[c0nquistad0rian]

Originally Posted by itech35

Thanks for the info. I tried the nail polish remover a while ago, it just smeared the graphic and didn't completely take it off. I'll just leave it, it's only cosmetic. I've heard nothing but good things about the gloves, the blocker tightness is probably from it being pro spec, which I'm not too worried about because my hands aren't really big.

I doubt that the blocker tightness is due to it being prospec. How would taking an inch off of the board make the glove itself tighter? As I tried to explain, I believe that this is just part of the way blockers are being designed now. I just don't necessarily agree with or like that aspect of it.

Originally Posted by EvilPepe

Awesome. I was hoping you would post pics of your project. I need to get some decent (and affordable) to get me through for a bit, and am probably going with these pads.

I've read in other threads that there have been a few design changes since their first run of these pads. Does anyone have any elaboration? I'm suspicious about the cheesy-looking calfwrap and knee block in particular.

I took a peek at the pad internals when I opened up the binding to replace the straps. It's made of shredpacked LD foam, with some sheet of HD foam towards the front. The meat of the pad, so to speak, should last a while. The back of the leg was where I was skeptical: I already mentioned the sponge foam used in the knee lock and in the calf area. The knee and calf wings are HD foam and should hold up just fine. The foam in the knee block is black minicell foam, which isn't as durable as LD foam. You can see the distinction between the 1" minicell foam and the 1/2" LD foam that I used. If I had more LD foam, I would have replaced the whole block.

Itech35 answered the design change questions in his review of the 7.8 X-Wings:

Originally Posted by itech35

I later learned that there are 2 versions of the new 7.8 pads just like there are with the 12.8 pads, I got the first version. The differences mean next to nothing though. The 2nd version has an x-wing logo on the front, a prospec logo on the inside of the thighrise, and it doesn't have the ridge on the calf wing.

As you can see, my pads do have the xwing embroidery on the face of the thighrise, as well as the prospec embroidery on the back of the thighrise. You can't see however, that my pads do still have the ridge on the calf wing. So, I believe that itech35 was wrong about this aspect of the design change.

Originally Posted by Titanium

I've had the 7.8 x-wing gloves for about 3 months now. The blocker is nice. I don't really like the catcher--it still doesn't feel quite right or even close well, even after using it for this long. I would actually get rid of it at this point if I find one that feels better to me.

As I said, the 12.8 version is very smooth and closes very well. I do like the feel and break of my 7.8, but it needs more steaming and I need to work with it more to properly break it in.

Originally Posted by itech35

There's no calf wrap on these pads. If you're talking about the two pieces of thin foam in the shin/calf area, those do nothing but cushion the drop a bit. And the knee block is.. a knee block. lol

technical terms aside, the quality of the foams in the back of this pad are its major weakness.

Originally Posted by theeagle

My 7.8 pads are in the mail coming to me as we speak. I got the red, white, black ones.

This comment has nothing to do with my thread, but cool. Good for you. I hope that you enjoy them.

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I'd also like to make sure that I say thank you to Itech35, since I am using some of his pictures in this thread and for answering some questions that I had about the pads before I got mine.