Yup! The Ai was interesting; I’ve only had passing pleasantries with one.
lol, looks like ya got all the YYJ multi-metals right thar. Must have overlooked that.
Can anyone think of more, from other companies?
Correct, but you didn’t consider that they had other releases that had metal weight rings long before the dv8 release. If they used metal weight rings to go around that patent they wouldn’t have made it in the first place. Capish?
Situation went like this:
Buzzon: originaly made metal weight ringed yoyos → tried to make bi-material yoyo → Patent infringed the dv8 —> went back to making metal weight ringed yoyos.
They didn’t do anything but go back to what they original did.
First YYJ multi-metal I can think of is the Titan Gold, then the Night Moves 4 (which actually also had a plastic core).
Also not mentioned so far in the thread is Werrd’s Beef (and its successor the Mystery Meat), which used steel rims on an aluminum body, and which was never sold in the USA. Not to mention Buzzon’s Rogue, which was made from EX bodies and Zombie rims.
Anyone complaining about YYJ’s “creative slump” should understand that YYJ has always been like that. It’s much cheaper to reuse molds with different inserts and materials than make a new mold from scratch for every model, which at their volume wouldn’t make that much sense. And yes, it’s different when you’re turning out a metal yoyo on a lathe, but their design principles have stayed pretty consistent throughout the life of the company.
And yeah, in terms of YYJ’s patent-trollery, the difference between weight rings and denser rims is crucial to observe.
Anyone remember the ‘metal hitman’?
Metal weight in plastic has been done since the Duncan World Class in the 80s.
Most of the weighting in these bi-metal yoyos can be achieved by design.
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Metal Hitman was solid aluminum, no? But Sasha’s next yoyo after that, the Compound, had steel rims.
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Just to throw in some more metals with metal weighted rims. There was the Jazz-Yo Regulus which used stainless steel.
And more recently the Chinese company EX-5 released a number of yoyos with weight rings. I have an Asura which is really heavy but plays great.
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This is what I previously assumed but hearing Ben say it adds some validity to my thoughts. So right now I think it seems to be a bit of a fad among the Asian manufacturers.
I imagine using a second metal adds a fair bit of cost to production, especially as it adds another possibility to induce vibe and end up with a B-grade or reject yoyo. So if the same performance can be had by shifting the weight around and not using a second metal it generally doesn’t make sense to do so. Then again weight rings add a new element to the yoyo that can help with marketing if not performance.
the hybrid metal design is sure interesting…
I do think the design would offer playability like no single metal design, but the cost of manufacturing such design sometimes is too much.
Yes! Thanks for the reminder! Ahead of its time apparently
It’s also worth noting that YYJ apparently licenses their patents. For example, the Oxygene Syzygy is licensed by YYJ. Don’t know if there are any more out there sold in the US or if it’s cost effective.