Opening: I have been buying yo-yo’s again after finally getting back into this great hobby. My only purchase of 2023 was the Baby by XOXO and I really liked it. At the end of the year, I was looking to purchase other yo-yo’s. I found a company called R2FG (Rotation to Fight Gravity) and was impressed by their designs but did not see many reviews for their products. I looked at the Yoyoexpert website and saw some of their yo-yo’s marked down a bit. I decided to take a gamble and purchase the Recluse by R2FG.
Specs (Source Yoyoexpert.com):
Diameter-56.55 mm
Width-43.74 mm
Weight-63.73 grams
Bearing-Size C
First Impressions: The packaging came with the yo-yo and a yellow string. When I took the yo-yo out of the box, I noticed immediately the smooth finish and the smaller width compared to my current favorite throw, the XOXO Baby. The smooth finish is pretty similar on both yo-yo’s. The shape is comfortable in my hand and I personally like the more rounded outer shape. My ideal weight for a yo-yo was about 68 grams before, but now I tend to prefer lighter yo-yo’s since they feel better overall to me, of course that is always a matter of preference. I really like the weight on this yo-yo and this is actually the lightest unresponsive throw I own. The sides of the yo-yo feature a laser engraving showing the name “Recluse” along with a pattern surrounding it. I think the engraving looks awesome and it shows the attention to detail the people from R2FG give each yo-yo. I had no other thing but to try it out.
Play: On my first throw the spin time was pretty good, about 1.5 minutes spin time I recorded. It handled my combos with ease. Also the smaller width is pretty good for chopstick tricks. I am not sure which response pads in particular this yo-yo uses but I really like them. Grippy but not too much and also allows some regens on this. I will ask them which response pads these are so I can use these on my 19mm response throws. This yo-yo is light, so it plays very floaty on the string and makes combo executions feel satisfying. I tested finger grinds on this and they were executed perfectly, similar to XOXO Baby and also the C3 P-Wave. One thing that would have made this throw 10 times better was if they included a finger spin hub on it. I did manage to do a finger spring but the engraving makes it a bit difficult and also the sides are a little popped out to allow them so finger spins are hard to fully pull off. It would be a much more fun throw if this was included since it is already a solid option I feel. I have been using this yo-yo solely since I saw the great Evan Nagao mention in one of his videos he practiced with a yo-yo with a smaller width, Edge FS 2.0, to help improve his trick execution. Since this yo-yo has the smallest width of my other throws, I decided to only use it for 3 weeks. Let me confirm, I did notice improvement in my trick execution after playing only with the Recluse for that time. When I switched to my P-Wave or Baby, I noticed I hit tricks more consistently which was not always the case. I am just overall happy I did this purchase.
Final Thoughts: The quality of this yo-yo is amazing, and I am extremely happy with it. I will maybe purchase another Recluse to practice my 3A tricks, or perhaps I will purchase one of the other models from R2FG. This yo-yo was a gamble since I did not hear about this company before but I am glad it paid off since i really am happy with it. If anyone has any other recommendations from this company, or light yo-yo’s in general, please do let me know. Along with this yo-yo, I also purchased the C3yoyodesign Submarine, so do expect my review on that throw soon. What do you guys/girls think? Feedback is greatly appreciated.