Coming soon from Mk1 - the Penumbra. This yoyo is a bimetal follow up to the Umbra.
This colorway, “Shadow”, is the signature edition of Cedric Khong, my friend & Mk1 player from Singapore. The body and rims are blasted, and there’s a single understated engraving representing his initials.
5 colorways. 55x55mm dimension. Steel and 7068 aluminum.
Hoping to have these ready for retail in about a month. I still need to unpack, test, and box them. Just really excited for them since there’s been a pretty long shipping delay and I’m happy to see them in person!
Been waiting on this one for a long time! Since I seen a photo of the proto!
These all look great Mark!
Some fun updates:
Cal States
Mk1 team yo-yoer @caralisc will be competing at Cal States this weekend, and he’ll have some yoyos to try out/buy if you ask. No vending table this time though!
What’s next?
This is the 2nd time I’ve made a 2nd signature yoyo for someone. Our own resident Gundam expert, Max Choo is back with the Kyrios. Based on the Dynames, it shares some rim and aesthetic touches, but has as much new as it has similarities. Steel rims, hub cuts, and a slightly aggressive shape puts it into a more competitive category. You could call it a bimetal Dynames and you’d be mostly right. It has the same spirit, at least!
Coming soon.
Ring-Bearer
I have a restock of The One Ring colorway finally. Going to start getting these out to retailers after a couple weeks, trying to get caught up with Kyrios testing so that I can combine packages.
Prototypes and other new stuff
I still have 3 impending productions (that is, parts have been made) that I am waiting for and also hoping they don’t all arrive at the same time. This includes a plastic, a big round organic model, and a smaller D-bearing yoyo.
I have too many projects ongoing, but I’d still like to hear your feedback. If you’ve played or purchased an Mk1 recently, tell me how you liked it/didn’t like it! What do you want to see from us next?
You have seen my enthusiasm on other channels. But lemme gush a little here for other people.
Exia has been one of my favorite yoyos for around 5 years now. I often don’t play it for months and am then blown away by how much I like it when I pick it back up.
I have a Plasm. Which is pretty much my favorite yoyo for the limited 0a style play I do (I know I know…it’s not technically fixed axle. But it IS great for that style of play.)
I picked up a Penumbra bimetal this month. It has once again blown me away. It’s one of those yoyos where once I got it in my hands knew it’d remain with me until either I or it was no more.
Not every MK1 yoyo I’ve played was entirely my thing. They were all great. Just not always my personaly preference.
But these three have clicked with me in a massive way.
Thanks for the glowing compliments. I always love seeing you bust out that Exia in trick circles.
i tried the organic one one time and I think it will be a hit.
I’m enjoying the RBC very much! So soft on the hand. Organic & 49 grams or under is what I’d like to see.
Mk1 Kyrios
This yoyo is releasing next week, so I wanted to talk some about the design process and colorways.
Specs:
- 64.7g
- 55.4mm diameter
- 49.2mm width
- 6061 aluminum + stainless steel
- 10mm axle
- C bearing
- Standard 19mm pads
This is the second signature yoyo of Max Choo, inspired by and expanding on some of the ideas from the Dynames. Attentive Gundam fans will notice that the Exia (GN-001) and Dynames (GN-002) are followed by the Kyrios (GN-003). The first colorway is orange+silver to match the color scheme of this mech.
One of the fun parts about designing a bimetal is having contrasting rim+body colors, of course.
As for the shape, there’s a couple things going on in the profile. The rims are taken almost directly from the Dynames, but with a simpler indent on the face. Right at the interface, the aluminum drops down a bit, calling back to the profile cut - but then instead of a rounded inner profile, it goes straight to the gap, giving it a more aggressive shape with less string friction. Finally, the response areas is polished. This prevents any potential string fraying and helps give all the colorways similar string response whether the rest of the body is blasted or not.
The most distinctive part of the Dynames was the shiny profile cut. Adding it back in the same location would have been redundant on the Kyrios, given its new shiny steel rims, but there was a home for this feature in the redesigned cup, which is based on an (unreleased) titanium prototype we made a couple years ago.
The shiny cut is color matched to the rims, of course.
Engraving art is done by the amazing @EOS44.
The silver colorway is all blasted, including the rims. Perfect if you want to pretend you’re throwing a monometal.
Coming to retailers near you (for example, YoyoExpert) on May 22nd. For only $80 - our first slightly less expensive bimetal model. Perfect for practice, competition, etc.
that laser fade is calling my name 
That looks fun
Use the Luminator or similar organic shape, slim it down to 35mm width, 55 diameter. Then because another company has 54 grams & up covered, use an adjustable weight system (side effects) to make it be anywhere from 49 - 54 gms. I think there’s a (sweet) spot for this in the current market. Thanks for asking!
yeah. it would be cool to have a modern yoyo that can come back easily but also handle string tricks well. I wanna try the superyo renegade but it seems like that kind of yoyo. a modern reboot in that vein would be cool
Mark designed the origin from yo tricks. It’s based off the laminator and has a mr85 bearing.
This is so hard to design. I’ve tried a couple times but it ended up bad for both, I’m probably searching down the wrong path