I'm surprised there are so few reviews on this ball as it's one of my favorite solids of all time and one of the most impressive balls I've thrown. This ball had been on my wanted list for a very long time due to all the good things I had seen and heard about it. And with a sweet sale, picking one up for $130, I now have a Paragon.
I normally stay in the Storm Universe but this was my first foray into the Brunswick line, in the interesting West Vs. East Cold War of bowling. I've always been told the Brunswick world is cheap, inferior and crappy by the Storm people in my life. However, The Paragon is such a fabulous ball, opening up a whole new world to me. I've started really considering defecting to the other side.
Pros
- The best heavy oil Solid ball I've ever thrown. I generally love to throw pearls for their angular motion. But when there's too much oil for my pearls to read, the Paragon will dig and hook through anything. Especially if you hit it with a nice 1000 or 1500 before playing on a heavy or long pattern.
- HOOK IN A BOX! This ball wants to dig and flare in the back end harder than just about anything else I've seen. This is such an aggressive ball, it's going to want to get into a roll and seemingly push as soon as it leaves your hand.
- The Paragon may have my favorite core of all. This ball has about the neatest motion I've ever seen as the core seems to wind and speed up as it finds friction and explodes into it's roll. It's an incredible motion I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it before. It's like watching a buzzsaw cut through the pins when this ball's core explodes into the roll phase.
- On that note and to re-iterate, this ball really seems to store it's energy for the roll phase beautifully as it explodes through the pins.
- Because of the earliness of this ball, the aggressive cover and the accelerating core, you can achieve some incredible angles and open up the lane with this ball.
- I've put maybe 100-150 games on my Paragon. Really easy ball to maintain. Still a hook monster after a season of beating up on it. Even lane shined to it's natural resting grit and beaten to hell, this ball will still try to hook and give you that big solid movement everyone is looking for. But when you maintain this ball with cleaning after every session and a nice resurfacing when the ball motion begins to get too dull, this ball will always be a top choice for your bag. Reliable and easy to maintain.
- I really like the Blue kind of psychedelic colors. Looks unique and great going down the lane.
Cons
- This ball is extremely controllable for such big movement and feels like a cheat code on tough long or heavy oil patterns. But there are times when this ball gets out of control and feels like feast or famine. On the right conditions, the Paragon is one of the easiest balls to get good scores with I've ever thrown. On the wrong conditions though, it becomes a bucking bronco and difficult to control. But that's why we carry multiple balls to the alley.
In conclusion, this is currently my favorite solid of all time and this ball was an incredible introduction into the Brunswick universe. I've since bought several other Brunswick Universe balls and have really enjoyed all of them. If you can get your hands on one these Paragons, do it! They are fantastic top of the bag asymm solids!
