There’s probably a term out there already that describes the kind of guy that although, spent the majority of his childhood reading comic books, is now in his mid forties and still digs the whole superhero ‘thang’ …other than ‘massive manchild’ that is…which is something that I myself…may well get called…quite a lot…because you see, I am most definitely one of those guys, I’m not ashamed of it…I don’t deny myself it…and absolutely, under no circumstances at all…do I ever…EVER…parade around the bedroom in front of my utterly bewildered other half whilst wearing an admittedly far too small Spiderman costume, as if that sort of thing could be considered sexy…to anyone…in any way…ever…
Nope…I don’t do that…
My real passion was actually 2000ad/Judge Dredd…If there was one thing the English were exceptional at, it was writing comic books, and even now, I still collect the odd graphic novel (because they’re comics for adults who don’t want to admit they still buy comics) …That being said…when there’s a new superhero film about to be released, I do get just as giddy now as I did back when I was old enough for that to be acceptable…manchild…and proud.
So when a company brings out some vape gear ‘loosely’ based around a couple of the more popular superheroes…you’d expect me to be ever so slightly wetting my pants…wouldn’t you…? (you’re old…you literally do that most days)…
I’ll bear that in mind…
…
A warm and slightly moist welcome to you once again my friendly neighborhood fluff-muffins , back again with more of the same…and I do mean more…I’m being a lazy MF and cramming two kits into one review because…well…I can…I don’t feel I need to add anything more to that comment…so…cracking on…we’re gonna talk about Vaptio, and more importantly…two of their latest kits which were sent to me by…funnily enough …Vaptio…who’d o’thunk it…and while we’re at it, we will also be getting a very valuable lesson in what you can actually get away with…without breaking any copyright infringements…gotta love the Chinese…
Don’t worry…all will become clear…as always (?) SO…let’s take a look…at what the fuck I am waffling on about…may I present to you, The Vaptio Wall Crawler Kit with Throne tank…and the Super Bat 220w Kit with Frogman XL tank…absolutely not endorsed by Spiderman and Batman…you understand …(rolls eyes)
Oh you’ll be thinking that a lot throughout this review…because like I just said…these are NOT affiliated in any way to anything Marvel or DC related…at all…and if you asked Vaptio how the hell they managed to get one of the biggest franchises in the world to endorse their smoking cessation devices they would simply say…“We didn’t…aaand we don’t”
Now…bear that in mind, and attempt to see past it…because I truly believe that Vaptio have it in them to produce vape gear that’s worthy of people’s attention, remember the super heavyweight N1 Pro I reviewed last year?..Still sits on my bedside table and gets used daily…great mod…so…up first, we’ll start small, the Wallcrawler Kit.
The Lowdown (Wall Crawler Kit)
Well of course you would think that…
The Wall Crawler Kit is a single 18650 powered, 80w device that is kept in check by Vaptio’s own chip, a chip that gives a full TC suite, VW, Bypass, TCR mode, Curve modes in both wattage and TC, something called ‘Smooth Tech flavour enhancement technology’…whatever that is …and an apparent ‘Supercharger technology’, which has the ability of firing at 0.005 seconds…or in real terms… quicker than it takes me to lose interest in…ahh…hmm.
It even has a function to test your battery’s condition…and all on its 1.3" TFT screen…which is actually very nice, and the interface is super easy to navigate too.
I have to admit…this …was a bit of surprise to me when I first took this thing out of the box, because my first impression was…‘Urgh…plastic’ …immediately followed by…‘Really?!?’
Absolutely NOT the Spiderman logo…and those are almost definitely NOT Spiderman webs all over the body…just so’s we’re clear on that…oh and…‘Wall Crawler’ is almost definitely NOT a name synonymous with ANY of the Marvel superheroes…no siree …
As far as the fire button goes, we have a full length trigger bar running down the side, it feels awesome, very clicky and responsive, 3 clicks to enter the menu, 5 to power on and off…
The battery door is a top screw cap, similar to what we have seen on many other mods these days, It’s well threaded and does it’s job with little drama…
Absolutely NOT Spiderman on my NOT endorsed by Marvel battery wrap…the similarity is merely a slight coincidence…it’s actually just a man wearing a red balaclava and white sunglasses, who just ran through a big spider web…or so I’m told…sounds plausible…who am I to judge…?
