Heres my list of the top 5 most revolutionary yoyos, but make sure to also share yours too!
Duncan freehand from 2001. Was the first yoyo made to come with a counterweight and to be designed for freehand as well.
Yomega fireball. introduced the Transaxle which made yoyos spin longer, and kinda sorta paved the path for bearings to be introduced
The Door Knob from A/RT and SF, allowing us to open doors.
One Drop 54 always gets missed in these discussions - it’s the first side effect yoyo, and SE’s are truly one of the most unique and important innovations in yoyo history. Allowing the yoyo to be very easily modded aesthetically and/or for weight just by quickly swapping out parts is a crazy awesome and revolutionary. Not to mention, you can’t really strip the yoyo either if it has SE’s. And obviously SE’s aren’t only a One Drop thing at this point, countless other brands have incorporated SE’s in their yoyos, which is cool.
Also, another One Drop mention (they don’t get enough credit for their contributions to yoyo history tbh)… the M1. This yoyo absolutely disrupted the industry due to its low price, and pretty much forced every other yoyo company to start either manufacturing a cheaper metal yoyo or lowering the price of their existing ones. Major win for the yoyo consuming public in a time when it was hard to get a capable metal yoyo for less than $80-90.
This is a really great video that discusses some of the ones I’m about to mention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXBXb3xdCAw&ab_channel=GentryStein
Early Flores one piece designs from the 20s that required players to put the string on the yoyo. This resulted in yoyos being able to sleep instead of just going up and down like they did previously (see the monstrosity Hans shows first in the video)
The SKF yoyo Hans shows next in the video, being the first yoyo to feature both a ball bearing and take apart design.
Playmaxx Turbo Bumble Bee. Arguably the yoyo responsible for the late 90s yoyo boom, but more notably, the first mainstream yoyo with replaceable response instead of a starburst system that would wear down over time.
Duncan Freehand 1. Everyone had their favorite between the TBB GT, Renegade or Tigershark, but the FH1 just felt like it was a level above. In retrospect, it landed right where modern yoyos do in weight. Playing the yoyo with 1 worn down friction sticker let the yoyo spin and do string tricks for what felt like forever. There’s a reason this yoyo got a 20th anniversary remake along with a machined polycarb, delrin, aluminum and titanium version and that other companies takes on the design are some of their most beloved yoyos.
YYF Grind Machine. The first out of the box unresponsive yoyo.
YYF 888. The yoyo that made metal yoyos the norm.
YYR Draupnir. The yoyo community barely even knew what a bimetal was and YYR hit us with one of the finest yoyos ever made right out of the gate
YYF Protostar. Paved the way to showing the community how good a plastic yoyo could be and likely encouraged tons of other companies to explore plastic as an option
YYF Shutter. While YYF has regularly put out exceptional yoyos at below the rest of the industry prices, the Shutter was the first one that players seemed to truly take note of as an exceptional performer at an exceptional price.
I actually dived deep into this topic a bit ago! Give it a watch if you’re interested 
Until your video the Yomega Raider wasn’t even on my radar.
Awesome video, you just got another sub.
I forgot about the Raider, woulda included that, the Viper and the Butterfly if I had remembered something other than 1A existed. For reference, here are the winning yoyos for 2A in the WYYC. Yomega Raider is the most dominant yoyo of all time, and all the YYF Loop models are effectively just progressively better modded Raiders
1998 - Yomega Raider
1999 - Yomega Raider
2000 - Yomega Raider
2001 - Spintastics Spintega
2002 - Yomega Fireball
2003 - Yomega Raider
2004 - Yomega Raider
2005 - Yomega Raider
2006 - Yomega Raider
2007 - Yomega Raider
2008 - Yomega Raider
2009 - Yomega Raider
2010 - YYJ Sunset Trajectory
2011 - Yomega Raider
2012 - YYF Loop 900
2013 - Yomega Raider
2014 - Yomega Raider
2015 - Yomega Raider
2016 - YYF Loop 1080
2017 - YYF Loop 2020
2018 - YYF Loop 2020
2019 - JPL Loop Up
*2021 Online - YYF Loop 720
*2022 Online - Yomega Raider
2023 - Duncan Hornet
I agree with a lot of the picks here, but i think the most revolutionary thing about the Shutter was its marketing.
I think Yoyojam deserves more mention. If nothing else for C bearings and 19mm response grooves.
Agreed, Gentry and YYF put a lot of work into advertising the Shutter.
There should be hspin envy and pyro.
And here’s a medieval attempt at a wide gap yo-yo.
Bottom pic says they are double sided buttons probably used for closing tents
After reading the article more closely I see that’s how these are described by the museum. The article starts with a description of an old artist rendering of a Dutch boy playing with one of these as a yo-yo. I can totally see these being buttons for assembling large tent sections too though. Many were found at Roman Army camp sights so this seems to reinforce the tent fastener use.
duncan freehand, (first cw) yomega fireball (first transaxle) yyf 888 (first big metal)
I love the idea of some bored roman soldiers using them as throws 
