Review > Uncarved Block > Blades (Bolt on and screw on)

If you remember the last Uncarved Block review we did, we had some screw on holds which could be big enough to be a bolt on. Well this time we have two versions of the same hold, the Screw on Blades and the Bolt on Blades.The screw on holds in this set were worthy of screws and consisted of thin slopey edges with some incuts hidden in the shape:) There are all kinds of holds you can get like these but its Uncarved Blocks comfortable shapes that make them different from others. The Bolt on Blades are larger and more of a pinch than the edge that you would have on the screw ons. The corner of the 45 was begging for the screw ons.

The video shows what we did with the holds in reverse. Noodles set the first problem that traversed along the wall on both the Screw on and Bolt on Blades. The holds ended up being better than we expected and it made our first set rather easy. The larger Bolt on Blades have agood size edge on them and the thinner Screw on Blades are quite intricate and have alot for your fingers to discover and open the doors to a variety of options when gripping. One of the holds even has a small incut hidden on the hold:) In all truth we tried to set a hard enough problem but we just miss read the hold and the first problem was sent during our warm up.

We set a problem with the bolt on blades and LP triples from Uncarved Block. The problem was set purposely with long moves. The Bolt on blades have one side that is better than the other. Some of them have an edge on one side and a slope on the other and we set some of these hold up on the 30 degree wall with the slopey side up. Even though the Bolt on Blades have quite a bit of meat on them, the shape is still pretty thin and they don't give you much to pinch on. The long moves on the problem let the girls work on those reachy sequences.

It was time to get the drill and set up the holds on the corner of the 45:)

Once again, we misread the holds. We took all 5 holds and stuck them up when we only used a few in the sequence. The bubbly shape of the hold makes it so you won't have any kind of finger pain. The rest of the problem continued on the Motivation volumes we have lying around (will this make it any easier?) and ended on the 45 degree wall. We went pn and tried it and got the start sequence down pretty quickly and it was the final part of the sequence that gave us a problem. It was only a couple of moves but it took us two sessions to get the beta and you can tell from the video that we spent a lot of time on our buts;)


SUGGESTED USES BOLT ONS:







The bolt ons are a thing to behold, they really really feel like they're going to be bomber on the 45 but they're very very tricky to get a firm grip on.... so much so that Noodles knocked himself silly a couple of days in a row trying to stick a move. Still they're doable on a 45 just don't try to match them and then move as you'll have a hell of a time doing that, hell matching them on a 15 or a 30 when you have to chuck for a long move is pretty hard... again doable but super tricky :)

What is it with UCB and nice looking but tricky as hell to hold onto holds? All of these have a good placement (the deep part) and then the "ok" placement (on the tapering part), so yes as their website says they can be matched... but again it's hard to do so on an overhang. On the vertical they're really nice to play with giving you the options of a) nice and slightly incut b) the wrong side up and then super death slopers / undercuts c) sidepulls (one side will be nicer than the other) or d) the other sidepull option where the good part of the hold is at the bottom and hard to catch onto! There's a lot of ways to play with these holds and most of them will give you hours of fun... unless of course you hit the mats on your head :(

OVERALL BUILD BOLT ONS:

• Number of holds: 5
  
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt
  
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): 39.95 / 5 = 7.99 AUD
  
• Color: Blue
  
• Bolt placement: Off center on most of them
  
• Sanding: Good
  
• Texture: Nice
  
• Set size: Large but thin
  
• Versatility: Pinches or slopey edges
  
• Pre-drilled screw holes: Yes on each hold

Right if you go and read the UCB website about these holds you'll notice that only one of them has the inset ying-yang logo, the rest have different style logos on them "but the jury is still out on that concept"; right, round up the jury and then shoot them... keep using the inset logo, just place it where it's not going to become an issue... or in the case of smaller / thinner holds get some smaller versions and then use those! Right, job done!

Well, no not really :P
These holds all have set screw holes (something we applaud for everyone that does this) and nice straight bolt holes and the backs have all been sanded flat. Color wise we're rocking some deepish blue holds that really show where you've been placing your hands as after the first few sessions you can see some finger indents. Texture is classic UCB, something that you'd think that would have been lost during the switch from resin to urethane... thankfully it hasn't and it's kind of hard to tell the difference between the two

Shape wise the holds are finger friendly and the only sharp angle is where the backs meet the wall.

SUGGESTED USES SCREW ONS:






These will go easily on a 30, on the 45 you're into the land of finger tip crimps and pinches (depending upon how you set with them); where we had the most fun with these is up the side of an arete, you can turn pretty much any corner into a nice long feature and even though they're thin you can get a sneaky heel hook on them

Do you have any long edges / corners that won't take a bolt on? Then these are what you should be looking at, grab numerous sets of these and place them wherever you can't get a standard bolt on and you won't be sorry, mix them in with some of the Metolius outside edges and you can take a what was once blank unusable feature and you can turn it into an epic :)

They're sure not deep, but there is a lot of purchase on these holds all you have to do is be creative :P

Sure, screw ons are a pain to move and to be honest we can't see you moving them around all that much. Once these guys find a home we think you'll leave them where you placed them.

