What are the pros and cons of each of these old (undersized) One Drop throws? In order of original release:
- Project
- MarkMont Project
- Project 2
- Y Factor
- MarkMont Next
- Wooly MarkMont
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What exactly are you looking for? I’m not sure you would like any of them
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I have the WoolyMarkmont and the Markmont Next, and pick them up way more often than my more modern yoyos.
Great fun and great yoyos!
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Pros? They’re super fun yo-yos. Cons, a little tough to find sometimes.
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I’ve been interested in trying yoyos that fit the 40/50/60 size framework, and those old One Drops seem to be the closest match. I’m curious to know if there are annoying issues like response pads that are hard to find/replace, or unusually high instability, etc.
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They’re unstable as undersized yoyos are. They’re not going to be more stable than any of your full sized yoyos, even the budget metals.
OD flow groove pads used to be a unique size. Thicker than standard pads but thinner than snow tires so you had to buy the OD pads or use flowable. I’m not sure if they still sell the original size anymore or not.
With that said I think the Project is really fun, it’s light and zippy, Markmont is fast for its weight and has a more solid feel, I didn’t really like the Y Factor, kind of boring and didn’t bring anything new to the table.
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Which MarkMont are you referring to? The Project or the Next?
The full-size One Drops I have are consistently more stable than the average monometal (of the same size), so I am curious if their smaller throws show a similar bump in stability over other undersized yoyos.
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My belief has always been if you can’t do a trick on a project then you can’t do that trick at all. I own or have owned everything on your list except that wooly thing and Aaron is right the only problem with these throws is finding them for sale or trade. That can be a problem. Especially that MarkMont. But all great throws except that wooly thing, I never had one of those.
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The Next.
Also, it’s true that these are kind of hard to find nowadays but so many of them were made(except for the wooly) that if you make a LF post, it shouldn’t take you too long to find them. But expect to pay around retail for the OG Project, that one’s still pretty sought after.
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Maybe I’ll just stick with my Parlay, which is probably close enough at 40/53/62.
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All undersized yoyos kinda suck IMO, and I’ve tried a lot. The only two I unambiguously like are
- The Gram
- Ministar 2
… note that those are both bimetals, and I think that speaks volumes about what you have to do at the undersized level to be remotely close to modern perf.
There is a reason modern yo-yos got to the size (diameter) they did.
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The MN is not that good, performance-wise. That’s coming from someone who likes undersized yo-yos. It is gorgeous tho, IMO
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This purple Ministar 2 looks really nice, but finding one on BST might be challenging.
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You and purple, get a room! Are you a big Prince fan?
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I like purple, but it is actually in my second rank of favorite colors, not my first:
- Red, blue/aqua/teal
- Gold, purple
- Achromatics (white, black, gray, silver/raw)
Orange and pink are okay, but I’m not much of a fan of green unless it leans on the blueish side of green (like my Ashigaru).
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I always see these “performance” comments when it comes to yoyos. Performance is about 95% player and 5% yoyo.
IMO: Modern Performance = training wheels; Old/Mid-school Performance = You had to be good. It may speak to our societies need to have everything right now, without the work mentality. I’m not saying new yoyos are bad, but it’s pretty tough to have a really bad throw on a new yoyo. Even the worst throw it’s most likely going to be a pretty long spinning, stable yoyo.
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When first learning, having a high-quality, well-performing instrument is crucial. Anyone who has tried to learn (or teach) a musical instrument knows this. Yoyoing is no different, IMO. The time to challenge oneself with an old school, unforgiving throw is when you are already good at all the tricks in your repertoire, not when you are first learning. As such, I highly advocate getting the most stable, longest spinning yoyo you can afford while you are still in the beginning stages of learning (a phase which seems to cover the entire YYE learning trick ladder today).
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What do you think of the TopYo Photon?
BTW, does it really qualify as a bimetal if the two metals are merely two different types of aluminum? 
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I’m a musician, used to teach as well. Agree that a good “instrument”, musical or yoyo, is necessary. HOWEVER, all of the above are high quality, and would be great to learn on. While with guitar I’d always advocate for the best instrument someone could afford, I never advocated for the “lowest action possible, without buzz”. Is it easier to play that way? Yep. But you are losing, or not gaining, many crucial aspects. You don’t build the finger strength, calluses take longer, later you’re going to be wondering why your tone isn’t that great.
Same thing with a yoyo. These stability machines that are made today are sure easy to learn on. But you are going to be missing out on some crucial aspects of playing. Learning to play on an even plane, how to control your stability, smoothness, etc. Most yoyos today, like I mentioned earlier, on a bad throw are still super stable. There is a smoothness and flow that the guys who learned on high wall, unstable, even responsive yoyos have that most learning on new yoyos wont have. Not taking away from their abilities, but you can see it when you see them vs. the other players I mentioned.
If someone really wants to play, learning to control the yoyo should be a very important thing to them, and shouldn’t deter them.
But, there is also a time and place for everything, if you are older and just looking to learn quick, then the modern yoyos will be perfect for you. Younger person trying to compete, IMO would fair a lot better learning on the great mid school yoyos.
Just my .02 
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I have no clue what would be the best way to approach training someone for competition. That’s so far out of band for this community (how many of us here are serious competitors?) and what we generally talk about, it almost doesn’t seem relevant.
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