Awhile back, I posted a NIB Aoda Littles for sale or trade because I’d gotten a duplicate. I hoped to trade it for an Aero-Yo Mini Monster or a light silver Littles.
Today I found a vendor in China who is apparently still restocking the Littles for around $21 shipped to the USA. (They appeared to be in stock when I looked a couple of hours ago.)
So I pulled the sale and decided to try an experiment. All I used in this mod were paper towels and Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish:
The polished silver Littles is the one I’ve had and thrown for years. The engraving was faded in the process, and could probably be wiped away entirely.
My understanding is that these are made of brass, so I don’t think that this is reducing the Littles to a completely raw finish. (Or I think that the engraving is the only place where the mag polish may have brought me down to the raw brass.)
So I got my silver Littles and wanted to let everyone know that one of the coolest budget micros is still obtainable, in either color if you’re willing to put in a little work.
I’m really loving the look and feel of the polished one. The only thing thing I wish I’d done differently was polish the new one instead. The pads on a stock Littles don’t use adhesive and it would be easier to just pull those out and do this. On mine, I left the bearing seat unpolished because I didn’t want to remove the flowable silicone I’d put in.
Just got one delivered from a major Chinese shopping platform open to U.S. customers. New old stock the Shop calls “Storm” (that’s what the Chinese characters with the blue flames say) but specified as a small brass yoyo, if you want to search for it. The package says it’s currently the smallest yoyo. It is model #732033, found above the UPC on the back. There is an inordinate amount of plastic packaging within the clamshell but I assume it was meant to go on physical retail shelves.
Weighed it at 55.3g, measured with a caliper at 35.4 mm diameter, 29.1 mm width, 0.82 width to depth ratio, 3.70 mm gap, 21.65 mm trapeze width. It uses a surprisingly concave A size bearing and an M4 x 10mm axle. Surface finish has some flaws on mine but the brushed warm grey look is unique in my collection.
There is a good deal of sharpness in the response groove I can hear the OEM string getting ripped on and thus inconsistently overly grabby. The stock pads are somewhat recessed and nonstandard, though it came with two different colored replacements. I’m going to silicone paste it so it’s level and see if it helps.
I already like it a lot. Not my smallest but now my smallest modern organic (beating my Shell 001 Macaron). Excellent weight and distribution (rims curve inward) makes it manageable but fun.
