One thing I like to do is give away yo-yos to kids that I meet (or my kids meet, I have 9 year old, and two 6 year old twins). I want to encourage people to enter the hobby! So I’ve been on the hunt for the best “value” yo-yo that is still a good yo-yo!
So far the best value I’ve come up with is these MagicYoyo K1 Plus gift boxes:
It ends up being $21.33 per box or $7.11 for each gift bag. I think that’s not bad? I like that there’s a gift bag and I can put the instructions, extra string, and glove inside. I also make them red/blue, blue/yellow, and red/yellow half swaps as I string them up, for funsies
The MagicYoyo K1 is a pretty solid, slim C bearing responsive plastic yoyo. It feels good in the hand, it has textured edges and a decent weight to it (though not as good as a metal yoyo of course). Its only weakness is that the hubstacks are prone to breakage because they are made from kind of a fragile plastic and they break way too easily. They really need to switch to a different tougher plastic for those hubstacks!
I like to give plastic responsives to people starting out so they’re less likely to hurt themselves or objects around them, and so they don’t get frustrated trying to learn an unresponsive bind from day one
You should give them links to online videos/websites instead of giving them instruction sheets. It opens them up to the online community and the kids can learn more tricks that way.
aw man I love giving yoyos to people! I’ve recently been doing this a lot ever since I went to college because a lot of people used to yoyo and then stop so I generally give them a yoyo for them to get back into the hobby again eventually it’s great! Also because of this, I am now known as the “the yoyo lady” at the local elementary school for doing a demonstration, and also for giving a new kid getting into yoyos a B grade interlagos and a spare 100pk of string.
The new SpinStar from YoYoFactory (although not bearing) falls into this price point and is great!
And then there is also the Whip
Whenever someone is looking to do something where they are buying a bunch for a club or something like this - definitely contact us (here or email) for the special ‘deal’!
Wow, I hadn’t seen the new SpinStar until now! That’s a really good price. I once taught a small yoyo class using the YYF ONE, and the main problem I had was keeping the yoyos responsive, even with the thin bearing. I like how the SpinStar has a plastic response system to lower the amount of required maintenance; what are your thoughts on how reliable that is? Does the string slip ever? I’ve had a mixed experience with the Duncan Mosquito’'s plastic response system; fortunately, the SpinStar’s response looks similar to the YYJ Unleashed, which I’ve found to be quite reliable.
I’ve recently acquired a YYF Legend (butterfly shape). It’s suuuper nice to play with, and seems very well suited for beginners. It can sleep for a decent amount of time, and it’s very easy to bring back. The small downside is that it burns string (it is a wood after all).
Regarding the special deal, I’ll definitely contact you about something, since I’ll be helping out with a fundraiser in a month, and the organizers were hoping to have yoyos available for guests to use.
Generally the SpinStar does a really good job of staying responsive. I find it slips sometimes if the string gets too loose. But using fat kitty string would probably solve that more permanently (versus just the string that comes on it). But for the most part it really is perfect for learning the basics. So it’s great to learn your first basic tricks and then you move onto the bind.
I can also handle basic string tricks. Brain twister, double or nothing with rollout dismount, etc. But I usually just teach up to trapeze and then get them an unresponsive YoYo into their hand for the bind.
I should mention that before I found these, I probably bought 30-40 of the YYR Fay that YYE had on sale for $9.99 for a long time, to give away in a similar manner. That was a FANTASTIC deal, it came with both slim and wide bearings, and the Fay was / is a really top notch plastic throw – several steps above the MagicYoyo K1 plus for sure. I think you could legitimately compete as a pro with the Fay!
Check my sales records, I ain’t lyin’
I did not give them all away… I keep one Fay around, this one which I am very fond of:
While teaching school, I provided hundreds of kids, over the years, with yoyos. The first yoyo, I believe was the YYF Patriot, which later looked to be relabeled as a Spinstar. The yoyos, at that time were the best that I could have asked for. Super low maintenance, great performance for beginners, and almost indestructible. Those yoyos were slammed into pavement, bounced off of cinder blocks, and even bounced off a few noggins without a problem. The new Spinstar is obviously a different beast from back then. However, I’d give YYF preference for a kids starter yoyo based on past experience.
I ended up giving all 12 of those MagicYoyo K1s to a summer camp “sports and games” program my 9 year old son was in.
I first asked the organizer (super nice guy) if he was interested in a batch of yoyos to possibly add to the camp as an activity and he said he was So I delivered all 12 to him with short strings – I re-tied them all to proper 9 year old height – plus a bunch of extra strings. And I threw in a nice new purple/black half swap Confusion for him as well
That means I had to build up another batch of K1s to give away, so I did that too …
I’ve loved this idea so much, ever since watching @Tvelto’s YouTube video last year. Three months out from this year’s Halloween is good timing to start planning. Trick or treat!
Yeah! I can’t really do that because we have to go out with our kids on Halloween, so there’s nobody left at the house to dole anything out … we leave a bowl outside with a “please take 2 pieces” note.
JeiCheetah
(J̵̡̥̦̳̗͎̤̯̟͓̞͔͔̻́͛͐̒͋̔̈́͂̃͝ͅͅ E I H W Δ N̸̢̢̡͙͖̝̩̟͎̹̻͔̳͕̙̗̈̆̆͋̈́͛̀̑̒̂̀̈́̇̚͘͠ͅ)
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Where did you get these in bulk? I’m going to be teaching at a convention soon and am hoping to get a bunch of yoyos in bulk to give away like these :3
Yeah I was trying to stick with “modern” yo-yos that have ball bearings and silicone response pads, but the Whip and the One both qualify… until you mentioned it, I didn’t realize how similar they were actually until I just looked at the specs of both more closely:
Interestingly, they now include extra hubstacks with each one, a little plastic baggie with 2 extra hubstacks comes with each yo-yo. … so they sorta solved the problem. For example, 8 out of 24 total hubstacks (in 12 yo-yos) were cracked right out of the box… but I was able to fix that by removing the cracked ones and putting on the enclosed extra hubstacks.
They really should just buckle down and use tougher plastic on those hubstacks, but this is an OK fix to the problem. I do like these little kits quite a lot:
modern plastic yo-yo with slim c bearing, silicone response pads, and hubstacks
gift bag
instruction sheet
glove
2 extra strings
All for right around $7.
I still have to heavy lube each one to get it properly responsive though, with the SuperLube.
– several steps above the MagicYoyo K1 plus for sure. I think you could legitimately compete as a pro with the Fay!
So I delivered all 12 to him with short strings – I re-tied them all to proper 9 year old height – plus a bunch of extra strings. And I threw in a nice new purple/black half swap Confusion for him as well 
