Anti-Yo Bapezilla.2 Problem.

Yo-Yo Mods and Maintenance
1

Ghetto-Review starting now=

So I bought one from this wonderful website. I mean that with no sarcasm. The Bape2 I got was defective (I think, it might not have been?) and they still gave me a new one totally fine. I have no experience with Anti-Yo or the original bape or BPZL. I heard the hype so I bought it. It ate the string it came with after about 5 minutes. Flew around my carpeted room. I have been yoyoing for 2 years and have a HUGE collection of all different companies. It must have been the string. This has never happened. I put on a new string, one I knew was reliable… and head off to work… I throw it outside on top of concrete (dumb… I know… But this has never happened to me in 2 years.) and it rips the string within like 3 throws. My BEAUTIFUL throw was ruined. I really do think that this is my best looking yoyo along with my Heavy Cream special edition (the purple one). I knew this could not have been my fault as I have never seen this happen but I heard about it with a guy wright yoyo or something. I emailed yoyoexpert and it was the best service as usual. They got their money back from Anti yo, and sent me a new one. They told me it wasn’t the flow groove but it was the yoyo itself being too “rough”. The new throw still eats up strings but I am super careful. Its not nearly as bad as the last. The flow groove looks cleaner so I think it might have had something to do with it. I hate that I have to keep an eye on the string and change them before the string is even close to need for change. I am very scared the same thing will happen. The ano is weird because I can rub it off with my fingers very easily. I tried a thumb grind with the yoyo and it hurt the side effect as well as my thumb. I might have got another bad one but what are the chances? I also heard that another person said it eats strings. Besides all of these things it plays fine… like an undersized canvas. I just thought I would share this. I am not the best at reviews but I thought this was the best place to put the topic. Its still my best looking yoyo I think. ano is really weird, just like wears off from my fingers. Sometimes the throw isn’t smooth and I think thats whats eating the string that could make it fly off like it did in the beginning. Anyone else get this?

edit: just wanted to thank Andre and everyone involved with yoyoexpert for the amazing service in this situation. <3

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I have one as well and the reason it eats strings is because they didn’t mask off the area around the response before using the very aggressive blast finish. The simplest solution would be to open the yoyo up and rub the area around the response pads with the rough side of a leather belt. 10 odd minutes of rubbing ought to smooth out the area and prevent future string snaps.

Hope that helps.

Yuki

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Yea yoyoexpert told me that but im still confused. I mean I love the yoyo especially for its looks I dont want to get like brown leather on it. should i just rub it around the flow groove? around the whole inside? thanks a lot for your help!

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It’ll barely be noticeable. Almost all of the leather will come right off with a bit of play and whatever remains is pretty much hidden on the inside anyway and won’t see the light of day. You’ll need to rub about 1/3 of an inch around the response pads.

Small tip: it’s actually easier and quicker if you remove the bearing and axle and rub the yoyo against the belt instead of rubbing the belt against the yoyo.

Yuki

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This happened with some Peaks too.

It’s an unfortunate issue. Not bashing Anti-Yo but it just looks like overpriced normal throws.

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I was told by gentry stein about the super g and catalyst but I have done it with other companies too. If you take out the bearing and take a leather belt and rub down the bearing seats for a good few minutes each side… It will take a good 5 or 6 minutes and it is kinda annoying but it works every time I get a yoyo that eats string.

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I never used a leather belt, I always used a heavy cotton shirt or towel.

But that was with the bead-blasted HSPIN’s. Wow, blast from the past.

-Jacob

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Well this is kind of discouraging. I just order a Bapezilla.2 last Thursday evening hoping it will prove to be an outstanding addition to my arsenal. This yo-yo is way to pricey to be string-eating, mediocre throw. If I had known it had a potential for this type of problem I would have chosen to spend my money differently, say towards a Chief or Glacier Express.

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It plays quite well once you’ve got that string eating problem fixed up.

Yuki

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I’m sorry, I find this reply to be a bit frustrating. A $150 yo-yo should not arrive in need of “fixing up”.

“Yes sir, you’ll find your new Camaro to be a great car once you replace the factory installed head caskets.”

I bought a metal Yomega Ooch Smoov yo a few years back which came to me eating string, but I paid like $35 or $40 for that throw so I thought I pretty much got what I paid for there. (Which isn’t to say I just let it go, I contacted Yomega and they worked with me to make it right.) I believe when you drop this kind of change on a throw it ought to arrive exemplary in it’s performance and reliability. Otherwise Anti-Yo has it overpriced in excess of it’s actual value.

