Dark side of the moon.
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If you’re a Star Trek fan you could call it The Cheron.
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Is this a Mulan quote? 
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It’s Pink Floyd my very young friend. Al least that’s what I hope 
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When you know, you know.
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There is that one episode of Seinfeld about black and white cookies
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My first thought, too.
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Mk1 Umbra
This was my 2nd yoyo design, and really risky at the time - it was the largest run I had made, and an unusual design. Ultra wide, light-weight.
It’s a bit hard to find these days. I get asked about it every now and then, even. Eventually I caved, of course, which is why you’re seeing a bunch of Umbras in this photo.
For me, this was an opportunity to make a lot more colorways and really see this yoyo come to life again in a wide, colorful array of shades and hues.
(Photo by @shatterFX)
Available here at YoyoExpert this Thursday evening.
You can see it in action on the mk1 instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mk1yoyos/
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Great read! The world needs more cubic designs
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Ball bearings!
C, D, A, MR85
(The yoyo behind them is an Exia, unrelated to this project, just for scale)
I’m working on a very exciting collaboration with another forums member @Glenacius_K, who found this delightfully tiny bearing in a bearing catalogue. It’s 8mm in outer diameter, while still having a 5mm inner diameter, which makes it possible to design a yoyo with it that has a traditional bearing post, similar to D or A bearing yoyos. This small size is VERY good for responsive play, it turns out.
This yoyo has a couple other features that are brand-new to both of our design repertoires. The prototypes were a lot of work, but we can already tell it’s something very special.
Here’s a close-up of the guts:
We’ll have more details in the weeks and months to come!
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One of five new Mk1 Contact colorways.
Just got them in the mail yesterday!
This is a Sig Colorway of Mk1 team member Luis Lizardo. “Lilac Lizard”!
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Today I want to write about boxes!
If you have one of the new Umbras you’ve seen the new Mk1 box, and I want to show you all the process that goes into making something like that.
It started with a discussion I had this past April with the team about designing a hexagon-shaped box with a window on the top, and EOS immediately stepped up with this concept:
I also found a thread on the FreeCAD forums about a sheet metal bending workbench that can also be used to design folding boxes:
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?t=49546
I made this, which honestly, was quite a struggle. However, the proportions and general shape seemed to work.
I did some research about hexagon boxes online and found some templates that demystified part of their engineering. I made my changes and send a variation of this over to EOS…
…who it turns out, is quite adept at paper craft, and constructed this, the first Mk1 box prototype:
It was not very structurally sound, but EOS also developed a stronger version with a removable lid.
I made a couple of my own papercrafts, as well. For this version I test printed a “blueprint” interior.
About this time I was able to borrow a Cricut from one of my Orlando area friends.
I put together this template and cut a few examples, refining it each time. Of particular note I was refining the shape of the cutout (the sharp corners were beveled), the height and diameter were adjusted to better fit the broad range of Mk1 yoyo sizes, and the locking tabs were improved with some key help from someone who’s a bit famous behind the yoyo scenes for engineering cardboard boxes. I used up most of my blue toner and eventually stopped printing blueprints on the card stock I was using.
In the meantime I was also working on box art, and had this as a pretty quick concept:
Here’s an alternate that didn’t make it, save a single penrose triangle:
Here’s a 3d-rendered concept with an Umbra beside.
There were a couple tweaks after this, notably the UV spot gloss applied to the Mk1 logo, text, and the pattern on the lid, but the end result looks very similar to this concept!
Here are the first printed proofs, then the final pieces, assembled, and with Umbras inside!
Thank you for checking this out! I hope you all like the boxes (and the yoyos inside).
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Participating in this kind of projects is what, in my opinion, really makes it worthy to be a sponsored player. Thanks a lot to @MarkD for handling most of the heavy lifting and allowing me to step in with creative and structural ideas for the box, and most importantly, creating an opportunity for both of us to learn about package design, which turned out to be far more interesting than what we initially imagined.
I still keep the original papercraft model just because it’s very cool to see the final product beside it. I couldn’t be happier about the end result.
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@MarkD @EOS44 super cool. love this behind-the-scenes to the innovating process! major props you guys.
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yea super cool!
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Super cool!
I love this idea. Makes it look like one of those dope action figures everyone wanted when we were 10 years old
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Kind of like a Furby box but hexagon instead of pentagon. The box is definitely a highlight. The inside printing was a nice touch as well.
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New Contact run should be available on July 30th. Photo by the ever-delightful @shatterFX!
This is “Amethyst”, a follow up to the Emerald from the first run.
Making shiny yoyos has been getting more and more appealing to me, and i’m looking forward to making more!
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Baby Blue. Photos once again by @shatterFX!
Almost a pastel, blasted, regular eye engravings. Plays good and looks light. If you just need a bit of color and nothing fancy, this one’s for you.
Solid colorways will be $45, just like last time!
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