‘Fire Fall’ series is a product line of inner-fiber blades that was announced in late 2012 which isn’t long after the Victas brand was born. At the end of 2012, Victas announced three models of ‘Fire Fall’ series – ‘Fire Fall AC’, ‘Fire Fall FC’ and ‘Fire Fall SC’. And, one year after the ‘Fire Fall’ series consisting of five models was completed by the addition of ‘Fire Fall VC’ and ‘Fire Fall LC’, and began to compete with Butterfly’s ‘InnerForce’ series. The appearance of ‘Fire Fall’ series was renewed in 2017 when the new C.I. of Victas was introduced. Still ‘Fire Fall’ series is one of very strong rivals of ‘InnerForce Layer’ series especially in Japanese market.

‘Fire Fall VC’ is a product added to the series in late 2013, and ‘VC’ stands for ‘Vectra Carbon’ which is also called as Arylate Carbon. Victas is using two kinds of ALC (arylate carbon) for its blades. One is ‘VC’ which is using Vectran – the arylate fiber produces by Cralay, and the other is ‘ZC’ which is using Zxion – the arylate fiber produced by KB Seiren. (The ALC of Butterfly blades is Vectran Carbon.) From the kind of artificial material you may imagine that ‘Fire Fall VC’ is similar to typical inner ALC blades such as Butterfly ‘InnerForce Layer ALC’. However, the construction of ‘Fire Fall VC’ is much thicker than ordinary inner ALC construction, and that makes the unique characteristics of ‘Fire Fall VC’. Because it is easy to use the power of the opponent’s ball, it is expected that the players who have used thick 7-ply wood blades can seamlessly move to ‘Fire Fall VC’. ‘Fire Fall VC’ is also well known as the blade used by Miyuu Kihara who won two titles at the 2022 World Youth Championships.

The new C.I. of Victas is being applied to current ‘Fire Fall’ series. The ‘splitting’ image is printed at the middle of the foreside of head. And, the name of product is printed above that splitting graphic. Below that splitting graphic, elasticity level and the information of construction are printed. The splitting graphic is also applied to handle. The same design concept of handle is also applied to ‘Quartet’ series and ‘ZX-Gear’ series. A very consistent graphic design is the characteristics of Victas blades.

‘Fire Fall VC’ is an inner ALC blade. V Carbon(= Vectran Carbon) is placed between the middle layer and the center layer. The top layer is Limba. The middle layer is Ayous, and the center layer are Kiri. Overall thickness is around 6.3mm. We can see that the middle layer is much thicker than those of typical inner fiber blades. ‘Fire Fall VC’ is much thicker than ordinary inner ALC blades. But, the gap between two artificial fiber layers isn’t especially wide because most of the increase in thickness is due to the thickness of the middle layers.

The official size of head is around 157mm x 150mm. Actually measured size is not much different from the official size.

Same concept of the printing on the foreside of head is common to almost all Victas blades. The consistency is so strong that you can easily tell it’s a Victas blade at first glance. However, to distinguish individual products, you must check the product name. it is difficult to distinguish individual products. To distinguish individual products, you must look at their names.

The name of blade and the plywood construction (5-ply + V Carbon) are printed over and under the left side of the splitting image respectively.

‘Dyna-core’ logo and speed sign is shown under the right side of the splitting image. ‘Dyna-core’ is the name used by Victas to indicate inner fiber construction. (Outer Fiber construction is called as ‘Dyna-shell’.)

Nothing is printed on the backside of head. But, on the backside of handle there is a transparent plastic lens that indicates the name of blade.

The width of FL (flared) handle is around 26mm (at head side) ~ 27mm (at bulge) ~ 26mm (at narrowest point) ~ 34mm (at the end). And, the thickness of FL handle is around 22.5mm (at thumb) ~ 24mm (at the end). The FL handle isn’t a wide handle, and it is somewhat thinner than ordinary FL handles. But, the stability of grip is good because the surfaces are relatively flat.

