Mullicabob's blast X England1414 custom ano. A quick review

I recently had my clyw bassalope blasted by mullicabob, and the anodized by England1414. What happened when these two forces combined? Well let me tell you…

CUSTOMER SERVICE
I asked mullicabob, the powder king, to get me a great grinding surface. Mullicabob, as always, was very quick and very helpful in the process of getting this all set up. I was having a hard time finding an anodizer to seal his blast, so he went out of his way to contact others to try and help find someone to get the job done. About a week after I had contacted him about this project, England opened up for business. I immediately contacted him about the job, only to find the Mullicabob had beat me to it. I was really amazed that he was going out of his way to help me out, even though he has a huge work load of powder, polish, and blasting jobs already (not to mention a job and family). When it was all set up, I sent out my yo-yo, and he had it blasted the day that he received it, then he quickly sent it off to England. Overall Mullicabob provided above and beyond service for the small fee that he charged for the blast.
  When England received the package, He began anodizing almost immediately, and had pics posted that night. He kept me informed throughout the whole process, and while there where a few minor bumps along the way (which I will mention below) He always kept me in the loop. When you send off a $100+ piece of metal to someone you have never met before, there is always some feelings of nervousness. But I can say, that I didn’t have any fear while this throw was out, thanks to the constant communication. He quickly shipped back as soon as the anodizing was finished. The whole process was around 18 days, including shipping to and from hawaii (where I was living at the time).
4/01 shipped to mullicabob
4/05 received by mullicabob, and blasted that day
4/08 Mullicabob shipped to England1414
4/11 received and anodized by England1414, pics posted online
4/15 Shipped back
4/18 received package

BLAST
So I have a slightly limited knowledge of different finishes on yo-yos, mostly limited to clyw, anti-yo, od, square wheels, h-spin, c3, spyy,etc. I would describe the feel of this blast near the anti-yo viszilla finish, only not as intense. It feels so soft to the touch, and grinds forever. I find myself stopping in the middle of throwing just to rub my fingers against it, cause it feels so good. The only issue that I had was that it slowly chewed through my string. I contacted mullicabob about that, and he said that he had never had that issue, nor complaints for previous customers, so maybe it was a one off thing. I quick rub down with some denim fixed that issue very quickly.

Anodizing aesthetics
So I had asked England1414 to try to emulate the old large bearing maple drip bassalope. I told him to just do his best, and the colors obviously didn’t need to match perfectly. He did a great job. The drip pattern is beautiful. The only issues there were that the colors came out darker then expected. That actually was a plus. While I didn’t expect it, the colors looked better (in my opinion) then the one I asked him to emulate. He contacted me immediately to inform me that they came out a little too dark, but I told him that it was fine (i mean come on, his ano jobs are around $120 cheaper then other places). Another issue was one spot where the red dye didn’t take, and two dark spots on some of the drips. I will include pictures of those below. All over the issues were very very minor. Most companies wouldn’t pass the ano job as “b-grade”. I was very pleased in how it turned out.

ANODIZING QUALITY
One big worry I had when I shipped this out was the thickness of the anodizing. When I received it back I saw that I had nothing to worry about. In the sun you could still see the beautiful blast glittering through the anno. The only small issue was that it got into the top of the threads, making it a tight fight for the axle. But after putting the axle in, and taking it out a few times that issue was resolved. The week that I have had it back I have experienced no other problems with the quality. Time will tell how well it holds up to wear, damage, and fading, but as for now it is still holding up very well.

Weight and Vibe
  As far as I could tell there was no “vibe” added, and the weight was not changed as far as I can tell. The Bassalope still plays like it did before.

COST
This is where I think everyone should be sold. It cost me around $48 for this whole job including shipping. All the other quotes I got for a clear coat ano job were all $90+. For this $48 dollars, I got a very high quality blast, and a Beautiful anodizing job done. This is a no brainer.

so if you are on the market to give your ugly throw a face lift, I strongly recommend letting the Mullicabob x England1414 team do it for you. They will not dissapoint!

To see more of their work, check out:
mb’s blast thread

england’s Ano page

And also if you are like me, you like to know more about the person who is reviewing:
I am 21 years old
I have been throwing for around 5 1/2 months
I am addicting to trading yoyo’s and have owned over 40 different throws at one point or another.
here is a video of me throwing

Thanks for reading, Let me know if you have any more questions about anything. This was my first review, so any suggestions to improve would be appreciated.

2 Likes

Great review of their work! I have always (well at least since I discovered this forum) been a fan of Mullicabob’s work. Many moons ago he polished and blasted a Septopus for me which came out just incredibly well. The blast was actually coarser than I was expecting it to turn out, but that actually made it exactly how I wanted it. I really cannot rate his service and product highly enough. He will always go the extra mile to make a throw how you want it, and will offer advice on how best to blast/polish/coat a yoyo too. Having now had several yoyos blasted/polished or PC’d I’ve never had a bad experience, and have been pleasantly surprised everytime my yoyo was returned.

As far as England1414’s ano, I was one of the first this time around to have a yoyo ano’d. I enjoy the Delirium Dive colorway, and so I asked England1414 to put his spin on it. It looks glorious, and despite the fact that he told me there were a couple of ano flaws, I am unable to find them: this just goes to show how much of a perfectionist he is, which can only be a good thing! The overall ano coat is excellent and very smooth, which makes grinding a blast (do you see what I did there?).

Therefore I’ll add my voice to that of aironish and say if you have a special throw that needs a face lift, these guys are a perfect solution. You will not be disappointed!

Maybe I’m too critical, but I certainly would not be satisfied with breaks in ano. I don’t mind ano flaws otherwise, but if there is silver shining through where it shouldn’t be I would not be a happy camper.

Thanks for the review!

It is completely anodized. There was just one spot where the dye stage didn’t take, so that small spot of grey is just like a clear ano.