘Swat Power’ are recommended for all level of players.

The extremely consistent design of the Victas blades was intended to promote the name of the new ‘Victas’ brand rather than individual products. Now that time has passed after the introduction of new C.I., and this strategy is evaluated to have been successful. As awareness of the Victas brand has increased, it is expected that various designs that deviate from consistency will be gradually applied in the future.

Following are the performance indices of Swat Power (avg.weight = 89.9g) :

– Ep = 1.67

– Ec = 1.43 (Ec/Ep = 0.85)

– Vp = 1.12

– Vl = 1.13 (Vl/Vp = 1.01)

Please note that above are average values and can be updated by further measurement.

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