Hello. I am looking at getting back into the hobby of yo-yoing after a hiatus of about 6 years. Back then I was throwing a FHZ set up for 1A play. I would classify myself as and intermediate to advanced player who has never played an unresponsive yoyo.
Recently I decided to see what is out there and boy have things changed!!!
So here I am to hit up you all of you experts (or those who think they are an expert) in hopes of some info on what equipment would be good for me to try out and get back into the game.
That being said here is a rundown of what I am thinking thus far:
I am looking at getting a cheaper responsive yoyo with the ability to eventually go unresponsive with the same yoyos. I am an old schooler who learned back to throw back in the 80’s on the original Duncan Butterflys and Imperials. I am partial to plastic but am willing to give a metal a try if it isn’t too expensive to start. I have been looking at Replay Pros (responsive) DV888 (responsive) to get started. Any thoughts on this or even suggestions on what might make a better responsive yoyo?
Once I get more comfortable with my skills and am sure I want to invest in yo-yoing again, I’m leaning toward purchasing a One Drop Cabal and maybe eventually a One Drop MarkMont or Top Deck. However, I am currently interested in purchasing a Moonshine if anyone has an extra because it sounds a lot like the FHZ I threw but in a metal, not to mention that buying a new Moonshine outright without the other two Basecamp yoyo’s is impossible.
I have purchased two One Drop Marquis with the intent of opening them one day, but I think I am going to wait until I feel my skills are good enough to warrant the reward of seeing what finish of yoyo I received. If for some reason I decide not to open them well at least I will have something to sell / trade down the road. IF that were to happen… which it probably won’t.
I am leaning toward One Drop because of the fact they are manufactured in the USA right next to Idaho, the state I live in. Any other recommendations of yoyos and manufacturers will be appreciated. Other yoyos I am interested in are the Yeti 2.0 and the YYF Shutter.
Sorry this is so longwinded, but I figured this forum would be my best bet to get insider info from those with their finger on yoyo pulse. SO… if you made it this far THANKS for reading!!!
You should check out the First Base from Recess. It comes responsive and can be upgraded to unresponsive play, and it has a classic shape. I’d also recommend the YoYoJam Classic which arrives responsive and can also be upgraded. Great yoyos. Both are $20 or under and handle virtually any trick for a plastic.
Hi. Glad you got back into it! Butterfly and Imperial. If you can actually do tricks on THOSE I know you’re good! I learned (don’t laugh) forward pass and around the world on a red Butterfly. I can’t do anything on an Imperial except a gravity pull! Now I can’t do much of anything on a Butterfly. I think I got spoiled by bearings. I can’t land on the string with any yo I use. I’ve been practicing looping non-stop and am focusing on just that.
If you are not far from One Drop, you can drive over there and sometimes get a deal on throws from the factory.
The Top Deck and the Cabal are great throws.
The Cabal is one of my favorite plastics.
I would not recommend the First Base, since the Replay is a lot more stable.
The Classic is a great throw, but it’s better in it’s unresponsive form than responsive.
I would probably just get a butterfyXT* for responsive play and a Replay Pro for unresponsive.
*The XT is basically the same as the old butterfly, but with a bearing in it.
It’s one of my favorite responsive yoyos because it works well, and is cheap.
That won’t necessarily work. I’m guessing the bearing posts are too tall to fully screw together on a half spec bearing (based on my memory of most OD bearing posts being pretty tall; they would obviously know better themselves). Would also likely need a shorter axle even if the posts were short enough. Half specs don’t work in a lot of yo-yos, typically unless they’re specifically designed to work with both half and full sized.
Easier and more guaranteed route would be to get a full sized C bearing with rubber shields and some thick lube.
One Drop is awesome. For an old-school palyer, you’ll really appreciate how the flat bearings feel, too.
I don’t know of anything of theirs that comes responsive, though. You may want to get a Recess or something and once you’re ready to go unresponsive, grab some OneDrop throws.
Ah, I didn’t think about that! I had been thinking about messing around with that idea on several yoyos, But I guess most of them would need a shorter axle, if the bearing posts were even short enough. Thanks!
As finding the bearing, I posted a link, so pretty easy!
Oh don’t forget about the Velocity. I still thing that’s a great and fun yoyo!
Still can’t hurt to experiment if you have a half spec already, and shorter axles can be found at hardware stores, they’re typically M4 sized set screws, and hardware stores will have them in various lengths.
And as for finding the bearing, the half specs are stocked here obviously, I think he was referring to the rubber shielded full-sized bearing, as those are more difficult to find.
I learned a long time ago on a green Butterfly yoyo by experimentation and watching a guy named Tommy Smothers throwing his yoyo as The Yoyo Man on Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. I used to record the shows on a VCR so I could rewind and watch how he did his tricks. Old school!!!
I was actually able to do quite a few tricks, including a some string tricks, with just a simple fixed axel Duncan Butterfly, but they had to be fast and on target due to short sleep times. Without bearings I had to learn tricks like the Flying Saucer and looping to get the string to loosen up creating longer sleep times. Fun stuff.
Thank you for all of your suggestions. I will look into them.
Also, just an FYI, I have chatted with the owner of another online store and he suggested an Iyoyo 2. I guess they come standard with bearings for both types of play and have quite a few of the features of modern yoyos such as being metal, bead blasted finish, an H-shape, etc…
The iYoYo 2 does look like a nice choice! I don’t have personal experience with one, though.
Just about any non-looping yoyo in the beginner section of the YYE store will enable you do string tricks by leaps and bounds over the Butterfly! I think you’ll do best to go with the ones that are designed to take both widths of the C bearing, whether that means it comes with it, or you purchase the wide one separately. As I said, I like the Velocity. You can turn the dials to quickly change the responsiveness. It’s less modern in it’s unresponsive play characteristics than some of the other choices, though.
