I don’t know a ton about this, yet; but, I can’t see you going wrong with a Replay. I’m really surprised with how well it plays to be a $15 throw.
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Replays are great, I don’t think anyone is denying that. But when you’re buying a bunch of yo-yos just to giveaway, the $15 - $20 range is a little too pricey IMO. Whip, One, and Proyo would be my recommendations depending on what you’re looking for.
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When was the last time you wore out a set of silicone pads? That would take quite a while…
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I still don’t know what this means… I’ve been trying to figure it out, but I’m puzzled.
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The introduction of artificial, contrived difficulty to make sure people are “good enough”.
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Still enigmatic. Layman’s terms plz
Beginners deserve the easiest to use models, because they are beginners. Responsive slim bearing with silicone pads are the easiest yo-yos to use. Versus fixed axle, starburst response, transaxle, etc.
Some beginners want to learn on Hard Mode though. For them, making it “easier” is doing them a disservice (from their pov).
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Your reasoning eludes me. Given our history, I think I’m just going to let this one rest where it lies.
That was also the case with me. I picked up a Duncan butterfly because I used to throw a yoyo when I was a kid. But as soon as I found out how advanced the world of Yoyo had become, I quickly moved on to unresponsive. Like, within the same month.
Once I got the basic concept of throw and catch down, it was off to the races.
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Sometimes less moving parts is easier. Bearings/response pads offer superior performance, but they also offer more chance of something to not work properly. Transaxle and fixed axle are easy to learn the basics with and there’s really no way someone can have an issue with them malfunctioning.
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True, you could extend this logic to “brain” models with the auto return clutch as well. But that’s maybe more akin to training wheels on bicycles?
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That is fair… main risk is when taking it apart, the bearing goes flying away. I feel silicone pads are quite durable, and minus the disassembly risk, I can’t see a whole lot going wrong with a heavy lubed responsive slim bearing.
Yo-yos that you cannot take apart are a huge pain in the rear when strings get tangled up and knotted in them, though.
Recommending lube is the main issue with beginners.
too much lube on bearing > lube gets on response > response absorbs lube and falls out > yo-yo doesn’t work
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Nobody is recommending that?
I mean thick lubed from the factory, responsive, high friction.
Yeah, misunderstood, nothing wrong with that. I typically recommend bearing yo-yos for beginner anyway, I was just pointing out that transaxle and fixed axle are still a viable option to learn on since they’re simpler and require little to no maintenance.
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It is completely fair to note that kids will break the crap out of anything and everything! Durability matters!
I feel the main trauma will be getting slammed into the ground at high speed, I am not entirely sure any yo-yo is particularly tough in that scenario… but you definitely want to keep the unit cost down so you have lots of replacements on hand 
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Don’t most people who give a yoyo a try never get past a basic gravity pull and sleeper, and never really transition to becoming what we tend to refer to as a Beginner? Most kids probably follow this pattern as well. We might call this tier of tentative user the Trying It Out user, and giving them anything more expensive or performant than a $5 Butterfly XT is probably a waste.
If that Trying It Out experience gets them hooked, and they’re not slamming the yoyo into the ground all the time, then at that point it makes a lot more sense to give them something in the $10-15 tier that will serve them well long-term, like a Sage, Arrow, Replay, etc.
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Yeah but per my topic, for ~$7.11 I can get the magicyoyo k-1 with bearing, with hubstacks, some extra strings, a gift bag, a little set of printed instructions and even a glove 
Though I’m sure if buying in bulk you should be able to get a butterfly XT for like $3.50.
Bundles like that are pretty nifty, I agree. The K-1 specifically (which I tried two of and hated both of them, but whatever) by itself can’t possibly be more than a $3 throw…