Prescript:
I got the Recrev No.9 during black Friday. It was a cheap throw and was getting rave reviews from throwers Josh Yee (Jayyo) and Chris Allen (Dryoyo, yoyoskills.com.) I figured I could trust these members to give me an honest to god review. From what I heard: Good horizontals, you have to be accurate with your binds, the yoyo will unscrew during play if you are unfortunate, nice string rejections. I will be comparing me experiences to those of other throwers. However, I enter this review with my own bias. Alex Kim, the owner of Recrev, is notorious on the forums for being a con artist on the buy sell trade. Has Alex changed since BIO, or will this review just give him a badrep?
RecRev No. 9 Stats:
Diameter: 54.60 mm / 2.15 inches
Width: 38.77 mm / 1.53 inches
Gap Width: 4.5 mm / .18 inches
Weight: 69.3 grams
Response: General Yo Hat Pads
Bearing Size: Size C (.250 x .500 x .187)
First Impressions/Shape:
As I ripped open the USPS box, the only things in there were an unlabeled white plastic container, 100 count of yellow polyester and 9 trading cards (I can see this review is already taking a turn for the supernatural.) I picked up the container and popped the cap. Inside was a silver no.9 surrounded by what seems to be a soft foam to make the yoyo fit snugly and protect it during shipping. I LOVE this packaging. It is safer than cardboard boxes and you can put in other yoyos that have similar diameters (54 anyone?) The package is very sturdy and will not fall apart. The yoyo is often compared to a stackless superstar. However, I now realize the two are incomparable. The inner hub is flat on the no.9, the rims are designed slightly different, the diameter is smaller on the no.9 and the weight is as heavy as a stacked superstar. The rims on the no.9 look to have machining marks that you cannot feel. The surface on the no.9 is very VERY smooth. If it is blasted (which I doubt) the guts have the same finish, so that might be something to look out for (although, it seems to have no effect on snapping strings/overall play.) The axle is yoyorecreation size (coincidence?) This leads to a problem, yoyorecreation sized axles have a habit of stripping, so it might be in best interest for the consumer to be careful when tightening this yoyo. The axle was kept short because 1: it lowers center weight, allowing a higher concentration of rim weight and 2: Alex likes to put fancy laser engravings in the cups of his throws, so the flat hub area allows aesthetic value. Overall, a nice package. The shape is a bulbous rimmed hybrid H shape with a V curved body with a large diameter and thin width. It is very comfy in the hand.
Response and Bearing:
The no.9 has a generic 8 ball bearing. I have no idea if my bearing was bad from the factory, but it was tug responsive. So out goes the 8 ball and in goes a 10 ball. The hat pads in the yoyo are smooth pads and lie flush with the recess. The hat pads are not my favorite response, at least when flush. In my opinion, if the hat pads were slightly recessed, they would be much better. They seem to be very responsive (at least for my lubed bearings) but provide very tight binds.
Weight:
The no.9 pushes dangerously close to 70 grams. However, the yoyo feels to be in the 62-65g range. The weight distribution on this is amazing. Most of the weight is pushed to the rims, allowing incredible spin times, sweet horizontal play and a fast, zippy yoyo. Each half is perfectly weighted against each other providing even weight distribution between halves. The low inner wall further pushes weight away from the center and into those big, beefy, bulbous rims.
Play:
How does the no.9 play? In a word, amazing. It feels light on the string yet is heavy enough to provide nice spin times. The thin width feels so nice in hand. Despite this being a large diameter throw (54 mm), the no.9 is shockingly easy to get into small areas and chopsticks. The grinds are like, if you had a yoyo coated in butter while you sweat thin lube. This yoyo can grind in humidity, whilst only being matched by General-Yo’s bead blasted finish. The horizontals are absolutely amazing. The yoyo gets onto the horizontal plane and stays on it for a good 30+ seconds (without any play, just landing it on trapeze) before it decides to start tilting on you. The gap is a good 4.5mm, not big enough to be monstrous, not small enough to be minute. I personally love the gap this way. It provides tight binds without being obnoxiously slippy when the response starts to wear down. The binds on the no.9 are tight. However, you can NOT be sloppy. You have to have your binds down well. I found myself unable to perform my usual trick binds without getting a knot due to the responsiveness of the pads requiring me to be more accurate. This is both a good and bad thing. It allows you to get your binds down more accurately, but will leave you frustrated if you don’t improve. The gap allows many string layers but if you let the string rub the response you will get a crack to the hand. The responsiveness will wear down as the pads start to break in. The no.9’s shape allows very snappy string rejections. The yoyo has yet to come apart on me, but I am not dismissing it.
Final thoughts:
This is one of the most amazing throws I have ever owned. At the amazing price of $50-55, how can you afford not to buy 2…or 10…
Available at:
YoyoExpert
Pictures:
Left to right: Protostar, No.9, Freehand Zero w/ crushed gap
Left to right: Protostar, No.9, Freehand Zero w/ crushed gap
