Hey guys, several of you may know that I have been working on modifying a plastic Duncan Butterfly. It is still a fixed axle, but it plays a heck of a lot better. I amazed myself with my final prototype. Are you interested in buying this yoyo? I think I would charge somewhere around 8-10 dollars. I think that’s fair, but I’m trying to figure out what you guys think. Can purists forget that it’s plastic? Will new aged kids forget that it does not have a bearing? You decide.
There are a few other reasonably playing plastic fixed axle yoyos around. The spintastics manta ray comes to mind.
It wouldn’t take much to outperform a Manta. And yes, that price range sounds very reasonable.
Price range sounds good! But do you have pictures?
I’ll have some photos tomorrow, I’ve been too busy to put the finishing touches on any of them yet. Thanks for the feedback so far!
Sounds great. I love the butterfly, and it can use some work. Looking forward to more details.
Well folks, as an update, I don’t have any photos, but I’ve been prepping the side caps of 12 yoyos and then I will dye them tomorrow or Wednesday (earlier time permitting) and hopefully have them ready for sale on Wednesday.
Can’t wait to seem em. I’ll probably be adding one to the collection 
I have been running behind because of school. The butterflies are coming along, but a lot slower than anticipated. If I had the time, I could get them done and ready in a day, but I don’t have any time until perhaps after this week. I’m also still gathering some supplies that I can’t find locally. I’m officially retracting any dates and promises and just summarizing the release date as “soon”. Thanks and sorry for the delay, guys!
I’ll keep everyone posted.
No rush, just let me know.
Same 
I want to see what you’re cookin up!
As an overdue update, the yoyos have been dyed and assembled. Now I just have to paint the stencils on the caps. They didn’t take to the dye as much as I thought so instead of jet black as I originally hoped for, they are just extremely dark, but still whatever color they were before. That’s with three packets of RIT dye and the perfect mix of acetone/water ratio. I’m pleased though, they look great and play very well. I hope you will agree. If I do more, I may just paint the insides black instead of dying because it would be a much cleaner look without the messy dye concoction. One of them is unsellable due to defects from the molding so it looks like I’ll have 11 for y’all. I’ll post pictures when I have them ready.
I now hate the smell of acetone with a passion.
Soon.
I may be interested in one. It sound very, very cool. I’ve been wanting to see how a modded butterfly would play for a while now.
I’m totally interested, in fact I already have $10 on my paypal waiting.
I call dibs on one!
Where are the pictures?
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8498/8343088223_1036dd39ac_b.jpg
Done.
Nine yoyos made the cut from the original 11 (which was originally 12). I’ve assembled all of them, left both caps blank because I decided that the mix of black dye with the plastic’s original color was interesting and that any decal, paint, or marker would detract from them.
Now here’s the disclaimer about these yoyos.
I decided not to polish the manufacturing injection spots. Why? Because frankly, doing so would have required alot of sandpaper and polish to bring the luster back. I also wasn’t convinced that the plastic would be able to take too much work without warping or cracking. I did sand the star bursts down on all the halves to make the yoyos snag less and sleep longer. Also, before dying, I used headlight polish to polish off the cap decals.
Now, as I’ve mentioned in other posts, these yoyos were dyed with a mix of acetone and RIT dye. Many of you may have dyed polycarbonate, but I never had. I decided to dye enough halves to make 15 yoyos. The acetone made the yoyo halves swell and enlarged some of the cracks and spots. Several of them looked so awful, I knew that I would have to pay someone to take them so I immediately scrapped them. The polycarbonate did not completely take the dye. I used three packets of powder and used acetone to “open” the pores of the plastic. I wanted all of them to be jet black. I got almost black from the green and blue ones but the red and orange didn’t get as dark. Not a big surprise, I guess. The dying process was terribly messy and I promise all of you right now, if I make more of these (which is likely), I will never again try to dye them.
After I finished dying them and making a big mess in my kitchen, They were ready for weights and axles and glue.
After building all of them, I worked a string loop through the axle a few times to make sure no glue dripped onto the axle or anything like that. Some of the string managed to stick itself to the response area, as noted in the photo. This fluff does not affect play, weight, your finger, or anything of the sort.
These yoyos have a walnut axle and sanded response areas, they are less responsive, but still responsive yoyos. They are pretty darn smooth for butterflies.
I think you will find that the axles break in very quickly.
I will put 4 of them up for sale tonight in the BST, 5 tomorrow. They will be $8 dollars apiece, and shipping will be an additional 4.50 for US
Thanks for your patience and interest, I’ll let you know if/when I make more.
They look nice. Pretty good for a first dye job BTW.
It’d be sweet if you bought a bunch of Wheels and did the same thing.