I am looking for a yoyo to get my 11 year old niece. She is wanting an unresponsive yoyo now. I don’t have a whole lot of experience with intro unresponsive yoyos as I went from a Yotricks Sage with responsive bearing straight to using a Shutter. I think her parents would much prefer a plastic yoyo until she shows she won’t break stuff with it lol. What are some good plastic or intro metal unresponsive yoyos that can take a beating without feeling too bad about it that can help her advance her skills and won’t break the bank. Budget I’m looking for is probably around $20 USD, perhaps up to $35 if I get an intro metal throw.
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You can just switch the bearing on the Sage to unresponsive
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I’ve thought about getting her a sage and giving her one of my extra center track bearings and I still might. I personally don’t prefer the feel of the sage, especially compared to my metal throws but I guess that’s not really a fair comparison. I’ve looked at the Replay Pro and Atom Smasher as well but I have no experience with either one. I do like the fact that the atom smasher has finger spin ability if she wanted to eventually learn how to do that without upgrading the throw.
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Atom smasher is really good!
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replay pro would be a good choice too. I have one and absolutely love it.
First base, Atom Smasher, Speedaholic, Mojo are all good options.
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Topyo Mojo is a great deal for $14, vibey and sticky with it’s glossy finish but fingerspins like a boss.
For $28 the Speedaholic XX is phenomenal and will keep up with her for a long time. My Speedaholic XX still gets played alongside my much more expensive throws. Smooth, nice grind finish and great for fingerspins although it does require accuracy to hit the fingerspin dimple. Same is true for the Mojo.
Both of those throws can take a beating.
I started unresponsive with a Replay Pro but if I did it again I’d start with a Mojo and then move to a Speedaholic XX after I got through the smacking-on-the-ground phase.
Ivan
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Keep in mind that many plastic throws are large in diameter. When my stepdaughter started throwing, she didn’t like the Wedge and the Replay because they were “too big” for her small hands.
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I like the Recess First Base because it performs well and is very comfortable at the same time (it doesn’t hurt too bad when it comes back at you). It might be hard to find one unless it’s on the BST though. I think any $15 - $30 plastic unresponsive would be plenty good enough for a beginner or intermediate player, performance wise.
What does she like? Does she have a preferred shape or a favorite color? I always advise new players to get something that they’ll like looking at. You can’t really go wrong with other any of the suggestions here, so find one you know she’ll like the look of and will keep her interested.
I’ll never stop recommending the shooting star by iYoyo.
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She likes pink and purple lol. A galaxy colorway or something similar I think would be right up her alley. I know the atom smasher and the new Sage comes in that sort of color. I will have to look into the others mentioned so far. Definitely getting her some pink strings too. As far as shape, I really don’t know that she knows enough yet to have a preference. I’m just trying to feed her curiosity right now lol.
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Get her some Kitty strings. Very nice string. The fat string makes binds easier and it comes in packs of 100. It also comes pretty long out of the box so she experiment with different string lengths.
For the price and availability its hard not to recommend the Mojo
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I’m experimenting with Kitty string first class vs Sochi right now and I know I prefer the fat variety. I find both to be pretty similar, although I wouldn’t say I am near experienced enough to tell anything by major differences. as far as colors go, both Kitty and Sochi have pretty good color options, including a pink that would work for her.
Sage is not too big and is nice plastic. Comfortable for a beginner.
This topic comes up here and there and usually boils down to a handful of recommendations. I’d just go to the YYE store, filter by price and unresponsive and pick the one that looks best to you. I prefer metal to plastic, but for a beginner, a plastic might handle damage better. These are some good ones:
Magic Yoyo Yo3 Hertz
Speedaholic XX
Shooting Star
First Base
Patronum
Spinell
Skyva
Atom Smasher
Colossus VI
CyberCrash 2
Recluse
Shortcut
Colossus VI Max
Diffusion
Uppercut
Edit: This was compiled by a relative beginner in 2022. A lot of these recommendations are still available and newer offerings have come out since that are in this price range, including these (and any others that come in this series):
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