I’ve got the translucent one, and I can vouch for it. The paint is beautiful, and hasn’t chipped on me yet. (and I’m still noob enough to be hard on it.) I like my Tribute well enough that I’ll probably get a solid and/or a stripe eventually. None of my kendamas go through strings near as fast as yoyos do, but it wouldn’t hurt to pick-up a couple of spares. The Tributes do come with a spare string, but mine for some strange reason came sealed from the factory, strung left-handed. I tried to cut off the knot and re-tie it, but the string ended up too short, so on went the spare string it came with.