Myachis That Changed the World: Number 4

by Crazy Ivan


It's been a long time, I know, but now that we've reached the end of this record smashing Christmas season, the blog shall rise again.  Sorry that there was such a long hiatus and that no information was provided about when the blog would reappear, but we're back and you'll be seeing daily doses of the Myachi Blog once again beginning today.

I can't thank you all enough for sticking with us for so long and being so patient with me during this extended blog-black-out, and all I can say is I hope I can repay your patience with fun, insightful and interesting content in the new year.  It's been a crazy couple of months and things are looking better than ever for Myachi so there should be no shortage of topics.

And now, by popular request, the next installment of our stalled series on the Myachis that changed the world:

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In the last installment of this series, we talked about the Black Belt and it's nearly incomparable influence on the future of jammability.  Even now, the wideboarded Pakisacks we equate with the Black Belt are considered the pinnacle in yumminess to many a Myachi Maniac.  Many have expressed disbelief that the remaining Myachis on this list can outdo the sacks already highlighted.

And at first glance, that might appear true.  But I must again draw everyone's attention to the fact that in this list we're concerning ourselves only with the impact that each Myachi would have on future Myachis.  This isn't a list of the best jammers or of the most valued collectibles, though sacks belonging on both lists have thus far appeared in the series.  So despite the fact that on the surface, the following Myachi might seem an odd choice to outrank the Black Belt, but with a little explanation, I'm sure you'll understand.

 #4) The Fire Flower 

The Fire Flower has a lot going for it.  Many people prize it for it's cool look.  Floral patterns aren't usually really popular in the Myachi world, but this is one of the few that makes the exception.  Other notables are the Black Rose and the Blue Dragon, which incorporated Chinese dragons into the floral print to make it far more dragony than flowery.

Others prize this Myachi for its grip.  They start off as good jammers and quickly surpass good and get off at the exit for "spectacular".  They break in quickly and evenly and within a week of dedicated jamming they are some of the best production jammers to ever come out of China.  At the time they were made, they would have easily ranked in the top 10 all time jammers.

Still others prize the Fire Flower for its incredible rarity.  Among the rarest Myachis ever produced in China, this sack was created in an exceedingly small run of prototypes in an effort to test new fabrics.  Keeping in mind that a Myachi is considered extremely rare if we've made only 150 of them, there were only 25 Fire Flowers manufactured in all.  This was back in 2007 and they've steadily gotten more and more difficult to acquire.

The story of the series itself is rather unique.  Over the years Myachi has grown exponentially in volume.  Back in the earlier days, it was easy to be experimental with Myachi fabrics.  We were only making a couple hundred of any given fabric so even if it wasn't a great jammer or didn't look as good as we expected, we could still sell through the sacks by counting on collectors to pick up the slack from the jammers.

But by 2007 we were making Myachis by the thousands and there was a much greater risk in getting creative with untested fabrics.  The 3.2 series demonstrated that in the worst way when we committed to a huge run of Zoot Suits and Delta Forces, creating a massive series where a full third of the sacks were really tough to break in.

The series that the Fire Flower came in, often called the HF series (the initials of the Myachi Maniac who selected the fabrics) or the "Quarter" series because there were 25 of each of four fabrics for a total of one hundred sacks.  They were all experimental.  The Pig Skin was a tough leather that took a lot of effort to break in but eventually made it all worth while.  The Very Jerry had great grip and broke in quickly, but started getting pretty flimsy after a few weeks of jamming.  The Aztec had a great design and jammed pretty good right out of the gate, but it didn't break in very much and even after using it for a while, it still felt pretty "fresh-from-the-pack".

But the Fire Flower was the resounding success we were hoping to find in the series.  It was durable, jammable and abundant.  It had great grip and came in a wide variety of designs and vibrant colors.  It was a fabric that was destined from the first jam to replace the microsuede as the standard throughout Myachidom.  The Fire Flower was a lot of things, but the one we're concerned with here is a simple one: It was the first modern corduroy.

I have to say "modern", because it was not the first corduroy sack.  Some early examples of the fabric showed up along the way in Myachi history.  The Fudge Stripe, for example, predated the Fire Flower by more than a year and even that wasn't the "first" corduroy Myachi.  But the Fire Flower was made from a very specific type of corduroy with a thin, tough lining and narrow, shallow grooves.  It is an extremely common fabric so it's a wonder we hadn't made Myachis out of it before, but as soon as we jammed with it, we knew we would be making up for it.

The first series selected after the Fire Flower was series 3.0, largely considered to be the greatest series of all time.  Of course, since the 3.1 series was released at the same time and since together the two series contained only 12 sacks, in fairness these two series should be considered together.  This only enhances the status of that series as the best we've ever done.

One reason was the long awaited re-release of two extraordinarily popular Myachis that have already made their way on to this list (the Black Butter and the Calvin), but even more important was the introduction of 4 sacks of the same corduroy as the Fire Flower; the Highlander Blue, the Highlander Black, the Red Beard and the Black Beard.

If you need any evidence of the popularity of those four sacks, consider this.  Since then we've released two more sacks in the Beard line and at least 7 more in the Highlander line.  It has become the most commonly used Myachi fabric in the history of the game in the intervening years.  Consider that.  We were making Myachis for 8 years before we made the first sack out of this fabric.  Now, in only 4 years it has surpassed all the other fabrics that had so big a head start.

When it comes to influential fabrics, no Myachi compares to the Fire Flower.  That being said, there are still 3 more Myachis that we consider to be even more world changing.  You might have already guessed one or two of them, but to find out, you'll have to keep checking back with us for the next installment.