Dovpo Blotto Mini RTA
Si gets sweary and lairy in his review of the Blotto Mini RTA, the latest collaboration from Dovpo and the Vaping Bogan
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by Si Davies
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https://www.dovpoecig.com/blotto-mini-rta
Priced around £29.99 (around $34 USD)
I didn’t get to review the original Blotto but from what I gather it was quite the cloud chucking flavour machine. The MINI appears to be pretty much the same but with some areas shrunk down, so will it still perform as well?
The Blotto is a collaboration between Vaping Bogan and Dovpo. For anyone that doesn’t know Vaping Bogan, he’s quite a colourful character from Down Under (Australia) who does vaping reviews in a somewhat unique manner, basically he swears a LOT. Personally I enjoy his OTT cussing style and he manages to use offending words without offence (if that makes sense?), but there’s no doubt there will be many haters and he’s unapologetic about that, rightly so in my opinion, don’t like him? Then you don’t have to watch him – simple.
He also features different beers he enjoys with his vapes which the Blotto gives a nod to with its beer bottle cap pattern on the top cap and airflow ring.
*Political Un-Correctness & Potty Mouth CAUTION*
In the spirit of the creator, I feel it’s fitting to cuss and bitch for a bit of fun, maybe a hint of Aussie baiting but I will ‘try’ and tone it down. It’s not my intention to offend anyone, but if I accidentally do then I am sorry (that you are offended easily).
With that out of the way, if this offends you please scroll to the end and see the ratings, spoiler alert – dismissing this RTA as a gimmick will mean missing out on a cracking flavourful RTA.
Features
(snarky comments included)
- 23.3mm x 44mm Diameter (23.3mm? Random)
- Dripper Like Flavor (translated means Flavour)
- Dual or Single Coil Configuration (nope – I got nothing)
- 242° Airflow Direct to Coils (Another random as f*k figure)
- Smooth Honey Comb Bottom (All I saw was ‘Smooth Bottom’)
- 2ml Capacity Straight Glass (As much use as tits on a fish)
- 4ml Capacity Bubble Glass (An ugger but essential)
- Easy to Fill (Just don’t use the bottle opener!)
- Bottle Opener Included (I drink from cans)
- 5 Colors to Choose From (Again, translated means Colour)
Other Bumf
- Made In China
- Airflow - Adjustable, Bottom, Dual
- Postless Deck
- Tank Capacity 2ml /4ml
- Adjustable Airflow
- Top Fill
- Weight: 54g
- Height: 4.4cm (1.7")
- Diameter: 2.3cm (0.9")
Un-f**king-boxing
There’s nothing too special about the box, deliberately kept quite simple but distinctive with the orange graphics with skull & cross-dildos. Being from down under, my box was upside down but a simple tip was to turn it round for your countries orientation.
The clear front shows the Blotto Mini, mine was the black version which looked pretty bland from the outside. On the back of the box are the features and itch’n’sniff authenticity label. The lid has notches cut out for easy opening.
Going down (unboxing)
The top section holds the assembled Blotto RTA Mini, underneath that is the two different bubble glass pieces, a tri-tool, spare screws and seals, manual and QC card. There is also a bottle opener/coil trimming guide tool, and that’s your lot! No coils, which is a shame for anyone that doesn’t have any. I get why included coils won’t always be to people's preferences, but at least include a couple to start with, more so for recommended single coil builds, a gopping 4.5mm diameter perhaps? Ya tight c***!
First impressions
I was a little underwhelmed at first, partly down to my dislike of plain black attys, and I don’t think the black highlights the bottle cap styling when you compare to the other colours. I felt it all looked a bit basic, again the black hides the features such as the superb looking airflow ring. To see it best, I had to go outdoors. The ‘manual’ is a bit daft, don’t expect any building or wicking advice from it, it is more a drongo’s guide how to unscrew it, adjust the airflow or fill it up, nothing a Koala couldn’t figure out on its own.
My first impressions were soon forgotten once I cracked open the tinny, it strips down a piece of p*ss and you get to see the superbly interesting c**ty build deck. There’s just so much going on there that I spent a few minutes checking it out.
