A while back, I had a General-Yo Hatrick. It was incredibly smooth and grinded like some kinda grinder–like, a meat grinder or an angle grinder or something. However, it wasn’t perfect for me. The wall was higher than Bob Marley on his days off. And though it was about average weight, it felt a little hollow to me. Just didn’t do it for me, despite being the smoothest yoyo and best grinder I’d ever tried.
I had similar issues with most of General-Yo’s line: that high-wall treatment just bummed me out. I knew the build quality was so amazing, so I was always waiting for them to come out with that yoyo that’d wow me. The Entheos looked a little better, but still the wall’s too high for me. Why am I making such a big deal out of the wall? Well, look at all the best competition yoyos: Code 2, YYR Stuff, SPYY Pro, and so on… they all have a more extreme shape with ultra low walls. And they play amazingly. High-walled yoyos, on the other hand, are great for beginning and intermediate players, because they tend to correct a bad throw. A.k.a., they suck for horizontal and aren’t built for competition performance at all.
One day, I saw the first pictures of the KLR prototype and right away it blew my mind. I was giddy. Finally, General-Yo’s famous quality being put to use on a yoyo that actually looked like a beast. Everyone else was drooling over them too. They just looked perfect in every possible way.
Well, I finally got one in the mail yesterday. It is labeled a B-grade, but I have no clue why. It’s dead smooth and I can’t find any anno flaws. However, maybe it isn’t quite as glass smooth as General-Yo can do, so that could be why it’s a B-grade. All I can say is WOW, because if this is their B-grade, their A-grade must be smoother than Lenny Kravitz after bathing in milk and squeezing into a skin-tight latex body suit.
How does it play? - Solid as an oak tree, sweet as maple syrup, and it spins like a rapper’s rims–that is to say, almost perpetually. It feels a little heavy for my taste, but then again, I’m working on bringing the world the lightest high-end yoyo right now, so that qualifies me as someone who is a wussy about yoyos being too heavy. It really isn’t any heavier than an average yoyo. It looks beautiful, grinds well and it can handle just about anything, whether that be a trip to the grocery store or a climb up Mt. Everest. Right now, with full-height hat pads it, it can be a little grippy/over-responsive. But I’m sure with a recessed silicone job, this thing’ll be utterly amazing in performance.
Should you get it? - YES! It’s got all the quality of any General-Yo product, and finally in a shape built for competition-level play. It’s just as good as any of the other yoyos in this class, and being a General-Yo just puts it at that next level.
Thanks Ernest Kaiser! - you really hit it out of the park. Not bad, not bad at all. Keep it up!
P.S. If you have any questions about the KLR, feel free to ask and I’ll answer. Thanks.
