‘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 FC’ is one of the three early models of ‘Fire Fall’ series. ‘FC’ stands for ‘Fleece Carbon’ which is the carbon fiber processed like tissue paper. Fleece Carbon doesn’t provide high level of elasticity that woven carbon fiber provides. However, instead it provides soft and more natural feeling. The concept of ‘Fire Fall FC’ is to achieve optimal performance and feeling by appropriately supplementing the elasticity of 5-ply wood construction with Fleece Carbon. ‘Fire Fall FC’ is one of the blades those are strongly recommended for the players who lay emphasis on control.

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 FC’ is an inner fiber blade. Fleece 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 6.0mm.

The official size of head is around 157mm x 150mm. Actually measured size is a bit wider (= 157mm x 151mm) than 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 + Fleece 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 23mm (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 FC’ – 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 FC’ has been the best seller from the time that ‘Fire Fall’ series has first been launched. It can be compared with the inner Fleece Carbon blades from other brands.

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 FC’ is an inner-type blade whose artificial material is Fleece Carbon. The inner-type construction with Fleece Carbon has been used for many European blades represented by Donic ‘Walnder Senso Carbon’, because it provides soft feeling and excellent control although it is a kind of Carbon blade constructions. ‘Fire Fall FC’ also shares the basic concept with those Euro carbon blades. ‘Fire Fall FC’ fits for modern all-round style which play with a variety of technics. ‘Fire Fall FC’ is also recommended for entry players who have to learn the basic technics of table tennis.

Many thanks to Mr. Goetze Horst for donating Victas Fire Fall FC!

Following are the performance indices of Victas Fire Fall FC (avg.weight = 82.8g) :

– Ep = 1.32

– Ec = 1.25 (Ec/Ep = 0.94)

– Vp = 1.10

– Vl = 1.20 (Vl/Vp = 1.09)

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

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