OVERALL BUILD SCREW ONS:

• Number of holds: 5
  
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Screw ons
  
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): 34.95 / 5 = 6.99 AUD
  
• Color: Green
  
• Bolt placement: None, they're screw ons
  
• Sanding: Good
  
• Texture: Nice
  
• Set size: Medium to super long, very thin
  
• Versatility: Great if you have lots of aretes
  
• Pre-drilled screw holes: Yes
  

The sanding on the edges of some of these holds was off, when we say off they look like they've been rounded slightly from sanding.. the backs are fine but some of the areas where they meet the wall don't seem correct; no real biggie.

These holds are a really nice almost emerald green in shade and that's a unusual color for climbing holds, all of them take three screws and they are pretty long, and seeing as they're pretty damn thin as well you'd think that they could snap on you.... nope, we smashed one in the walkthrough against a wooden table and there was no damage to the hold; go see the video if you don't believe us!! As always the holds all have the inset ying-yang logo which makes them stand out on the wall and easy to find in a mess of holds (how you'd loose these is beyond us as they're pretty long), the texture is classic UCB i.e: grippy but not all that bitey and it's smooth across the entire set.

Shape-wise these are pretty finger friendly but they're a little bitey sometimes... why? because you do have a lot of skin on holds that seem thinner than they are and depending upon how you set with them dictates how hard you're going to be trying to lock off on them... and when we say bitey, we really mean skin burn from whipping off of the holds at great speed :P

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Both sets are made from urethane

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Great, all holds were wrapped in news paper and survived the trip from down under

RATING:
Noodles:
The bolt on Blades gave me two minor concussions a day apart! I really wish I was joking, but the move on the 45 where we came off of the screw ons to the bolt ons and tried to stick the last move (with a Blade up the crappy way for your foot) spat me off of the wall so many times that I ended up really knocking myself about.

See what I do to myself to see if these holds are stickable on the 45?

Thankfully we rotated the foot out of sheer frustration and managed to get the route done, but it was by no means easy!!

Playing with either sets, the bolt ons or the screw ons, has been fun as they're both stickable but you have to dig a little deeper than you'd really want. The route that I've been talking about is the one where we ran up the edge of the 45 on the screw ons and then across the 45 with the help of a Motavation volume and then onto a pair of Blades up "the good way" to give us the most chance of sticking and holding. Heel hooks, toe scums around the corner and some hard work (and a wrench spin later) it went, but it probably went around a V4 maybe higher as you had to use everything within your aresenal to get yourself into the correct body position (a bad one) to manage to nail the last move.

The screw ons are very thin, and very long. They feel fragile and if Uncarved Block hadn't switced to urethane I'd never have tried to smash one against the desk. Did I think it was going to break before we even had it on the all? Yup, I was expecting some bits of holds to go flying about all over the place and for us to have one less hold to review; to my surprise it didn't even get scuffed... and I smashed it pretty hard. That, in my book, is a pretty strong mix of urethane!! Shapewise they're not bad either, the rails (because lets face it, that's what they are) have good areas and bad areas on all of the holds and you may find yourself throwing and hitting a bad part and then bumping your hand to get settled. They're by no means something that you could or should chuck onto the 45, but if you feel like it you can pull on them.. they just become very long thing crimps and you know how I fell about those evil suckers.. the set was slightly marred by some meh sanding, not on the back as that would have been super bad, but on the edges where they meet the wall... it was a little half arsed on one of the holds; I think from the pour being a little off in this case :(

Ah the bolt on Blades, these are almost made so you could use them as system holds but there's subtle variations in all of them that means even though them all look similar they all feel different and therefore take a little time for you to know the good, bad and just plain evil ways to set with them. Obviously they're far easier to move around the wall than the screw ons and they're also super deep, but way more slopey... so they do take a little more strength (mainly from your thumb as you desperately bear down on them) to hold onto and then feel like you can move, but that's just part and parcel of the shapes and the way they climb. They're very very friendly (as all UCB holds are) but i'd actually say that the texture could do with being about 25% more than it currently is for them to be a staple of all 45 degree overhangs... they are doable, but they're pretty damn hard. Try and match on of these on say a 30 degree wall... you can do it but you feel sketchy as hell as you do do it.

Basically: awesome, both sets. Is there actually an Uncarved Block hold that isn't nice?

