They are indeed very similar shapes, but I think they differ slightly! The cups on the HG are definitely deeper than on the primes, and the stall points are a little more defined, and sharper. But the cups are pretty much the same size, and other aspects of the shape are essentially the same.
That makes sense when comparing mass production items to a hand turned item where each piece is looked over by an expert.
HGs aren't handturned, but otherwise you're right. Keeping crisp lines and edges requires attention to detail, which is what you usually get with smaller-sized, N-American productions.
So I saw that the prime ken cups are just as big as the slaydawg. Anyone know if the tama is slightly bigger like the slaydawgs? Wonder what kind of difference that makes...
Definitely is the trend right now. The Primes are fantastic. Cup size is the same as a slaydawg but the tama is not enlarged. Fantastic damas that are going to change the game for entry level damas.
CS pro is like 7/10 sticky, relative to whats out there, which is pretty ideal. Too sticky and you can't micro-adjust.
Yup! As above stated, the cups are the same as the slaydawgs, but the dawgs are much chunkier, fatter, and larger feeling as a whole since they are enlarged by an even percentage. The new Primes and Next Gens both have normal kendama proportions minus the larger cups, which I personally prefer, since it's a slimmer overall feel. As for the paints, it's pretty much equal in feel to the LOL clear, and I'd imagine that any of the other factory sticky clears (KUSA Sticky Trib, Ronin Neo Tokyo, DWI Sticky AF, Analog ET, etc) are very similar as well. I have a Ronin that is basically the same feel. But I'll say this much - I was jamming my Prime yesterday and it slammed ULTRA hard directly against a brick wall - no chips at all. Every bit of the paint literally dented in with the wood. I can't speak for the other clear paints durability, but I'll say the new Primes sure do hold up.
I have around 40 Kendamas (i think), and my altime Favourite is my solid prime. It's amazing for pretty much everything, and it's only $16!
Based on what I've seen, the new line of Focuses(or in this case, the Prime) are always based on the new HG's shape. The F3's were based off of the original HGs with the off-set stringhole, and the F2s were based off the HGs that had the centered stringhole.
I played on @Luke Ford 's next Gen HG on Saturday and really liked it. I also played a prime briefly too. They play very well, but they look so crazy, almost mutant-like with the huge cups on the rest of the ken which is a bit more normal in dimensions. Curious to really spend some time with my Prime when it comes. My goal is to really compare what I believe to be the main/biggest "new school" kendamas of our day: Kaizen 2.0, Slaydawg, and Prime.
Interesting enough, my observation on both the Primes and Next Gens is that having the larger cups on the smaller, normal dimension swords makes for a more truncated ken length as a whole. Makes them feel both slim (since the sword is slim on both), and chunky? since they're both shorter than the average ken at the same time. Very different feeling! Still SLAYS for all tricks though, especially lunars. [/IMG] My prime compared to a TK-16. Kind of hard to tell exactly what I mean, and the image has slight warp to it, but definitely when you hold them side by side, the sword is much shorter on the Prime.
For reference, the TK16 on the right of your photo isn't the original profile of the TK16. It's a Mutant TK16.
So are there any disadvantages of new sweets prime? Because now, after reading all coments i think this is one of the best kendamas. What do you think?