Up top we have a pretty nondescript 510, seems sturdy and springy enough…and as an added bonus it also boasts some kind of waterproof seal inside…I’m not breaking it to find out…and sitting on top of that…we have the Throne tank…
So called… I am presuming…because of the ‘crown’ detail around the top cap…
The Throne is a 23.5mm sub ohm tank…odd size, but it does have a couple of things going for it that are worthy of mention. Firstly…it has a really fucking annoying rubber disk in the top which prevents spillage once you take off the quick release top…
The quick release top I like very much…the rubber disk?..absolute pain in the arse if you use anything other than needle point drippers…so I binned that shit, works fine without. On the plus side however, the coils lift straight out through the top, which makes for easy swap outs and on top of that, when you do pull the coil out, the juice flow holes close preventing it from flooding…nice touch. Pre-installed is the D1 coil @ 0.25ohms and included in the kit is a MTL D2 coil @ 1.25ohm, not really my thing so I can’t comment on that, but oddly…the extra MTL 510 drip tip you get with the Throne tank when bought on it’s own…isn’t included in the kit …all in all it’s not a bad little tank, the bottom airflow is smooth and the flavour and cloud production is adequate…it’s also not a bad looking tank…for a funky little fella…if you like that kinda thing…
The Specs
Wow…how lazy was that…moving swiftly on…
The Lowdown (Super Bat Kit)
You two are quite honestly the most narcissistic couple of superheroes I’ve ever not known…
The Super Bat is a dual 18650 powered, 220w device, with all the same bells and whistles that you would expect from an up to-date-mod these days, full TC suite, Curves, TCR, Bypass, Smart mode etc etc…and it also has this new fandangled Smoothtech Technology…flavour…enhancer…thing…(shrugs) …all easily controlled on the 1.3" TFT screen…just below that non-Batman face…
Nothing here that would surprise you in any way, shape…or indeed…form…but there is one slight annoyance, the apparent ‘Sporty Odometer’ as Vaptio call it on their site…doesn’t actually do anything…it’s just a picture, missed opportunity for a few cool points there methinks…
One glaringly obvious… and depending on how you feel about this kind of thing…tacky…difference between this and the Wall Crawler kit, is the inclusion of multi coloured LED lights…On the front as you can see in the above pic…
Aaaaand on the rear…
There’s an array of colours to choose from as well as options to have them on when you fire, always on…and thankfully…always off…choose wisely.
The fire bar is as you would expect, and again…offers a very satisfying click. It also sports a little emblem that looks convincingly unlike any motif I’ve ever seen any of the DC superheroes use before…it’s obviously a completely new idea that Vaptio came up with…alllll by themselves…
On the top we have a standard looking 510 that again has some kind of extra protection underneath it to stop any seepage just like the Wall Crawler…it will also gladly accommodate a 30mm top (Thank you Vaptio)
And underfoot…a pretty solid battery door that stays nice and…well…shut…which is nice…
At this point…you will probably be thinking…‘hmm…this reminds me of something?’…and no…it’s not Batman, because that would be silly, and for Vaptio to have anything they manufactured endorsed by a multi-million dollar franchise such as DC Comics…would cost a quite frankly…offensive amount of money, but what it could remind you of…is another certain…and less obviously ‘not’ endorsed by DC Comics… OBS Bat mod…a device I very much liked…and still do, and also…a fairly recent release - same size, both 220w, both have LED’s and both have absolutely nothing to do with Batman…hey…I’m not judging…this is China after all…they practically invented cut throat business strategies…you only have to ask Tony B about that. Sooo…we’ll put it down to a huge coincidence and say no more about it…because let’s face it…when it comes to China ‘borrowing’ ideas…
Another very obvious difference between this and the Wall Crawler kit is the build. The Super Bat is quite a heavyweight and solid mod, all alloy too as opposed to the plasticky feel of the Wall Crawler, and size wise…exactly the same as the OBS Bat…odd that…but it’s a nice shape and size…not incredibly compact, but small enough to carry around in your pocket…and girthy enough that should you choose to do that…it will look like you have a massive chubby… attracting the occasional scared expression…should you be a girl.
And the camp little sidekick in this dynamic duo, is the Frogman XL Tank…because that makes so much sense…on absolutely no levels at all…
The Frogman XL is not only oddly named…but it is also oddly sized at 26.5mm. It has bottom airflow, a 510 collared drip tip, the same quick release top cap and refill, and a more that admirable 5ml liquid capacity…it laughs in the face of the TPD regs…and rightly so…they are after all, a bunch of Jokers…
It is available in a 2ml version…but I choose to ignore that…
Now…I’ve said a million times that I have little time for pre-made coils, they’re expensive, they don’t perform as well, and in some cases…they’re a bitch to find for certain tanks, and if that tank gets discontinued…forget about it…however…Vaptio in all their unique and non stealing glory…have made their coils…and I quote…‘Highly compatible and interchangeable with other mainstream multicoil coils’…or in other words…Smok coils, which will always be available from pretty much everywhere in ninety-twelve different variations…so…you’re covered…and their little after-thought of ‘But ours are still better’…is fooling no one.