Chris:
Wow! These holds really took us for a ride! Each time we set them we were humbled . The problems always had a twist to them, something to unlock. First, the Screw on Blades. They're very shallow and don't have a lot of "meat" to them, so when I first saw the problem noodles set, I was a little worried that my fingers would be aching after the session. I'll be honest and tell you that I didn't get it the first time. We had the screw on holds on the 30 degree wall and they threw me off the first time around. I was over gripping the hold and by finding the right foot holds and staying low on the holds I managed to send the problem on my second try.

What helped with the Screw on Blades is that there is a small little pocket hidden on the hold. It gives you the extra grip you need and it doesn't dig into the fingers at all. As for the larger Bolt on Blades...well I found them to be the harder of the bunch. With the Screw on Blades, you're limited on the moves you can do because of the size of the hold. With the Bolt on Blades, we got a little over zealous and set above our standard. We tracked our feet the whole way and the screw on hold on the corner of the 45 made for perfect heel hooks. We tried using our toes instead but that didn't work. The bolt on hold we had on the 45 were solid, our only problem was we couldn't come around to match it until we came up with some new beta. We ended up crossing into the overhang. But even at this we still had problems because these holds don't work as foot holds on a 45 degree wall :P Our final solution (after three sessions on two moves) was to put the foot hold on another Motivation volume and we ended up getting the sequence.

There's something to be said about Uncarved Blocks holds. They are much more on the technical side and the shapes tend to be simple but the hold still has many of the intricacies of flashier looking holds. They have a lot of offer even though the shapes are generic. The holds are pretty deceiving and in every case we miss read the holds. In some cases we set too easy, and in others we were in over our heads but the shape and texture of the hold made it so we could work the problem over and over.

PROS:

• Screw ons are great for unused edges!
• Bolt ons are very ergonomic
• Both sets are a good price
• The screw ons are STRONG!
  

CONS:

• Sanding was a little off on one of the screw ons
• Maybe a little hard for some people
  

Review > Planet Holds > Crimps Set 2

Planet Holds from the UK sent us a set of holds at Xmas called Crimps 1 (review: here) that too be honest aren't crimps at all. They said that set 2 was waaaay harder... were they right?
Let's get this one right out there, straight from the start.
Are these holds harder than Set 1, hell yes

Are they crimps?
Well yes and no, you're going to end up in some cases bearing down more on these than say with Set 1, but we've never ended up crimping crimping on them. That's a good and bad thing... it means you're not going to kill yourself and it also means that the set is mislabeled as crimps. See? Plus' and minus'

What you are getting is a large set of holds that has a lot of variety within it, some holds are similar but different (same shape, almost the same size) because the incut is slightly more or less and these can be swapped out on routes to make it easier or harder to give people a fright (that's what we did on one route between sessions and people that were just walking the move got stopped :P) Variety people is the spice of life!

Straight out of the box these went onto a long route all the way around the wall, starting on the 45 and ending on the steps.. the beta to get through the 45 was a little trickier than we expected... we thought that we were just going to bite down and fly through the overhang and into the next wall... we had it all wrong, and once we found the secret we started just blasting through it... until one hold (the first hold in the first shot of the climbing video)

We were shut down by one move repeatedly, and then as we were having trouble we added some extra holds into the route so other people could have some fun. One thing was for sure, there were some trickier holds in this set than we were expecting...
But there was no way we were giving up, we wanted to see what mischief we could cause with these... the answer lots.

What we found during our sessions is that you do actually end up crimping on these holds! BUT only when you're on the 45, the rest of the time you're no where near that hand position... so technically these holds are crimps... on one angle, the rest of the time they're not really crimps they're more like little slopers and edges.

(If you're in Germany you can't see the video because youtube won't let you!)
SUGGESTED USES:






Yeah, you read it right... these holds will go on a 60; but it'll be hard as hell and you'll end up not liking yourself for a while! We set from the 45 all the way around the wall, back and forth using the holds in as many different orientations as possible, one thing is pretty clear.. some of the holds (about 5 of them) do need to be crimped down on, the rest not so much. (I'd see our comments for a follow up)

A good majority of the holds are incut, not super incut (that's why the symbol isn't up there) but positive enough that they're pretty easy on the 30 degree wall and hard but totally do-able on the 45; unless you set something that is completely mental that is :)

On a slab, these holds are pretty beginner / intermediate climber friendly; vertical you're looking at intermediate and that goes the same for the 15 and 30 as well. Where you'll start to separate the wheat from the chaff is on the steeper angles, 40 through 55 and the strong climbers will have to work and then anything over that as it's going to be some pretty tough going

There is a wide variety of shapes in this set, so therefore there are lots of possibilities with them.This means you get your moneys worth because chances are if you're going to be climbing / setting a lot this set comes into it's own because of it's variety... and despite their small(ish) sizing they are pretty positive


OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds: 20 (17 small and 3 medium)
  
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): 20 / 51 GBP = 2.55 GBP (about $4 per hold)
  
• Color: Ours are blue
  
• Bolt placement: Well thought out on all of the shapes
  
• Sanding: Flat
  
• Texture: Rough at first
  
• Set size: Small and medium
  
• Versatility: Some holds more than others
  
• Pre-drilled screw holes: Yes on all the holds

If we look at the difference between crimps set 1 and crimp set 2 the hold build varies a little, the second set that we've received have bubbles in the backs through about 1/2 of the range, and the sanding is a little off or overly aggressive on a few various shapes. There's also one hold that is completely out of place is the set, and that's the largest one of the bunch... this hold should really be in a range of it's own; it's also the only hold that was chipped during shipping; it's actually only a really small nick from the side and it is super tiny (it's not a bubble from the back that's popped)

Speaking of bubbles, a good majority of these holds do have some bubbles on the back and that's not something we're really used to. It's a rare thing to see and it means the mix hasn't been agitated enough in the mold, they are pretty small but if there are bubbles in the centre of the shape then it could cause some structural failures :(

The texture on the holds is aggressive but it does bed in very quickly and when the holds are fresh they will take chalk off of your hands like a vacuum cleaner... it really does disappear quite quickly. One other thing we noticed (from this set and from set 1) is that the texture really does like to hold the chalk in as well; it's a good / bad thing as brushing to get some texture back takes a little while but sometimes there's still enough chalk on the hold for you to stick the move :P

Color wise these are a good shade of blue, not too light and not too dark.. it's even across the board so you can tell the color has been mixed very well. Planet has a dual bolt system (the holds can take all of the usual bolts) and there is always a set screw placement on holds that need it. Their logo is only out of place on one hold otherwise they don't get in the way and to be honest we had the hold up the wrong way when we were playing with it. All of the bolt holes are well drilled and straight with these holds taking pretty much any bolt you can throw at them to get them on the wall

Overall (as this is what this section is about) very good quality holds, there's a dent in my table and even though Noodles threw the holds onto the sofa during the walk through there was no damage... therefore they're strong and most setters should have a problem breaking them. A couple of the holds have been kept aside for the next installment of drop tests

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Urethane

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Bomber, best packing so far. Despite this, the largest hold took a chip during it's journey

RATING:
Noodles:
Oh if only you could see the out takes from the walk through.
You'd laugh
Actually you'd be shocked as some of the language (even for us) is really bad.

It seems that after editing the Tour De Bloc videos for two days straight we thought we'd take a break and film the walk through for these holds. The walk through, although long (it's actually two parts due to the number of holds in the set) is a good one... the bits you miss, because we took them out is me having a rant. What was I ranting about? I was ranting about crimps... again! Why?The above is a crimp hand position, you don't (or I don't) actually use this hand position on these holds, in fact I don't use this hand position very often... the only time(s) are when I'm outside... or the holds is so thin that it's the only way I'm going to be able to hold onto it... and then lets face it... then that holds no really good for "training", routes maybe and if you're a masochist! These holds do not use this grip position.. so my rant is about should they be called "crimps"? I don't think so, and I'd say that both sets of holds should be labeled as "mixed" or as "mixed edges" That being said, you do and will find yourself crimping when some of these holds are on a steep angle; mainly because you have no choice! So these holds on anything upto 45 degrees are edges and 45 and then over they're crimps....

This set is actually harder than the first set and like Chris says it's not by much... the set is very varied; like the first set. Which is a good thing, it means that you can set a lot of different routes without having to look for different shapes... this set has a little of everything; OK there aren't any jugs in here just some fairly positive one handed edges some interesting little slopers

Again bouncing off of what Chris says about the texture there's some dispute about why when we've been pulling down on these holds our fingers are feeling pretty sore and tender to the touch.. the first set of crimps have the exact same texture as this set, the shapes are a little friendlier and a little nicer so you don't feel the "burn" so much. This set you do seem to get more burn even though a lot of the shapes have smooth angles upon them, why? Probably because you can get quite a lot of skin onto them when you're pulling, and it's not a burn where you'd expect a crimp to burn, it's lower down on the fingers (between the first and second joint)... the good thing about this for gym owners is that cleaning the holds isn't going to be a big problem. If we can climb on them for over a month (we we use chalk like it's going out of fashion) and then you can still get a good grip on a hold, without brushing, it means the 1000's of hands and feet that are going to touch these holds are still going to get the grip they need... not some slick piece of glass :)

Overall, if you forgive the naming :P, this set of holds is something that setters are going to enjoy playing with, get both sets and then you've got years of routes as there are a lot of holds between the two and combined there is a lot of variety... nothing massively bomber but enough that you pull down and have a bunch of fun.

