Chronicle of going backwards (from gold to garbage): Magic Yoyo K Series

Yo-Yo Reviews
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Today I got a pair of the new Magic Yoyo K series, the top ones, K8 and K9.
I was excited and ready to make a review, I always defended and spoke in favour of Magic yoyos, a great performance for an affordable price, the N12, T5 and N10 perform like many throws in the $100 range, so finally I had this 2 shiny new ones, what great surprise was waiting for me after I throw them? “of course after their success and with more experience they couldn’t do anything but impressive stuff” I said to myself while I was changing the bearings for a brand new NSK and cutting a pair of nylon Type 2 sOMEThING strings, since their bearings and strings are not precisely Magic Yoyo´s strong side.

Then it came my first throw, then the second, then the third… a fourth…? there was no fifth, my head was confused, then back to the reality, I just spent $50 in the crappiest yoyos I ever touched, and i mean I have played crap ones, a fixed axle Chinese bootleg Duncan Butterfly would give me better performance than this.

Lets start with the K8, big yoyo, almost 60mm of diameter and with the rims bended, due to that design the vibe is just unbearable, it vibes more than a 3 dollars bi-metal prototype. It has a plastic in the center that I guess is for finger spins or who knows but it looks shitty, cheap and makes noise. The vibe was so bad that greatly affected the performance and despite its shape the spin time is short.

But perhaps I got a defective one, so I tried the T9… I thought that extreme H profile was something innovative and worth, it looks like nobody tested that yoyo before going into production, the first time I saw pics, I noticed there was so little space for the string to roll evenly… I was right, after a bind the string tends to roll around a single side, messing the next throw. The hubstacks should be called hub-stucks, they just don´t work. No stability, and despite the shape, not even long spinning times. I will be greatly surprised if I can see a video of someone performing decently with this yoyo.

Great disappointment, I won´t recommend those yoyos even to my enemies, I expected a lot from Magic yoyo but seems like the company decided to go backwards and stay with the typical Chinese bootleg or poor performance cheap company instead of keep going in the good direction they once were.

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2 Likes
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That’s to bad.

I’ve got a T5, an N6, an N8, N12, T8 and a Dark Sprit (glow), and enjoy them all (though response is more variable than I would like).

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More like: From sketchy-chinese-bootleg-rip-off-difeo-garbage

to just all around garbage.

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That does really blow, but I’ve had really positive experiences with magic yoyo’s bearing. Matter of fact one of their bearings were WAY better than the one sent with my shutter.

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My K9’s has lovely spinning hubstacks. My only compaint is the stock pads are too thick, so the string drags. I replaced the pads and it plays beautifully. My K8 has no vibe, but the plastic thingies are irritating.

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Surprised?

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Yes, Im surprised that someone can do something decent with that crappy yoyo, I applaud you.

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Sorry, but maybe you just got a crappy one. Mine functions just fine. Have you ever heard of quality control?

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Magic yoyo obviously hasn’t.

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Yeah cuz they’re obviously the only Chinese mass producer with quality control issues. :wink:

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Implying there are many Chinese ‘mass’ producers.

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Implying there are only a few?

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Auldey is the only one still active, and in recent days MYY has already lost most of its native low end market to Auldey’s Blazing Teens 5 series even when the higher end half of that series hasnt even been released lol. Auldey has apparently been doing really well in quality control this time and I havent heard a single report of someone receiving a defective new model, with some of them having complicated enough designs including caps, weight rings and hubstacks on a single yoyo.
However, there sure are going to be a few general toy companies jumping onto the BT5 train, one of them rumored to be backed by Yoyomiracle. And that s only two at most.

Brands like GodTricks and Kingyostar are considered high ends by natives, not mass producers lol

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Quality control, yeah, I can give that to the hubstacks and vibe part, but the spin time and the stability? is pretty meh, the yoyos didn´t have any visible defects, I changed the bearings and get a good string

But I´m afraid this discussion will be stalled, since I cannot really prove you that they are not defective unless I try another batch, which I will not do.

Also, watching your videos I find out that you use yoyos from $30-60 range, I can agree that K9 could perform like a Protostar or even a bit better. If you notice in my review I was expecting a $80-100 range performance (which in my opinion N12 and T5 achieve). Bringing an example, In my opinion the N12 plays better than the Shutter, can you state that the K9 outperforms the Shutter and can be on par with lets say One Drop Gradient? I think those throws are totally out of the K series league, which is not the N and T case.Is just a matter of expectations. (also, is my opinion, of course, as biased or objective as it can be)

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I use $30-$60 yoyos in videos
I also have a
Hubstack Genesis
Glide
Roll model
Satisfaction
Supernova
Chik
Gradient
And my D8 plays on par with any yoyo in my collection.

But that’s really just a mute point. There isn’t a dramatic stability boost for $20 extra. It has more to do with overall design, not the price a company sells for.

If you want an $80 yoyo, buy one. But price doesn’t buy stability.

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Kingyostar/Godtricks = High end in china?

Well I guess you’d know better than I do. Seeing that your actually there.

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I love magic yo-yo’s. I don’t have one, but someone I now does and i play with his all the time. I think its awesome you can get a great yoyo at such a good price. I plan on buying one of each in the future.

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I would contest that the price doesn´t buy stability… I do agree that the design is quite important, but so is the materials and machine precision, which you can´t find it in cheap throws, i.e. a good design that is not limited by the price, that uses good aluminum alloy plus a heavier metal rings will be hard to be outperformed by any budget yoyo no matter how good the design is. of course there is expensive not so good throws, but i´m talking about good designs, they have limitations if they are cheap produced.

Does a $250 yoyo performs 10 times better than a $25 one? I don´t think so. Do I think is worth to pay $100 extra for a yoyo that is more stable, sleeps longer time, and is noticeable faster? if economy is not an issue, heck yes.
My bet is anyone that has the chance to try a high end bi-metal can say that there is a huge/dramatic difference between a +$180 yoyo and an -$50 one, no matter which one.

I said before many times that the N12 performs on par of some $80 yoyos, and I love it, but when compared with any of my Japanese bi-metals is a HUGE gap, the N12 can´t even come close to any of them.

The pic is just to show that I´m not bluffing when said I can first hand compare Magic yoyos with high end ones. (in the pic: N12, Draupnir, T5, Sturmpanzer Schneider and Ogre Luna)

(Lol, somehow the pic is upside down but if you right-click and open it in a new tab it gets right :stuck_out_tongue: )

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Metal inserts
Bi- metal rims
And most of what you mentioned are part of the design. Increased price is just a byproduct. There are lots of yoyos that don’t include these features, but sell for similar prices. Not all of them are stability hounds either. Let’s just chalk it up as you really dislike this yoyo. You’d prefer something more expensive.

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just to wrap it up, is not about expensive or not, i repeat, I love N12 and T5, which are no more expensive than the K9, so, we can´t really say I dislike it because is cheap, I already gave my reasons why I dislike it and the price is none of them, but we can agree about I dislike it.