Astrox 99 Sunshine Orange (1st Gen)
Model AX-99 · Kento Momota
Price history
Chart: monthly median of verified pre-owned sales · USD · methodology
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Astrox 99 Sunshine Orange: the racquet of Momota’s two world titles and record 2019
A world title before it reached shops
Kento Momota won the 2018 World Championships with an Astrox 99 before anyone could buy one. He beat Shi Yuqi 21–11, 21–13 in the Nanjing final on August 5 and became the first Japanese man to hold the world singles title. Yonex had announced the racquet on July 29, with a launch event in Nanjing on the eve of the championships. Momota attended, Lin Dan made a surprise appearance, and Lee Chong Wei, whom Yonex had named as the racquet’s other headline user, sent a video message instead. Retail stock followed in early September. Over the next 17 months the Sunshine Orange frame carried Momota to a second world title and a record-setting 2019, and that run, more than any scarcity, is why collectors still look for it.
Namd through the whole frame
Yonex’s July 2018 release set the Japanese price at ¥26,000 plus tax, listed 3U (average 88 g) and 4U (average 83 g) versions, and gave Japan as the country of origin. The headline technology was Namd, Nitta Corporation’s method of coating carbon fibers with carbon nanotubes. Earlier Astrox models used it only in the shaft; the Astrox 99 put it in the frame as well, and Yonex said the extra flex roughly doubled the time the shuttle stays on the strings. That is a manufacturer claim, not an independent measurement. Around it sat the series’ Rotational Generator System, which spreads mass across the grip end, frame top and T-joint so a head-heavy frame recovers quickly between shots, and a reshaped Energy Boost Cap that lets the shaft flex further. Yonex rated the flex stiff, and when it announced the 2021 redesign it called the original a head-heavy power racquet with the heaviest swing weight in the Astrox series.
Momota’s run on the frame
The results came quickly. After Nanjing, Momota became the first home player to win the Japan Open men’s singles in September 2018, then took the Denmark Open and the Fuzhou China Open before finishing runner-up to Shi Yuqi at the World Tour Finals. In March 2019 he became the first Japanese man to win the All England, beating Viktor Axelsen in three games, and Yonex’s report on the final lists his racquet as the Astrox 99. Axelsen, sometimes listed among early Astrox 99 users, played that final with a Duora Z-Strike, according to the same report. Momota went on to win the Asia Championships, defend his world title in Basel 21–9, 21–3 over Anders Antonsen, and close the season at the World Tour Finals. His 11 titles in 2019, on a 67–6 match record, set a Guinness World Record and broke Lee Chong Wei’s 2010 mark of 10.
Three first-generation finishes
Sunshine Orange, orange and black with red highlights that Yonex likened to the sun burning in dark space, was the launch finish and the only standard one until 2020. Yonex announced a second, Sapphire Navy with gold, in April 2020 and released it worldwide in May, saying Momota had collaborated on the design. The third is the Astrox 99 LCW, a green-and-purple Lee Chong Wei edition released in August 2019 as a limited run. All three are the same Japan-made frame, so the differences are finish and story. Yonex published no production figures for any of them. The Astrox 99 name has since been reused twice, for a 2021 line developed with Momota and a 2025 line, each in Pro, Tour, Game and Play versions. Those are different racquets: Yonex marks the 2021 Pro made in Japan and Yonex Japan lists the 2021 Game as made in Taiwan, while Yonex prints no country for the 2021 Tour or Play (retail listings often give Taiwan and China); all four have their own pages.
What the verified sales show
The Astrox 99 was a mass-produced flagship, sold worldwide for about three years, and its market behaves like one. The verified sales shown above are pre-owned Sunshine Orange frames from eBay and the Asian resale market. There are no verified sales of unused examples yet, and the Sapphire Navy is valued on its own page. What supports the price is provenance rather than rarity: this is the finish Momota carried through Nanjing, the 2019 All England, Basel and the record season, and the one Yonex used to launch the racquet. The LCW trades as a separate market with its own history and has its own page.
Why fakes and mislistings target it
A discontinued world-title frame that buyers recognize on sight is an obvious target for counterfeiters, and the Astrox 99 has a second problem: its name. Because Yonex reused it for the 2021 and 2025 lines, listings can pair a later racquet with first-generation photographs or history, or paste later technology into a description of a 2018 frame. A first-generation Astrox 99 has full-frame Namd, the Rotational Generator System and the Energy Boost Cap. It has no Power-Assist Bumper and no Volume Cut Resin, both introduced on the 2021 line, and no 2G-Namd Flex Force from the 2025 line. Colorway is a quick first filter, since first-generation frames come only in Sunshine Orange, Sapphire Navy with gold or the green-and-purple LCW, and a Made in Japan marking is the second.
The run that stopped in January 2020
Momota won the Malaysia Masters on January 12, 2020, beating Axelsen 24–22, 21–11. Around 5 a.m. the next day, the van taking him to Kuala Lumpur airport crashed into a truck. The driver was killed, and Momota suffered facial cuts and a broken nose. An eye-socket fracture, found weeks later when he began seeing double in training, needed surgery in February. Japanese press coverage in March 2021 still named the Astrox 99 as his racquet, but he never regained his 2019 level, and at the Tokyo Olympics that July he went out in the group stage to Heo Kwang-hee. Yonex released the redesigned Astrox 99 line, developed with Momota, in late September 2021, and he moved to the 99 Pro. Yonex never announced an end date for the first generation, which was superseded rather than formally retired.
Start with the marking: every first-generation Astrox 99, including Sapphire Navy and the LCW, is made in Japan, so a frame marked Taiwan or China is a fake or a later model. Yonex’s own test is the hologram sticker, which should resist lifting with a fingernail; counterfeit stickers peel easily. Retailer guides add that the serial number is laser-engraved as well as printed, so a code that is only printed is a warning sign, and that the butt cap should be Yonex’s standard green with a cleanly formed logo. Weigh the frame unstrung: Yonex gives averages of 88 g for 3U and 83 g for 4U, and retailers list the classes as 85–90 g and 80–84 g. Check the listing against first-generation technology, with no Power-Assist Bumper or Volume Cut Resin. If in doubt, Yonex advises contacting its customer support.
The Sunshine Orange is a provenance piece rather than a scarcity piece. It was made in volume for about three years, so clean examples keep appearing, and condition, a Made in Japan marking and a listing that matches first-generation specifications matter more than speed. Sapphire Navy is the same racquet in the finish Yonex says Momota helped design. Unused examples have no verified sales yet. The LCW is a different proposition: a commemorative edition with no match history.
Verified prices last updated Sep 2026. All data based on tracked secondary market transactions.