I’ve seen threads where it’s been said that you don’t. A plastic yoyo will work just fine. Gentry won worlds on a plastic yoyo. I was a believer in all of this and still feel it’s all true… to a degree.
I recently (around a month or so ago) started spinning tops. I was gifted a YYF Short Circuit and soon after bought several more plastic bearing tops including a Duncan Bearing King and YYF Elec tric. I began the learning process and started to hit simpler tricks on these two. After a couple weeks I decided to try the Strummol8 Guilia top that I had bought as well. BAM! I felt like I was cheating things became so much smoother and easier. The longer spin time helped tremendously with learning as you have a few extra seconds to figure out what you’re doing wrong lol.
What I’ve gathered from this experience is that if someone is a newer player it most definitely HELPS to have a nicer, longer spinning, smooth (and probably a little more expensive than a plastic) metal yoyo. Better to learn the tricks on that and then when you are a bit better go try and do the same thing on a plastic.
tl;dr - If you are beginning yoyoing get a nice metal yoyo to learn.
I think the answer is no, you don’t need an expensive metal yoyo. A cheap metal yoyo will have the same stability and powerful spin for less money, but let’s leave that issue aside. I do think it’s a good insight that having a good metal yoyo can really help first-year throwers. When you’re still trying to learn difficult tricks you have no experience with, trying to stay on plane, and your throw isn’t as good as it will be.
I probably play less metal now that I ever have because I’m a plastics guy at heart. I’d say it’s because plastics have gotten so much better (and that is part of it), but I still play on a lot of the plastics that were out or coming out when I started. I’m just a lot better on them now.
Metal yoyos are generally more forgiving and spin longer, there’s a time when a lot of players need that. Unless you’re competing or really just pushing everything to the max, there’s also a time when a lot of players don’t really need that anymore.
I felt the same way when I got my first metal yoyo after learning on a Replay Pro. I actually had enough time to get through the really early combos so I could practice the whole thing in one go.
Mark has hit the point dead-on…I like most people when I started …it was with a cheap Yoyo! Yomega, Duncan , spintastic, team Losi, hyper yo , SuperYo, and maybe a proyo bumble bee for $25…Woaw…of course…parents say $50 for a metal Yoyo is just a waste of money! So a $5 Yoyo or less was the norm…like so many we began(good or bad) on responsive plastic Yoyo’s and advanced to unresponsive…
And my learning has just begun again!
I don’t think a good first metal yoyo needs to be expensive, but then I don’t consider $45 (the current sweet spot for performant entry-level monometals) to be expensive for what you’re getting.
I think that every player who has been using plastic yoyos to learn the basics, and then to learn how to bind, should try a good entry-level metal yoyo and then decide for themselves whether or not they feel they need it (perhaps to make further learning easier or more fun or whatever).
5 years ago I would’ve said yes, you should have an expensive metal yoyo if you plan on getting the most out of yoyoing.
Nowadays, I’m gonna say you just at least need a solid metal yoyo.
Thanks to the knowledge we’ve gathered over the past 10 years, you can find a good, solid metal yoyo for $30. These $25-$30 metal yoyos will be better than sub $25 plastics will ever be. The ceiling for even 6061 aluminum is just so much higher than with plastic.
5-10 years ago we didn’t capitalize on this(and Chinese manufacturing), which is why I think an expensive metal was necessary back then. But now the best $30 metals today are as good as average $80-$100 metals of 5-10 years ago.
As for plastic… They have gotten better but they still can’t compete with even the super budget $30 metals. And honestly, I don’t think they ever will.
I think it makes a bigger difference in the top world, but it’s definitely a factor in yo-yos as well. A couple years ago my ex bought me a cheap plastic one on a whim (can’t remember model or brand) and I couldn’t get it. I was pretty decent in high school but the plastic top I had was just all over the place and I think it got away from me after a couple dozen attempts and smashed into the fireplace
I started with a metal yoyo. A shutter. Not counting the ones I played with when i was a kid back in the 90s, having the forgiveness of the long spins and power held, that it kind of ruined me on plastics. I own a few but rarely if ever throw them.
I dont think you need one. But nothing with discourage an aspiring musician more than a beginners instrument.
Oh boy, I hear you, especially with the musical instrument comparison.
However, wouldn’t you agree that unresponsive plastic yoyos (in the $15-20 range) have come a long way in the last several years, and that today a beginner can get quite far in his or her learning with a yoyo like a Replay Pro or a ProtoStar?
It is true that I find my Shutter and my RockStar to be more stable and forgiving than my Replay Pro, but by the same token, getting into a side undermount smoothly isn’t any easier on my metal yoyos than my plastic ones, so I wouldn’t necessarily say that having metal in one’s hands will help with every beginner problem.
plastics are worlds beyond the imperial / butterfly that I am not a fan of at all outside of value to history and sheer saturation. I just dont like the feeling the plastic makes when it returns to my hand. It feel sgood to burn through a longer sequence with a replay pro, but it just feels better for me to do the same sequence with a metal one.
I just love em.
That’s because other than Dif-e-yo and later on Anti-Yo, that’s all there was and most people developed their skills nicely on plastics. Fact is, I have some of both expensive metals and “cheap” plastics and enjoy most all of them.
When I was a kid in the 80’s early 90’s I only used Duncan butterflies. I would look at catalogs at John’s Hobby Shop a little store in a town 35 miles from me. As you may guess I lost interest in them. The about a year ago I was being drug through toys r us with my kids and in the checkout there was the Duncan butterfly. 7 bucks later I had it. Re Awoken. Then I said wait a minute. Internet… My first metal was responsive 888. Black. I was hooked. Now I have 8,10 counting the mystery box I haven’t opened yet and I’m not even any good. But metal are more fun. They sound great I love the rrrrrrring as it’s spinning. And it’s so cheap. My first nice yoyo was a shutter. I cant imagine if I’d had one and YouTube back in the day. Anyhow, buy a shutter. Wide Angle is my favorite. You still get a free replay pro on yye so you can try both and say I was right.
I would argue that anyone who intends to pursue the hobby more than causally (i.e., get through at least the Advanced section of 1A tricks) would benefit substantially from the best quality yoyo they can reasonably afford. If the frustrations imposed by lesser quality yoyos are going to lead to discouragement and giving up on yoyoing entirely, then I’d say a high quality yoyo is unquestionably necessary.
However, if you’re a natural at this, and can make your way through every (unresponsive) trick with a Replay Pro, then a high quality metal yoyo is clearly not necessary. It might make playing more satisfying, but it wouldn’t be necessary to your continued progress or overall enjoyment of the hobby.
So I’d say it really depends on the talent and temperment of the player.
Just be careful not to conflate higher price with higher quality. It’s been said time and time again but good yo-yos, and I mean really good, are getting inexpensive. I have some fairly expensive yo-yos that I’d argue are higher quality. I can do nothing more with them than I can on a $35 yoyo. Like, the SK is a killer yoyo, I love it. Yeah the $150+ range will usually get you a vibe-free joint but it would be hard to convince me that would impact progress (unless it’s literal pulsing vibe like your wedge)
I believe we all agree on that point. vegabomb clarified that he meant “high quality” rather than “expensive”, and it was in that context that I made my latest reply.
