The Marvelous Marble Returns…
First Impressions
I’m so glad this legend was re-released. It’s a great ball to fill that middle of the road ball but in a different way than your solid symmetric like the IQ Tours of the world.
Our Testers:
Tamer Elbaga (Lefty)
RPM: 375 rpm
PAP: 5 & 3/8 up
Average Speed: 18 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: low
Axis rotation: medium
Test Equipment: 14 Pounds
Layout: 45 x 5 x 75
Intent: Medium roll with a slow transition at the breakpoint
Sean Jensen (Righty)
Style: High Rev
RPM: 475 rpm
PAP: 4 3/4; 3/8 up
Average Speed: 20 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: low
Axis rotation: medium
Test Equipment: 14 Pounds
Layout: 45 x 5.5 x 90
Intent: Medium roll with a slow transition at the breakpoint
Bryan Hoffman (Righty)
Style: Higher Tilt Stroker
RPM: 280 rpm
PAP: 4 1/4 & 1/8 down
Average Speed: 18 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: high
Axis rotation: medium
Test Equipment: 15 Pounds
Thanks to Greg Bickta and Perfect Aim Pro Shop for drilling our equipment.
Thanks to Limerick Bowl in Limerick, PA.
Buy the Storm Marvel Pearl while supplies last at PerfactAimBowling.com.
“Keep in mind that coverstock accounts for 70% of ball reaction, but the core creates the dynamic shape of the reaction. Your driller will alter the shape to suit your game.”
Test Pattern:
THS: 41ft, 22ml
Sport: 42ft, 24 ml, 2.67:1 ratio
Value
9/10
Yes, the Storm Marvel Pearl is a high end priced re-release. Yet, the ball is most definitely a legend and seems to earn this value through it’s versatility.
Specs
The Storm Marvel Pearl uses the Centripetal core inside the polished R2X Reactive pearl cover stock.
15 pound = RG of 2.48, diff of .050
14 pound = RG of 2.53, diff of .049
Overall
9.5/10
Yes the Marvel Pearl earned it’s score and it has the benefit of being a re-release so we understand it’s long term value and usability and can factor that in. I’m going to do something a little different this time. This ball is so good overall that I want to spend more time talking about it on a sport shot. We tested on a 42ft sport compliant shot. The ball just flat out excels on tough shots. It’s smooth, has good length but excellent midlane read, and smooth but boomy reaction. It’s very much inline with the other legend, the Hy-Road. However, it does offer something different with it’s low RG bulb like core.
I’m up first as a lefty tweener. The ball has a 2000 abralon surface to handle the fresh medium-long sport pattern. You can actually see the comfortable length, excellent midlane control and punch. What makes the ball so great is its ability to combine that midlane control while still being punchy. I struck right out of the gate back to back to back. 18 to about 9 is the line. You will see my intentional variations, closing up the angle slightly, getting deeper and opening up the angle. The ball just faces up the right way each time. I couldn’t even give you a bad shot to show you. The tight pattern with clean backends you usually see with sport shots is a perfect match up for the Marvel Pearl. The ball’s smoothness controls the tight left to right conditions and the reliable round punch downlane adds control front to back.
Sean is up next. He also has a 2000 abralon surface on the Marvel Pearl. Again, Sean sees that smooth but strong transition. It’s a ball he can get on and still have control while generating lots of drive through the pins. The one thing you will notice is that because Sean covers lots of boards going left to right, he does somewhat diminish the front to back control. The Marvel Pearl could manage more volume for Sean and it will probably look amazing when he can play more direct. By the time he gets to this swing zone, less surface is probably better. Nevertheless, his eyes were wide open when seeing this smooth control but aggressive reaction.
Bryan is our stroker and like the rest of us, he absolutely loves his Marvel Pearl. He left it in out of box because he loves the reaction so much so he will typically wait for the shot to break down a bit. As he was testing after about 3 games of breakdown, the look was perfect. Ideal line for Bryan is more direct at 13 to 11. Like the rest of us, he saw easy length with that smooth midlane and driving roll. He was also able to get in slightly deeper at 15 to 12 to play the tight piped shot. Bryan has more tilt than Sean and I so benefits from length but has to be careful with too much angle. Hitting 9 at the breakpoint was more or less out of bounds for Bryan on this 42ft pattern.
THS
Since many of you will be using the ball on house shots, we also tested on the normal house shot. For me, I brought the ball back to polish as 2000 is way too aggressive. I had to get lined up after our sport shot test. I found that the smoothness of this ball altered the way I would normally play this shot. So while I would play the Black Widow Gold 18 at the arrows out to 7-9 at the breakpoint, the Marvel Pearl played best 13 to 5. You will notice about the same board coverage but needed to parallel everything out. The Marvel Pearl preferred to use the friction to generate punch while it was almost unusually smooth from the normal 7-9 breakpoint. If you think about it, that makes perfect sense. House shots are built to create smoother balance of friction front to back, allowing you or forcing you to bowl side to side to generate good angle for carry. So ball reaction doesn’t pop at the end of the pattern on THS the way it does for sport. Add that type of lane reaction to the Marvel Pearl smoothness and you understand why it makes more sense to use the outside drier boards. You still need angle because the ball is strong.
Sean loved the ball reaction. He targeted 20 out to 6 opening up the lanes. But again, the smoothness but big move allows him to really get on it without fear of retribution, i.e., extreme over/under ball reaction. He could get further in and tighten the breakpoint. He had good flexibility.
Bryan finds his best line to be quite direct at about 8-9 at the arrows to 7-8 at the breakpoint. So he takes advantage of the clean reaction to get the ball downlane and let it generate the angle through the pins. Given that he was straddling the line of oil and dry, if he gets it out to dry to early, he would see some overreaction. He also did see some underreaction on what appeared to be fairly good shots.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, what worked and made the the Marvel Pearl amazing on the sport shot made it a little trickier to use on house shot. Once you become cognizant of that and understand the ball reaction, you can easily figure out what will work to take advantage of the Marvel Pearl shape. I wanted to start with the sport shot to really demonstrate how great of a matchup this legend is on tough shots. Additionally, if you bowl on house shots where there are Pro Anvilane or other super clean surface up front with strong backends, this ball will be a monster.
The Marvel Pearl creates a parallel slot of room with it’s control.