Chris:
We are always up for a little controversy with the holds we review...it keeps life interesting...and Noodles has a good point with the name Planet Holds has given this set. All small holds aren't all crimps and some big holds only have crimps on them but most of the holds in the set could be crimped, if need be, it all depends on the angle of the wall. The slopey holds of the set are easy as pinches on a vertical wall but when you have them on a steep angle wall like our 45, the crimp comes in useful. But buyers beware! Not all these holds are 45 degree friendly. There are some shapes that are more open hand than crimp. What Planet Holds can do in naming their set, is too use a suggested angle degree instead of a grip type.

Even though Noodles has an issue with the naming of these holds, I must dispute his point by adding that after working our problems, my fingers felt as though they've been crimping down hard. We both agree that this set is are not all crimps, but they are small and this just leads to finger strains.

Also, the texture is very rough. We reviewed the Crimp set1 from Planet Holds and the texture is not the same (mainly because of the shapes) We commented that the first set was easier than expected, so they sent us the second, more technical and difficult set of the two, so the added friction is welcome. Also these holds are better suited for harder climbs and there won't be too many novice climbers trying their luck on these guys. If I were to compare the two sets, the second set is harder, but not by much. The biggest difference I noticed was with the pain in my fingers.

Usually, when you buy a set of holds, you look at one and the rest...well...they're pretty much the same size and similar in shape, where as large set like this will have more variety and more fun to set with. This is the kind of set you'd want if you have a home wall... unfortunately, they're only sold in the EU and import although it isn't that bad could be expensive... shame :(

PROS:

• Holds don't take up that much space on your wall
• Good, but slightly aggressive texture means that there's not much brushing needed
• Lots of variety in hold shape
  

CONS:

• The largest hold is kind of out of place in the set
• Could be expensive to import to anywhere other than Europe
  

Review > Climb It > XL Font Jugs

There have been times...probably more than I can think of....where we've cleared our wall of all the holds and start with a fresh clean slate. We usually start these sessions on setting warm up routes and move onto setting projects. But we always come to the point where we want to set the roof and realize that we lack big roof jugs. Well we've gotten some nice sets of roof jugs from Project, Contact and more recently Teknik and Climb It. We'll be looking at the Font Jugs from Climb It for this weeks review, but don't fret, the Teknik review is on the way:)

You can't imagine how huge these things are! They are XL size and that's what we got. We've had some other shapes for the roof and they've been made up of jugs and handles. These jugs are different. These large shapes have enough room for two hands but the hand placement is not always obvious. With other roof holds we have, the grip position of the hold is very easy to read.... why isn't it obvious despite the HUGE GAPING HOLE? Because some areas a wider than others, some have nice incut features and some places are just harder than you'd expect

We received them with some Power Domes and Black Mountain crimps and we immediately put these onto the roof. Remember we we had a completely blank wall so we filmed a quick Climb It video:

For their size you would think that they're easy to hold but the jug of the hold is not steep as expected and some parts even feel slopey. If you've ever climbed on these shapes you know that there are so many different ways to grip these bubbly font holds. The shape of the Font Jugs made it so the jug could be used as a huge pinch on the roof.

The first thing we noticed was no screw hole. No screw hole? A shape this size need a screw in it and more than once these holds have spun on us. We've seen holds that are much smaller than these that have screw holes incorporated in the design of the hold. We could always just put a screw in, but we hold aficionados like it when a screw hole is pre drilled on the hold.

This past week, we saw that the Climb It Font Jugs were the next holds to be reviewed and we had an surprise guest at the wall. Our friend Dora "The Explorer" showed up to climb with us and since our wall is thin on holds these days the only holds worth warming up on were the Font Jugs. We placed them on the 45 degree wall. This is the only other place, a long with the roof, where you'll ever see us putting up these holds. We made the problem so it wouldn't be too easy so we set long moves. Dora was having a hard time with the last move but with holds of this size it wasn't too long before she got the move.

Then we wanted to simu-climb a little so we grabbed some bolt hangars and started playing with the Fonts just on the 30 degree wall, and then we re-set with some Tekniks and DRCC holds for a jug-clip route :P


SUGGESTED USES:





"Anywhere you want it, that's the way you need it, anyway you want it" -Rise Against; we could continue on in this vein but Chris and Noodles in a duet isn't going to be pretty :P
These holds are just massive anywhere you put them, one of the holds is so big you can figure 4 on it without a worry... the texture is a little more crystalline that most normal Climb It holds and we've got a lot of there stuff around the place so we know if there's a variation... these are pretty rough on the skin, and you are getting a lot of skin onto these holds. Noodles has complained a bunch from his skin burning when he's been clambering around on these... something has changed we think :(

These holds are one of those sets that is so friendly and so easy wherever you put them that they get the "full on" symbol. Honestly you can stick them anywhere, they're all easily matchable as the grabbing areas are huge and open.

OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds: 4
  
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt
  
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): 78 / 4 = $19.50 per hold
  
• Color: Floro pink
  
• Bolt placement: Centered
  
• Sanding: Good
  
• Texture: A little rough
  
• Set size: XL
  
• Versatility: Lots
  
• Pre-drilled screw holes: No

Texture... there's something not quite right with the texture here. Sure from pour to pour there might be a slight variation in the feel of a hold but these don't feel like they're from the Climb It range at all. We have pretty much everything (bar a few sets) that Climb It make and this is the first time we've had cause to talk about something that's wrong with their texture :( These holds are like rough sandpaper and they do like to sand off your skin when you hang about on them (you will be hanging around a lot on these monsters!); it's not something that we're used to when Climb It are concerned.

Other than that niggle, the holds are well built with some good hollow backs that have center columns, one thing that is lacking is there aren't any inset screw holes for set screws! Kind of strange when you think about the forces that can be generated on a hold of this size.. and something we're not used to Climb It missing on!!! A couple of the areas of the hollow back could be a little thin and could be prone to breaking if you don't look after your holds, but you're going to have to drop them / hit that area with a hammer to get the urethane to crack

Color wise the color fades a little towards the edges, again something we're not used to from Climb It, everyone has their off days, most of the holds we received in the same shipment were a little color-lite.

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Urethane

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Not bad, these came in a large shipment that was going somewhere else, there were a lot of large holds so some jostling and scraping occurred

RATING:
Noodles:
Aight, here I go sounding like a broken record.... AGAIN
First point: set screw holes. Just because holds are made of urethane, rather than resin and therefore the end user can put in their own hole doesn't mean that they should have to! If a hold is going to generate enough force for it to potentially spin then the hole should be there. DRCC does it, Contact Climbing does it... hell most (not all) companies do it as well. Thankfully Climb It will probably modify their molds and retrofit this feature

Second point: (And I don't even know why I mention this) there is no way these are just XL holds, maybe in the entire scheme of Climb It they are (and they really are) just XL shapes, but compared to other companies these are more like 2XL :) That's more for your reference than for ours

I agree, kind of, with what Chris says.... k-i-n-d-a! These holds are large, and they do take up a bunch of room for storage when you're rocking a home wall... mind you he doesn't complain about the Boss or the Wedge... and he doesn't live in the apartment :P I like these kinds of holds, they are more technical than your usual just chuck at it and it'll stick jugs... they are a little trickier than you think, thankfully they're all matchable even if the matches can be a little tricky. He is correct on a couple of things though, the texture is rougher than we've come to expect from Climb It and the color was a little washed out around the edges.. two things that kind of made us raise some eyebrows

Then we brought out the old harness (with the legs cut off) and then we started playing with some runners; wow, thank god these are huge... otherwise my training for outdoors would have gone worse then it already did :) Yeah, we chuck draw hangers and runners on the wall so we can get ready for the outside climbing season, it's something you'll see more of for a few months :P

Would I buy these for a home wall of our size? It's a 50 / 50, they are big but they are versatile for every wall of every angle. If I'm a guy owner it's a total no brainer. I'd like some smaller less area consuming versions of these to round out the Font range a little more... then as a home wall owner it'd be a no brainer.

Overall? I like them, I think the texture needs to be taken back a bunch and the color could have been more consistent. Even though these holds are massive the hollow back means you're not spending loads of $ on shipping!!

Chris:
On a normal day, we'd get holds from Climb It and and we'd be very satisfied with the quality and shape of the hold, but on this shipment, we found some things to get picky on. The texture of the hold is very rough and although on its own it may not be too big of a deal, but when you've gotten your hands on as many Climb It holds as we have, there is a big difference between the texture of the Font Jugs and holds that we've received from them in the past. Also the tone of color that they used isn't as bright as we've come to expect from Climb It.

Now for me personally, if I had a home wall I would stay away from the big roof shapes. They take up a lot of room on the wall and for storage, they tend to be specific for the roof and they can be quite costly. The set is well priced but for $78 for a set of 4 holds, I think my money can be better spent on larger (quantity wise) sets of holds that are more versatile on the wall.

The good thing about getting Climb Its holds is that they have a wide range of sets within their specific lines of holds. The Font Jugs are too big? Well they have all kinds of different shapes and sizes that are all within the same "Font" category.

Even with all this said about not wanting to personally invest into roof jugs, it's nice to have these kinds shapes lying around... besides, now we have enough holds to set up some nice roof sequences. Also, Dora was pointing out that she has difficulty with the long sequence, and these holds are perfect for setting up those kinds of moves and just chucking yourself to the hold over and over until you manage to stick the move.

