HELP! Ideas for First YoYo’s for My Sons? 🤷‍♂️

Yo-Yo Reviews Looking for Help/Recommendation
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Hello all you beautiful people! Yes—YOU—the beautiful, wonderful humans, taking the time to read a father’s cry for help. But, not like a “cry”, cry, and far more in line with the dreaded “dad growl,” we’re all still scarred from. I tip my hat to you, sirs and sir-ettes! (“Madams” sounds so dusty, and hoaky don’t-cha-think?)

As the title suggests, I have sons. I’ve also hit a bit of a wall in terms of figuring out which yoyo to get for us. I have been throwing on and off for a few years, and both my oldest have shown an interest in learning. My oldest, oldest, wants to jump straight to binds. My middle is still working on his throw.

I thought it would be a cool thing to do to get us all the same yoyo to practice with together—same model, but they can pick their own colors. Partly because kids have this annoying quality, where they will easily attribute dad’s ability to do a trick to “…you have a better yoyo than I do!” It couldn’t possibly be because I practice! :joy:

I’m also leaning toward a metal one, because neither of them have one of their own yet, and there is just something special about your first metal throw.

I’m not totally against plastic/polycarbonate, and if you have kids, you know that a metal yoyo can very quickly become the weapon used in an attempted fratricide because, “It’s my turn on the Xbox!” :man_facepalming: I have three in total, and at a times feel like I’m living Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome

My Critera:
1) Able to switch between responsive and unresponsive.
2) Max cost $60, though cheaper is better.
3) Slightly undersized would be nice, but not a hard rule.
4) Durable
5) Metal is what I’m leaning toward, but poly/plastic definitely has it’s pros in this case.

Models I Am Aware of:
1) RCS Gamer Lite
2) YFF DV888
3) MagicYoYo T9 Rock
4) YoYo King Ghost
5) YoTricks Oracle (plastic)
6) YYF Replay (plastic)

I now open the floor to you!

Do you know of a model that I don’t, and you feel fits the bill perfectly?

Is one of the models listed particularly near, and dear to your heart and you feel it deserves a closer look?

Let’s do this!

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Not many metal yoyos are played both responsive and unresponsive, so I’d recommend sticking with plastic yoyos for that. My choice would be the iYoYo Shooting Star. I have two: one that I leave in responsive mode and the other I leave in unresponsive mode, and they play great in both modes. They are available here and in quite a number of colors.

For a first metal yoyo, I would suggest the TopYo Colossus VI. It is inexpensive, comes in a lot of fun colors, and plays way above its price range. I have a few of these in different colors and you really can’t go wrong with this one, IMO.

Honorable mention goes to the C3Design CyberCrash and the new YYF Edge FS. Both are in the $30 price tier, and both are fantastic, but the color selections aren’t as big as the Colossus VI.

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I haven’t played the Shooting Star as a responsive, but highly second the recommendation. It’s a very solid plastic.

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You actually brought up a good point about metals that I hadn’t thought of, which is likely why I’ve been having such a hard time finding ones other than what I listed.

I’ve never used either the Shooting Star, or any of the Colossus line. But I’ve heard nothing but great things about iYoYo, and the IceBerg has been on my wishlist a while. The Shooting Star being very closely related is very intriguing. My oldest would lose his mind over some of the splashes and awesome color combos the Colossus offers, though.

Obviously there is only one way forward: Dad buys one of everything recommended here “to test” :joy:.

My oldest is kinda in that “too cool for school,” phase. So a translucent, single color yo-yo called “Shooting Star” is kind of a hard sell. I think. He’s a very mysterious and mercurial creature at this age.

What about an iYoYo Passion? Slightly undersized, metal, under $60, switchable bearing. Anyone familiar with that particular iYoYo model?

Solid recommendations though, and I’ll add them to the list. Thank you!

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I’m basically just agreeing with what the previous posts have said, that a plastic yoyo in the ~30 dollar range is your best option. You can’t go wrong with the Shooting Star, but if this might appeal to your oldest, the Speedaholic XX is a very comparable option that might seem “cooler.”

Just note that the only one that comes with a responsive bearing is the white model listed specifically with a responsive bearing in the drop down box.

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For anyone who is hard to please when trying to choose for them, you might consider giving them a budget and letting them shop for themselves.

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@zslane It may come down to that, which brings it’s own inter-minion…I mean, “inter-child”, problems. Clearly there are far more options out there than I was even remotely aware of, so keeping this a surprise may still be possible.

@mable Do you happen to know if any Speedaholic XX can accept and work with a slim? I have a couple spares. If I could remove the standard C, and put in a half-SPEC or something…? Google was not forthcoming with answers to that.

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Yeah, any Speedaholic XX can be made responsive, it just requires an axle swap. For unresponsive you use a 12mm axle, and for responsive slim bearings you use a 10mm axle. If you buy a generic 10mm axle with your order, you could throw that and a slim bearing into one that you already have.

Worth noting though is that the responsive white Speedaholic XX comes with thicker 19mm pads than what are the standard, so it’ll be more responsive without the need for extra lube. But when you want to make it unresponsive you’d have to swap the pads too. It’s more something that you’re supposed to start out with as responsive, and “upgrade” fully to unresponsive when you’re ready.

The Shooting Star makes more sense if you planned on regularly swapping back. I just figured that recommendation might have more of a cool factor.

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Very, very cool!

The “issue” is that they want to start in very different places. Which I may have to overrule for the sake of my sanity, and my wallet. I think there are a ton of benefits to starting off responsive, but that’s just me. It’s also way easier to spend time with them when they are into the thing you’re doing. Responsive/Unresponsive is minor as an adult, but a 12/10 year old? It matters a lot! So having one throw that can do both is ideal.

That’s a good point about swapping back and forth. I’m getting from the way you said that, that the Shooting Star is just a simple bearing swap? My YoTricks Sage is that simple, and I love it. Not a huge fan of how it plays responsive though. At first, it seemed great. After using some others though…it just doesn’t quite hit the mark for me with the slim bearing.

My DV888 is great, either way, but like the Speedaholic, it’s a more involved conversation. Different axle, different pads, different bearing. So having the urge to switch after putting in brand new pads is annoying :joy:

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Hey @FullSpectrumDad! Some great suggestions here, I’d also consider the YYF Whip, it’s super affordable (~$8) but also hella durable. I let my 2-year-old play with one! It’s a really capable yo-yo, it comes stock as a responsive, but all you need to do is swap in a standard C bearing and regular 19mm response pads to make it unresponsive. The axle can accommodate either set up. I really enjoy this yo-yo as an unresponsive!

It comes in 5 colours, but I think @yyfben2.deactivated should consider doing a new run with more colours. :wink:

Edit: Whip – YoYoExpert

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Have you considered el mijo from zero gravity? I have 2 and they’re amazing bro.m :star_struck::star_struck::star_struck::star_struck: I think someone is selling a swapped B grade one here in the forum.

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Plastic Freehand.

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Mojo is one of the best values

And XTs are easy and durable for kids to take apart and walk the dog

Get both for $20

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I learned on the Sage. Plays great both responsive and unresponsive.

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I honestly hadn’t considered El Mijo, and I just recently watched a review about it that said it came a bunch of different bearings and could be played several ways. I’ll have to do some more reading on it.

I listed RCS Gamer Lite, which is also a slim-line. I recently bought one second hand from Buy / Sell / Trade and I love it! However, and this pains me to say, for a beginner wanting to learn binds and string tricks, that slim-line, high walled design is very unforgiving.

From what I recall, El Mijo is of a similar design. Though it very well may be more “modular” than RCS Gamer Lite.

Speaking of modular, I should just say F@$! It!, take out a small loan, Lathed Back Design Bangarangs for the whole house!! :joy: My wife totally wouldn’t unalive me in my sleep for that!

@suspense A Freehand isn’t a bad idea! They have some metals, too. I didn’t know they could be responsive. Granted, you can attach a counter weight to any yoyo—one being designed for different play styles may have some added cool factor.

@Shwa The Sage is also what I learned on! I’m just not a huge fan of how it plays responsively, now that I’ve used some really good throws of both types. I swapped it over to responsive just the other day. It felt…slow, and sluggish. Which was surprising because it’s one of my favorite plastics to practice with. Maybe it’s my bearing?

@Exmime I’ll check both of those out for sure—to be honest, I’ve never really thought much of Duncan Yo-Yos. Maybe because my very first yoyo was an Imperial, and I hated it with a burning passion lol. I just recently looked at a Freehand for myself since I’m trying to learn 5A, and I’ve heard good things about the Orbital GTX. Other than those specific models, I’ve always kinda labeled them as more of a toy manufacturer than a yoyo manufacturer. I have a TopYo Selene, though, and I love it. I’ll definitely check them both out!

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The only problem with that suggestion(in my opinion) is the El Mijo is not really built to take the beating new players may subject it to.

Most plastics the guys are suggesting in the $30 dollar range would be good choices.

….If you want a yo-yo that can play both responsive and unresponsive, get New Freehands.

If you want unresponsive mode, use thinner string and a clean bearing.

If you want responsive, just put in a drop of thin lube and possibly use a thicker string.

You have dozens of options… and none are complicated or expensive.

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Shooting Star, Arrow Elite, or the MagicYoyo K2 Plus Crystal.

I relearned all my responsive tricks on the Arrow Elite and then switched the bearing and learned by binds and a ton of unres stuff. Very solid and the yoyo I’m letting my cousin borrow to get back up to speed, then try unres.

All of the above are affordable and “convertible” plastic yoyos (in some nice colors) that come with all you need to swap from res to unres easily and quickly.

Oh and if the Too Cool kid doesn’t like the bright colors you could help dye it a darker color, sticker bomb it, let loose with paint pens, etc. At their level the “vibe” introduced from any of that will be minimal and no big deal.

I wouldn’t bother with El Mijo given the skill levels and delicacy of it. It’s a slimline so it’s not as easy to land string tricks on, etc.

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Alas, El Mijo is far too expensive. I super want one, though lol

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Yeah, so true. I forgot that aspect. You don’t want to buy el mijo for new players. Good call!

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It’s a very nice throw bro :sunglasses: