Here’s a Blast from the Past. Who remembers this one? I didn’t realize this one was never posted at the museum.
In 1999 and 2000, Dave’s Skill Toys online store did a Christmas promotion, giving one of these away free with any order over $25. It was a standard half red, half green Playmaxx Pro-yo 2 with special artwork done by Matt Carter, Scarecrow. I commissioned Scarecrow to do a fun, colorful, Christmas sidecap for it. He succeeded. The artwork was proprietary. That means I owned the artwork and it could only be used for this project. The owner of Playmaxx was a friend and was a stickler about the legalities regarding his products. Remember the Mesa Custom lawsuit?
We had 200 made in 1999, and 200 made in 2000, for the Christmas promotions at my store. The 2000 version included the date. The 1999 version had no date on it. The art was only used on these Pro-Yo 2s. There was Never a Bee or Bee GT with this artwork. After 2001, the yo-yo market crashed and soon after Playmaxx was sold to Duncan. I like to throw in as much history as I can, because the history of these things is most important to me.
"This green/red TBB GT was never sold in a case. They were assembled and handed out to selected individuals at venues, employees, and business customers.
Only a few of these were ever made and actually assembled. Colors did very in complement to the holiday spirit. Some also came inside clear ornaments so you could hang on your Christmas tree, and some didn’t."
Sounds like someone got a hold of some Parts and Pogs an did their own thing. Playmaxx Buyers beware and if you are spending that kind of Ca$h, I would want some real tangible provenance, not just an ebay description.
That seller in particular was/is good friends with the former Playmaxx/ProYo owner. The sellers are family, grandchildren from what I have heard, and are selling off some or all of the collection. Probably the largest collection outside of the owners to ever exist.
So… Dave, since you said none of the 400 made were made in a GT shape, then that means some Unwitting SUCKER is gonna pay over $700 for a counterfeit?
Nice……
But, there’s more> if you check out the Sellers’ page, there are a number of expensive ‘collectible yo-yos…. Including prototype halves with no guys or caps or whatever, for $1550…
I should put that link in my Looney Listing thread, lol.
I hadn’t read the listing until you posted it. Worse than a “Frankenstein” of mismatched parts, creating a complete false history compromises the integrity of our hobby and distorts the true historical record.
I decided to go to the source and contacted Tom, the owner of Playmaxx. We are still friends. I knew part of this story but not all of it.
About 5 years back, Tom sold all of the Playmaxx parts and stuff to a “New Collector” in Arizona. Tom showed me his storage unit once. Plastic tubs of different Playmaxx parts. Many mold test shots of as low as 48. Test shots of different colors and mixes that were never produced for official releases. Prototype parts. Even some rubber yo-yo halves instead of plastic.
I showed sent him the link from yoyodoc. Tom did not recognize several items, including the Christmas GT. I created many custom proprietary items over the years. When someone requests a special release with proprietary artwork (artwork not owned by Playmaxx in this case), the artwork can only go on an item approved by the owner of the artwork. So the parts are real, but being put together to create a model that never existed. A Frankenstein model. This distorts the true history and makes collecting so much more difficult.
In response to Retro-Yo, when I asked Tom if his family was selling this stuff, he said NO. He didn’t remember the name of the buyer when we talked. But they are not family and emphatically said that “I don’t have any granddaughters named Kilee and Chloe”. He didn’t recognize the names. If your information was posted online or on this board, they are apparently making up stories for authenticity.
I hope this clears up the original question from Fradiger about the Christmas GT.
I will be posting a final message here later. Watch for it.
