I got this more as a novelty gift to myself to experience what the manipulators of then used so my expectations and standards are lower. With that said here’s the review.

First off the balls look gorgeous. It’s 4 balls and one gimmick, the balls have a tiny hole (pin sized) on them but not noticeable. Comes with very very basic paper instructions.

As far as handling, the gimmick and balls do not roll out, out of the box. The ball just spins with the basic roll move making it hard or near impossible to use unless you use gravity.. You will have to add a modification to the gimmick to make it work properly like a foam adhesive bumper.
The balls are very slippery with dry hands. They are more tacky with moister hands though. My hands are naturally dry so these get dropped a lot. I recommend practicing over a bed or carpet.

Durability of the paint is fair. Ive only dropped it over hard surfaces a very few times and the paint is okay.

Would I buy this as my starter set or entry to billiard balls? Nope, wouldn’t do it. If you’re trying to get into billiard balls and like the leeway of bounciness and durability, I would just save and invest on the silicone ones.

Small detail for those that handle wooden balls. The gimmick covers half the ball. Two gimmicks MIGHT and PROBABLY does cover the whole ball but I do not know for certain because I only bought the one set. I’m not bothering because I am not Shimada.