Rotablade is arguably the biggest name in fidget spinners right now, and the stubby is their signature dish. The simple design and renowned good spin quality is what has earned Rotablade its reputation at the top of the totem. But is it all it’s cracked up to be.
How much does a Rotablade cost
The stubby opens at £95 ($120) and ranges all the way up to £525 ($670) for a Mokuti version. My particular stubby is a custom anodized version. However Rotablade also sell a tri version which start at £110 ($140), or there is the Rotablade original, and pendulum. But for now we are just concerned with the stubby.
The price of the regular stubby is one of the only places that I take issue with this particular Rotablade product. It is just one piece with a bearing in the middle and some buttons. Now, I am not complaining about the price, but rather pointing out that there are similar one piece spinners on the market which are just as smooth, spin for as long and are 1/3rd of the price.
However, when we talk about the more exotic materials, that is where the stripped back design of the stubby compliments the metal nicely. The pairing of a simple design brings out the beauty of the metal, and the metal brings out the best parts of the stubby design. So, in my opinion, it is worth spending the extra for a nicer metal. If you’re not bothered about exotic metals, then perhaps look at other spinners.
Getting a Rotablade Stubby
This is the tricky part with all Rotablade products. They are released at 6pm GMT (uk time, which is 1pm ET) on the Rotablade website, and they often sell out very fast, with exotics going in a matter of seconds.
There is then a 6 week “lead time” which means there is a waiting period of 6 weeks before your order will even ship.
There is however a second hand market for these spinners, so if you are willing to pay a little more, then you should be able to get one immediately from an independent seller. Most of these are available on Facebook groups like Spin Space.
The design
So the design is really stipped back and simple. You can tell that from any picture of the stubby. That is good because it allows you to decide whether you like the design beforehand, what you see is what you get. Personally I am more a fan of an extravagant, intricate and interesting design, so the stubby doesn’t quite do it for me. I think the rotablade tri is more intriguing, and that an exotic metal is a must have on this design.
However, just as modernist houses are some peoples dream I understand that there is a huge appeal to a bare bones design. If you are one of those people then you will fast fall in love with this spinner as it looks and feels better in person than in any of the pictures.
Spin time
The stubby should spin for around 4 minutes out of the box, though not much more than that. Paul Watson of Rotablade is very stringent with his quality checks, so if one does spin for less time out of the box, it usually just needs a bit of a clean and breaking in. A process which is common with spinners of all shapes, sizes and prices.
Spin quality
The stubby is incredibly smooth, but does offer a little bit of feedback. It is not as smooth as a Spinetic for example, but Spinetic are renowned for the quality and smoothness of their bearings. As the stubby is a bar style spinner, it is prone to some wobble when you move it 
around, but this is physics more than it is the design of the spinner. If you don’t want that, stick to 3+ armed spinners
Overview
The stubby is a great little spinner. Is it for me? Probably not. However, the hype is deserved, as long as you value the design that you see in the pictures. It’s very simple, very elegant, and spins really nicely. You know that out of the box you are going to get a top notch product.
In my opinion the exotic materials are the way forward if you are going to get a stubby. But then you are looking at parting with some serious cash, and that’s if you can even get one!
You can buy Rotablade products on the Rotablade website.