Just like rotomike, I can't "prove" the story about the beast, I can only confirm the rumor.
I bought the very first beast that came out. The box said urethane on it and the ball acted very much like my other urethane balls at the time.
About a year or so later, I saw one in the shop that was new and the box said flexel, which is a mild reactive formulation. When I asked about this, the shop guy told me that columbia had been experimenting with additives and had decided to make balls with it.
He also told me there were TWO SEPERATE types of black u-dots also, one straight urethane ( white lettering ) and one with flexel ( green lettering ), and NO, I am not refering to the budII, just a regular black u-dot with a flexel cover and green lettering..
I cannot "PROVE" that their was a purple urethane model beast that pre-dates the reactive one, but I know it for an absolute fact. I also know for an absolute fact that there were two different types of black u-dots that were as different in their reactions as daylight and dark because I saw them thrown side by side several times. The white lettered one was a smooth predictable urethane reaction, and the green lettered one was a definite skid/flip reaction.
As for MY favorite pre resin ball, it is a toss up between the original black turbo and the pink hammer.
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