I was given a budget of $100 dollars because I was mailed a gift card from my Dad for my birthday. I had the option to either spend this money on bills, guitar equipment or a new yoyo. I was originally going to spend this money on bills, but since I’m a really bad adult I decided to order a yoyo. I asked you guys on the forum what I should order and after a really long debate, I decided to take your largest and most common suggestion; the One Drop Chik!
Prices:
Solid Color - $88.00
NQP (Not Quite Perfect) - $76.00
Other color options - $108.00
Diameter: 56.75 mm / 2.23 inches
Width: 41.80 mm / 1.64 inches
Gap Width: 4.45 mm / .17 inches
Weight: 66 grams
Bearing Size: One Drop 10 Ball Bearing
Size C (.250 x .500 x .187)
Response: One Drop Flow Groove Pads
This yoyo is Igor Korzhev’s signature yoyo by One Drop. It is a competition grade metal yoyo and honestly it does not let you down. After almost a week of testing it on various tricks and play-styles I think that I have finally come to grips with what this yoyo is truly capable of.
To start this whole thing off I wanted to interject a little bit of my thought process in what made me ultimately decide to go with this yoyo. I recently moved to a new state and I was looking for a new yoyo to add to my collection that wasn’t going to disappoint and wouldn’t break the bank. First off, I loved the idea of the addition of the “Side Effects” and the thought that for $12.00USD I could change the overall feel of this yoyo. This was a really exciting concept because it would allow me to order something small that could make this yoyo feel like a brand new yoyo. My second thought was to test out all of the hype about One Drop’s 10-ball bearing. Before receiving this yoyo I had only used the YoYoFactory SPEC bearing, the YoYoFactory Center Trac bearing and the C3yoyodesigns size C bearing. I’m always excited to try new things and the prospect of a bearing being a “game changer” sparked my interests. Seeing as though I couldn’t go over $100 and the color I was looking for was orange (only available as NQP), I lucked out because that also saved me $12.
This yoyo arrived in a simple and to-the-point box that was just a small white box with the Chik! logo printed on the top. It was a little disturbing that the only protection that this yoyo had during delivery was this box and a small square piece of foam on one side; but it made it here safely so I can’t complain. After opening the box I noticed that the orange color was dead on to what the pictures show. This was surprising because typically yoyos look much more vibrant in person than they do online. The yoyo was pre-wound (but I still unwound it just to be safe) so I immediately had to test it out to compare.
Comparing the Chik! to my YoYoFactory SuperNova simply because it is the only other metal yoyo that I own and they are in a similar price range; the Chik! is definitely a different ball-game. First of all, my initial thought process was to walk into the kitchen with both yoyos tied to a finger on each hand and throw them down to compare throw times. This was an extremely bad idea because, since I am not proficient in 3A, my throw on my non dominant hand was sloppy at best. To say the least, the Chik! (which was on my non dominant hand) still spun almost twice as long as the SuperNova. In terms of size, both yoyos are almost identical except the SuperNova is just a little bit wider. When it comes to the feel of both yoyos, both of them fit into your hand perfectly but the Chik! has a really bizarre feeling that is extremely difficult to put into words, it almost feels like it isn’t there. The shape of the yoyos are almost identical as well except the SuperNova’s gap performs a little bit better when you have multiple strings running through it, and the Chik! glides on your skin much better while performing grinds. The Chik! has these grooves in the gap that make the yoyo slide on your hand instead of grabbing at your skin and wanting to run away. The Chik! is also 1.5 grams lighter than the SuperNova but I think that helps add to the floaty feeling and can easily be changed by swapping out the Side Effects.
After a little bit of thought I decided to clean the Chik!'s bearing because it was extremely loud. When I finished cleaning and drying the 10-ball bearing and installed it into the yoyo, this is where I really noticed the difference between One Drop’s bearing and YoYoFactory’s SPEC bearing. I walked back into the kitchen and gave the Chik! a toss again and at first I thought that I must have wound the string weird and there was a knot that prevented to yoyo from spinning once it hit the bottom. I was rudely brought into reality and came to the realization that the yoyo was actually spinning so well and smoothly that it was almost unnoticeable. I threw it a couple more times and worked on assessing the yoyo in full to ensure that this review was as detailed and accurate as physically possible. I didn’t really know what people meant by “Floaty” until I used this yoyo. It honestly feels like it does all of the work for you.
I spent about a week putting this yoyo through it’s paces by testing it out on my 1A and 5A abilities to see if it was better at either of these in particular. When it comes to 1A, this yoyo is incredible. It is extremely smooth and cuts through the air as if it is a hot knife slicing through butter. My 5A abilities are limited but the Chik! was capable of doing everything that I tried but since the gap was a little bit thinner than what I am use to (SuperNova) and the response pads had a little bit more bite, I did come across a couple snags. This yoyo feels like it is directed more toward the 1A play-style but could still be used for 5A.
With this review becoming rather lengthy and myself not being too familiar with other details that I am suppose to address in this review, I am simply going to have a list of Pro’s and Con’s as my finale’.
Pros:
- Extremely smooth and proved itself to be worth much more than what I spent.
- Side Effects are a great addition for the player who wants to test different weights without spending too much money on other yoyos.
- The 10-ball bearing is extremely well built and definitely a huge selling point for this yoyo
- The color was very vibrant and even though I purchased NQP (Not Quite Perfect) I didn’t notice any difference and saved myself $12.00 even though I would have happily spent much more
- This yoyo is made of much better material than most yoyos I have tried and can hit the ground pretty hard without the paint chipping or showing any wear.
- Feels great in your hand
- Grinds are smooth and the grooves make it feel as if the yoyo isn’t even moving
- Very well designed and balanced.
Cons
- The bearing was either really dirty or over-lubed when it arrived and required cleaning
- The response system was a little “grippy” for my liking
- Packaging wasn’t very safe but it showed up ok
The pros outweigh the cons almost astronomically. I would highly suggest this yoyo to anyone looking for a metal yoyo and they don’t want to go over $100.00. Other than the response system having a little bit more bite than what I prefer I’m sure that with prolonged use, that will change. Overall this is an amazing yoyo for anyone from an intermediate to advanced skill-level, and a great investment. I hope that this review will help you on your future yoyo purchases and provided enough detail for you to get an idea of what this yoyo is all about.
-Andre