Crucial has been making stellar yoyos for years now. Time and time again Paul Yath and company have released products that in my opinion are at the top of the yoyo spectrum and are without question some of the most reasonably priced high end metal throws one can buy. As a total junkie for cupcakes and sweet confections of all kinds, the fact that Crucial practically names all of their throws after delicious food treats is just another reason I keep coming back for more. Crucial’s latest offering, the “Cupcake,” is not only their most deliciously named yoyo, but just may be their best throw to date. Apologies for not being a real writer or reviewer. I’m a nurse, so here’s my best crack at reviewing one of my new top 5 throws.
Specs:
Weight: 66 grams
Diameter: 53.4 mm
Width: 42 mm
Bearing: Crucial Grooved Bearing
Response: Supposedly Crucial Ghost Pads, but I swear mine came with flowable silicone.
Construction/Appearance
The Cupcake is gorgeous. It’s absolutely beautiful. Every curve is perfectly machined. It’s smooth smooth smooth. The ano job is flawless. I purchased the purple/blue acid wash and it’s genuinely one of the nicest acid washes I’ve ever seen. My pictures honestly don’t do it justice. The colors they pulled off with this thing just shine like I’ve rarely seen a blasted yoyo shine.
Bearing/Response
The Cupcake comes with Crucial’s standard grooved bearing. I know a lot of people aren’t necessarily fans of “gimmick” bearings, but I for one have always loved this bearing. When it comes to bearings, it obviously comes down to individual preference, but I’ve always been a sucker for concaves and when Crucial debuted this thing with its groove to center the string I thought it was a genius idea. I still do. If other people besides me didn’t enjoy the concept of this groove we wouldn’t see bearings like the Trifecta bearing with its groove, so I’m assuming enough people appreciated Crucial’s groove to warrant Crucial still using these things. The bearing is dry, smooth, vibe free, and honestly fairly quiet right out of the box. I love mine and won’t be swapping it out for any other bearing. Just to see how it felt I threw a 10 ball and a center-trac in my Cupcake and out of the three I preferred the standard Grooved bearing. The folks at Crucial know what they’re doing. They packaged this thing with their stock bearing and I agree it seems to work best. It just feels at home in the Cupcake. The bearing seat is nice and tight. You definitely need pliers or some sort of bearing removal tool if you want to swap out/clean this bearing for any reason. For the response, the store that I purchased this throw from states that the generally standard, Crucial Ghost Pads, are used; however, as stated earlier, I am fairly certain this is flowable silicone. On very close inspection there are a few trademark flowable bubbles and the inner and outer edges of the response simply are not smooth enough to be a pad. When compared to my Crucial Confection, which still has its stock Ghost Pads in place, I really feel like I can say with 100% certainty my Cupcake has flowable silicone. Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think I am. Either way, awesome. It’s extremely unresponsive, binds perfectly, regens like a champ, doesn’t slip, love how this thing binds. Whatever it is using as a response is champion and if/when it wears out I’m looking forward to throwing some seafoam monkey snot in. It’ll look so pretty!
Playability
First off, let me state that I do not have large hands. While I tend to prefer full-sized throws, I often wish they were slightly smaller. Under-sized throws are great, but I often find myself wishing they were just a little bit larger to really really fit my hand perfectly. Size wise, the Cupcake hits the nail on the head for me. With its 53.4 mm diameter and its 42 mm width it is slightly undersized but still larger than your standard undersized throw. From my first throw/catch I knew that probably no other yoyo in my collection fit my hand as well as this thing. The Cupcake seems to be the younger/smaller brother of the Crucial Confection and Ala Mode. Awesome. When a shape works as well as those shapes work, why mess with near perfection? The manner in which the Cupcake relates to the the Confection and Ala Mode really reminds me of what CLYW did with the Gnarwahl and Avalanche, or what YYF did with the G-Funk and the Super G. That being said, as you can see in the below picture, the Cupcake’s fairly V-shaped catch zone is slightly more curved than that of the Confection. This slight curve seems to really help with finger/arm grinds. The blast on this yoyo along with that slight curve really lets this thing grind for a very long time. I’d say only my Stampede and Glacier Express can outgrind it. It’s seriously that smooth. The Cupcake’s outer rim also seems to feature a slightly more pronounced IRG than either the Confection or Ala Mode making thumb grinds a little bit nicer. Not a full-on IRG, but still a little more than the other models. The cup, while featuring a slight “point,” is fairly flat and actually really worked well for pulling off some nice finger tip grinds and binds. I did not think I was going to be able to pull off horizontally putting this thing on my finger tip, and while not as stable as a flat cup would be, the Cupcake performed well. I’m sure this is largely due to its already mentioned excellent finish.
I’m not really a string snob, but I played the Cupcake with standard YYE poly string, Toxic Dragon String, Yoyo String Lab Type X (my usual favorite) and both regular and fat Kitty string. My favorites were the YYE poly and the regular Kitty string. I’m going to stick with the Kitty string because it seems to be the perfect weight/thickness for this throw. It just clicked with it really well.
Summary
I love this yoyo. Love it. I am slightly biased, because really, cupcakes are one of my favorite foods. I’ve made the drive from Las Vegas all the way out to Beverly Hills just to pick up Sprinkles cupcakes more times than I can count, but really, even if I hated cupcakes the Cupcake would win me over with its exceptional play and well thought out design. I have nothing remotely negative to say about this throw. Thank you, Crucial, for really outdoing yourselves. Nicely done.