Presenting a brave new direction in yoyo design by Arc1. This is the absolutely stunning gemstones!
Dan from Arc1 is on our forums and had the idea almost as long as he was first in the yoyo scene back in 2019. He set out to design something special and unique that hadn’t been done before. His design first approached the shape from a looks perspective rather than a performance first approach. The yoyo itself got its shape from the outline you would get when you let two brilliant cut gemstones meet at their culet and this is also the reason why he decided to go for the plural of gemstone as the name.
With the rough concept in his head he went searching for a CAD designer to help him which led to Mark Diehr of Mk1 yoyos. Mark helped him turn the idea all the way from a sketch into a prototype. He is also the one who came up with the spintop caps. A feature that made the Gemstones even more special and an absolute joy to play!
Playing the Gemstones
Playing the Gemstones is tons of fun. To be clear it is an undersized yoyo but despite its size it packs a punch with almost two thirds of its weight distributed in the steel rings. Its small size also makes it very pocket friendly. The polycarbonate body is not polished but fresh from the lathe which makes it grind friendly. Even though the yoyo comes with finger spin caps, it is actually easier to finger spin it without any caps on.
This is aided by the slightly funnel shaped hub design. However because the yoyo is designed for looks the finger spin caps are included to offer finger spin capabilities with a more refined aesthetic look.
The real fun of course begins when you install the spin top caps. These allow you to balance the yoyo as a spintop on the palm of your hand or on any flat surface you can find.
Important Notes/Disclaimer:
The Gemstone is very much a piece of art. As such Arc1 wanted to be clear that each one is a bit unique and although they set high standards for themselves there is some variation as described here:
Visual – Since the polycarbonate parts are not polished or blasted some superficial machining and handling marks can be visible in the right light. Mostly on the flat of the black caps.
The laser engraving is done on an angled steel surface. As a result the alignment can be off by a little bit on all colours. At some points the lines seem too thick under certain angles. This is mostly occurring in the silver ringed versions.
Almost all the hubs in the black yoyos miss pin pricks of anodisation, probably due to the fitting technique.
Vibe – Because of the many parts and materials used in the construction, all these yoyos have a very slight vibe, mostly noticeable on the nail when measured at the steel edge and during a finger spin. This does not affect play.
The website states a regular hand/foot pump won’t work - you need something that can generate enough pressure to blow the cap off, like a dedicated air compressor.
If I pick one up, I don’t think I would ever use the caps for that reason. Sounds like a lot of work.
Edit - you also have to wrap the needle with enough tape to get it to fit the compressor. Definitely seems like a weird choice, and a lot of effort to go to whenever you want to remove a cap. I do think the design is really nice, and the packaging looks great, though.
This looks pretty awesome! I do wonder how the hub was installed in this yoyo. Was it press fit in from the cup side or from the response side? If it was from the cup side this yoyo could potentially have the issue many Yoyojams utilizing the Solid Spin system had, which was the hub popping out when pressure was put on the yoyo. @MarkD would you be able to clarify the fitting?
I think it is just pretty honest to mention such Caveats in the description. The Design pushes some limits in terms of yoyo design. Because there is so huge rimweight (especially in the relation to the absolute size) slight imperfections in the seating process of the rings are feelable with the nails. The same fitting process with a standard size ring weight ratio you wouldn’t notice that imperfections at all.
I agree with you on the cap part, a dedicated tool would have been nice but would have driven cost even more. Most half decent stand pumps can do 12 bar. If you use a road/racer mini pump they usually can get up to 14 bar. As far as i know the decision was either make the product significantly more expensive, or let people use the stuff they likely already have.
Thank you all for the feedback and compliments!
This yoyo has 5 spinning parts per half if you put the caps in all press-fitted together.
(I honestly was expecting much more vibe when I first received the prototypes almost 2 years ago )
Regarding tools for the caps:
I did in fact consider shipping this with a ball pump and aside from the points raised by R3stless including a pump, even a small hand pump would not only drive up the costs but also bulk up shipping volume. (Plus you probably don’t get much use out of a cheap one…) I’ve asked around a lot and most of the people let me know that people would generally have access to a bike pump or ball pump.
As a side note here I’d like to add that other methods than air pressure are out of the question because they would either damage your caps a lot or wouldn’t work because of the cap shape (i.e. suction cups don’t work on spin top caps).
The idea to use air pressure however is not new either. Duncan Freehand One AL uses this method but doesn’t come with a tool or pump. You can find a thread about it somewhere here on the forum including a link to a video where someone holds the yoyo half in their hand while blowing the caps out. Don’t ever do that with the gemstones caps, especially not the spin top cap, because the force with which they eject is high and the caps on the Gemstones are sharp!
Instructions in writing can be found on www.arc1.eu/gemstones
(I’ll add the not holding the yoyo in your hand when blasting the caps warning there as well I guess )
I was fortunate enough to be able to buy one of these a few months early.
It’s a fun yoyo with some really fun options.
If you’re looking for a performance throw look elsewhere. But if you want something unique that’ll provide for some fun times and great looks this might be for you.
The hub + spacer are set up the same way as most modern hybrid yoyos, with the hub in the cup and the spacer in the response side. The two pieces sandwich the polycarbonate, keeping the assembly from moving relative to any of the parts.
Pressure from the bearing side won’t affect the hub, and so on.
I don’t have the production model yet but I will of course post all of my cap-popping notes here. Ear protection is very recommended, as I discovered when working with swapping RBC caps.
Absolute nothing but love for @Grapes, the man behind this yo. I’ve had a lot of fun over the months getting to know him.
I think it’s pretty dang exciting that he has created his own yoyo…and I’m proud as heck to see it finally here for sale!
Can’t wait to finally get my hands on one of these gems!
Beautiful yoyo! A bit out of my price range at present but I might gift myself one eventually if they’re still available at that time. The spin top caps are brilliant and could offer some real crowd-pleaser tricks like nose spins.
It looks like the black w/ rainbow sold out within 25 mins! Nice job to the team on a great launch.
I was in the process of entering my shipping details, and when I got to the review screen, the black w/ rainbow was gone. Trying to make my mind up if I want a different color way now.
)
Trying to make my mind up if I want a different color way now.