Hello,
I'm looking into getting a chop cup and ran across the Star's Master Chop Cup located here:
http://www.creationsbystar.com/page26masterchopcup.html

Just want to know if anyone has used it and what they think of it.

thanks for the input

It's an excellent chop cup. I was the purchaser of the special one he did with all the knobbly bits on the side. It takes a bit of getting used to when you work with it, but once you get the handling down, it's an excellent cup.

The biggest advantage is that you can put the cup on the table, give the spectator the ball, allow them to drop it into the cup, then pick the cup up and pour it right into their hand.

Then with no messing around, you can go right into your regular chop cup routine.

Tim Star’s Master Chop Cup is a beauty. It is a “stubby” pedestal type cup. It has clean and simple lines and appears very elegant and innocent.

It has a good weight to it and doesn’t tip easily. The cup has been designed to eliminate the hard knock put down associated with chop cups. The release is obtained after the cup is already on the table (a move forward and stop). In that sense it is similar to Thomas Wayne’s coffee mug Chop cup and Jim Riser’s “Ultimate” Chop Cup line (The Riser “tall” is my favorite Chop Cup for the street but Tim's may take its place this season).

The cup is about 3 7/8 inches tall and about 3 inches across the mouth (ID). The cup is about 3 7/8 inched deep. It will not take a standard baseball but will take a standard tennis ball as a final load. I have a Mike Rogers final load base ball (it is slightly smaller than the standard tennis ball) and a hollow, steel, juggling ball (also the size of a tennis ball) that I have used with the cup. I think that Ammar’s fab fruit will work too. I don’t know for sure since I don’t have any laying around to test.

The Master System is similar (if not identical) to the Mikame Craft Products (Japan): Super Cup. It too may be handled safely by the spectator. The difference is that the Mikame cup is a stemmed metal (silver colored, aluminum?) affair that looks like a wine glass. Mikame’s cup is 6 ¾ inches tall and 2 ½ inches across the mouth (ID). However it has a very sharp slope from top to bottom limiting the size of performance ball (less than an inch) and final load 2 inch super ball or very small lemon. It requires the typical hard placement on the table to work.

Of the two (I have both) I prefer Tim Star’s version. The performance balls are larger (about 1 ¼ inches) and the final loads (I do two) appear huge. I have been using it regularly in small venue stand-up shows.

The performance balls I got with mine are a bit smaller than that.

The main working differences I have seen between the Mikame cup and Tim's are reliability and practicality. Tim's cup doesn't take long to get into working mode. Sometimes the Mikame cup takes a very long time.

Thanks for the help guys!!