is it chill if I necropost a bit here? I actually saw this post a while back, saw Hajime’s winning freestyle and bought several pairs of hornets to tweak and mess with them.
info dump incoming skip to TL;DR for bullet points
So for background I started competing in 2a again this past year so I’ve gone in on buying and tweaking a LOT 2a yoyos. I’ll share my experiences with the hornet specifically, but at some point I’m planning on making a comprehensive 2a yoyo comparison/review vid on YT.
To start, each colorway of hornets play slightly differently. Idk how to account for this difference in feel, could have to do with manufacturing differences in batches but its just speculation. In addition, each unit of the same colorway will play very slightly different. I’ve found this to be true of all 2a yoyos to some degree, maybe except for the Loop 720s and their variants (sunrise, match, macaroon etc.) They definitely have the least variance in feel between units.
For the Hornets I found that the starkest difference is between the units in old packaging and the newest “simplified” packaging (a plastic bag folded over once, doesn’t really get much simpler than that). The newest batch in the simplified packaging seem to be snappier and more downward looping than the ones in the plastic packaging, witch feel a little more sleepy, but this difference in feeling can be rectified with the right lube.
When it comes to getting them to feel the same, other than carefully setting up each yo-yo the same way, I actually found that heavily lubing both yo-yos up right on the axle (NOT the bearing) with a thick, gummy lube and giving them a heavy break-in period (a few hundreds of loops, hops and worlds) cause them to mellow out and play nearly identically. Truth be told, you’re almost never going to open up two plasic yo-yos and have them play perfectly the same out of the box, but the Hornets in particular seem to play much better after a significant break in period. (I find the same to be true of modded Raiders and the JLS Loop-Up).
For lube I went way outside the box. I use Speed Cube Shop Cosmic series speed cube lubricants on all my 2a yo-yos. These are silicone-based, plastic safe lubricants that come in a variety of consistencies beyond just ‘thin’ and ‘thick’. These lubricants are inexpensive and worth experimenting with, as they open up more options for tuning the feel of your looping yo-yos.
I find the newest batch of hornets plays best (for me) with one shim in. This gives a straight out, or slightly upwards loop, then I hit them with thick, gummy lube. I set them up with plain kitty string cut to about 70cm, or if they are just a little too snappy still, I like them with the Shinji Saito signature kitty string. For the Hornets I would stay away from other looping specific strings, such as Sochi and Fist Salud, you can try them but to me they just feel bad and loop too high.
For the older batch of Hornets, I take out both shims, and they still play slightly sleepier than the new ones, but after lube and break-in they form nice straight tight loops with plain kitty string cut slightly longer (about 72-75cm). If you already use a dummy thick string for 1A, it’s worth noting that Hornets play really well stock (both shims) with thick and soft 1A string. Personally I like the C3 Pro string for this, as you can just carry the one bundle of string and use it on all your yo-yos.
Number one rule of setting up and playing Hornets never, ever over-tighten them I can’t emphasize this enough. They are pretty durable to hits and knocks, but once you start squashing the hub with the bearing seat, you will RUIN the feel of these yo-yos. Just make them a litty bitty tight and they’ll work fine. @TryCatchThrow is right that these things are finicky, so when setting them up I would not try cranking as a method of tuning these yo-yos.
The best playing sets I’ve used so far have been the 2023 nationals sets in the day-glow green. I have some friends that have them and I have a set and its my main throw(s).
TL;DR
In sum:
- Expect to tune a few sets to get your ‘perfect’ set
- Try finding a lube with a ‘Gummy’ consistency, as opposed to just thick, and use a lot of it on the axle
- use regular type 6 poly string if possible
- DON’T over-tighten them on purpose or by accident.
- The newer ones (white/white, 2023 nationals, Hajime editions) may play better for you if you’ve found Hornets too sleepy in the past.
I think the Hornets are worth getting, in spite of the quirks, because once properly set up they loop tight and fast without sacrificing much sleep time compared to lighter models, which helps a lot when learning wraps and tanglers as I am now. About The only yo-yos better in this respect are the Loop-Ups ($33 a set) or modded Raiders (still more expensive, and they might just break right away when you try to mod them).
I hope this was useful to someone!