"Pluto: The God of the underworld in Roman Mythology.

Pluto is deep, dark and mysterious. Milky Way uses the optimal pimple structure and a novel rubber formula to make “Pluto” more effective and deadlier than traditional pips-out rubber. As a result, “Pluto” is fast, produces heavy spin and a very flat trajectory, making it difficult for opponents to adapt.

Not only does “Pluto” reconcile speed and spin, it also features the high elasticity or raw rubber, thus making it the weapon of choice for fast attack and pips-out players."

User Reviews (from internet/newsgroups, etc):

Review by Agooding (published with permission)

Part 1:

I played yesterday with the Galaxy Pluto (red 1.3 mm) on my penhold forehand and it was quite interesting.

The pips are soft, slightly longer than 802 and slightly wider than 799. Sponge is fairly soft but dense, I used 1 treatment of Ecolo Expander II left on 18 hours and the rubber domed pretty ferociously, due to the thin sponge.

Rubber is not quite as light as my usual Joola Tango Ultra due to the denser sponge. Applied to blade with regular glue, tried with Double Happiness Wind Carbon and Sunflex Wang Liqin double carbon blade.

The rubber could spin some but that was not its forte. I could continue spin but not reverse spin which required me to play a purer short pips black and smash game. What it is very good at is rolling low balls and I could jam my partner by rolling back to his middle and also wide.

The thin sponge and less spinny surface meant I could block back loops over and over and they came back flat or even with a bit of underspin. The less spinny surface made it good for flips but pushes tended to pop up as the rubber doesn't cancel the spin but lets it continue.

On a fast blade the power seemed the same as my usual rubber. Throw angle is quite low, so it's best used on a higher throw blade.

Usually I am even with my partner, but last night this rubber forced me to play more patiently and I beat him 5 out of 6 games by blocking and forcing mistakes rather than by attacking, except for high balls.

I think this would be a good rubber for someone who played with short pips on one side and wanted better control and blocking or someone who played with long pips and wanted more attacking possibilities. it would give pretty sharp contrast with an inverted rubber as balls are so flat.

Part 2:

Tried the Pluto again on a Sunflex Double Carbon blade which has a very similar feel to my usual Joola Guo 3C blade.

I noticed a few things the Pluto is very good at:

1) Rolls of long serves, this is effortless and automatic
2) Flipping short serves, very easy to do either at angle or long
3) Continuing sidespin
4) Blocking loops
5) Smashing high balls

I also noticed a few things it's not so good at:
1) Looping long serves, it's much better to roll them.
2) Pushing long serves, the lack of grip makes the ball pop up
3) Stopping sidespin
4) Dealing with dead balls

The first group are things that I've been working on, while the second are left over habits from playing with inverted. I plan to use this rubber more as it reinforces good habits and punishes my bad habits.

As an offensive player I would be interested in seeing how a thicker sponge (like 1.5-1.7) would play. The sponge has softened some after an application of Ecolo Expander II and a couple of applications of rubber cement. I do like how the thinner sponge makes it easy to feel the ball.

Review by Kees (published with permission)

My two sons and I tried out the Pluto 1.3 as well (on a penholder frame: Galaxy 961) today. I agree with Andrew that it is low-throw; it plays very rectilinear. Speed and spin are medium, but there is an interesting quality to the speed: this rubber seems to have very low catapult, that is, it will react with low speed at touch shots and with fairly high speed at kills. Also, it is capable of generating considerable backspin (chops). Andrew mentioned the pips are fairly long for SP and not close together; in fact, they are wider apart than e.g. the pips in a Friendship 802-1 or 799-1 sheet. Although they are checkered, they are pretty much insensitive to spin (smooth-like), but they are so soft that they bend when you hit hard and then they really can generate spin (edges/sides must be grippy!). So playing small-topspin (topspin generated in an upward but rather flat, very short, very fast stroke) can be done very, very well with this rubber. Spin reversal is non-existent in this rubber, but hitting a dead ball (knuckle ball, no-spin) is very easy! All in all it seems to have the exactly right characteristics for a classic single-sided pips-out penholder style of play. I was much impressed with this rubber and I definitely prefer it to other classics, such as the Friendship 802 or 799. It is with this 1.3 mm sponge defenitely NOT an SP for all-out attackers, but my guess is that on a 1.5 or 1.7 sponge it would be much faster without sacrificing too much control. On a thinner sponge it might also be an alternative to LP defenders.

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