DEADLY SpINS Pride
Specs:
Diameter - 53.5mm
Width - 42.43mm
Weight - 63.6g
Gap Width - 4.69mm
Out of the Box:
After the success of the Wrath (the previous DEADLY SpINS model), I feebly attempted to contain my excitement when I ripped open the box this new yoyo came in. What I noticed first was the striking colorway: red, pink, purple, and silver splash on a black background. It looks like someone slaughtered Cupid in the middle of the night.
When I picked up the Pride to examine it further, the first thing that caught my attention wasn’t the beadblast finish, but rather the metal itself. I found some of the lines and ridges to be rather sharp. Not in a this-is-going-to-cut-my-hand sort of way, but it is slightly uncomfortable.
On that note: I have fairly large hands (and consequently, fingers). The Avalanche-like ridge with its increased sharpness is definitely something I don’t care for on this yoyo. It’s not painful, but slightly annoying.
Finish:
The beadblast on the Pride is somewhat rough. It has a certain feel about it that I haven’t experienced in a yoyo. It almost feels slightly grippy.
The anodization, however, is gorgeous and I can’t wait to see what the other colorways will look like.
Accessories:
Being a tester model, the Pride only came with a simple brown draw-string pouch - similar to what the Wrath was packaged with. But knowing how important dollar-value is to Dan and Glen at DS, I’m sure the production run will offer all sorts of goodies.
Play:
(The Pride compared to a Protostar (left) and Wrath (right))
At 63.6g, the Pride is lighter than most its size. One would be under the assumption this may negatively impact spin times as well as stability.
One would be wrong.
The Pride is nimble and quick on the string, speedily gliding from string to string without hesitation.
Dan and Glen have done their homework. You surely can feel all the design that went into creating the Pride. The weighting is perfect; the Pride has plenty of mass focused on the rims which makes it incredibly stable and long-spinning without sacrificing speed.
The regenerations were also spectacular. With so little weight to go around, the team at DS found the perfect balance between center and rim weight.
The Pride is 53.5mm in diameter, though it doesn’t play as such. When I first threw it, not knowing the specs at the time, it felt closer to 56mm. I was amazed to find out it’s smaller than my 54.
Grinds:
Finger grinds are somewhat lacking with the Pride. I blame this partly on my oversized digits and partly on the finish. I’m no professional grinder, with my max grind being about 9 seconds (with a Stampede), but I found the grind times to be about half that of my Wrath (4 and 8 seconds, respectively).
Thumb grinds also have their issues. The secondary ridge in the cup touches your thumb during grinds. This causes the yoyo’s spin to die quicker and precess (rotate about the y-axis) fairly quickly. Compared to other yoyos, thumb grinds on the Pride are rather short.
Conclusion:
Dan and Glen created the Pride with three key elements in mind: speed, stability, and floatation. On that mark, they hit a bullseye. The Pride is fast, stable, and dances around on the string like nobody’s business.
Though some things need improvement. Most importantly the sharpness of some of the cuts and the inner ridge of the cups. This is a prototype, and Dan has already expressed that there are some things they know of that require a bit of tweaking, so expect perfection in the production run.
The Pride is definitely a yoyo you should have on your radar.
Pride compared to an Avalanche:
