RCL Platinum Gold

Not used before. Found in one of the halls I frequent.

Has a 3-layer cork structure

Efeel shuttlecocks

Join a friend for a game and he bought a tube of EFeel shuttles to try out. He informs EFeel is a Malaysian brand of shuttles and cost about SGD$28 (around RM81-83) a tube in Malaysia ... hence not cheap as well.

Tube of Efeel shuttles

Apologies as no shot the birdie itself - build quality and flight characteristics was acceptable. Weight was average. The shuttle was just a tad slower than other Speed 77. Very evident when we mixed with the group on the next court and they were using my group's previous defacto standard.

Durability wise, the feathers does not break easy but has the tendency to slow down quite a bit after the 1st few hits. The speed remains consistent for a quite number of shots before it has to be replaced.

Performance wise, I personally think the eFeel is better than the Sintec ST 818 as it does not keep growing air-brakes shot after shot.

Downside is the pricing. Personally I find the EFeel shuttlecock to be a bit costly. 

Jinque AAA

Found the following sample in the hall. Not used before.

Victor Gold

Joined a friend's group for a game and they were using Victor Gold shuttles.

Just above average build quality with acceptable durability. Speed consistency was acceptable as well. Will require atleast 2 for a smashing game though. 

Revisit - Sintec ST 818

Initially had difficulty locating the pix of the product on the net as I could not even find a pix of the ST 818 on the brand owner's site???

However they are promoting their competitors products - see the screen capture below. Are they then ashame of their own products?

Pix from internet

Sintec website promoting all other brands of shuttles but their own???

Not sure what's going on at the Sintec website since the ST 818 is not a new product. You can search on the net as well as my blog to see the review more than 2 years ago.

Anyway ... I have tried both the ST 818 models in Speed 76 and Speed 77 on&off during the past few years when playing with different groups in Singapore.

Both the Sintec ST 818 speed 76 & 77 have the same annoying characteristic- the ST 818 tends to slow down tremendously at the final stages of it's flight?


Durability wise, Speed 77 is terrible during smashing games whilst Speed 76 fares better. On one occassion, some younger ex-Secondary School players were playing 2 sets of 21-points using Speed 77 - they decided to take the whole tube with them, after going to where the organiser kept the shuttles atleast 3x during the game!

Performance wise, both versions of the ST 818 also slows down atleast a notch or two after a few hard smashes! You then have to keep adjust your strength since the shuttles kept "adding more and even more air brakes" as time went by. Thus the players have to hit the shuttle harder and higher to compensate for the induced drag!!! If you are playing against above average players, you are then limited to certain shots only ... it's a real enjoyment factor killer!

Price wise, the ST-818 normally sells for about $29 per tube; approximately SGD$26 per tube if you buy 5 or more at a go. Hence these are not exactly cheap shuttles either.


Since the ST 818 keep induces drag upon usage vs proper tournament quality shuttles, you really need to remind yourself how this shuttle behaves as the game progresses. 


Don't only take my word for it - you should try it atleast once and came to your own conclusion about the ST 818.

Ashaway Silver

Was playing with a group which recently bought couple of tubes of Ashaway Silver (#7 in pix below) to replace their previous defacto standard.

Pix from 3rd party seller on internet

According to the internet advert, Ashaway Silver is made using duck feathers and priced at $20 per tube. Has the Ashaway logo in white against a light grey (?) background at the rear of the cork of the shuttle.

Initial impressions are good weight and solid feel. Good speed and flight characteristics ... till the 1st few hard hits. The shuttle then tends to slow down quite a bit. Good news is that it stays at that slower speed consistently for quite a while. Bad news is that it is not durable once the smashing begins. Another con is the feathers are easily ruffle. You will know when to replace the shuttle as the speed drops quite a bit later. I verified my observations with another of the players in that game and he agrees with my observations.

Overall a better than average value for money product, at an average price.

If only Ashaway could fix the slowdown issue ...

Revisit - Protech Masterpiece

Found sample in hall of the Masterpiece with new logo. We stop using it quite a number of years ago.

One of my regular's playing with a group using the Masterpiece tells me they typically use 3 shuttles for a moderate game eg 30-40% of the shots were smashes

Apacs AF 700

Adding the APACS Aero-Flight 700 to the library for future review.

Found following sample in hall. Never use before but has budget cork structure.