Firstly a huge thanks to Damian from Close Up for sending me these free via Fred at Fast Fingers. I was stoked to get them! The g5 launches two shapes rather than one, and the decks are up to 29mm, keeping with the width of the trucks. They're quite nice decks, a few issues on the holes but I got both trucks on regardless. Quite poppy decks, interesting shapes, certainly the hardcore one seems exactly like a china hardcore deck. Now, Close Up have always got their decks mass produced, but always used their own molds too. The G5 I thought would just be a continuation of that mold but wider, however that's not the case - I matched up a g4 and g5 and they're totally different. Kinda sucks, but nonetheless the 29mm decks do ride a lot nicer with the 29mm trucks than the G4s. I've always loved closeup wheels too, and now the sets come with awesome decks stickers.
Overall I think these will be really nice when they've had some Close Up love added to them. Currently they come with what seems exactly like 'china tape', but if we see a return on printed tape, and some awesome graphics, I'd always say they're a good beginner setup. Hopefully we'll see news on that from Close Up soon! And even as they are, regardless of anything else, they ride pretty nice.
Go check the Close Up site here :)
