First off, let me start off by saying that I am in no way an advanced player.
I am also very skeptical when it comes to yoyo comparisons and reviews (and I think even the manufacturers themselves are, as evident by the constant answers for comparisons on their ask.fm pages, the answer is always you can’t go wrong with what you pick). These are all my personal opinions and I thought I would share them (in hope they will be helpful to an undecided person, as the yoyo is releasing soon).
I recently got back to yoyoing after a 2 year hiatus, and I was lucky (after some negotiations with my wife) to be able to snag a pre order of the ILYY x IYoyo TiGer as my first yoyo after the comeback.
I got it in gold (Titanium Nitride) as it is a thing of beauty and also even more durable than raw titanium. One thing is undeniable, this yoyo looks awesome!
Performance wise, I think that’s always subjective, but I really loved how the TiGer plays from the first throw. To me it is long spinning and stable, while being extremely comfortable in the hand. But what truly makes me fall in love with the TiGer every time I throw it, is the sound it makes while you play with it.
In order to justify such a high expense, people will often use phrases like: “weight distribution that can’t be done on cheaper Aluminum”. And while that may be true, to me those are formulaic words that mean nothing.
What I look for in a yoyo is not the best performance that can be achieved, what I look for is a unique experience. And for that, to me, the TiGer is worth every cent!
You’re right. It doesn’t mean anything.
Nowadays, all metal yoyos perform well enough. You don’t need titanium to be able to get through complicated tricks. At all. It’s just show and passion to have something more unique or valuable.
Can you do more extreme designes with Ti? Yep.
Does it bring a tremendous improvement? No.
The most prominent feature of Ti you have already mentioned. The sound. The thin walls give you the pling after each throw.
The TiGER came out really nice though. Congrats to Dave for having me design it. Can’t go wrong there. ;D
“I recently got back to yoyoing after a 2 year hiatus…”
That sounds like ILYY itself.
While I appreciate any review, this one is hard to judge the merits of. How can someone who has been away from yo-yoing for two years give an informed opinion on any contemporary yo-yo? You state it is “long-spinning and stable”. Relative to what? A two-year old aluminum yo-yo?
You then sum-up the entire review by saying:
"What I look for in a yoyo is not the best performance that can be achieved, what I look for is a unique experience. "
Which basically says, that this entire review must be taken with a huge grain of salt, if not ignored altogether; since the term “unique experience” is so subjective as to be practically meaningless.
I would have liked to hear more about how this plays on the string.
ILYY never had a 2 year hiatus.
If a review doesn’t include measured numbers, it is always subjective. The fact that one didn’t leave the community for a while doesn’t help at all.
I am still puzzling over the double-negative in the last sentence. If I understand correctly; I must disagree. Being out of yo-yoing for two years definitely does not help in evaluating a modern yo-yo. Remember, these are opinions we are talking about. Do you listen to opinions of fine automobiles from people who do not drive? It does not mean that a pedestrian does not have a perfectly good opinion of fine automobiles; it is just that people will favor the driver over the non-driver for obvious reasons.
My original point was that I did not get any better sense of the TiGer from reading the review. I ended up with more questions than answers. Is this a good yo-yo relative to modern designs? Is the slimmer width a problem for stability? Is it fast; or slow? How is weight distributed? How does the Nitride finish grind? While those “formulaic words mean nothing” to you, they may carry meaning to others.
The lack of description and the resistance to anything describing or measuring performance, is hardly reassuring. Answering questions such as this will help me to understand how this yo-yo plays; and whether I want to buy one. Comparisons with other modern yo-yo’s I may have thrown recently; will help too.
We made 8 different yoyos in the past two years, so what?
What exactly do you gain from a review by someone that says: the yoyo grinds well.
Well by which standard? The yoyo is floaty? How do you compare?
The only way to put life into such statements is comparison between the reviewed specimen and a general known reference. With lots of different versions of each yoyo existing, it’s very hard to name one as a control (that everybody can reference to). And even then, how do you specify the amount by which the reviewed throw is floatier than the control?
Get it? It’s all personal interpretation and subjective thoughts.
It makes all the sense in the world to just say what the reviewer expected from the throw and how the yoyo is able to step up to these expectations.
Two years ago, the Shutter (yoyo that wonn wyyc 2014, and would have won 2015 if not for the discard) was out, your favorite yoyo that you cannot stop raving about, the Draupnir or even the Dazzler, were out. After having bought 15 yoyos recently, I do not see any real difference in the yoyos from 2 years ago, to the ones now. If you want a list of all the yoyos I own, I would gladly provide it.
My starting phrase was that I did not believe in yoyo reviews, so yeah, you should take it with a grain of salt. And what you want, comparisons, are in my opinion, also extremely subjective. I have a Spy Punchline Repeater that I love / hate every 30 mins of play, it all depends on my mood and what I was using before and what I’ll use next.
Hey Dom, big fan here!
It’s awesome to hear from you, specially to hear that you agree with me.
Please keep it up ILYY making yoyos targeted at “fun” and not only for performance.
In this case Geezer is a known troll. He likes to stir the pot and get people angry.
As for this review, it wasn’t bad at all. The only thing I would have liked would have been some nice pics of the TiGer from all angles… I am a sucker for some nice yoyo glamour shots.
It is unfortunate that my original post was not seen as an opportunity to clarify the questions that I thought many others would have reading it. Sorry Chris, it is hardly trolling to ask obvious questions.
The real trolling here are the unfounded, hostile responses to my questions and concerns. I still would like to know how this yo-yo plays. I guess I will have to substitute hostility for information and take a pass on this one.
If you were truly interested, you wouldn’t have taken a hostile approach to the discussion, trying to demerit the validity of my first impression towards the yoyo, simply because I had been away for 2 years.
As I said, before I left, your favorite yoyo of all time, that you cannot stop raving about, was released, the Draupnir.
I will accept your aggression as part of you being a grumpy senile old man, after all you are a geezer.
If you are truly interested and indeed think my opinion could help you decide whether the yoyo is worthy of your case, go ahead and ask what you would like to know.
Here are a couple of photos of my main yoyos (both old and new), you can pick one to use as reference for comparison, and if you are truly interested, I’ll gladly do it.
I already posed all the questions I think this topic deserves. As for your personal attacks; they are childish and indicate you have no intellectual position to defend.
You assertion that you know my true motivations; is just further indication of how you assumptions have tainted your response.
And yet you are the one trolling my thread and not bringing anything constructive forward.
I care not for the “intellectual position” I have over you, I actually appreciate when someone like you go out of your way to try to assert some sort of intellectual dominance in a yoyo forum, it makes me feel better as a human being.
Grow down you grumpy senile geezer
