Specs:
Diameter - 55.86mm
Width - 43.09mm
Weight - 63.9g
Materials - 7068 Alu Body w/ Ti Rims
So originally I was planning on doing a video review for this, but its cheaper and more approachable little brother, the Plastic Fulvia which has been a massive success, is going to end up getting a video review instead because of how meteoric it’s been. The Fulvia-Ti7068 (which I’m just gonna call the Bimetal Fulvia from now on) is a great yoyo, but it’s no doubt gonna be overshadowed by the Plastic Fulvia, with the Plastic Fulvia being a much more affordable and approachable option that had a broader general release. As for the Bimetal Fulvia itself, it’s a great yoyo. I think it’s a bummer that Luftverk has a very collector-centric following, because the way the Bimetal Fulvia plays is… so competitive and insane. What separates the Bimetal Fulvia from other competitively oriented yoyos, such as the Draupnir, are the rims. Ti rims on a competitively oriented yoyo is a relatively recent trend, and I’m for it… kinda. The cost of Titanium pushes me to just prefer standard steel rims in most cases, but I’ll get to that shortly. As for play, the Bimetal Fulvia plays… competitively. It’s really fast and maneuverable. It’s insanely good for what you’d typically describe as “competitive” play. The weight distribution makes the Bimetal Fulvia one of the best yoyos I’ve used for zontals. Speed is easy with it because it lacks that sluggish sensation that plagues so many rim-weighted yoyos, likely because of the fact that the rims are steel. This makes the Bimetal Fulvia one of the most predictable and controllable yoyos I’ve ever played with… which, by extension, makes it extremely good for tech and zoning. The worst part of its play is just how slippy it is. Seriously, I play with thick string and it can still sometimes just… ignore binds. That’s really my only complaint. All of this for… $170. That price point for these materials is crazy good. In terms of price to performance, the Bimetal Fulvia just outclasses TP Bimetals, and is only being undercut by YYR Bimetals by about $10 with Titanium Rims? Crazy. It makes me wonder how a standard Al+SS Luftverk would be priced with its performance. Great yoyo at a great price point, at least for its materials. It’s still a lot of money for a yoyo but it’s a great Ti+AL yoyo for a great price. Those who prefer more casual yoyos may be pushed away from it, and those who need a more affordable yoyo overall will be pushed away from it as well I feel. The value rating for this is weird because it’s a really good value for Ti+Al, but overall? You can probably get something cheaper with similar performance that just doesn’t use as luxurious materials.
Play: Competitive
Power: Average
Speed: Speed Demon
Controllability: Easy
Stability: Solid
Value: Average (Good for the materials, Bad Overall)
Bind: Basically Padless
Sturdiness: Play Hard
Yoyofriends Shortcut and C3Yoyodesign Cyber Crash Added to A-Tier, CLYW Beater and MK1 Diffraction v3 dropped to A-tier, Turning Point ASTer and Acanthus, and MK1 Exia dropped to B-tier, Yoyorecreation Optima dropped to C-tier*
Just for you, lightning round for each, I’m not gonna follow the standard format to not nuke the thread
CLYW | Monometal Kodiak | C-Tier
Tried this at nats, and wasn’t impressed. I don’t remember much about it besides that it didn’t feel like it spun long enough, the same problem I had with bimetal Kodiak. Could be that I was playing with a proto, string that was too long, etc. But I just really wasn’t feeling it. Not a bad yoyo but I didn’t think “wow I’m gonna buy this when it comes out”
C3yoyodesign | 7068 Krown St. | B-Tier
Great design and great player but feels like playing with razors. So sharp. There’s almost 0 appeal to the “relaxed and casual” market with this yoyo. Super objectively good yoyo besides the sharpness, really good zontal performance and one of the fastest yoyos I’ve played with. Rimweighted feeling was present but not overly problematic.
Yoyofriends | Tachyon | A-Tier
I’m making a video review on this eventually, so to keep it short and simple; the fact that this yoyo performs so well while being so light is what makes it A-tier. May not appeal to casual players as much, but it has an incredibly competitive performance level for how light it is.
Mowl | Surveillance (new version) | A-Tier
Great performing yoyo that I don’t really remember anything else about. Was cool, was enjoyable, was good. Wish I could say more but it’s been over a year since I’ve used it and put it in A-tier based on memory.
Turning Point | BGM | SS-Tier
Tried my friends’ (@DangItsAndy) when he lived here for about a month or two. The best yoyo from Turning Point, ever. Anubis is outdated in comparison. Doesn’t have the weird jagged edges the Anubis has which makes it more comfortable in the hand while maintaining that performance that makes the Anubis so popular. See the issue with Turning Point is they release incredible yoyos, but add questionable twists or turns that make them less appealing for broad use. Most Turning Point yoyos are insanely good for tech-oriented tricks and players, but if you love zontals or a more meta style of play, good luck finding something that won’t give you a purple finger or fatigue. The BGM has neither of these problems. It’s just hands down an insanely good performer. It doesn’t feel competitively oriented either. It feels extremely natural and good to play with. The shape is comfortable, the playstyle is natural, and you get that highly refined, premium, competitive Turning Point performance. Yes, the price is high, but it’s the only yoyo I genuinely feel deserves such an absurdly high price point. It’s just that good.
