Hey my friends, was wondering i see some yoyos have aluminium caps and some yoyo have plastic caps. To anyone that owns them is there a difference in how it plays or how it feels on the string? Appreciate anyones input on the subject. Thanks my friends.
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They definitely have different feel. I’m a fan of capped metal yoyos. They play floaty and have satisfying sound and feel. You should try at least one of them. At the moment I have Motif, Sucction and Chunk in my favorites.
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i’ve tried duncan freehand 1 ALs with plastic caps vs aluminum. they definitely feel different but I can’t explain the difference well (kinda more hollow feeling and a little lighter?) i prefer the aluminum caps anyway…
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I’ve been curious about the Anima with its caps. I see it’s 66.5 grams with only a 51 diameter but I have read so much good stuff about it. I have been wanting to try one out since I like smaller diameter yoyos.
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After wanting to try this for a long time I just got some plastic caps for my AL Freehand. I have very similar feelings to yours on this. They don’t feel as much lighter as I thought they would and they gave it a hollow cheaper sound and feel. I’m about to switch back to the aluminum caps. I prefer them. I love the very satisfying hiss the yo-yo creates while spinning with AL caps.
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Im new to the hobby but have also been eyeing the anima as a chance to try both an undersized and capped throw. This may be a very silly question but are the caps of the anima removable? And is it designed for this or do I risk damaging it?
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Welcome to the forum. You sure picked a good first question. And I will give you a good free response, Based on things I’ve learned since I started messing yo-yos around 1997.
First of all, the Anima Is an excellent yo-yo. When I was first getting ready to purchase one, I hesitated for a minute, thinking to myself, I don’t really even care for side cap yo-yos so why am I buying this?
But in a way, it’s kind of like staring through a bakery window and wondering how good that cake you’re looking at actually tastes?
There is an old saying, the proof of the pudding is in the tasting….
So a few days later, I got one in the mail. I didn’t have high expectations for it, but the people that designed it also know a thing or two and I figured it was worth their effort for me to buy one and see what’s up?
It is an excellent playing yo-yo. It feels great in hand. It rolls down the string with authority. But doesn’t Clunk at the bottom of the string
It’s very stable. It’s spins and spins… Did I say it spins? It’s very directional, and the play is almost intuitive. I threw that sucker for 10 minutes and I felt like I had been throwing a yo-yo for a year. It has a real nice fine finish to it almost silky.
Obviously, you’re most likely giving up finger spins and thumb grinds which to at least most of the people I know are not that big of a tragedy. I mean certain fancy moves look like fancy moves but they sure aren’t any real indicator of serious yo-yo skills.
So that’s a short view Of how I personally feel about the yo-yo. What I want to address next Is your question about possibly taking off the caps.
First of all since you haven’t tried the yo-yo and probably don’t know anybody that has the yo-yo to try, you’re basically buying the yo-yo blind.
Buying a yo-yo blind is simple to define. It means you’re gambling that what you think is a good yo-yo is going to be a good yo-yo for you? Oh boy, I’ve sure done that a lot of times. But since I basically have no budget, it honestly doesn’t matter a lot. I can practice stupid and still come out alive with a little less money here and there, but buying yo-yos hasn’t killed me yet.
I would suggest that if you really considering even thinking… Or possibly planning… To attempt removing a side caps, don’t even buy the yo-yo. Because the way the caps are fit to the halves of the yo-yo, there’s no way I can think of to get the caps out without causing some visible damage. I don’t care if you know the purple Teletubby and he’s got something in his purse that he says is the magical answer for popping off caps… Don’t believe him. Grab the purse and smack them upside the head for giving you bad advice.
So you buy the yo-yo anyway throw it for 15 minutes and decide you have to know if it plays better without the caps? I’ll give you an educated guess it won’t play better without the caps. The high-performance yo-yo dynamics are based specifically on the weight distribution with the way the caps are blended into the design. They did a lot of testing on cap thickness placement, weight, Etc., before they finalize the design. They had some pretty good players field tested design to make sure he was going to rock ‘n’ roll just the way they wanted it to.
Taking off the side would effectively kill any performance factors they were trying to achieve before they start selling the yo-yo. In other words they did theirhomework for you.
Taking off the side cap would be no different than buying a new Toyota Tacoma four-wheel-drive truck and asking a dealer to put some Corolla tires on it because you really don’t like big truck tires. And the first thing you do is three blocks down from the dealership, you decided to make a right turn on an unpaved road and do some rock hopping. Some things are designed for a reason
The Anima is meant to be a Capped yo-yo.
… if most of the features of the yo-yo align with what you feel would fit the bill for you, I would encourage you to buy one. I certainly love mine. But that being said, I don’t think they would be much of an argument to change out a couple other things to see what fits you best. Like maybe you don’t like the bearing? or you don’t like the string that comes with it? Or maybe you don’t like the bearing and the string. Maybe don’t response. You can switch stuff around if you’d like to fiddle with things like I do. But the cool thing about fiddling is that you can reverse anything you do without causing any damage to the yo-yo.
Historically, I have never mentioned anybody that I really like and prefer side cap yo-yos. A simple reason, I don’t really care for side, cap yo-yos in general. As a matter of performance yo-yos, I primarily feel that spreading the extra weight of the side cap across the diameter of the yo-yo is not affective weight placement. Unless you know what you’re doing you’re just killing a little power when you design sidecap yo-yo.
I think the company wanted to prove
they can incorporate a side cap design yo-yo but still performs at a high-level.
The Anima is an Excellent yo-yo.
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For sure a difference but it’s super hard to put into words. You just gotta feel it. It’s nice. And the sound is unique too.
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The Asora v3 is sick because it takes standard Freehand size caps so there’s a lot of options and they’re easily removable without taking the yoyo apart, a big annoyance I have with other FH cap compatible yoyos.
When side caps were basically paper pogs it didn’t make much difference on or off except maybe for the sound. With a yoyo like a Free Hand, the difference would be a bit in the weight but the more obvious to me would be the weight distribution with or without caps. Don’t know how much the plastic or aluminum caps weigh on the Free Hand AL so can’t comment there.
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Thanks for all the replys my friends. Probably gonna have to buy one sooner than later. These yoyo companies are taking all my money and i love it.
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I really like the Chunk. It has a floaty feel and the sound is very satisfying.
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