C3YoyoDesign Darkstar 2011
Reviewed by Chris Rhoads
January 16, 2011
Introduction
C3YoyoDesign hit the scene in mid 2009 with the release of their first product, the Capsule. My assessment of this freshman effort was a mixed bag. There were some issues that I needed addressed but there was a heck of a lot of potential there as well. I was not the only one who saw the potential; the Capsule had a small but loyal fan base, including some accolades by Moebius style innovator, Zammy. Today I am looking at the revision to C3’s sophomore effort, the Darkstar. The Darkstar 2011 adds about 2 gram of weight to the original design and swaps the flowable silicone response for a white silicone pad. I never played the original Darkstar so I will not be able to comment on if these changes are for the better or not. For me, this is a second chance for C3YoyoDesign. As I said above, I saw a lot of potential in this Hong Kong based company and I am looking forward to seeing if my instincts are correct.
Specs
• Diameter: 54.03 mm
• Width: 41.50 mm
• Gap Width: 4.50 mm
• Weight: 66 grams
• Bearing: Size-C Center-Trac Bearing
• Stock Response System Silicon Pad
Construction
The Darkstar comes packaged in a translucent box embossed with a silver C3 logo. Inside the box we have is the yo-yo, a pink Kitty String, and two extremely thin weight rings. Opening the box, I was greeted by a gorgeous silver finish. No, this is not a raw or nickel-plated yo-yo. This is a polished, clear anodized yo-yo that, in my opinion, looks incredible. The yo-yo is laser etched on one half with a C3 and a Darkstar logo. The shape of the yo-yo is a straight V-Shape with rounded rims, giving it clean lines. The face of the yo-yo shows off a flattening of the rim face. Moving into the cup there is a series of angled cuts giving an industrial look that contrasts with the curved outer rims. The hub area of the cup is slightly raised from the floor and then dimpled into the center. There is an IGR carved into the rims that doubles as the retaining mechanism for the weight rings. All of the cuts catch the light in interesting ways and add to the over all tidy look of the yo-yo. There is one small problem with the design and it is that initial flat, rim face cut. While it looks great, it can hit harshly against the inside knuckles of the pointer and ring fingers on your throw hand. I found that if you caught it wrong you would get a sharp little reminder not to do it again. Other than that, the overall design looks great and feels comfortable resting in the hand.
Weight
I would have liked to play the lighter version of this yo-yo. I have been gradually gravitating towards the lighter throws and when I first started playing with the Darkstar 2011 I found it to be a little clunky on the string. Once I got use to it, I began to warm up to the feel of the Darkstar while in motion. The weight is pushed into the rims of the yo-yo giving it some good spin times while still retaining a decent amount of stability. One thing I need to talk about is the included set of weight rings. To put it bluntly, I found the rings unnecessary. They are so thin that they didn’t substantially change the feel of the yo-yo on the string. To be honest, I couldn’t tell a difference when they were installed.
Response and Bearing
The stock response on the Darkstar 2011 is a set of white silicone pads. I am not sure about the maker of the pads but they are extremely grippy at first. Grippy to the point that I was ready to rip them out and install flowable silicone in the gap after the first half hour of play. Instead of replacing them with silicone, I decided to see how they played after breaking in. What I found was that after the extended break in period these pads lose their death grip, play almost dead unresponsive, and still give a tight bind.
The stock bearing is CBC Center Trac bearing. While I am not the biggest fan of gimmicky bearings in general, I found that this bearing did not hinder the performance. It spun true after a good cleaning but was still louder than I like, even after a thorough V4M lube treatment.
Playability
Once I warmed up to this yo-yo, I was really impressed with the level of play that it gave. It is a forgiving yo-yo on bad throws and moves through string tricks with ease. The catch zone is wide open and easy to hit with no obstructions to reject the string. I found that while playing the Darkstar I gravitated towards whip and hook tricks. I picked up anew hook, the Taka hook, that looks like a Hidemasa Hook but the string wraps around your pinky and pointer finger on your off hand. Now while most of the play is top notch, there is one area where the Darkstar falls short, grinds. That beautiful silver finish is not bead blasted so it will grab the skin of your hand, arm, and finger and shoot off at high speeds. All is not lost; the IGR is more than capable when it comes to thumb grinds. At the end of the day, I could not find serious fault with the Darkstar outside of the grinding issues. This yo-yo was designed for Ron Chan, a top 5A player in Hong Kong so I can see why it isn’t blasted. You do not see a ton of grind tricks in a 5A performance.
Final Thoughts
Do not let the negatives in this review fool you, I am impressed with the Darkstar 2011. It is quite a bit better than C3’s first yo-yo. Yes, there was hand pain that could have been avoided with a softer edge on the rim face but that is about the only thing I would change. I am not upset about the grinding nature. Honestly, I like the looks too much to mute it with a blasted finish. I hope C3 can keep this momentum going. If they release more like the Darkstar 2011 they will have no problem making a serious name for themselves.