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I’m not saying it’s okay by any means. Quite frankly, it should work perfectly fine out of the box (or in this case, the pouch). But it’s not something that’s terribly difficult to fix.

Yuki

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I would have passed right over your ‘slight Exaggeration’ but that didn’t happen; haha. Even remotely comparing spending 10 minutes smoothing out the slightly rough finish on a yoyo to changing out head gaskets is one Serious Stretch.

You guys are making waaaaaaaay too much over this standard Anti-yo mis-step. They should not have done it ‘again’. They know/knew they had a problem potentially when they came out with the OG YWET. Mine ATE strings like a Great White Shark. The next batch had more of a Pyramatte finish and solved the problem. <Then they came out with the Vizilla/my two were better but still chomped up a few strings. Not half as bad as the OG YWET. Then they come out with the Bapezilla2 and ‘again’ the fuzzy funny buzzsaw finish, which equals lameness.

Now the good news. It is a Totally easy fix and the Yoyo is Really a very good playing yoyo. In my fifteen years of buying and modding yoyos; I have thrown a 1000 yoyos. I am ‘not’ a high level player. I don’t put in the time or have the inclination to be one. But over the years I have developed the ability to recognize whether a yoyo is a Player or Sucks like a Black Hole.

The Bapezilla2 is a Keeper. I have a BPZL, a Vizilla and a Bapezilla2. < You will never see me putting any of them up on any BST.

Regardless of the price; there are more than a few yoyos that seem to be ‘you finish’. That/this is No big deal.

10 minutes and a pair of 501 Levis/put it back together and it’s all good. The side effects makes it even easier since they can be popped out in 15 seconds.

If you guys want me to make an Instructional video on exactly how to accomplish this amazingly simple feat/prolly the easiest mod I have done in 15 years; I can do that.

If there is any interest; I will go to that trouble just to show it’s simplicity.

I agree about the yoyo not being cheap, considering you have to literally finish it. But it is a very good yoyo and if you already bought it, fix it and throw it. I love mine and I have picked on my Anti-Yo buddies for years; prolly more than anybody.

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I readily admit the head casket remark was indulging in more than just a bit of hyperbole. The fact remains however when a yo bears the price tag the Bapezilla.2 does it should not arrive in need of a “fix” regardless of how simple that fix may be. That simply is not an unreasonable expectation.

I picked up my Bapezilla.2 from the Post Office at 7:00 this morning. (It arrived just in time for my birthday!) The first thing I did before throwing it even once was take it apart and buff the inside of each half with the back side of a leather coaster I happened to have per the instructions in this thread. I burnished each side vigorously for about 5 minutes each. I don’t know what type of string Anti-Yo ships with their yoyos so I went ahead and replaced it with some poly string. (It may have been wiser to simply stick with the string it shipped with, I don’t know).

I threw it a few times here at home and all seemed well. Unfortunately my place does not provide ample space for safely throwing without risking broken windows and TV screens so I headed to a local park. I chose a shady spot under a lovely Oak tree and started running the Bapezilla.2 through a few paces. After about 30 to 45 minutes, >SNAP<, there goes my new yoyo skittering across the lawn. When I picked it up my pricey new toy was all scuffed up. (It wasn’t at all as bad as it first appeared, just grass stains and dirt so it washed right off and still looks good as new).

Please understand my position on this issue. I believe the Bapezilla.2 is probably a “player” as yoyodoc says. It is not my intention to bad mouth this product. In spite of it eating through my string in a short amount of time as well I felt this yoyo played very smoothly. I was able to land my throws cleanly and experienced respectable spin times. There is no doubt the stock Crucial Groove bearing it ship with is the finest bearing I have ever had in any of my throws. As with yoyodoc, “you will never see me putting [my Bapezilla.2] up on any BST.”

I am in no way qualified to attempt to compose a comprehensive review any yoyo. I’ll leave that up to players with greater proficiency and aptitude. Nor is it my intention to discourage anyone from purchasing this product. I will continue to rub away on the inside of my Bapezilla.2 until I am completely confident I have eliminated the string chewing problem. (I’m probably already there now.) What I do wish to communicate is that I have never paid this much for a yoyo before in my increasingly long life. The expectation a product with this price tag should arrive without need of repair or modification is not unwarranted. If dcs937 and I have both experienced the frustration of running the risk of damaging a fairly expensive product straight away right out of the pouch because it chews through string then it is apparent to me there is a drawback here which merits Anti-Yo’s attention.

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by stating that it is an Easy fix… I don’t believe that for a second; neither should you.

