Its 1954 and a mad designer in some workroom in Lynn Massachusetts is about to change yo-yoing forever, or so he thinks. Introducing the Wiz-Mo form Comos toys. It “Cannot be equaled for fun, thrills and test of skill”. Or so they advertized.
This is an interesting yoyo. This may be the very first off string yoyo, decades before the term was coined. It is also a “Gyro-spinner” a whistler and more. There is very little information about this yoyo and none on the company. It was patented in 1953 by E.W. Frangos and later produced by Hasbro in 1964 as the TOP-A-GO-GO. I have one of the Hasbro’s as well and will compare them. I just got the Wiz-mo along with the stand and instruction sheet. In a side by side comparison between the two there are some small differences. The Hasbro is a much better spinning yoyo. The metal parts on the Hasbro are just a little smaller. I am sure the designer thought this would change yo-yoing forever. Why would any kid want just a yoyo when he could have a Wiz-mo. After playing with it a will, I now know why it did not take off. It is hard to use, with almost as many bad spins as good. By this I mean, that the yoyo would come of the post almost as much as it would stay on( when trying to start it for a spin) a lot of the times the string would not release from the axel and it would backlash. There were three parts to keep track of and you would always have a loose string to deal with. Here are some pictures of the Wiz-Mo with stand and instruction sheet. I have had the Hasbro for a few years, just never knew what it was for till now.
A detailed look at the instruction sheet front and back.
A side by side comparison with the Wiz-Mo version (red logo) and the Hasbro TOP-A-GO-GO.
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Now the Wiz-Mo in action.
Now the Hasbro TOP-A-GO-GO working it.
I could not get some of the tricks to work. Maybe more practice, but they are just hard to get it to do. This could be the reason why it did not catch one like the company thought it would. The Hasbro is a little bit better playing yoyo then the WizMo.tim