The USBC has revoked the approval of the Storm Spectre. In this video we will go over what that means for everyone that currently has one. I will also go over what balls can replace the Spectre in your arsenal!
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I love the Spectre, I rolled a 300 with it a bit ago. It’s unfortunate that this is the case. I have an Altered Reality myself so that will be in the bag instead.
@Geordie Halma Why? The USBC ruled no penalty to anyone who used it. It’s only void if I use it now.
@Stephen Levine Spirit of the game my man. This is like Butturff winning 8 titles with that jacked up form and his soft purple hammer on the left side of the lane.
Stephen that is unfortunate but good 300 . Like Luis said the Phase 4 will work. Zen and Phase 2 are nice if you need to choose. 😄👍
@Anthony Dorazio was thinking about the Phaze 4 as well! Looks good and I love 2 and 3!
@Stephen Levine Yes sir had the Phase 3 but like the Zen and Altered better. You won’t make a bad choice either way. 👍😀
I think what they should do would be to either resolve the issue and then send all who had 1 a new one or give people a voucher for a new ball of their choice from their products.
That would be fair!
As far as Storm is concerned, I’d just want the opportunity to exchange the Spectre in for another ball in the line… like the Wolverine is probably what I’d replace it with.
I would imagine something like that will happen!
Absolutely not good enough. You don’t get to claim being the industry standard and get away with something like this. At a minimum full refund and a replacement ball.
@Shady Carry you are shady
I had the original Jackal and had the same thing to happen in regards to USBC regs. Motiv made the Jackal LE and I was able to return the original ball and acquired the LE at no cost. Hope Storm can do the same for reimbursement. My question is if that you rolled a 300, 800 or 900 series under sanction..does it void the accomplishment if you utilized the Spectre?
It wouldn’t because at the time of said event it was legal
motiv handled this very well. I’m sure it will be along the same lines, come out with a replacement that is legal and everyone with a spectre will get for free, and move on. I highly doubt as a company they will just let everyone pick from the current line to replace.
Only time will tell on that one!
I think replacement balls should be issued, along with like a 10% discount on a future purchase to account for drilling
The problem is how does that 10% happen? Like shops charging Storm or what?
Thanks for the update. Interesting for sure. I’m sure storm will handle this right and do exchanges like Brunswick with PH, even though it wasn’t Brunswick issue they handled it great. Storm will do the right thing I’m sure.
Agreed!
I just got my spectre a couple weeks ago. I finally got used to the reaction on the lanes. I hope Storm will do the right to fix the issues for us who bought this ball for league.
They definitely definitely will
@Luis Napoles If I can get a Wolverine, Phaze 4, Zen, or Altered Reality I’d be happy.
@Roy Gonzalez Phaze 4, man…713 my first 3 games with it.
Thanks for the new video Luis ! You know, I bought an Incite Hybrid when they came out …. love that ball and the Tensor core. Was always perplexed as to why they didn’t continue with an Incite Pearl and Solid …. then the Spectre Pearl came out with a core VERY similar to the Tensor core though technically a symmetrical core ….. it was then I realized they wouldn’t continue the Incite line …. NOW with this news about the Spectre, perhaps an Incite Pearl would be something Storm would consider adding to their line ?????
Oh maybe?? Would be cool !
I just bought a NIB Incite. Not drilling it until next season (Fall 2022). Gotta fix some mechanics issues. Very excited to throw it!
@Ken Collins Ken, you are REALLY going to like that ball when you get it drilled up !!! Great Ball !!!
This announcement tells me the USBC is somewhat incompetent. How do you approve a ball and then turn around and revoke the approval? Pretty embarrassing if you ask me. Sounds like they need to change their testing process for initial approvals.
To be fair to the USBC, they can only approve balls based on the samples they are provided. For all we know, Storm provided them with samples they knew would pass (possibly why they were put into a probationary period), then used lower quality materials for production balls. The fact that the USBC caught that later balls were coming out below spec, shows that their spot check system is working.
There’s a lot more that goes into that but yes I agree something needs to change with the usbc
This could very easily be the result of ball maintenance affecting the cover stock. Obviously Storm is going to submit a new ball for the initial test, and spot testing competitor’s balls will yield varied results. I’d be very surprised if this wad found to be intentional.
@Matt Hubbell 98.6% failed inspections during field tests at the college post season tournaments.
That’s a manufacturer production issue, not a bowler maintenance issue.
Bowlers are more likely to make coverstocks harder by baking (often done to attempt to remove oil from cover stock) or brittle by using aggressive solvents that leech the plasticizers from cover.
