I’ve watched over 100 yoyo reviews on Youtube. Most reviewers (not all) will never say anything bad about a yoyo. I understand. A bad review may cut down on the number of free yoyos that companies send them to review. What I don’t understand is statements like…
“This yoyo is slow, which makes it fun.”
“This yoyo is not as stable as most, which makes it fun.”
“This yoyo has sharp edges which hurts when you catch it, which makes it fun.”
Is “fun” a code word for “bad” in the yoyo community?
Lately, “fun” has become code for yoyos that aren’t designed for competition.
I think the term “fun” is really subjective. People have different tastes and preferences. For instance, Mustang is really kinda a slow yoyo, but it perfect suits Takeshi’s style.
I think most yo-yo’s are functional, so any odd quirk or variation is at the very least mildly amusing to play with, hence “fun.” It happens to be about as nondescript as the term “Kind” or “nice” when applied to a person. I would just say it’s a buzzword that fills space and gives the obligatory adjective they need so they don’t just say “here’s another yo-yo.” Not much of a review then. If you want to see some interesting reviews, check out Dylan Kowalski’s stuff. He has plenty of negative things to say about some yo-yo’s. He specifically looks for pieces of junk to throw and destroy. It’s great.
Aren’t all yoyos meant to be fun?
Funny you should mention him. I put him on my favorites list, watched a few videos, didn’t care for them, took him off. After a while I watched a few more of his videos, put him back on my favorites list, and now he is one of my three favorite reviewers.
Yes. Do all yoyos succeed? I don’t think so, but one reviewer actuallyt posted a video saying that there are no bad yoyo’s anymore.
I’d say fun is used to talk about yoyos that aren’t meant to be performance machines
Apparently not. I often hear the sentiment that a yoyo is either high-performance and meant for compeition or it is “chill” and meant for fun. As if performant and fun were opposite ends of a spectrum.
I can’t tell if the folks who say this (and you hear it and read it quite often) mean “this yoyo isn’t super stable and long spinning (i.e., it is competition-oriented), but it is still fun nonetheless,” or if they mean “this yoyo isn’t stable and long spinning, instead it is fun.” Maybe some people mean the former and others mean the latter. 
I think competition ready is code for predictable. Fun could mean a myriad of things. My Qubit is not the greatest performer, but I seem to have the most “fun” with it. It’s an element x, and maybe personal.
I honestly think it depends on the reviewer. I have watched one reviewer occiasionally use the term for yoyos that are not competition designed but still enjoyable because they are different. Another reviewer seems to take the position that any piece of crap can be described as “fun”.
I think these reviewers are being a little defensive; as though they need to defend a yoyo’s lack of performance by calling it out as “fun”. My guess is that this is a reaction to modern yoyo design trends which have been aimed at more and more stability and speed, i.e., what modern competitors look for. The “old school, just for fun” crowd is perhaps feeling somewhat marginalized, and feel the need to remind everyone that just because a yoyo isn’t competition-oriented doesn’t mean it isn’t worth having/throwing.
I always felt “competition-ready” meant an angular and nimble design that sacrifices comfort for performance.
Just earlier I was talking about a yo-yo and said something along the lines of ‘it’s not my highest performing yoyo, but it is one of the funnest I’ve tried.’
By this I mean it’s not as powerful, long spinning/fast or stable. For me personally when I think of a super high performing competition driven yoyo…I think of my AL7 Banshee which is insanely stable, powerful an long spinning.
It’s harder for me to describe what I mean by ‘fun’. Usually it has something to do with the way it feels in the hand for me (like for example my AL7 Banshee has pretty sharp rims and isn’t very fun to catch or to hold…while something like the O shape of my Batsquatch is very comfortable to hold and catch). A fun yo-yo to me might not be as fast, long spinning or stable as some of my other high performing yo-yos…but they are still typically more than capable of anything I’ll likely be able to ever throw at them but are also just a lot of fun to toss around. Maybe it’s the weight of the yoyo and how it feels on the string or swinging around in the air…or the shape of the yoyo…or (lol I’m having a hard time coming up with more examples here).
It might not feel as high performing as some of the highest performing yoyos I own (Banshee, Endgame, Hummingbird…etc) but it’s still a lot of ‘fun’ to throw around.
It’s hard for me to word these things.
So I just use the terms “competition driven”, “fun”, “high performing” etc. etc…which I know isn’t very descriptive or helpful…but it hurts my brain when I try to think too hard! lol
Fun for me is likely to change and evolve over time, but right now (and since I started on this journey back in Fall '18), it means landing tricks consistently and learning new tricks quickly and with as little frustration as possible. Yoyos with lots of stability and spin time are the kind that do that for me more than any other kind. That’s why rim-weighted, high-performance, competition-oriented yoyos have been the most fun for me. If a yoyo makes doing/learning tricks harder, then it isn’t fun for me to play with. Simple as that.
Also, ugly yoyos aren’t fun. Just sayin’.
Quoted for truth!
I don’t think there are any bad yoyos, but rather there are yoyos that are made for different types of people. For example, if a yoyo isn’t stable, it’s certainly bad from a comp perspective, but there’s probably a casual player out there who’ll love it.
I do think yoyo reviewers could be a bit harsher and talk a little bit more about the cons of certain yoyos, and maybe talk about what type of player would like a certain yoyo, but I wouldn’t say that there is any code word for “bad.” There simply aren’t many “bad” yoyos out there anymore.
TokYo-Yo is the most honest I’ve come across.
In my opinion, fun doesn’t necessarily mean bad, but it could mean bad for competition or not ideal for competition. For example, the Yoyojam Synergy, a yoyo with spinning rims, is “fun”, but not good for competition. I would say “fun” is just a describer for something that you shouldn’t expect to be an insane performer, but may be fine for every day use.
But why do “fun” and “insane performer” have to be mutually exclusive?