Crucial Delicious
Reviewed by Chris Rhoads
February 26, 2011
Introduction
At the end of the Crucial Heavy Cream review I stated, “I hope that Paul and company decide to add more metal to the line up.” Well it looks like Crucial was listening and have decided to unleash the Delicious on the yo-yo community. The Delicious was originally designed to be a 3A yo-yo but has since been adjusted to meet the needs of 1A players. I am not up on what makes a good 3A yo-yo so I asked Paul and he let me know that a good 3A yo-yo needs to be low walled with lots of rim weight instead of center weight to reduce tilt and it should be heavier. On the Delicious he decided to keep the low walled design and keep the push towards rim weight but he reduced the overall weight by about 2 grams. Once he said it, it made perfect sense. Looking at the tricks involved with 3A I can see stability and a wide gap being key. The question is, does just reducing the weight make a 3A specific design a good 1A yo-yo as well? After play testing the Delicious for a little over a week I think I have the answer to that question.
Specs
• Diameter: 55.6 mm
• Width: 39.5 mm
• Gap: 4.5 mm
• Weight: 67.2 grams
• Bearing: Stainless Steel 8-Ball
• Response: Crucial Ghost Pad
Construction
Those of you who have not had the privilege of owning a Crucial yo-yo might not be familiar with their more “interesting” packaging designs. Past Crucial products have come in custom milk cartons and ice cream pint containers. They have settled on a “standard” package that is just as out there, currently all of their products come in a custom made miniature shoe box. Opening the box I was greeted with a very blue yo-yo. The pictures just do not convey the bright, electric blue used in anodizing this yo-yo. After getting past the cool packaging and the shocking color I started to inspect the design of the Delicious. It has an interesting H-Shape with large rims and a steep drop into the catch zone. About half way to the gap there is a well-pronounced step and then a transition to a V-Shape into the guts of the yo-yo. Visually, this gives the Delicious a distinct look, but I have a small gripe with that step. It does not affect the play of the yo-yo but the step sticks out far enough that string will occasionally hit it when traveling along the wall to the bearing. When the string hits the step there is this slight thunk as it dislodges. This all happens in a matter of milliseconds but it does give an odd feel during play. This will probably affect stronger players less since they can hit the gap dead on. The face of the yo-yo shows a wide-open cup completely devoid of obstruction or an IGR. The center hub is recessed into the floor with an ever so slight spike in the center. The finish on the outer half of the yo-yo is a smooth, unblasted anodized finish while the face and cup feel like they have some texture to it giving a nice matte contrast to the shiny exterior. The design is solid and works very well but the step needs a second look to reduce the occasional odd string feel it produces during play.
Weight
Heavy but not “oh my god, my poor finger” heavy. That was my first though when throwing the Delicious. There is quite a bit of rim weight on this yo-yo giving it extended spin, something that is needed to set up those interesting 3A tricks. There is no float to this yo-yo, just a solid feel on the string. I have no problems with the current weight of the Delicious but I think I would have to pass on the original 69-gram configuration. At 67.2 grams the speed of this yo-yo is pretty much perfect for smooth, flowing play but not for the twitchy, speed style seen during 1A competition play. Luckily for me, that is more my style and it is what I prefer to watch.
Response and Bearing
The Delicious comes standard with Crucial’s Ghost Pads installed. Normally I don’t have a problem with the ghost pads but I found that in this yo-yo they were a little too flush with the wall causing the yo-yo to bind unexpectedly. I could have let them break in and they would be fine but I wanted to see if the Delicious would accept flowable silicone. Happily it does, giving me more control over the feel of the yo-yo.
The bearing is a standard stainless steel 8-Ball. I would have liked for it to come with Crucial’s redesigned Grooved Bearing but that is slated to drop with Crucial’s next metal, Darrell Mitchell’s Signature yoyo. This is by no means a knock against the Delicious, I am just curious about the improvements to the Grooved bearing. The current bearing is solid and spins well but needed a drop of V4M lube after a day or so of play to keep it quiet.
Playability
Paul told me that he was going for smooth and stable on the string and he has hit that on the head. I found no tilt, vibe, or wobble during day-to-day play. Being an H-Shaped design, the gap was very easy to hit and the low walls were great for suicide tricks making it easy for me to pull off multiple GT suicides. While the Delicious is a large diameter yo-yo it does have a decently thin width to it allowing it to move through strings unhindered. It may have started off as a 3A design but I have not been able to find a string trick that it cannot handle. Grinds are a different matter entirely. In its current set up this yo-yo is basically not a grind friendly yo-yo. The finish is very grabby on bare skin but can finger and palm grind if you are wearing a glove. Arm grinds are just out. There is no IGR lip to speak of so I found that I had to almost throw a UFO in order to get a consistent thumb grind. I have been told that this will change for the future runs currently in production. Paul has stated that the future runs will have a blast similar to the Heavy Cream, which I found to be an excellent grinder. Bottom line, it plays great for everyone except the small segment that likes to grind. This makes sense giving the 3A lineage, when was the last time you saw a 3A player such as Paul Yath or Kentaro Kimura bust out a grind of any sort during a 3A freestyle?
Final Thoughts
One odd feel during play does not make for a deal breaker. Every time I feel that thunk it is just a reminder that I need to work on my accuracy. Bottom line, this is a very good yo-yo. After talking to Paul about the finer points of 3A, a play style totally foreign to me, I would recommend this yo-yo for any 3A player. Standard 1A players should not shy from this yo-yo either. It gives rock solid play and is smooth on the string. Those who love to bust out the grinds should probably keep an eye out for the second run of the Delicious, I have a feeling that this thing will rock grinds with a good blast. And to answer my question from the intro, yes reducing the weight did make for a well performing 1A yo-yo.