This yoyo is… good? It’s machined by OneDrop and has that OneDrop finish so it feels premium, is smooth, etc. But I just wish it was better. To be honest, the yoyo plays kinda average, but it has really good controllability. I hate doing zontals with this thing, it feels like doing zontals with an organic yoyo. The price is absurd. Wish I had more to say. It’s not bad but I wish there was more to it, especially for the price.
Play: Everyone
Power: Soft
Speed: Average
Controllability: Easy
Stability: Gentleness advised
The Creep is good. I tried this at nats after Alan was like ‘try this and the beater and tell me which one you like more’ and I stood behind the CLYW booth next to Tessa, Alan, and Anthony, all of whom are infinitely better than me, and judged the Creep as if my skill was anywhere on par with theirs. I then bought a Creep and a Beater, carried the Creep everywhere I went, and generally just enjoyed the performance the Creep offers. I still do this to this day. The Creep is fast, the rimweighted feeling isn’t very prevalent, and it’s far more stable than most other organics I’ve played with. The Creep has the best performance of any organic yoyo I’ve tried that’s available right now, with the only drawback being its performance for zontals. Even then though, it actually performs decently at zontals for an organic. Emphasis on ‘for an organic’, don’t anticipate this to be great at zontals like most C3 Bimetals are.
No, I will not tell you which one I preferred at Nats.
Play: Everyone
Power: Average
Speed: Fast
Controllability: Easy
Stability: Average
Specs:
Diameter - 54mm
Width - 42mm
Weight - 64.55g (flat cap alu SE’s)
Materials - 6061 Aluminum
This yoyo is super fun! Being a small yoyo can quickly make a yoyo feel really gimmicky and kinda just become this whole thing of “it’s small and spins as long as normal yoyos, buy our small yoyo!” but luckily, the Kamuraiju has the chops to back it up. It’s not a small yoyo that’s good, it’s a good yoyo that happens to be small. Really nimble, fast, and powerful for such a small fella. Feels dense, and while I love that, other people might not care for it. Zontals are pretty good but nothing really exceptional. I just wish One Drop would make a full-sized, competitively-oriented SE again! Give us an SE-ified Format: C One Drop, the people deserve it.
Play: Everyone
Power: Powerful
Speed: Fast
Controllability: Average
Stability: Solid
Specs:
Diameter - 55.88mm
Width - 44.88mm
Weight - 66g
Materials - 6061 Alu Body w/ Steel Rims
Pure disappointment. When I got this yoyo, I wanted so badly to love it. I really wanted to feel the Japan Technology magic that other people love so much. Looks like I grabbed the wrong yoyo to feel it though. All in all, I was resoundingly just… disappointed across the board. Power abound but a resoundingly unwieldy yoyo that I have no clue where the appeal is. The play style of this yoyo felt so unnatural. The unnatural play feeling results in tech having messy execution and needing correction from the player. Speedplay is just as bad, but due to the weight distro and overall weight… it’s just not great for speed. Zontals should have been the easiest with this shape and weight distro, but the unnatural pacing of this yoyo results in excessively difficult zontals. The pacing was just terrible, resulting in bad control, but usually bad control comes with the benefit of good speed, but not in the case of the Shade. Makes me wonder who this yoyo is for. The price for the Shade makes my brain swell. $170 for 6061+SS is atrocious. Yoyorecreation is already fairly overpriced with 7075+SS regularly going for $170, but at least it’s a better value. What’s worse is that the shape of the Shade is 95% the shape of the Will, with worse materials and a far worse price. The Will is $130 with 7075+SS. What’s worse is that it arrived in what can only be described as a bag made from the upper of a 10-year-old pair of Converse shoes. The only good thing I can say about the yoyo is that at least it was really stable and looked good. I’m not gonna judge the rest of the JT lineup for this though, maybe the Mirage or Kagerou is much better.
The syfo is a very fun yoyo that is not great performance-wise. I was bummed when I got it in my mystery box ages ago, but it slowly grew on me and I found myself regularly reaching back to play with it again and again. The Syfo is just plainly; super enjoyable. It helps that the Syfo sits exactly where it’s meant to be and doesn’t try to be anything else. The Syfo is just a super casual yoyo. It’s not great at zontals, and it’s not great for janky play, but it’s incredible for when you’re yoyoing while you’re queueing for a game, waiting between classes, etc. The rim-weighted sensation is all but absent, but it’s super controllable. For once, a yoyo being almost 69 grams isn’t a bad thing either. The syfo isn’t bricky, it’s just stable and present on the string.
Edit: The value of this is kinda wild. In some places, you can get it for as low as $120, and in other places, as high as $160. Regardless though, it’s still not a great price for a 6061 Alu yoyo.
Play: Oldhead
Power: Soft
Speed: Slow
Controllability: Direct Control
Stability: Gentleness Advised
Value: Terrible
Bind: Tight
Sturdiness: Average
CLYW Slzzrd, Manatee, & Dune added to B-Tier, Metal of the Future added to A-Tier*