I really like the shape of the Font Jugs. They call them jugs, but this is a term that should be used lightly. The holds aren't all juggy incut holds, some have a negative incut and it opens up the door for more interesting sequences on the roof. These holds work great as odd angled pinches, where you can use the font like features to get a good pinch grip. When we set them on the roof, I found that I had to put more emphasis on technique and foot placement than relying on brute strength alone.

Dora:
These holds are amazing for warm ups, HUGE jugs that can fit at least 3 hands inside. The texture is pretty funky and though you’d expect it to be slippery once your hands get sweaty, they actually stay quite grippy.

There’s not much to say about them other than they’re HUGE JUGS, and you can never go wrong with that. They’re good to pull off the side and super easy to set as they are fairly light for their size and you only need one bolt! I don’t think there is a way you could possibly set them to turn them into a difficult hold…

PROS:

• For their size they're light (good hollow back)
• Monster for beginners, but still challenging for other climbers
  

CONS:

• Color is a little light at the edges
• No set screw hole
  

Review > Uncarved Block > Mickey Finns

Uncarved Bloc have moved partly from resin to urethane... in our last (and also first) review on UCB shapes we were sent a sampler of what their urethane was going to feel like... we never reviewed those holds because TNT when shipping the box totally kicked it about like a football and although the holds were ok to climb on they were chipped enough to not warrant a full on review.

The outcome of us playing with those few urethane shapes was thus: please make some more.
UCB's holds have always been pretty slick but with a surprising grip, thankfully this hasn't gone away with the new medium... and on that note we give you the Mickey Finns:
As soon as we looked at these in the box it was clear that these holds were going straight on the 45, even just feeling them and seeing the smooth incuts on the holds you could tell that they were going to be hard :)

So grabbing a drill we came across the first problem with the holds, these are screw ons... which is fine... but these are some pretty deep screw ons, go and look at some of the stuff you have screwed on the wall, now look at these, they're actually more the size of bolt ons, and could easily be bolt ons (it actually begs the question... why aren't these bolt ons, or a bolt on version of these?) and then grab some screws and your driver and try to put these up. Aha! You can't can you? Your driver isn't long enough to drive the screw all the way home is it? Nope, it's not. So you're going to have to go old skool on these holds and actually use a manual screw driver aren't you? Yes, yes you are... do you remember where you put it? Us either :PLet's talk about this point a little, we spoke to UCB about this "issue" and they sent us an image of the length of driver that they use... our driver isn't as long as theirs, we're looking at something that's about 1/3rd the length. Our longer driver is about half the length of the above and we still had to resort to a normal screw driver; overall not much of a problem as you can get the holds onto the wall without too much trouble

As Noodles was the first to grab the screw driver he set a couple of routes, the one we filmed is the one we spent the most time on... the other routes that we didn't film (on the vertical wall and the 30) ended up being cake walks whichever way you rotated the holds, like we said these holds are big, smooth and super round. On any shallow angle (to 30 degrees) these holds are easy to grab and to monkey around on, either side of an arete you feel like you're cheating even when they're in pinch mode. The clincher is when they're on the 45, these guys take the gloves off and really can kick you about and then come back and give you more of a beating... not because they're horrible to hold onto, but because they're just plain brutal. This is where we found a second little problem with the holds...

We love the inset ying yang logo, UCB really stamp their presence on their holds and on the wall.. the logo gives a nice little touch as well! Unfortunately the logo on some of the holds given their size is in a place where your thumb is going to want to rest... this means your thumb is trying to grip on basically a slick piece of plastic; its a shame as this kind of lessens the holds a little. We've got some UCB holds that have a little raised logo that doesn't intrude on your gripping pleasure and it's what these guys should really have.

Now to the 45... it's easier to watch than to explain. One route we spent a lot of time on... well, on and then off and then on and then off again :P

SUGGESTED USES:





Anything to the 45 degree mark, go any further and you're just crazy...
These holds masquerade as nice holds on shallow angles and then go crazy on the steep stuff, they're so ergonomic and round it's sinful, they just feel nice... and then they give you a slap in the face as they're surprisingly tricky to stick

If you have an arete that needs making a little easier then look no further, these guys will let anyone haul up and around any corner... if you want to spit some people off of the bouldering wall on a problem that looks super easy... here you go... these are your boys!

We took these from flat, to 15, to 30 and then to 45 and had a blast doing so. The 45 is where they'll challenge you the most, or on a 30 when they're set as pinches things get quite interesting. There is a smaller set of these that will give you 12 holds in total which means you can set some really nice traverse / routes with them

OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds: 6
  
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Screw ons
  
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): 44.65 / 6 = $7.50 AUD per hold approx $7 USD per hold
  
• Color: Pastel pinky orange
  
• Bolt placement: None, these are screw ons
  
• Sanding: Great
  
• Texture: Nice and smooth but grippy...
  
