For those who don’t want to read the whole review, here is the takeaway: The Luma Yo is one of the most unique yoyos ever made. I think this is true now, and it will be true 10 years from now. The light show is absolutely dazzling and beautiful with colors and patterns that far surpasses anything that has come before. The amount of components in the yoyo does cause its performance to suffer, but I can’t imagine why any serious collector would not want this yoyo on their shelf. I have no idea how many will be produced, but I fully believe that people will be trying to get their hands on one for years to come.
I was a kickster backer and have had the Luma for a couple of days. The moment you turn it on, there is a wow factor. Unlike the Aurora or similar throws, this is not a yoyo with LED lights added. This is a dazzling LED light show with a yoyo built around it. Each side has numerous LED lights in multiple colors. The halves operate independently so you can have one color or pattern on one side and a different color or patter on the other side. Each side has an ON/OFF switch, a HIGH/LOW switch for brightness, and two buttons which cycle through the colors and patterns. The lights are absolutely beautiful. You can choose solid colors which flash or pulse, rainbow patterns that swirl the colors in an ever changing pattern, fast strobe lights or a slow pulsing heartbeat etc etc. The fact that the sides operate independently doubles your choices as you can make one half red and the other blue, one half rainbow and the other half white, one half flashing and the other half swirling etc. On high, it is REALLY bright. My pictures absolutely do not do it justice.
Bottom line, as soon as I turned it on my reaction was “Woah”. In an era where it seems like everyone and their brother is putting some numbers into a CAD machine and producing their own “original” yo-yo design, I applaud this YoYo creator for trying to deliver something that is actually new and unique.
As I expected when I first learned about this yoyo, it is a very difficult (perhaps impossible) feat to put so many components and lights in this yoyo while maintaining excellent balance and performance. The creator has not overcome this problem, and I’m not sure anyone ever could. The Luma yo is NOT a high performance yoyo. I’m not saying it is the worst performing yo-yo either, but with all of the components their aren’t many options in how to distribute the weight and therefore vibe and less-than-ideal spin time are the result. A thrower could do almost any trick with the Luma, but it is not going to be the one you grab when you are trying to learn a new trick.
But that’s not what it was built for, and that’s not why you should get one. You should consider getting one because it is an absolutely fantastic experiment and achievement in exploring what a yoyo can do. You should consider getting one because it is beautiful, unique, and will absolutely captivate your friends when you throw it.
