I wonder if Predator and Lucasi may have ever had a Collaboration together.

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vintagecollectibles831

Active member
I wonder if Predator and Lucasi may have ever had a Collaboration together.

I understand that they probably did not, but on many occasions over the years, I have seen older 90's era Lucasi cues with matching Pre Cat Predator 314 shafts, and I always thought that was really cool.

The Lucasi cues may have even been from the early 2000's, but they do always have the older Lucasi logo, with like a 3 digit number on the opposite side.

But, I have actually seen a lot of them with matching ringwork Predator Pre Cat 314 shafts.

I always assumed that the owner probably just had a cue maker match up the Ringwork with a stock Lucasi shaft, remove its ringwork, and put the matching ringwork collar on a Predator Pre Cat 314 shaft, but I do not know.

Seems like a lot of work just to have matching ringwork though, on a Lucasi pool cue.

Thanks for any thoughts about this.
 
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Not sure. I have one of those Lucasis from that era. Has a roman numeral on the butt plate I think. Came with a Lucasi shaft and a Predator pre cat with the matching railroad track ring work. I bought it at a retail store that sold pool tables - you know the pool and spa kind of place. Would have been maybe 2003 or so. I think somebody else ordered the cue then didn't want it. Not sure and I don't recall what the owner of the store said about it. I don't think it was a cuemaker thing at all. Just bought a production cue with the extra predator shaft which was kind of a new thing then.
 
The Old Jaybird said:
didn't they both "start" about the same time, and both came out of Florida???
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I have no idea about Lucasi, but the 1st time I ever heard of Lucasi cues was when Buddy Hall had a Signature Series line of them. And, yeah, I understand that Predator headquarters was in Florida. No idea about Lucasi. In recent years though, I learned that the Players brand cues were made by Lucasi, so I guess they have always been a Chinese cue company.

I figure that it might be possible that Lucasi had Predator build matching ringwork shafts for them though. Or, maybe send them Blanks with the 314 logo, to install on their cues.

Many probably do not think much of Lucasi, but I always felt that they were high quality, for production cues. Maybe right up there in quality with Falcon, for example.
 
I bought my SPJLW (Green Hornet) after researching a bunch of production cues, some of which offered Predator shafts as an option. This caused me to think there must be something to Predator shafts, so I checked out Predator shafts, and I ended up buying a complete cue from Predator.
 
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vintagecollectibles831 said:
I wonder if Predator and Lucasi may have ever had a Collaboration together.

I understand that they probably did not, but on many occasions over the years, I have seen older 90's era Lucasi cues with matching Pre Cat Predator 314 shafts, and I always thought that was really cool.

The Lucasi cues may have even been from the early 2000's, but they do always have the older Lucasi logo, with like a 3 digit number on the opposite side.

But, I have actually seen a lot of them with matching ringwork Predator Pre Cat 314 shafts.

I always assumed that the owner probably just had a cue maker match up the Ringwork with a stock Lucasi shaft, remove its ringwork, and put the matching ringwork collar on a Predator Pre Cat 314 shaft, but I do not know.

Seems like a lot of work just to have matching ringwork though, on a Lucasi pool cue.

Thanks for any thoughts about this.
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They are made in the same factory..
 
skor said:
Early Predator butts were made in Canada by Falcon.
Later, production was moved to China to the same company that makes Lucasi. Lucasi had a shaft similar to the 314
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It is just strange. I only ever see this on early Lucasi cues. The Pre Cat 314 shafts were not made in China back in those years. Maybe they were. Who knows. I always felt they were much higher quality then newer Predator 314 shafts, with the Cat logo, though.
 
vintagecollectibles831 said:
It is just strange. I only ever see this on early Lucasi cues. The Pre Cat 314 shafts were not made in China back in those years. Maybe they were. Who knows. I always felt they were much higher quality then newer Predator 314 shafts, with the Cat logo, though.
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The Predator shafts are made in the USA. The butts are made in China.
But since Lucasi made Predator, they were familiar with what’s going on in a Predator cues and they made similar cues like the spot cues, the use of Uni-Loc, splice shafts and other design attributes.
I guess that this is one of the dangers of moving production to China. They learn the product and copy it.
 
JPB2 said:
Not sure. I have one of those Lucasis from that era. Has a roman numeral on the butt plate I think. Came with a Lucasi shaft and a Predator pre cat with the matching railroad track ring work. I bought it at a retail store that sold pool tables - you know the pool and spa kind of place. Would have been maybe 2003 or so. I think somebody else ordered the cue then didn't want it. Not sure and I don't recall what the owner of the store said about it. I don't think it was a cuemaker thing at all. Just bought a production cue with the extra predator shaft which was kind of a new thing then.
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i have a lucasi with roman numerals, the same model buddy hall played with at derby, with railroad ring matching a railroad ringed pre-cat 314. so probably not the recalled order theory.. my guess is pred made a batch with lucasi matching shafts. one has to remember that pred was the only low deflection shaft for a while, or at least the one most sought after. it wasn't uncommon with different brand butt + predator shaft
 
skor said:
The Predator shafts are made in the USA. The butts are made in China.
But since Lucasi made Predator, they were familiar with what’s going on in a Predator cues and they made similar cues like the spot cues, the use of Uni-Loc, splice shafts and other design attributes.
I guess that this is one of the dangers of moving production to China. They learn the product and copy it.
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Lucasi did not make Predator and just as Predator is a brand that outsources the making of their products, so is Lucasi. It's not like Joss, Mezz or Viking who actually own a factory where they make their products..
Predator wood shafts are also made in China. The Revo line is possibly still being made in the Boston area.
Predator used to have a phrase saying: "designed in Jacsonville USA" that kinda gave the game away, so they have removed that wording as well.
 
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Kim Bye said:
Lucasi did not make Predator and just as Predator is a brand that outsources the making of their products, so is Lucasi. It's not like Joss, Mezz or Viking who actually own a factory where they make their products..
Predator wood shafts are also made in China. The Revo line is possibly still being made in the Boston area.
Predator used to have a phrase saying: "designed in Jacsonville USA" that kinda gave the game away, so they have removed that wording as well.
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Both brands are made in the same factory, call it what you want….
 
pretty sure the pre-cat 314's mentioned in the OP were made in the USA. whether it was outsourced to falcon or another company idk. lucasi were always china, but designed and supervised by a professional cue maker in the beginning. don't remember the name but the old designs were nice.

same with old predators, mostly nice looking until the futuristic crap designs and metal butt caps took over
 
There are some really nice Lucasi cues nowadays (in terms of design), Can't say the same for Predator... of course it's just a personal matter of taste. But the prices are crazy for both.
 
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