When I was in Taiwan last year, I visited some shops and saw all sorts of Yumu/Saturn kendamas I didn't know existed. Apparently they've more or less abandoned the "extra spike" concept (from Yumu 2.0 and 3.0) and started going for a more standard kendama. I recently stumbled upon the kendamalife website (www.kendamalife.com), which has practically all of the new ones. They're strongly promoting the new Pro Racing White Hole line, which can be argued borrowed some design from the Glacier Turquoise/Spring Yellow Mugen Musou, but look great nonetheless. Next to that, you have the Pro Racing Single Colour and Super Paint ones.
In addition to those, there are some other new ones I found:
- Yumu Mountain Series, with Ash ken
- The new Sifang colour, The Qilin
- The new "ken series", with Walnut, Ash and Maple kens
- Stained Pro Racing kens
And a whole lot of other special stuff, like the V-Line ken, Sunken and the Gift kendamas. With their low shipping rates, the website is worth a look.
I have a Yumu 1.0, which was my third kendama ever and I have had a thing for these kendamas ever since. Right now I have a Sifang which plays great but needs a lot of breaking since it is now very slippery. My girlfriend has a Super Paint which plays amazing, but feels a bit like cheating to me. I'm planning on getting a Pro Racing one, just to test it out. I'll let the forum know what I find..
I like the looks of the mountain series.
Would I be right in saying the ken shape of yumus is very similar to Ken.co zens?