• Set size: Medium
  
• Versatility: Pretty good, pain in the ass to move thou
  
• Pre-drilled screw holes: Hells yeah :)

We've already mentioned some problems, but we'll reiterate the bad before the good:
1) You need a really long driver to screw these onto the wall, or a screw driver
2) The UCB logo isn't always in the best place on the hold
Right... color? It's not one you'll see very often that's for sure, these holds really stand out! The texture is grippy and very smooth, these holds are quite deceiving when you hold onto them... you've got it, you've got it... you're on the floor. Sanding is flat and smooth, the screw holes are deep and well placed and the overall build quality is really good, there's nothing much to complain about... these holds aren't going to chip like their old resin shapes... thank god!

These holds are so round and ergonomic it's disgusting, you're never going to get any pain from your fingers on these holds... I wonder what the smaller version are like!

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Urethane, UCB runs urethane and resin holds

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Perfect this time TNT played nice. All the holds were wrapped in an Australian newspaper so we were able to catch up on the news down under :P

RATING:
Noodles:
Yeah yeah, I misread the paper that came with the holds, I called them the Tricky Finns when they're the Mickey Finns :( It's because the note was written in Australian, and because I'm an idiot sometimes.. Sorry UCB, I'll get it right next time or.. you could just rename the set because they're tricky buggers to hold onto :)

It'd probably be a good idea to rename the set anyways, do you know what a Mickey Finn is? It's a drink laced with drugs, and it was a bartender from Chicago... let's go with the bartender story

These holds everywhere but the 45 are too easy, therefore lovely to grab onto.
Put them on the 45 and then they turn into some kind of monster that wants to kill you.
I spent more time on my ass after we moved these holds from the 30 degree wall to the 45 than I have in a long time... we even switched one of the holds to make the last move easier and I still got my ass handed to me :(

I'd love for there to be a bolt on version of these holds, with the screw placements still there (so you can bolt or screw)... that'd make these holds a must have in about 5 seconds flat, right now in my book they're a bunch of fun that beginners will love and routesetter can have some hoots with because they're just-that-little-bit-harder-than-expected and they will catch people out... because of their size it'll be a lot of people that'll be scratching their heads and wondering what just happened.

Did I call these holds friendlier?
Vertical wall: super tail waggly friendly
15 degree wall: hi nice to meet you my name is Mickey, Mickey Finn
30 degree wall: You're my new best friend I love you dude
45 degree wall: You said what about my mom, lets step into the ring sonny Jim and I'll teach you a lesson in manners young man... or in our case, a lesson about core strength and holding onto sloping holds. Friendlier my ass :P

Chris:

Did we get a shocker on these. Although there is a nice incut on one side of the hold, the problem we set would be the last thing to touch for a warm up. Ok, so we set a little steep but still the sequence was harder than we would have expected. Due to the meatiestness of the hold, we were able to work on the problem all night. We spent a good half hour working on the loves and my fingers didn't hurt, although the same can't be said for the rest of me:)

As for the screw on debate, we all love a good controversy, I think that having screw on holds this size isn't such a bad idea. Without the screws we couldn't have put the hold on the corner of the 45. If these holds were bolt on, they would most likely spin and would most likely . Having to screw it in only forces us to put in the screws before finding out that the hold is going to spin and you can get a good work out if you install the holds by hand;)

So like you can see from the video, we spent a long time working out the sequence for this problem. We could have set an easier sequence and the set is very versatile. When you have it up one way , it has a nice shallow incut to it, but flip it around you have super sloper madness!. Luckily they are pinches and you can really get a good grip on these shapes.

We didn't have much time to play around with the holds...besides we really wanted to link the sequence...but if we could have set some more intermediate problems or even some short warm ups. There is a smaller version of this set and I could imagine that the combination of the two will get you strong. The shapes are challenging and friendly so you can set easy and muck around or try some difficult sequences without too much bother on the fingers.
PROS:

• Super ergonomic
• Color we've not seen before
• Very beginner friendly
  

CONS:

• Inset logo is sometimes in a bad place

so ill

DO NOT DELETE ME BASE FILE!!

Logo

Text about what we did here

SUGGESTED USES:

























OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds:
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons):
  
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds):
• Color:
• Bolt placement:
• Sanding:
• Hollow backed:
  
• Soft back (Rubber backed):
  
• Texture:
• Set size:
• Versatility:
• Pre-drilled screw holes:
• Shaper:
  

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:

PACKING / SHIPPING:

RATING:
Noodles:

Chris:

PROS:

• YADDA

CONS:

• YADDA