At this point I was seeing it as one of those rat black muscle cars, plain on the outside but when you look under the hood you can see its power!
A closer look at the build deck shows how many directions the airflow will come from, it’s the most airflow I have seen surrounding the coils.
I was impatient to throw a build in the Blotto Mini so I hurriedly got the photographing done and decided to try a single coil build on it first, which was a minor mistake as it turned out a dual coil is MUCH better. I still enjoyed the single coil but the dual is where it excels, more on that later.
Bloated Blotto vs Baby Blotto?
Bear in mind I don’t actually own the original Blotto RTA but I have researched it. From what I can gather, there are less changes than you would expect:
- The actual build deck is the same size, the base and chimney are smaller.
- The glass is a smaller diameter so capacity is reduced in size (2ml/4ml).
- The outer diameter is smaller at 23.3mm.
- The glass now fits onto the top O-ring (which was a flaw in the original).
I cannot find any other differences than that. Obviously I cannot comment on any performance differences, but I suspect the airflow is slightly more restricted. Going by other reviews, it sounds like the superb flavour is the same on both.
If you already own the original I can’t really see much point in buying the ‘Mini’ apart from having more options of mods a 24mm diameter tank will fit on without overhang. If you don’t own a Blotto, then you can’t go wrong with either according to which mods you own.
Lob another coil on the barby…..
I chose a one of my favourite coils; an Alien Fused Clapton-Kanthal A1 (Demon Killer) 3mm diameter BUT I opened it up to 3.5mm diameter on a coil tool, you could open it up even further but I think 3.5mm was ample.
It became obvious even at 3.5mm that it looked like a cock in a shirt sleeve. Looks aside, the build was a little trickier than expected. Unlike most decks where the positive and negative post are on direct opposite sides (yeah I know it’s supposed to be ‘postless’), this one features a criss-cross positive/negative which is great for dual coil BUT for single coil builds you need to have the leads going into the same side (see photo). This isn’t a problem as such, just something you need to be aware of.
The bottle opener/coil guide turned out to be as much use as a kangaroo in water, it’s borderline for a single coil setup and simply wrong for a dual coil. I ended up using a COILY tool and trimmed a single coil to 6mm and a dual coil to 3.5mm. Once you know the leg length, it is a doddle to build. The screws are perfect and not too fiddly, they are nice and long so there’s little risk of unscrewing them too far and losing the little f**kers. Positioning a single coil is all logical as you centre it in the best place for the airflow to reach it all round, I spaced the coil out slightly and dry burned it at low wattage to burn off any factory residue.
Wicking is pretty simple but for anyone that owns the larger Blotto should be aware that the base is smaller so you need to cut the wick length a couple of mm longer from the base. If you’re unsure then trim one end, see if its long enough to poke through the wicking port first, you can always pull a bit back through the coil then cut the other end to match.
With a single coil, there is no need to thin the cotton out. Grab your stiff tool, fluff the cotton up a little and slip the end into that nice tight gash, erm okay that wasn’t too clear, fold over the cotton and poke it through the wicking ports with tweezers, you should see plenty protruding towards the base.
So time to moisten it up, spurt your juice onto the coil and wick to prime it and you're all done, screw it all back together and fill it up. Filling is done by unscrewing the top cap, squirt your juice into the slit, withdraw then replace the top cap and fall asleep.
Colour options
As you can see from the colour choices, the black option hides the features a fair bit, the Gun Metal or the Silver look more like it and there’s a decent range to suit most tastes.
Performance
Time to let rip on this little beauty. I started off on lower power and it was obviously meh. As I cranked up the power, it started to come alive! The flavour started to really kick in, the airflow was so good fully open but with a bit of a tweak to my preferences I soon had a smooth, warm and very flavourful vape – that c**t Bogan got it so damn right!
Never mind the b*****cks – here’s a dual build
At this point I was already very happy with the Blotto RTA Mini. I wouldn’t say it was game changing or special, but that was about to change after a few tankfulls, and put a dual coil build into it, simply put, this made a good RTA great!
