Bryan… you just got a ‘D’ in Mind Reading😂
Why would suggest that I don’t like the yo-yo because I have an opinion on its’ looks?
Maybe it goes waaay back before your parents were even born. 56 years ago, I painting bicycles in my Dads garage. I was mixing my own colors from toners I got from a local Automotive paint store. When I was 17 I was painting Motorcycles on a regular basis. When I was 18 somebody I painted a Motorcycle for, brought me his wife’s VW. The first car I ever painted in the alley behind my Dads house.
I went down to a local Car Painting Shop just to see what Journeyman Car Painters ‘do’. A few guys were in the long Shop driveway seemingly having a very difficult time matching the color on an old Porsche. As I walked back up the driveway, I stopped and looked again. The older guy turned to me and asked me what I was there for? I told him I was interested in maybe eventually painting cars. He told me, ‘Well, you better do something else because this is a lot harder than it looks.Color matching will make your hair fall out’.
I walked over to the car and told them what they needed to add to pull in the color. I don’t know how I knew? I just seemed to be able to see into the color and understand what they were missing. The older guy started talking trash to me when I told him I didn’t even work in a Shop. I just painted stuff out of a garage, lol. But often mixed my own colors just to see how the various toners(combined) would work…. Or not work… and you end up with some puke color, haha.
One of the owners heard/saw this Carlos barking at me and came over. Who are you, he asked? Just visiting and wondering if I want to do this for a living? The owner(Randall) asked Carlos what he was barking about? He said, ‘This guy just walks and says he can match the color’.
The owner told Carlos and the other guy(who turned out to be Carlos’ son) to take a break. He asked me, ‘Are you looking for a job’? Not really, I told him. I just wanted to see what Shop life was all about. The owner challenged me to match the color. He showed me the toner bench and told me to go for it. When Carlos and son returned I had already matched the color. Instead of getting mad, he went and told the owner, ‘This kid has a gift. He has a natural color eye. This is one of the hardest colors to match and he did it like nothing. We need another painter anyways. Hire this guy’.
I still wasn’t a trained experienced car painter, lol. But they let me do a lot of sanding and priming and I would prime everything, changing hands so I would be good with either hand. I was called to the office constantly to help match colors.’’
Within a year, I was painting the Owners Mercedes. And for the next 20+ years I painted a whole lotta stuff. My 3 favorite techniques, I actually named. 1. Cream Dream… 2. Fluid Fantasy… and… 3. Liquid Bomb. 3 degrees of perfection depending on the car and the ticket price.
I only shared the above story for perspective. I see colors. I know colors. I literally see into colors. It’s almost like I feel the colors, shades, tones, saturation, undertones, etc. what works… what blends and what offends, lol.
There is an old saying, ‘Everything you learn comes to serve you eventually’.
So, when it comes to yo-yo colors and color combinations, etc., it’s not like I am just trying to bag on a color to be an opinionated jerk. Obviously most people would rather just say nothing<<>> certainly the best way to not rattle cages.
….On this particular Special Edition, I can see that the right intentions were there. Simple, right? Blend some red, white, blue, whatever… inject the mix into molds and pop out Flags. Obviously it just didn’t work out that way. No doubt every single one of these came out a little different. And since I have never and will never get to see every one of them, for all I know, some or at least a few may even look sorta like a flag?
And the color of the side caps creates a very odd contrast to the Boysenberry smoothie body halves.
Now, on the good side the caps look great! I’ve always loved transitional halves and these are no different. I got mine already and the yo-yo halves look great spinning. They just don’t honestly look anything like flags, haha. Knowing Paul for so many years and knowing his style of art and his great feel for colors, I have no doubt he would Love this Special edition Freehand. He would not care for a second what the halves were suppose to look like. He would just string up the FH and start throwing crazy tricks.
Because I had/have my own opinion on intended theme to final result(visual) does not in any way mean I didn’t/don’t like the yo-yo.
I Love this thing…. And the price is Peanuts for such a well made yoyo.
You’re alright Bryan(my sons name with the same spelling ‘Br’y-an’) You are a good rep for your Company. You notice I waited until this model was sold out completely before I posted my unsolicited opinion. I certainly didn’t want to take the chance of possibly discouraging any sales, lol.
PS…My opinion has the exact same numerical value as every other person on this Forum.
A value of ‘1’.