Bad batches happen to every manufacturer. Quality control should have prevented anything out of specification from reaching the public.
Storm can remedy this. How they respond will reveal how quickly.
Not at all, maybe the balls Storm gave them passed then things changed in their processing and they knew and tried to get away with it. Hey were Storm, we never do anything bad
Whether it’s an immediate replacement or a replacement next season, I would be fine with that. In my case, I would prefer a brand new ball that they create for next season.
I can agree with that!
I’ve thrown the Altered for a few months now. It’s a beast. Hits like a truck when you keep it in the right portion of the alley.
Agreed!!!!
This was one of the balls I was looking to add to my bag. Glad I held off and just got a Phase 2.
P2 is a great great ball but way different than the Spectre
@Luis Napoles Definitely. Getting back into bowling more seriously now that I have the time and money so was looking to add 3 balls total for different looks, but decided P2 would be first as it seems to be pretty versatile. Now I need to decide what fits where the Spectre would.
I’m not sure if I’ll replace my Spectre with a similar ball, or if I’ll go for something I need more. Direct replacement I would go with a Hyroad/Hyroad Pearl. Something completely different, !Q or Pitch Black/Fast Pitch.
I think the hyroad will be it!
Thank you Luis! I am thinking Phaze 4 for me. I already have Altered and HyRoad
I hope you love it !!
Hey Glenn you will love the Phase 4 mine is sweet the only problem is I can’t stop throwing the Phase 2 and Zen. 😄😃.Just got the Altered its nice also. Thanks 😊
I don’t love mine tbh. Ended up not getting down lane like I thought it should. Now I know why 🤪 You know what would be cool is if they ran a special run of Hy-Road Rush for us. Maybe a stretch and I doubt it, but I can dream haha
That would be so dope!!
Storms already good with replacement warranties when the ball is under 1 yr from purchase so I’m confident they’ll fix it w those who bought it. My guess you’ll exchange the ball where you bought it for a storm ball “voucher” of some kind. Side question for you, I love my iQ emerald @ 3rd game usually but was thinking bout a iQ nano pearl for the fresh. Is there to much overlap for a house bowler to carry both balls in a 3-4 ball arsenal?
I don’t think there would be too much overlap no!
Just my take: Storm may very well recertify it at some point and then all serial numbers prior to a certain point will be considered garbage. Storm will replace the old ones with the new ones, and everything rocks on. Reason being, as this video alludes to, is that there’s no like-for-like replacement in the catalog. The Altered Reality is too expensive, asym and doesn’t carry the Storm name. The Hy-Road is the closest in price, is also from the Thunder line, but is substantially weaker than the Spectre, in my opinion, due to the different cover formulation — one that several people have hinted may be on the verge of being either phased out or down to another tier in the near future.
If you’re going to consider replacing the Spectre with an asym from the SPI catalog, maybe you go RST X-2, but like the Altered, that’s not a Storm piece per se, and some people won’t salute that. If Storm tries to replace Spectres with Hustles, Hypeds, Burners or Electrifys, it will be going down in price and they’ll have to give people some type of cash rebate to make up the difference, and that gets wildly problematic for people who bought through wholesalers rather than PSOs. Finally, there is the Phaze 4, but I don’t consider it similar to the Spectre in any way other than they’re both syms.
As a very, very wild-card solution, because the cores were so similar (even though one is asym and the other sym), it may be possible to put the Incite back into the catalog long enough to replace the Spectres — maybe with a different color and/or box surface prep.
So the Altered reality is a 900 Global ball which is made by Storm and the rst-x2 is a Roto grip ball which is also made by Storm. It’ll definitely be interesting to see what happens in the coming weeks with this
Man… I really like my Spectre. 😫 It was between the Spectre, Phaze 4 and Wolverine. How do you think the Wolverine would compare?
I REALLY liked this ball also. The Wolverine would be close but I still think the hyroad pearl would be the closest because of the shape
I’d take the Wolverine and just hit it with a 3000 pad or a 4000 pad. It would be pretty close. …lol close.
@tenpin842 thanks for the advice.
@Luis Napoles thanks for the advice. I also have a hustle rap. The hyroad wouldn’t be too close to that would it?
@Eric Arnold No not at all. They are way different balls
From my limited experience Storm is a great company and will not let it’s customers down. They are one of the few companies that respond to my email questions within a day or so. I would imagine, like any other “recall” the Storm company will replace all Spectre balls.