“Furious…I mean Tropical Heat Solid”
You might mistake this for a Storm Furious and rightfully so.
Remember that coverstock accounts for 70% of ball reaction, but the core will create the dynamic shape. Your drilling will alter the shape to suit your game and conditions you bowl on. Kyle Hartzell of BowlerX is our tester. Let me briefly describe the layout and what it’s intention is. Kyle’s layout is 65 x 4 3/4 x 70. This ball is drilled to go medium length and transition on the slower, smoother side at the breakpoint.
Please work with your local pro shop operator to find what best works for you.
First Impressions
Common sense tells me what this ball will do, particularly since I’ve thrown the Storm Furious before and our tester has the Storm Tropical Heat Hybrid as well. Right away, I can tell Kyle’s going to like this ball. The ball is relatively clean through the fronts and strong and continuous at the breakpoint. You can tell by the core shape that it will generate a quick, strong motion in the transition from skid to hook to roll, but this one is pretty continuous as well. If the Tropical Heat Hybrid was your benchmark, this would be the step up if you needed something just a little stronger and slightly smoother on the backend. This line is just too good.
Value 10/10
Just as with the Hybrid version, this is a lot of ball for the money. This is a strong solid ball that is also benchmark material and can be used on most house shots.
Core
The turbine core is used again. This is a symmetrical core that many ball drillers will be able to easily drill to your liking. If you remember the original Fast and Furious, that was the most recent line to use that core. Storm moved the core to the lower end line to make room for newer equipment. However, this core is proven and so makes sense to keep it around in some variation. RG of 2.55 is on the high side, allowing the core to generate plenty of lope and length before picking up a roll. That allows it to make a defined move on the backend. The core makes a recognizable move. It really fits in the mold of Storm’s typical go long and be strong, if you subscribe to the notion that manufacturers tend to lean in a direction of certain ball reactions. Don’t forget this was used in the Street Rod as well.
Cover 8.5/10
Speaking of Street Rod, this ball has the same Reactor solid cover. Guess what, this is pretty much a re-release! The big difference besides the color is that the out of box finish on the Tropical Heat Solid is 1500 grit polished rather than 2000 grit. Like we’ve experienced with the R2S solid on the Furious and the Reactor cover on other balls, you can alter the cover as desired. You can make this ball read earlier by dulling the cover or keep it as is to allow it to be a ball intended for Medium conditions.
Reaction 8.5/10
Not very different from the Hybrid in the sense that it has good potential as a benchmark. If you have the Hybrid already, this could be a step up ball if you want to see a slightly smoother, less angular move. You can see the Hybrid and Solid compared in the video. These balls are far from weak balls. I think they are both potential benchmarks. The overall ball reaction shape is dictated by the core and it allows a long and strong reaction. The core lopes in the front, allowing it to get through the heads pretty clean. The cover doesn’t really fight that with its out of box finish. However, the ball transitions definitively and is continuous, really driving into the pocket.
Basically, this ball is a perfect compliment to the Tropical Heat Hybrid and Pearl. There’s just enough of a difference to be noticeable between the Solid and Hybrid. The Solid is just a tad earlier than the Hybrid, and just slightly less angular on the backends. That doesn’t mean it’s weak. It’s just that little bit more controllable with an overall smoother reaction.
Overall 9/10
As the Hybrid, this ball does more than advertised and at a very low price. It is a really competitive piece and will likely sell quite a bit. It has a ball reaction that many will like. It’s usable quite often. I keep wondering how Storm can put such good balls in their low end lines and how much they can eat into the sales of their other stuff, especially on your typical house shot. However, I can see these balls attracting a lot of bowlers.
Storm has another good ball to offer the public. It makes me wonder how long this line will stay around given how good it is. Or will it make room for even better in the higher end lines? Time will tell but this one is definitely a winner.