Innova Special Edition Prototype Banshee Disc Review

The Special Edition Prototype Banshee- Rainbow Bar-Stamped

About 99% of me doesn’t want to write this disc review and share the secret… because the SE Proto Banshee is out of production- and has limited availability. Let’s just say, hypothetically, that the whole world decides to go to DGSquared today… assuming the servers can handle this, of course… tons of people might read the review, and then go buy a couple of these Proto SE Banshees… and that would be that. They’d all be gone forever.

In case you didn’t know, Innova’s “SE” plastic is a blend that was made years ago for only a short period of time. It’s not super rare, or worth tons of money, but the fact that it’s no longer produced adds quite a bit of appeal (at least for me!). The SE discs are very grippy, and soft to the touch and in my opinion: they feel amazing. The plastic isn’t known for being durable, but I find it holds up pretty well. I have a SE Teebird (TL) and this Proto SE Banshee.

They are available for purchase through the Innova factory store. Apparently the people at Innova “found” a bunch of these in a box or something. My first reaction when I read this, was that it was typical big-business spin, as Innova often does with their descriptions. Much like when they claimed their latest run of Champion Cobras were ‘flat-top’ when they weren’t- and soon retracted that part of the description when they got instant complaints… So when I purchased this disc, part of me expected to get a dirty, old, possibly warped relic that I’d hang on the wall… but it was far from that! Anyway, they call the disc a PROTOTYPE but I don’t know exactly what part of the disc isn’t a legit Banshee. If I had to guess, I’d say for some reason they didn’t fly as over-stable as the original Banshee, which leads me to the actual disc review…

I love the way this thing flies. For the last few months I’ve whittled my bag down to fewer molds, and I’ve realized I prefer smaller rimmed discs (i.e. the Leopard, the TL, the Banshee) in order to remain accurate. So I’ve sort of missed the aggressive throws of the Nuke etc… In any case, this Banshee, because it’s over-stable, can handle all the aggressive snap I put on it. Yet, compared to my traditional modern-era Champion Banshee, it is less over-stable. Essentially it holds a line, does NOT flip over, and then has a good reliable fade at the end of it’s flight. It’s kind of difficult to describe this disc and not sound cliché. Apart from all those descriptions that seem to describe every disc (holding a line, fading, etc…), I can say that when I let go: I tend to love the way it flies. When I throw a Champion Banshee, it only holds the line for about 2/3rds of the flight before it begins to fade. This Proto SE Banshee just goes straight until the very end. It actually flies a lot like a DX Teebird I had years ago, but that disc has since become too beat-in to fly straight. None of my subsequent Champion Teebirds have flown this way. I often feel like this disc has done way more work and more flying than any of my other drivers do. In terms of shot selection, I tend to throw it when I want to guarantee a hyzer after 250-275 feet- especially in the woods. I’ll also throw it in any open field situation with confidence, but it just won’t go as far as my Katana (why would it? It’s a much slower disc…)

And so it is… I’m planning on picking up a couple more of these discs when my wallet allows me. The price is very reasonable at $13.99 for a brand new SE disc. Here’s the direct link. I believe, but don’t quote me on this, that the flashing on these discs had to be hand-cut. This has since become and antiquated part of the process with different types of plastics and machines. I know this is the case for CE discs, but I’m just under the assumption that it holds true for SE discs as well. So these babies are hand-tooled, prototype, Special Edition, out of production, vintage discs! Oh, did I mention that they’re also “rainbow bar-stamped!?!” Get some!