The size of ST (straight) handle is around 28mm (width) x 22mm (thickness). It is a squared handle whose foreside/backside surfaces are completely flat, like the ST handles of ‘Swat’ series.

One of the characteristics of Victas blades is that the second lens is applied on the backside of handle. The size of the backside lens is same as that of foreside lens, and the name of the blade – ‘Fire Fall VC’ – is written in the backside lens.

Small aluminum plate that includes engraved Victas logo mark is applied at the end of handle. This logo mark symbolizes the image of splitting V.

‘Fire Fall VC’ is the representative inner ALC blade of Victas which is used by top player. But, its construction and playing characteristics are somewhat different from those of typical inner ALC blades.

Above picture shows two products in ‘Fire Fall’ series those are released one year later than the announcement of the other three models in the series. Left is ‘Fire Fall VC’ whose artificial material is V Carbon (= Vectran Carbon = ALC), and right is ‘Fire Fall LC’ whose artificial material is Line Carbon (= uniaxial carbon fiber). Except for the product name and the name of artificial material , there isn’t any difference in graphic design between two blades.

‘Fire Fall VC’ (left) and ‘Fire Fall LC’ (right) are inner fiber blades those have something in common in that the center layers of both of two are not Ayous but Kiri. But, ‘Fire Fall VC’ is much thicker than ‘Fire Fall LC’ due to its thick middle layers.

The handles of two models looks totally identical. If the rubber is attached, we can’t tell them apart until we look at the backside lens or the edge of the blade. (The one on the front is ‘Fire Fall VC’ and the one on the back is ‘Fire Fall LC’.) This extremely consistent way of design of Victas blades is intended to promote the name of the new ‘Victas’ brand rather than individual products.

The backside of ‘Fire Fall VC’ (left) and ‘Fire Fall LC’ (right). The names of two models are shown in the backside lenses.

‘Fire Fall VC’ (left) and ‘Fire Fall LC’ (right) are two most important models in ‘Fire Fall’ series which is the major inner fiber blade family of Victas.

 inner fiber models of ‘ZX-Gear’ series which represents the blade range of Victas.

A characteristic of Victas blades is that lenses are applied to both sides of handle. However, the players who don’t like the feel of the lens on their fingers and therefore use the lens side as the backhand side will not like this design. For those players, Victas should make the lens (or Aluminum plate) much smaller than these ones. Fortunately, very small Aluminum plates are started to be applied for new models such as Koki Niwa ZC.

‘Fire Fall VC’ had been the representative inner ALC blade in Victas blade range, until the release of ‘ZX-Gear In’.

‘Fire Fall VC’ (left) and ‘ZX-Gear In’ (right) are two inner ALC blades currently available in the blade range of Victas. The basic elasticity of two models are not much different from each other. However, ‘Fire Fall VC’ doesn’t hug the ball as deeply as ‘ZX-Gear In’ does. Differently speaking, ‘Fire Fall VC’ gives more kick than ‘ZX-Gear In’ when the player hits the ball very strongly. That is the most important characteristics of ‘Fire Fall VC’ that distinguishes it from ‘ZX-Gear In’. ‘Fire Fall VC’ is recommended for the players who lay emphasis on hard hitting and block at close-to-table area while ‘ZX-Gear In’ is recommended for the players who lay emphasis on the safety and the stability of continuous topspin. And, ‘Fire Fall VC’ is recommended for the players who have used typical classic 7-ply wood blades, while ‘ZX-Gear In’ is recommended for the players who have used typical 5-ply wood offensive blades.

Following are the performance indices of Victas Fire Fall VC (avg.weight = 81.8g) :

– Ep = 1.74

– Ec = 1.68 (Ec/Ep = 0.97)

– Vp = 1.29

– Vl = 1.44 (Vl/Vp = 1.12)

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

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