Hmm. I’ve of two minds here. On the one hand, I agree that some reviewers have better reviews than others, and sometimes there could only be a couple of lines of useful information wrapped around 7-10 minutes of fluff. And I do agree that there seems to be a hesitation around releasing a negative review (though tbh I get just not putting out a review if a yoyo doesn’t jam with you given that many of these are small companies run by real people).
On the other hand, I feel like we’re being overly harsh on these reviewers and, tbh, not really being all that fair or accurate. I’ve watched a lot of yoyo reviews. I find them entertaining. I can tell you for a fact that Throws N’ Brews Tom, Tokyo-Yo T, and others have reviewed yoyos that they’ve bought personally or traded for. Hell, those videos aren’t even that hard to find. And these channels do release negative reviews at times, and often do point out subpar things about throws they might otherwise like. Let’s take Throws N’ Brews as an example since we’re bashing on that channel pretty hard. Tom was pretty negative about the Colossus IV as others have pointed out, and also about the Duncan Roadrunner. He pointed out that the MKT has a super short axle that might be easy to strip (probably the main reason that I don’t own one). Tokyo-Yo T has unboxed throws he hasn’t reviewed because they just didn’t do it for him, like the Vulfgang 7075 or the HotDiggity. So I feel like saying they’re just hyping up whatever’s thrown their way because they don’t ever want to pay for yoyos is pretty unfair even if some of the complaints about them re: skill, useful info etc are valid.
^ this. A lot of these reviewers are just using their smartphone. So hit record and make what you want to see. It doesn’t have to be amazingly cut or feature b-roll if it has good content IMO.
I think this really hits the nail on the head. Everything “spins gud” these days, and I’d argue there’s a fair bit of stagnation in terms of yoyo design atm. Couple that with the current over-saturation and flood of small boutique brands and the need for these channels to push out content and you’re gonna have reviews that feel samey b/c surprise: competition Draupnir-style bimetal A spins gud and feels like competition Draupnir-style bimetal B that spins gud.
I’ve tried my hand at an occasional review, but even after all my years, I don’t really feel qualified to give an insightful review because I don’t have the skill level needed to really push modern throws to their limits.
With that being said, I do watch a lot of reviews, and I look for mentions of certain characteristics that I think will make or break a throw for me. I generally look at as many different reviews as I can (no easy feat in a small niche hobby) to see if there’s any consensus on how something plays. 99% of yoyos are good nowadays, so I’m really just looking for preferential confirmations of sorts.
I guess I should also say that I’ve seen reviews from very very good players that didn’t really give me any of the insight I was looking for, and I’ve also seen reviews from players who weren’t very good, and they told me exactly what I needed to know.
Right, but isn’t it the case that all yo-yos are quite good these days? Would there really be a review that needed to say anything other than “yep, works great, can do whatever tricks you are capable of”
It’s almost like we’re reviewing music or fashion, doesn’t more of it have to do with your personal tastes, e.g. “I prefer less wide yo-yos” or “I prefer center weighted yo-yos” etc?
I’m not looking for a review on personal preferences, I’m looking for a review on performance. And that’s something that beginners can’t offer. I don’t care if they like it. They should be proficient enough at throwing to compare certain aspects of yo-yo X to certain aspects of yo-yo Y. They should be able to describe how it plays other than just good, if it plays faster or slower, if it’s more suited for certain tricks. Maybe it plays like X, maybe it has traits that lead it to be a top performer in certain styles.
When I see someone sloppily getting through a basic combos and struggling to bind there’s no reason to give any merit to the 5 minutes they spent talking about the yo-yo someone gave them.
That said, I’m not really looking for reviews at all, I don’t find them useful lol.
I wish Brandon Vu made even MORE content. Loving his podcast so far. Him and DocPop are definitely my two favorite yoyo content creators. I still enjoy content from Throws n Brews, just not the reviews as much.
Brandon does decent reviews. His are more insightful for a more competition oriented playstyle. Which is definitely useful for a certain subset of the community. I generally trust his assessments.
I think yoyo reviews need a new sort of format to he useful now. More comparison and more specific qualitative properties of the yoyo would be great. Few reviewers that do this very very well are Scayanite and Gingie. Brandon’s reviews were also pretty freaking good and he gave honest opinions and comparisons often.
I like watching video reviews to learn about yoyos. I do hate unboxing reviews though, for review purposes soecifically. Thats basically a first impressions video not a review. I wish more of the reviewers would spend much more time with the yoyos before dropping a review.
