-The Razor ‘Pocket Pros’ Zombie-
The Moon slowly began to rise into the night time sky. The Crickets had begun to chirp, and the clouds were slowly fading. And there I was. In the Toys R us parking lot. Soon I would walk casually into the store, unaware that waiting inside, was the one thing that would change my life… forever.
Okay, actually, forget that last part 
So I walked into the store, eager to check the Yo-Yo aisle. Of course, the “Yo-Yo aisle” is really just a small display that is home to some classic Yo-Yos such as Duncan Imperials, Yomega Brains, etc. So I approach the fine display of return tops, and scan the brackets for something interesting. It appeared to be the usual assortment of basic Yo-Yos they always have. Then something catches my eye; What’s this? It’s a… Reads package Pocket Pros Zombie?? What is this Pocket Pros?
Clearly I was confused. I had discovered some sort of strange new Aluminum Yo-Yo that was priced at an incredible $15.00. So did I buy it?
Heck No.
I put it back on the shelf, and went straight to my number one source of Yo-Yo related info:
Clicking on the Handy-Dandy forums, I began researching everything I could about Pocket Pros and it’s “Zombie”. As the amount of information I had on the Yo-Yo grew, my expression slowly began to darken.
The reviews on this Yo-Yo were not good.
So I went ahead and decided that I was not going to be adding the Zombie to my collection.
A week or so passed.
One lovely morning I was sitting on the couch watching the TV, when my wonderful show was interrupted by the commercial break. Dang it. My groan of frustration was suddenly cut off by this:
Hey lookie it’s that Yo-Yo I rejected. Hmmm…
My mind slowly drifted away from the TV, and over to the computer.
I figured that since some time had passed, there might be some more interesting info on the Zombie.
Sure enough, more topics had appeared that were about the super-cheap Aluminum Yo-Yo. I also found some articles about the Yo-Yo through Google. Slowly, my re-assured opinion about the Zombie being lame became clouded. Several people were now saying it was a smooth-spinning Yo-Yo, while others claimed it had a terrible vibe. One source said the Yo-Yo’s stock bearing came dripping with Thick lube, while others said it appeared to have almost no lube at all. WHAT?
Still, I continued to avoid the Zombie throughout my frequent visits to the Toys R us.
Upon one day, I was browsing through YouTube. I stumbled across some website’s advertisement for the Zombie. It said the Yo-Yo was amazing and had a super-high performance level for even the most advanced players.
Seriously?
My judgment now completely thrown out of whack, I went back to YoYoExpert one more time to check people’s reviews. Of course, now I was hearing the Yo-Yo was awful and anyone would be better off buying a Duncan Freehand.
Okay, this is where I draw the line. I want to see for myself what this Yo-Yo is really like.
Next time I dropped by Toys R us, I grabbed the last Zombie off the shelf and took it home for my own experimental purposes. (And no, I didn’t steal it Lol)
So lets see here. I took some scissors off the Kitchen table, and completely obliterated the package (I have no tolerance for sealed plastic packaging).
I pick up the Yo-Yo.
Oooo it’s heavy.
Interesting.
So I tie the string (A type six Poly/cotton string) to my finger and give it a throw. Eh. String’s to short. I ditch the string and slip on a 100% Green Polyester string into the gap. Okay, that’s better. So now for the first time I take a moment to test the Yo-Yo’s playability. Hmm. Well, it’s not half bad. It’s got minimal vibe, and it’s not over-responsive. As a matter of fact, the response reminds of the way a Duncan Yo-Yo is with one worn-out silicone sticker.
Okay, very interesting. Time to check out it’s guts.
Unscrewing the Yo-Yo, I was pleased to see that the bearing was a Size C. Kudos to Pocket pros for that. Well how about the lube? Well, it appears to have some sort of lube in it… but it’s not much. So how about the response? Well the website says the response is a pair of “Reversible silicone Brake pads”. By “Reversible”, It’s referring to the fact that the Pads have “Bumpy side” and a “Smooth side” which is said to make the Yo-Yo play less responsive. Well the Bumpy side was facing the string, so desiring less response, I flipped the pads over to the smooth side. Unfortunately, the pads didn’t seem to fit snug in the response groove when they were flipped (>:(), so I reluctantly flipped them back to the way they were.
A little less than satisfied, I screwed the Yo-Yo back together. I decided I would test some more difficult tricks. Lets try Kwijibo.
Wow.
I landed it on my first try. Lets try that again: HEY I did it again! Wow that’s cool because I miss Kwijibo half the time I try it. Hmm. Okay well for some reason the Zombie makes Kwijibo really easy for me.
Weird.
Okay now how about my recent, super-complex string trick? can it do that on this thing?
Nope.
The Yo-Yo stopped spinning and fell off the string before I was even half-way done. Okay well maybe that was to many layers of string. Maybe it would be better if I tried my really fast, Yuuki Spencer inspired combo.
Nope.
It ran out of spin again. Well, this is kind of annoying. Why don’t I try something simple like a… Palm Grind. It probably won’t have much trouble with a Grind since it’s metal. I’m sure I’ll be able to land this.
Nope.
The surface on this thing just isn’t smooth enough. As a matter of fact, it seems like it was anodized, and then coated in some sort of a glossy enamel O_o
Yeah, this Yo-Yo isn’t exactly a “Grinder”. Well, maybe I can try Kwijibo again…
Yep.
It would seem the only trick I can do on this is Kwijibo. Well… lets try some whips. How about Jade whip: Did it on my first try.
Well this appears to be going in a positive direction. Lets try a whip combo. Everything went fine until the backwards double Laceration, which I missed. What about a plain old double Laceration? Again, I missed. Ugh. maybe just a average Laceration? Hit it on my first try. Well, maybe I just needed to warm up. Lets try that whip combo one more time. I missed the last catch again.
So I eventually concluded that it isn’t very easy to land complicated whips on the Zombie. It’s probably because this thing isn’t very wide.
(And no, I wasn’t missing the tricks because I’m lame Lol I can land all those whips and Lacerations easily with one of my CLYW’s).
So I continued to play with it for a while. Attempting various Slacks and Combos. Most of the time it either snagged the string and rapidly stopped spinning or it just flat out ran out of spin time completely. I decided that I was doing tricks that were way beyond what the Zombie can cope with (which really makes me roll my eyes, since the package says; “The Zombie gives you the slickest look and the highest performance!”). So I decided to try some basic string tricks.
Braintwister, Split the atom, Matrix, Mach 5 (five reps), Cold fusion, Buddah’s revenge, etc. Landed them all on my first try with no effort at all. Okay, so this Yo-Yo can handle intermediate tricks easily. I’ll give it that. But as far as “The ultimate high performance yo-yo experience” goes, the Zombie doesn’t qualify.
Also, I’m not entirely impressed with the Zombie’s design. it barely has any Rim weight, and the Butterfly shape is very narrow. Still, It seems to play OK when you consider those facts.
As far as the looks go, see for yourself:
(I’ll also note that the Zombie only comes in Green, Red, and Silver)
All in all, the Zombie is not bad for the price. Plus, it has the magical ability to land Kwijibo
So who would I recommend this Yo-Yo for? I would recommend it for someone who’s looking to upgrade from something like a Duncan Mosquito or a Yomega Brain. If you’re currently using something like a Legacy or a Velocity, then don’t buy a Zombie Just because it’s Aluminum.
Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this review. And always feel free to leave a comment 
Other reviews by me:
CLYW Large bearing Bassalope review (This is a more proper review)