Building was fairly easy, no issues regarding positive or negative posts though forget about the ‘bottle opener / coil cutting guide’, I went for 2 x Ni80 Fused Clapton coils this time but kept them to 3mm inner diameter. If the legs are too long, you will soon find out as with two coils there is very little room for error, at 3.5mm they fitted perfectly and, with a little tweaking the positions, it all looked quite snug in there. I had worried it all might have been too snug, fortunately this wouldn’t turn out to be the case, my build came out at 0.16Ω and 66.6 Watts was ideal for me.
Wicking was slightly different because you need to thin the ends a little as you don’t want the cotton to be too tight in the ports. A little pruning was all that was needed, both single and dual builds were easy in general.
So take 2! After priming and filling it up, I took it for a toot. Easing up the wattage again, I did notice the draw was more restrictive which is natural as the build deck was more packed out. I opened the airflow fully, ramped up the wattage to my desired warmth and one thing leapt out and that was the freekin FLAVOUR. Perhaps a hint of my imagination, but it felt like dual coil = double flavour. I can’t remember another RTA that delivers flavour as good as this.
For those familiar with dripper RDAs or even RDTAs, then you should be familiar with how the Blotto RTA Mini vapes. If I was blindfolded and handed the Blotto to vape, I would swear it was a dripper. My respect for that Aussie c**t has increased no end, he’s really nailed it, a refined all round airflow you only really find in RTAs but with the wicking delivery of an RDA resulting in such a great flavour delivery and vapour production for cloud chasers.
Overall I cannot fault the actual performance. Some might prefer more airflow, but for me it's spot on. I often try to look for things I would change and on this little beaut, I wouldn’t change a thing internally. Externally, it has some nice features; the ‘honeycomb’ or grid style airflow ring diffuser is excellent and I really like the beer bottle top styling and apart from the skull logo, the branding is minimal. The build quality is nice too and Dovpo have done a great job overall. However nothing is perfect, a little niggle is the 810 drip tip which is huge (though you can swap this for your own) but I get what Bogan did there. It appears to be based on a bottle opening to match the cap styling. I did pop on another taller drip tip but found myself going back to the included one, it’s part of the Blotto’s charm. My only other gripes are with the box contents, the manual isn’t a manual at all, more a pamphlet with suck-eggs info which I think I would have given more respect if they simply didn’t include it. Also no coils is a bit of shame, the bonus extras are a nice touch even though the coil guide is inaccurate.
Pros
- The f**king flavour is great
- Dripper (RDA) style vape
- Beer bottle styling
- Surround airflow and AFC ring works really well
- 23.3mm diameter will appeal to more users
- Beer bottle spout styled 810 drip tip
- Innovative build deck
- Common sense build deck and wicking ports
- Doesn’t cost too many beer tokens
Minor Cons
- Coil guide – WTF?
- Straight glass looks better but only 2ml TPD capacity
- No included coils
- Tight build area might challenge for new DIY users
- Big gob drip tip might not be to some peoples taste (but a pro for me)
- Makes me want to call everyone a c*** when I vape
Final thoughts and score
There’s more cons listed than I expected, however these made no difference to just how much I rate the Blotto RTA Mini, and those cons really are minor. The performance, flavour and airflow really are something Vaping Bogan and Dovpo should be proud of. It is also great to see that designers can still squeeze even more flavour out of an RTA without resorting to mesh.
I believe any experienced builder will enjoy this tank a lot, for novices it might be a slightly challenging (though easy enough if you watch a guide video).
Score: 9/10 – F*** me that c*** did good, one of the best RTAs I have tried.
Thanks go to Dovpo for supplying a sample to review.
Si Davies
Reviewer at POTVMy background is Engineering and Professional Photography. Mostly from POTV users knowledge I learned so much about pretty much all styles of vaping and equipment, Cloud Chasing, Squonking, Mouth To Lung, Direct To Lung, Pods, Mechs, Rebuild-able tanks and atomisers etc, and have experience with many many devices and atomisers, it's become a hobby and enjoy trying out the latest gear. I like to think my reviews are plain speaking and informative without getting too technical, if I have to resort to reading the manual then I don't consider it user friendly!
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