Enjoy.
This was great.
I really love a good heartfelt story.
My personal Draupnir story started in Japan the day of release in 2013. Yoyorec CLEARED all their old inventory at that contest. THOUSANDS of dollars worth of yoyos sold. After the line went I went and hung out with Kengo who had his new yoyo for sale. it was one of the only yoyos left on the table and I bought it. It was raw and it definitely held it back… but I knew he was onto a winner. Despite that, I never felt compelled to chase that dragon in yoyo design…
YoYoJams patent gave the Draupnirs legend a place to grow. The market was repressed. It wasn’t until that was challenged (by a yoyo not mentioned in the video), and they didn’t contest it, that the bimetal market became something and the Draupnir had competition… and it’s legend could be eroded.
The legend of Draupnir definitely lacks that Worlds W… and it didn’t change the game enough for the next 4 years worth of world champion to play with yoyos that looked like it…
I feel ultimately The Draupnir couldn’t continue to live up to the legend it had created because the legend was and still is greater than the yo-yo ever was.
Great video. I enjoyed watching it.
While I agree with Ben’s comments about the Space Cowboy being the throw that opened the American market to bi-metal yo-yo’s; I would point out that many of us were already buying the Draupnir through the internet well before the Space Cowboy came out.
The Draupnir revolutionized what a yo-yo was capable of. Most performance improvements from bi-metal were felt by those of us that are not contest competitors. Winning contests has hardly been the barometer of yo-yo performance. If it were, the Northstar and the Shutter would be considered in the same class as the Draupnir.
What the Draupnir did was find the perfect ratio between the weight of the 7075 body and the stainless steel rings. Many subsequent yo-yo’s have played with this ratio to varying success. None, in my opinion, have equaled or exceeded that initial Draupnir ratio. Perhaps the “golden Ratio” has been achieved in yo-yo?
I don’t doubt people were buying Draupnier. It’s just other brands COULD NOT design in that space for fear of litigation. No one wanted to risk it. YoYojam did great things but stifled others.
Gentry can use the money he makes in royalties from sales made on Shutters this year alone to wipe the tears from his eyes that the Shutter isn’t in the same class as the Draupnier.
In a small corner of the small corner of the Internet, it’s a legend. Right up there with the Ti walker
get your popcorn ready, I see a forum feud a brewing. anyway, I’m even more wanting to get a Draupnir, sadly I don’t think they are making them anymore. Although their new bi-metals are still super nice looking.
Lively debate from reasonable people
We can play nice!
I do think the Draupnir handles the stress of speed and off axis combos better than any yoyo I’ve ever played
Lmao I’m glad you enjoyed it. You came up a ton when I was researching the draup, and seeing the heat you would toss at people was amusing.
Incredible.
And I made it in the doc! Good ol Bob
Really enjoyed watching this, @KirbyRobot! Makes me want to pick up a Draupnir - have never actually owned one, and would really like to, but am worried about possibly receiving a fake (that would’ve been something interesting to cover in the doc, now that I think about it).
Thank you for such a well done documentary. I’m fairly new to yoyo so this really helps answer a bunch of questions. bravo!
Can you briefly explain how Sigtyr falls into this whole timeline?
Great job
loved this! great storytelling for an awesome bit of our history. would love more of these if you’re planning them!
I like the way this video focuses on the Draupnir’s place in history rather than engaging in debates about best, or not. Whatever your opinion of the Draupnir today; it was a revolution in yo-yo performance; as well as design in 2013.
I kind of feel like the Draupnir was the last “revolution” in design, and we’ve just been seeing evolution in design ever since. Just small improvements here and there. A little lighter, a little wider, whatever.
I’d say the biggest development in yoyos in the last several years has been the rise of quality parity from Chinese manufacturers. Rising quality and falling prices have done more to improve the yoyo scene than any yoyo design innovations. This has had a bleed-over effect in that the barriers of entry for folks who want to try their hand at yoyo design are lower than ever, yielding a veritable explosion of new names and ideas in the boutique market.
Ouch
thanks for the quote at 5:11
Great video!
I feel like yoyo design has reached a plateau similar to the one the iPhone (and the smartphone world in general) has recently reached - you can definitely draw a good comparison between the two spaces. Lots of innovation in the early 2000s/2010s, but a certain point came where any improvements thereafter were minimal because all the major innovation that could’ve occurred, already happened. For years, there were big jumps/changes due to technological breakthroughs, but for now it seems like we’ve hit a ceiling of sorts in terms of innovation.
I don’t agree on one point, for a long time now … I own about 120 yoyos, over 10% of which are bi-metals and some tri-metals, of YYR I have a Draupnir, a Laser and two Start the Riot bi-metal … they are undoubtedly excellent objects but to make an excellent yoyo a single metal is enough and advances provided that it is distributed in the best possible way from a functional point of view … I notice this when I play with the YYF Turntable or even a MagicYoyo Aurora is enough to leave me speechless about how much spin and speed can be obtained from a simple aluminum yoyo which, moreover, has a weight that should not allow it to play decently … 51 gr. … and instead!