Hi all, This is a half rent, half question Why buying Kendamas is such a gamble? coming from yoyoing, this is a mystery to me. I bought about 7 kendamas over the last years from kusa and played only 3 of them. (tribute/craft/bishoff pro) Each time there's a different problem which harms the playability of it. Of course I'm sure that for others these are non issue, but why can't they be more transparent on their website? Is the spec of a kendama meaningless? whenever I see a pro model being introduced, all they talk about is its looks and not a single word on the actual spec Maybe I'm still a newbie, but I feel that even though Kendamas are much cheaper than yoyos, I still waste a lot of money to find something good to play with, and I would prefer that kusa would charge extra to make sure I would know what I'm getting I guess I should stick to smaller brands where the cost is the same and the quality is better What is your take on it? Eli
Be mystified no more the answer is "trees." I don't follow yoyo as much anymore but unless someone other than Tom Kuhn is making high quality wooden yoyos I think you've found a big part of your answer. There's not as much control over the base material and creation of the kendama as there is in inorganic yoyo materials. Makers can control for some variation by taking time to sort and match sets but time is money and you're not likely to get an inexpensive kendama that is consistently dead-on weight/balance-wise. I you are looking for a kendama with similar consistency to a yoyo then get a Catchy Air which is a plastic kendama made by Yoyo Factory. (no I'm not joking I actually like them: Catchy Kendama Air) Check here for related threads: KROM 8yr Slaydawg weight matching Why weight match a kendama At what price point do you expect a weight matched kendama?
I actually don't look for a consistency but transparency, they sure can specify the weights they've got and allow us to choose at least a range and as I said I would definitely pay extra for it. Also I'm not talking about 20$ kendamas, I'm talking about 40$ and up
Since most brands don't physically manufacture the kendama they would either have to get their manufacturers to weigh individual sets or breakout the kendama after they've already been packed to do so. Either way that kind of exactness is a time and money suck. Over on one of the threads linked above you'll see that most players do tend to expect some kind of matching but not on lower priced kendama. Also IIRC in one of those threads there was a Dama Nerds where Rodney was talking about many players being able to play whatever they pick up and not worrying about the weights so there is that perspective as well.
I think, that for an upper range kendama they should just sell tama & ken separately. that way it would be easier to spec out the weights, and mix and match would be easier as well. Hopefully someone will do that
A third option is to mix and match parts to get the weights and feel you prefer. (crazy internet, this was supposed to go above.)
@goenKendama I laughed at "trees". But it's true. If you call the warehouse, you could probably get Alissa or someone on the phone and see if they would weigh one for you. But yeah, they'd have to open it. And if you need to open five kendamas to find the exact weight you like, then four people get already opened packaging. But honestly good players don't mind playing different weights.
Yea, I figure it maybe problematic Also, you probably can get a lot of tricks with any descent Kendama, but, most of us are doing it for fun and you wouldn't have fun with any Kendama for example, if the tama is over 80gr, for me, this is too heavy
Personal preference comes into play for sure but the more you play the wider that window of preference becomes for most people. For example my favorite kendama are 80g+per for a 160g+ setup. I like them heavy but I've had fun with a 50g plastic kendama too.