This whole premise seems kind of weird to me. When so much comes down to personal preference why risk getting something you don’t like when the odds are fairly high that will be the case?
And it’s not like you can just dump them in the BST cuz everyone else who didn’t like theirs will be doing the same thing, so they’re either harder to sell or you’re going to have to really cut the price.
Even if you’re excited to try a variety of designs, there’s no guarantee that the yo-yos will be varied enough to meet those criteria either.
If this service works for you great, i just don’t see the appeal personally.
I’m leaning this way. I was really getting back into the hobby when I joined, but my collection has grown fast. Now I’m feeling like I need to be more selective about what I grab, there’s been some cool exclusives in the past so I’ve been hoping for more of those.
I guess this month’s could be considered an exclusive, its a total mystery yoyo. I wonder if Exotic Throws is going for the sf mystery vibe, and just totally botched their debut?
This is exactly what I tell myself during the tier 1 and 2 months, with intention to cancel before tier 3, but then the gambling rush sets in.
If you set your expectations and consider part of the cost is going towards the experience of it all, it helps keep it fun. I do agree though that there needs to be a quality bar that is met every time, which doesn’t seem to be the case this time around. That’s not fun at all, and I hope those affected get taken care of.
Ryan is working with me to get mine straightened out. He also told me Exotic Throws is a new company started by a young man who has been active on the east coast scene, and that the salamander went through 3 runs of prototypes. Exotic Throws has also reached out to me, which I appreciate. I told Ryan that when he’s dropping a new throw from a new company, including some information about the yoyo and its maker would be really helpful. That’s part of the value proposition when I’m buying a high end throw.
The salamander should be something I really like, it has the shape, size and weight that matches with other yoyos I enjoy. I am liking it a lot more now that I’m not so angry about it.
Hey guys. So I have read every reply with on this thread and thought it would only be appropriate to respond.
First, some background information. I have been a member of the yoyo community for 10+ years and the Salamander is a design I have worked on since 2016. The Salamander is machined at the Foxland machine shop in the USA and was anodized by Gruntbull. The string included is actually a custom design that kitty string did exclusively for Exotic Throws.
My goal with the Salamander was to make a premium USA yoyo that shows the full potential of monometal design. I really do believe that the Salamander is the one yoyo that can do everything you would need on the stage and off. Because of this the yoyo is going to retail at $120.
Now that being said, the main concern seems to be vide and the anno not matching up which is actually two of the same issues. After I reached out to Gruntbull I was promised a a burgendy colorway which is the one you received. I hadn’t seen anything like this before and wanted to use this as the special color for the monthly throw so that the subscribers would have something truly unique. About 6 weeks went by and I had received the order back from Gruntbull. I had only ordered enough to fulfill the order placed by the monthly throw and started testing what I had. Certain halves that had too much ano caused a little vibe so we had to swap for the smoothest possible throw with what we had. That is why there is often a lighter half with a darker-less shiny one. The shiny haves balanced out the darker ones as best as I could.
Since then we have reached out to Gruntbull requesting some sort of compensation back for the inconsistency. I am truly empathic to those of you who are disappointed with our new throw but I am still extremely proud of how it plays and I really do believe it is one of if not the best monometals around.
In the future, we will be more vigilant about the quality of our products. I never wanted to make anybody feel like they were ripped off and it truly hurts to see this reaction but it is completely my fault.
I hope everybody is at least happy with how the yoyo plays and realizes that the monthly throw is a good group of people that would never do something like this intentionally. I ask you guys to blame me for everything and don’t let this leave a bad taste in your mouth about the monthly throw.
As far as social media, we do have an Instagram which is Exotic.throws and a website which is exoticthrows.com that will be up and running soon.
I really do appreciate everyone’s feedback. Thanks for growing with me. I will do better for you guys.
Don’t beat yourself up too bad! I’m sure it’s a great yoyo that has a lot of your time and efforts in it! I’ve had nothing but positive experiences buying from Monthly Throw! They even sent me a 2nd one free on an order once! Also, from what I’ve heard I don’t think this is the first batch to have issues after a GBull anno job.
Thanks for the contribution! I’ll be looking forward to seeing Exotic Throws grow.
I actually carried my Salamander all evening yesterday and I thought about coming in here to comment about it. After reading your reply, I wish I had. It really is a super fun throw and you SHOULD be proud! I’m sorry that the kick-off went the way it did, but you still created something great and it sounds like you learned a lot. You have a great attitude and I look forward to seeing more from
you!
Letting people know these were “b-grades” from the start would have been nice.
With how many yoyos, and companies, there are currently out on the market receiving a b-grade, no-name, solid color, monometal for the t3 was a let down. For ~$120 this thing should feel a lot better.
For sure appreciate the transparency… after the fact.
This is the first time I am hearing about the “Monthly Throw Box”. I am thinking about signing up, who here would recommend it? Also, if you do recommend the service what tier would you recommend?
I think I told you this already, but I really like the burgandy. Its a great color, and I’m super sorry to hear the anodizer screwed this up for you. I do find the salamander to be enjoyable, if I’d paid an appropriate price for the condition of the yoyo I’d be very happy with it. If the yoyo came to me in the condition I expect from high end yoyo I’d be happy. Neither happened.
I still have a real problem with how all this played out, more so because quite a few of us were impacted by this and we were given no option, no warning. I think I’m just not cut out for mystery boxes. Throwing is my get away and stress relief, and this is exactly the kind of annoyance I do not want to deal with in a hobby. I could have spent that $100 on a yoyo I really want to have.
Edit: it turns out this issue has been completely resolved and only affected a few people so ignore the rest of my comment.
Yeah I think whoever runs the mystery box program should have done something to compensate you guys in some way, like upgrading the next package.
At the very least they could have chosen a different yo-yo and given you guys this one either when the issues were straightened out or at a lower tier.
If I were a person considering signing up for the service I’d probably reconsider after this. This dude says it’s all on him but it’s not, the monthly throw guys still chose to send a subpar product out without warning or compensation.
Edit: it seems like this was not a prevalent issue and has been completely resolved so ignore the rest of my comment here.
I still don’t get how the Monthly Throw folks didn’t give everyone advance notice of there being an issue with an option to replace or get their money back or at least hold off and release this one later at a lower tier.
I’d be a lot less understanding than most people seem to be about the situation. Seems like they were banking on people just dealing with it and not complaining.