Unfortunately the Frogman suffers the same affliction as the Throne…the silly little rubber disc, again…it’s removable, and unless you use very thin pointy twist offs, or needle droppers…I highly suggest you do…
That being said…the Frogman offers…what I would call…an ‘above average’ vape for a sub ohm tank with pre-made coils, the flavour is quite good, the airflow is super smooth, and on full bore…very airy, however…the one thing I really like about it…oddly…was how comfortable it is to use, that collared drip tip…although visually uninspiring…is actually really nice to use…go figure.
The Specs (the easy way…again…)
Final Thoughts…and my ‘Beef’
Okay here’s the thing, these kits are actually pretty fucking good, I mean seriously, Vaptio do know how to make exceptional vape gear, and I’m not comparing one with the other either, because obviously, the Super Bat would give the Wall Crawler a damn good seeing to…
But, as is more often than not the case with Vaptio gear…there’s some seriously niggly gripes, and once you’ve seen them…you can’t help but grimace and think…‘Why?’ …let me explain…
The Wall Crawler kit at first glance is an ‘eye rolling’ experience, regardless of the fact that it’s really lightweight without the battery, it is just so difficult to see past that ‘tongue in cheek’ ‘Spiderman but not really’ theme…I honestly don’t know how they got away with it, you only have to see the listing on Vaptio’s own site to see just how far they went…
You really need to read it to believe it…
And things only get worse when you see the Super Bat…
Are you freaking kidding me…
My point is this, these are good kits in their own right…really, really good, but who the fuck are they for?..You might think ‘Well obviously they’re for Batman and Spiderman fans?’ …but they’re not…because I’ll tell you right now, adults…because all vapers are adults right?..who still dig the whole Marvel and DC universe gubbins…are actually quite serious about it…and only like official gear, and these ain’t that…they’re almost ‘spoof’ like…
When I was a kid, some kids would wear what we affectionately called ‘Addastripe’ trainers…similar to Adidas…but with 4 stripes instead of 3…and this is the same deal, it’s trying so hard to be Batman or Spiderman themed that it actually just becomes…a joke?..And if you take away all that silly shit…they actually become really good devices, so the whole point that I am trying to make is…Vaptio…why narrow your demographic??..just make good…normal…gear, because if it’s good…which these are…you’ll sell more of em…? And more importantly…don’t gear them towards kids…
I’m half expecting a Red, White & Blue mod from them soon with a shield for a fire button and called the ‘Cap’…Ijoy clearly missed that boat…
The Price
Right…be prepared to be utterly fucking bamboozled…firstly, they ain’t cheap according to Vaptio’s own site…and to be fair they shouldn’t be, as they are genuinely good kits…but…firstly, the Wall Crawler kit, basically comes in 2 variations, this one that I reviewed with the Throne tank, and it also comes with the Frogman XL tank…
With the Throne Tank £52.66 / $75.00
Wall Crawler Kit with Throne Tank
With the Frogman XL Tank 5ml £42.12 / $59.99 (and Frogman XL 2ml (TPD) £40.02 / $56.99
Wall Crawler Kit with Frogman XL Tank
So…quite a bit more expensive with the smaller Throne tank…
Yet…
The Frogman XL and the Throne Tank on their own…are exactly the same price at £22.46 / $31.99…(?)
The Wall Crawler Mod on it’s own…£31.59 / $44.99
Oh I haven’t finished yet…
The Super Bat kit, which is only available with the Frogman XL Tank…is actually cheaper than it’s smaller sibling at £51.25 / $72.99 for the 5ml, and £49.14 / $69.99 for the 2ml TPD version…
And the Super Bat mod on it’s own?..£45.63 / $64.99 …
No…I don’t know either…it is literally …bullshit batshit crazy…
My advice…get the Super Bat kit, it’s better, cheaper, and you get the 5ml Frogman for 5 quid…can’t say fairer than that.
My ‘beef’ with the whole ‘superhero theme’ thing hasn’t changed my view on Vaptio - they are capable of making good stuff and I will be keeping my eye out in future for what’s next from them, but they really need to rethink their strategy in my opinion.
No scores on these this time as I can only score one at a time, same with the pros and cons, but I think I have pretty much covered everything in the review.
In the meantime please feel free to hop on over to my house at Steampugs to see these kits as well as a plethora of reviews from the awesome Steamteam, as well as a shop choc full of highly discounted vape gear.
Until next time…
Pugs.