And I also don’t think the statement somebody made about 'when a yoyo costs soo much, it shouldn’t have (fill in space). I don’t think it is necessary to say that if a yoyo costs over X amount of dollars, that is shouldn’t have a ‘you finish’ factor. < I don’t think a 30 dollar yoyo should eat String. Or even a 20 dollar yoyo… or even a 10 dollar yoyo. Heck; I have a 30 year old Duncan Imperial that cost a dollar and it doesn’t even eat String; hahahahaha

I don’t think ANY yoyo should eat string and send the yoyo flying. And Obviously even though the Bape2 ‘is’ an easy fix; it could/should have been prevented/corrected in the designing stages, before they cranked out 250 of them.

My view is/was/ more from the 'now that you have it; you paid for it; it’s a very good playing yoyo(potentially) so just deal with the String Cannibal situation and then enjoy the yoyo.

The Reality of the situation is that the yoyos are already made. The yoyos are already being sold. The yoyos could be about 25 bucks cheaper. The yoyos could have easily been made to have NO ‘Eat me’ problems. But they weren’t. And since we/they/whoever can’t back up; you have a few choices: Buy the yoyo new and correct their oversight, wait to pick one up on the BST from someone that refuses to deal with the problem, or Don’t buy one and miss out on a really nice little yoyo.

There are soo many very very good playing yoyos out there. If you even hesitate about buying a ‘you finish cuz they didn’t’ yoyo; Don’t.

I had no real difficulty deciding to get one because I have been Modding yoyos for so many years that buying a yoyo and messing with it, is just a piece a cake for me; haha. I mean that’s what got me into this Hot Rod Yoyo Modding in the first place. in 1998 I got a yoyo and I didn’t like the way it ‘functioned’. Since I have a Machine Shop in my garage; I just started Tweaking stuff around until I was happy.

Correcting yoyo problems is the name of my game you could say.

So if any of you guys don’t agree with my view, just realize where it is coming from; a Hard Core Modders viewpoint. ‘Get a yoyo and fix it and play with it’. If the price is too steep and you don’t want to tinker with it; no problem; save money or get something else.

Since I already had a BPZL. And I already had a Vizilla; I knew the Bape2 was going to be a Player. I had heard about the String snapping problem, but since I had already gone through the buffing program with my OG YWET; I was prepared to deal with it.

Actually . I must like this Bape alot, because I am pretty much a V shape guy. My carry yoyo is a Ti5. I Love yoyos that I don’t have to Mod. I didn’t even change the bearing. I honestly don’t even know what kind of bearing is in the Ti5? This sucker plays soo strong; I could care; haha. I just put a Neon Yellow Stringlab type X and let er rip!

But even though I am a V man; I don’t get stuck throwing the same yoyo Fo-eva. I like the variety of the various shapes. I like what Steve Brown said years ago; when you learn a trick; keep at the trick until you can do it on 5 different yoyos. Don’t get stuck in a yoyo rut (not an exact quote). I can throw the Ti until I almost hypnotize myself, but I can also put it down and pick up the Bape2 and I really enjoy playing with it. It is such a fun yoyo. And it makes you pay attention to alignment. < No slopping play with the Bape shape; it will really make you Focus. And then when you pick up a Code 2 or a Supernova or a AC, etc., you can just about hit tricks with your eyes closed.

Anyways, the bottom line is just this; if I was a young guy and I paid 145 plus shipping for a yoyo and I was playing outside and that sucker when flying across the pavement; I would totally not be very thrilled. I think for a fleeting moment I would be Criminally Insane and would actually entertain the idea of choking Kiya or Sonny with a pair of their 400 dollar Levis.

So at this point, at least more people are aware of the potential problem/fix with the Bape2. So for those that don’t yet have one; they can calculate whether they want to deal with it or stay away from it.

the end

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the end indeed

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Well, someone just put their remaining stock on sale, so that figured into my calculations, and one is on it’s way.

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I think they should sell it with a warning label. not everyone who buys it will read this post.

Warning This yoyo is not playable out of the box. You have to rub a belt on it first. lol.

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…and even then don’t play near windows, televisions or any other valuable with the potential of substantial damage by small flying aluminum objects.

I broke through another string yesterday and I have buffed myself to exhaustion.

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Contact Anti-Yo. I hear they are a very nice bunch of people. They would most likely return your money or give you a new one. They have no excuse. They literally sold like “a bad batch of dangerous yoyos”.

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rub down each half of the yoyo with a pair of jeans and that should help with it eating strings
ps i have played bpzl 2 multiple times and it has never broken a string on me