Although I have been throwing on and off since I was basically a kid, I haven’t bought a single yoyo in several years, let alone anything on the higher end. The last thing I remeber picking up was a Yeti 2.0 around 2022.
I’m just curious if the new runs of the Caribou Lodge Bonfire and GE hold up to the old ones, or if there’s any noticeable differences between the two over the years that they’ve been in production? Im also having a hard time deciding between the two in general as I do love both shapes for a top, is it likely one may be produced less in the future?
Bonfire holds up excellent, it’s one of my favorites in the CLYW lineup. It’s not exceptional at anything, but it’s just a nice generalist yoyo. Glacier Express is a weird jank old design that exists as more of a novelty now. Lots of people like the novelty of the design, but it leaves a lot to be desired in play.
They’re both going to be yoyos that spin and do tricks though. So ultimately if one of these would get you excited to play more yoyo, then it wouldn’t be a bad acquisition. If availability is your biggest concern, I’d be shocked if they ever ran the Glacier Express again, whereas the Bonfire is something that will reasonably stay evergreen for just being a solid all around yoyo.
I agree about the bonfire, but disagree about the Glacier Express. With Summer tires it shreds, imo. Maybe high level tech or horizontal it’s not good, but that is above me.
Yeah the exclusivity of the GE is a part of the appeal for me as well as the nostalgia factor of both, although the Leaf does look fantastic too, as someone who never owned a chief. I had a 2014 Bonfire and do regret getting rid of it too, however.
Im mostly looking for a new Caribou Lodge to throw since Im just a huge fan of their designs and colorways personally, my only one at the moment is a fools gold Yeti 2 lol
For reference, some of my favorite Caribou Lodge throws and some of my favorites in general are the Puffin (1 & 2), Wooly Marmot 2, and the Summit, I remember the Bonfire from 2014 playing really fast and being great for more dense combos but it didn’t strike me as being quite as table or floaty as the GE, but this is from my experience literally over a decade ago so take this with a grain of salt
I respectfully disagree. I liked the Glacier Express when I was new to yoyo and the novelty of the design felt fun. The better I got at yoyo the more I disliked the Glacier Express and it just because a shelf queen. The gap width is not at all the issue, the response wall is awkwardly high and the angle of the inner profile is at such low of an angle landing the string into the middle of the yoyo kind of acts like a rim hit and kills so much spin.
If you find it fun that’s fine though. Plenty of older yoyos are fun because of their quirks that make them harder to play. But at least for me the Glacier Express just kind of became annoying to play the harder my trickset got. And if I want to play a yoyo that makes yoyoing harder, I’d rather play something more comfortable/nostalgic.
Yeah it’s obviously not a very competitive shape, though that’s definitely not what im looking for, but I do feel like undercut designs like that can have crappy ergonomics and also be some of the worst culprits in response pads seizing up suddenly when you’re mid-combo, so I can see why it’s a divisive design on the team for sure
On another note, that 28 Stories Leaf does look pretty nice considering I’ve never owned a chief, so maybe I’ll end up picking that up. I assume the Glacier Expresses aren’t flying off of the shelves, anyways.
You can find them (GE) second hand for a good price as well.
The leaf is a great yoyo, I enjoy mine, again I feel the snow tires bite a bit too much and cause some speed loss/ tilt issues. I’m not the cleanest player tho, I need to work on staying “on plane” with my hands
Chief has a way better side profile and still holds up to a lot of new combos, GE still has the same unique feel but feels a bit “meh” when it comes to modern combos. While I still use my chief a lot, the Leaf is everything the chief wasn’t. It handles modern combos well and still has that old feel to it.
At this point I think it’s down to the Leaf or Bonfire for me, They have pretty much the same weight it appears but I feel like the Leaf would be more stable, but that could just be me
What’s the difference between normal snow tires there? And where would I get them? They’re not for sale on here or the Caribou Lodge site it looks like
After checking around a bit, It appears that the summer tires are less grippy out of the box than the snow tires, which I wouldn’t mind although in my experience snow tires are tolerable, if a bit more responsive than I’d like initially. I’m pretty lazy about messing with my response pads/silicone, I won’t lie.
Summer tires are slightly thinner, snow tires poke out just a little bit, making binds easier to do. Summer tires handle string layers better, and are a little more forgiving of improper technique.
I found replacing the snows with summers really woke up my Minitee, Glacier Express and Bonfire.
The Minitee was nigh unplayable (imo) with the factory setup, now I adore it
I swear i had a picture showing the difference, let me find it
If I ever see them for sale again, which I assume they will be, I’ll definitely pick up a set; though I can’t say I’ve ever outright disliked the performance of stock snowtires.
ba dum tiss)
