Hey everyone, I’m looking to upgrade but am effectively starting anew.
I bought a God-tricks Destiny for probably £20-30 about 11 years ago during a short-lived yoyo fad at my school. I got a little more into it than my friends but still never progressed beyond simple string tricks.
This week, while moving out of my parents house, I rediscovered my Destiny (haha) and have been enjoying playing with it to a degree beyond simple nostalgia. It’s pretty dinged up, vibrates a fair bit and doesn’t sleep very long even with my cleanest throws, so I’d like to get something new to continue with.
After poking around recommendation threads here and on r/Throwers, I’ve set my criteria at monometal or plastic for ≤ £30 ($35). W or maybe H shaped, whatever is stable and and an approachable all rounder. 1a is all I’m presently interested in, although 5a looks cool if I ever get good enough. I can bind competently so responsive yo-yos aren’t what I’m looking for.
I know that even at £30 and below the yo-yo won’t be a limiting factor for my skill level, but I’m still keen to buy something that will suffice for intermediate play if/when I get better.
Yoyofriends Shortcut and AOE are my two main contenders currently. I can only get the former in a blue colourway I don’t love, but if it’s truly worth the extra £10-15 over the AOE I could be convinced. I know the AOE hasn’t been out long but the consensus online seems very positive. I’m wondering how do the best plastics stack up against great budget monometals?
Availability is a slight issue because I’m in the UK and at my price range international shipping can be more than the yoyo itself. Yoyovillage or direct from the manufacturer are probably my best options unless I can get a real steal to warrant shipping from a retailer like yoyoexpert or ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■.
Any thoughts on which of these options is better value, or other recommendations for me, would be much appreciated. Thanks!
If $35 is a hard limit, I would get the Shooting Star.
If can you can go $9 more then definitely consider the PNIR.
The good thing about the PNIR is you won’t “need” another yoyo until you feel like you’re ready to significantly increase your price range. It’s that good. Also, be aware that strings are as important as the yoyo itself. Check out Zipline.
P.S: The AOE is really good. My only issue with it is the finger spin cup being a little tight for my fingers. The PNIR remedies that and has the added benefit of playing a lot better.
Welcome man, sadly you just lost the SRC in Brighton yesterday, you were able to try both as there was the Yoyovillage table there!
Saying that I own the shortcut and tried for half an hour the AOE, in my opinion the shortcut is way far superior in everything compared the AOE (which is anyway an insane plastic yoyo and I enjoyed it very much), for the little difference in price I will say go with the shortcut you can really learn every type of trick you have in mind (doesnt have dna dimple but I don’t see why sacrifice perfomance just to have the dimple).
I have my shortcut from a bit less than a year and I enjoy play with it frequently, you can do every type of trick with it and spin time is very good (with AOE i think you need a bit more experience to play it easily), the shortcut is more stable as well, I will go with it if I had to choose between the 2.
Also if I can be honest, you can restart with the Destiny is more than enough, change pads and maybe clean the bearing and you good to go.
As Mr James said, be careful at the strings, agree with him, zipline (alphaline are my fav) are great
Thanks for the advice guys, you’ve helped me make up my mind. I’m gonna go for the Shortcut and try to buy some strings when 10 packs of the alphalines or Kitty String FC fats restock on yyvillage. They only have 100 packs in stock and I can’t quite justify spending £25 on boutique strings (yet), so hopefully the few old ones I have and the stock string that comes with the Shortcut last me for a while.
AceYo string is good for $12 for 100 if you can find it. Also original throw is supposed to be good for $17 for 100. Think that’s my next string I try.
I think you’ll be happy with the shortcut. There’s also the paragraph too worth checking out. I think the shortcut has more power. Paragraph seems more comfortable.
Shortcut has great power and the aoe is a solid plastic with a respectable amount of power (not as much as the shortcut), and a great fingerspin dimple. It’s also rather large. Paragraph is like a mid version of the two combined
Any plastic yoyo within 66g (minimum) to 67g maximum will typically play well. The only outlier is the Iyoyo Shooting Star, which is 63-64 grams, which is terrible in terms of weight for being a plastic. In conclusion, the AOE should play quite well. However, it probably won’t spin for too long, being similar to the top yo mojo. Get a hybrid or iyoyo iceberg new edition down the road, which is really the best hybrid out there (even outperforming the Monarch and Luftverk plastics).
If you want a really solid monometal yoyo, get the emotion, epiphanion (more colorways coming soon) or cyber crash 2.
I think the shooting star plays awesome. I honestly never notice it feeling super light. It actually feels more heavy on the string compared to my first base that weighs more than the shooting star. I been using the shooting star working on the gentry stein speed combo and it handles surprisingly well.
Sure, it’s a great yoyo. But even the speedaholic xx is going to outperform it by a small margin, since it’s a few grams heavier. I didn’t like the spin time on the shooting star but love the iceberg.
I agree the Shooting Star doesn’t have the longest spin time ever. I haven’t timed it, but anecdotally speaking it doesn’t spin anywhere near as long as any of my metals, and the Iceberg just destroys it both in spin time and all 'round play. I still love the 'Star tho. At $25 it’s really hard to beat
I must, however, contest one point you made about the AOE spin time. Coincidentally, my son and I sleep tested the AOE and PNIR last night. He throws a lot harder than me and got 8:25 on the AOE. I got 6:15 on the PNIR with my old man casual throw.
Mate sadly all the strings we advise you are not boutique strings it is just their price for 100 strings, both the Alphaline the Kitty fat and everything you find in the UK shop are normal strings, between all the one he has there the Alphaline are the best in my opinion both in performance and durability (I use a string for at least a month if not more, with daily playing), as you are restarting also the kitty normal or fat should be more than fine.
Cheaper you can find the Aceyo string which are good but you will have to order in USA
