my sister wants to get into kendama and I would like to get her one but have no clue about kendamas since I’m all about yoyos. Does anybody have any ideas? I want to get her something decent so she won’t have to upgrade in a month or two. looking to spend around $50 or so.
The Terra Natura Pro Mod is my current favorite, but we’re sold out at the moment. New Sweets Pro mods are fantastic as well though, and a good variety as far as color/finish goes:
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How long do Kendamas last? They look like they take a beating form play.
They tend to last a long time(months or years with care maintenance… occasional string replacement, and coating spike with superglue), but the tama often gets marked up after just one play session. Some woods are more durable than others.
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Yeah, they last a while. The tip of the ken will dull over time, and cups will chip once in a while from hard impacts. The tama (ball) lasts much longer, and sometimes more beat up broken in tamas will play even better. You can often just replace the Ken and keep the tama going or just get that shiny new kendama you’ve been eyeing.
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you cant go wrong opting for a sweets boost. Their cushion clear coating is considered by many in the community to be both helpful for tricks, and longer lasting than other finishes. If they have bigger than average hand size, maybe go for a krom (they’re a bit longer)
Your first kendama will probably last you ages, I bought a sweets focus off yye years ago that still looks fresh, but a krom I got a month ago already has paint chipping from me being aggressive about taps. But unless it chips on a bevel, these things will last you years. If your tama ends up with leprosy and peels like a mofo you can always just swap up out, plenty of companies sell just the tama. But by the time youre destroyingalldamas like that you’ll probably be looking into picking up new mods anyways 
hope this helps
Oooh lotus kendamas is restocking their bloom shape soon, it’s only like $20 and is the best budget model in the game rn, they took the maximum cup sizes per jka rules and made a dama with the biggest “competition legal” cups
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They last quite some time with minimal maintenance (mostly an occasional string change and protecting the tip of the spike with super glue). The thing about kendama is the more beat up the tama (ball) gets, the better it plays (probably to a point, but, since I’m just a casual Kendama player, I haven’t pushed mine over the hill).