With the close by release of the new Lotus, here’s some more info!
The Lotus is the latest in a series of experimental hole designs by Sengoku, following the Hattori and the Hanzo.
This, while entirely functional as demonstrated in a video below, is primarily a study in aesthetics and machining techniques.
The idea was to make a four petal “flower” out of a yo-yo, that could also reach the full potential of the “ghost yo-yo” illusion that the Hattori and the Hanzo started.
The holes in these yo-yos produced a floating rim illusion, looking something like this:
The Lotus takes this a step further, but having the holes extend through the rims, meaning all but the bearing seat of the yo-yo can be seen through while it’s spinning (even the rims).
This can briefly be seen in the following video, as the string passes behind the yoyo.
We do want to reiterate that there are some performance limitations due to this design. Rejections are difficult, but possible with practice, as seen in the video.
It is possible to get the string stuck in the gaps, but when doing regular string tricks, this does not happen too much.
We don’t recommend taking it horizontally too much though!
At the end of the day, this is about owning piece of machining that is a manufacturers headache, but was pushed through anyway. It looks like a flower on your desk, looks like a ghost when spinning, and it can do tricks as well.
The Lotus!
