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Yeah, gets a little confusing. Everyone knows s-curves as buugeng so you'll hear people calling it that. Main difference is when you go to buy real buugeng. If it is not made by Dai or Dai's official team, they aren't officially buugeng. Buugeng is the name that Dai gave the exact design he made. Like a brand name. But as you know, everyone knows what you're talking about when you say buugeng. Not that big of a deal. Most people in the prop world are very respectful to Dai. The S-curve shape is being experimented by other people too. When people go to sell them, they call them s-curves or s-staffs. There is only a handful of people out there that are trying to take advantage of getting Dai's sales. They will buy a pair of Dai's buugeng and try to exactly copy his design and knowingly use the name buugeng and say they are official buugeng. That's when this develops into a situation that reminds me of fushigi. A lesser quality prop trying to be sold as if it is on the same level of quality and promising it is...and also using Dai's name behind his back.


For example, at EJC right now, there is one guy who is selling official buugeng for Dai. There are other companies there selling different kinds of s-staffs and they are being respectful and calling them s-staffs. There is a lot of room for everyone. A name is just a a name...its the intent/money issues behind it that tend to get buugeng spinners riled up. Most every buugeng spinner I know gets pretty protective of Dai and his design/name. This is just because of seeing all he went though to get these made and ALSO get them noticed. You can look back to Michael Moschen spinning some really huge s-curves in a past video. S-curves idea has been around....Dai just happened to take ahold of it and turn it into something that everyone could use especially since he found a way to make a design that can be collapsable and still keep the quality since the s shape can be quite fragile.

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Never underestimate the complexity of buttered toast

Thank you for such an in depth answer, it's good to know these things about props and give credit to the right person.
Luckily enough i've found someone who has one in toulouse, where i live so i'll be able to look at the real thing. Sadly enough it's quite pricy and being in france the shipping will be a killer, last time i ordered from flowtoys i spend about 30€ on shipping and had to pay 40€ for border tax :/
I'll see how i like my S Staff and if i get into it i'll try to get a buugeng then. The fold feature must give many possibilities.

EDIT: Well i met that guy who has S staff, they were actually firetoys ones, pretty neat stuff, much heavier than my plastic ones. They're easier to handle but quickly hard to the fingers (Even though i juggle many things there is a buugeng muscle).
They work with magnets but don't have an axis on the center (the only purpose of the magnet is to carry them folded). So now i have a blueprint (or whatever you call it) and i'll try to make my own wooden ones.

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Touche.


I'll try one mega-complex art form at a time. :: nods :: I'll see you in a few years, S-Staff.

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"Whatever you decide to do, you'll only suck at it for so long... because you get hungry." - Wally the Clown

"The hard must become habit. The habit must become easy. The easy must become beautiful." - Doug Henning

I have bought the last large pair of buugeng at the EJC!

I have checked out the other s-staves they were selling there, was quite keen to find out if they are anything like Dai's buugeng with which I already have been playing with for a few years but I really must confess that the only s-staves I want are the sophisticated version from Dai called Buugeng.
Firetoys s-staves were funky somehow, I couldn't always get the magnets apart again (probably due to the lack of muscles...poor weakling Kerry) which could become a real pain in the ass on stage.

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Real friends don't need to be the same

The firetoys ones seem to have pretty cool possibilities too, if you look at the video on their website.

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