Haven’t tried Profly, but I bet it’s great as well considering my love for the Proyo
I prefer the Manta over my Proyo for 0a as it has a touch more weight, but the Proyo for looping. Now I need to try a Profly
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The Profly is really really good. (You should see ed haponiks Profly video… Holy crap). I own 4 because they are that good. It’s probably the best entry level fixed axle for my tastes. They’re simple, direct, super smooth, and they’re amazing at redirections of any kind and they stay super straight without too much correction. There’s no better feeling yoyo for shooting the moon, flips, etc. I would own one of every color way but they are basically 20 bucks a pop these days, plus shipping.
The manta ray is a bit more fancy in some of its features, such as the weight rings and a dual response system that snags somewhat less out of the box than a Profly (Profly axles need a break in and then maintenance after prolonged use). However, I’ve had 3 manta rays break on me–the weight rings detach and get unglued and then they rattle–loudly. I’ve also had two where the metal axle broke through its plastic casing and the yoyo became unusable. I asked my supplier about this and ended up receiving extras for replacement. These also ended up breaking eventually. The clear ones are really cool but the glow in the dark model seems especially prone to breakage. I got the impression that they know about these manufacturing issues and aren’t planning on fixing them. Still, despite the flaws, the manta ray is as luxury feeling of a fixie as you can get without going no jive territory.
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I haven’t bought a yoyo in 8 months. The only yoyo I TRULY really like is my Top Deck. The rest are good but I’d never miss them. I was buying 3 yoyos a month for a long time. I think I just liked getting things in the mail and the feeling of the first throw.
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It really takes a bunch of “Eh, not really my style” yo yos before we find our “Top Deck…” I guess I’ll be breaking down and getting a Profly soon, before I try the Manta Ray. Shame that it’s around double the price. But I love my Bumblebee GT/Dragonfly and my Proyos. There’s no way a yo yo somewhere in between would be bad…
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I would say my budget is a little different but I typically learn all my tricks on a CLYW Akita and then switch to some expensive organic to master it. I enjoy both yo-yo’s equally yet differently during the process.
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How much does an expensive yo-yo help you master the game?
We could ask Jensen Kimmit, who won the world championship in 2010 with a $35 plastic hybrid yo-yo (the Nortstar), or Jentry Stein, who won the world championship four years later with a $30 aluminum yo-yo (the Shutter), holding off a certain Iori Yamaky in third place with what was then “the” yo-yo, the $200 bimetal Draupnir.
I think everyone can draw their own conclusions from these objective facts (not opinions).
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not much you can draw from a sample size of 2. i mean i get your point but to insinuate most ppl can replicate those results is kinda disingenuous. im not saying expense=better but expense can equate to factors that can absolutely improve performance. im just saying it’s more complicated than jensen and gentry did it
Where did you read that anyone can replicate them?
I’m telling you that what you can do with, say, a $450 RSO, you can also do with this one.
Conversely, if you can’t pull off a trick with this $10 yo-yo, spending $450 on an RSO certainly won’t change anything.
The example of the world championships only serves to illustrate the “weight” of the object in this discipline.
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No, I wasn’t talking to you; I didn’t actually quote you or respond directly. My response is generic and relevant to the topic of the discussion.
I trust you’re intelligent enough to understand the gist of what I’m saying, rather than quibbling over individual expressions or idioms.
And finally, I don’t think I said that other people’s opinions don’t matter; I just said that what I said isn’t opinion, but objective fact.
Then, if I have to be extremely concise, the point is that if someone has a certain talent, predisposition, and consistency in practice, they can express themselves even with a cheap, dented, and vibrating yo-yo… if someone’s a complete failure… they’ll be a complete failure even with drawers full of adamantium and vivranium yo-yos worth thousands of dollars.
You may agree or disagree, but deep down, whether you admit it or not, you all know that it is true.
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Side note: love the word “quibble”
I agree with you that a person with greater ability can outperform those with lesser, despite the cost of the yo-yo. Could it have been easier or better with a higher quality one? Value isn’t simply perceived, it’s experienced and discussed. Talent unfortunately is not distributed equally. 2 people can spend 1,000 hours at a skill and be drastically apart from another. For me personally, I have an easier time completing tricks with a higher quality yo-yo
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OK, but if we get down to it, the harsh reality is that there is no weight distribution, shape, or material that can compete with muscle memory and its micrometric precision, agility, intuition, inventiveness, coordination, ease of movement, etc.
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you are saying that ppl have won with cheap yoyos therefor more expensive yoyos can’t help you be better at yoyo. otherwise what’s your point in bringing them up? im saying just because 2 ppl did win with cheap yoyos doesn’t mean anything other than those ppl won with those yoyos. you said ppl can draw conclusions based on your facts and im saying you cant draw any conclusion other than gentry and jensen won with cheap yoyos. so can it be done? yes of course. can most ppl do it? of course not. bi metals for example are objectively more powerful. some ppl need that. bi metals are also more expensive. taking your argument to $450 extremes is excessive and no one is arguing that kind of spending
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Well… twenty years ago… a yo-yo that was certainly not expensive or high-performance, as we understand it today… the pictures speak for themselves about the weight of the object and the weight of the person using it… (note from 1:42… horizontal playing… at that time… with that type of yo-yo)
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Your point is immeasurable. The basis of your original fact would only be relevant if Jensen played against himself with the Draupnir (Like fighting dark link).
I don’t shop on Amazon, but I’m confident that we’ll soon see you snatch the world title from Mir Kim thanks to the many expensive, high-performance yo-yos you’ve been able to purchase and practice with.
I’m sorry but I don’t know who that is 
i think it’s fair to say this was a misunderstanding and both sides are correct. Nobody said money can buy skill. The conversation was money can sometimes buy a higher performing yo-yo
I have 4 manta rays and none have broken, had them for 10 - 15 years. 
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The OGs are bomber. The NOS ones have been compromised I’ve noticed.
Yeah, I haven’t bought a new one in about 10 years.
In fact since spintastics closed I didn’t know they were still available.
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Do you need an expensive yoyo to be world champ? Nah probably not.
Do higher prices yoyos have better performance than cheaper yoyos? Sometimes.
Its all about build quality and spec.
Personally, the ring bearer was a boring throw. I wouldn’t lump all 100$+ yoyos in to one basket over a yoyo that really wasn’t a good example of what money could buy.
I have 60-70$ yoyos that I absolutely love but they don’t hold a candle to my Wildify, Arbiter X or Hinemosu. Its not even close.
Another big thing is you’re at the beginning stages of learning. You’re not going to be able to throw a yoyo and understand what makes it good yet. Proof in the fact that you said you couldn’t tell the difference between the Forma and Ring Bearer. (Not a dig at you at all, they’re just very different yoyos)
Tldr, I wouldn’t stress about stuff like this so early on in your yoyo journey. Don’t lock yourself out of nice things over one bad experience. You’re overthinking it too much. Just throw and have fun.
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