Just follow the U.S. yo-yo patents trail
2 Likes
Clearly some of the yo-yos in the list are representative of extant patents. But the patents themselves usually don’t call out specific models. Do you know of particular patents that don’t already have examples on the list?
What was the first yoyo sold with silicone response? Not talking about modded FHZ. Would it be the Bolt or did that come with o-rings? I think that would need to be on the timeline if it was. I also love what Zammy said above about the Patriot. I used a Patriot for 4 years as my main player, and they rock for 4A.
Plug In 2 from Italy I believe
2 Likes
A few that stood out for me…
Bandai “Hyper Infiniti” Museum of Yo-Yo History - Patent 7,448,934 (there are three other patents for a motorized yo-yo, all filed by Hans)
Tom Kuhn “SB-3” Museum of Yo-Yo History - Patent 6,331,132. The German Mondial (which you have listed) may have patents too. Just haven’t looked them up in Germany.
Doble “Ariel” Museum of Yo-Yo History and “Calypso” Museum of Yo-Yo History - patents listed in the exhibits. A fascinating and very functional design for being a fixed axle.
Many more, but I know you’re a resourceful person. 
On a side note: I believe the Yomega “Outrageous” was the forerunner–in name only–to the Fireball (which you have on the list, patent 4,895,547). Essentially the same body design for both but the Outrageous came out earlier.
The Oxygene “Oxy 3” from July, 2004 set the early benchmark for impeccable, high quality, unresponsive aluminum yo-yos. What the CLYW Peak was to players in the mid to late 2000s, the Oxy 3 was to me and many others in the early 2000s. If you were into yo-yoing and forum talk back then, you’ll certainly remember that particular release. It came out of a world of wood and plastic at the turn of the century. For me, personally, the Oxy 3 marks the beginning of modern, high quality (and expensive) 1A playing yo-yos (ironically, it’s also the yo-yo that completely killed my interest in throwing and collecting for the next 10 years. Why? I refused to learn how to bind).
The SuperYo Samurai was also a standout in 1999. Other makers such as Basecamp, Custom Yo-Yo, and Spyy have followed suit (some many years later) with similar design approaches to hollow bodied aluminum yos.
Thanks for your post. It was enjoyable to reminisce…
3 Likes
Apologies, Rick, didn’t make the connection with your patent list over at MYYH. For sure, man, Doble, Oxy 3, and Samurai, thanks for the heads-up. I’ll look the others up as well. Hope you’ve learned how to bind in the interim 
, although responsive may be making a comeback (Spencer Berry’s yo-yos).
From what I can gather the Oxy 4 (circa 2004) was the first commercial yo-yo with flowable silicone response.
1 Like
Thanks for making this thread oldyoyoguy. I have had a lot of fun thinking about potential additions to this list.
Not sure about this… but that may not be a flowable situation.
Carlo used silicon alright. But I ‘think’ the silicone was formed outside the yoyo. Because you could get replacement rings that looked exactly the same. Like they were punched out of silicone sheet. If my view is accurate; you could not really consider his process ‘flowable silicone’.
I seem to recall that the first guy using ‘flowable silicone’ was another guy from Italy. And he didn’t use clear with slight green tint flowable. He used red Automotive grade RTV silicone adhesive sealant. One of the Italian guys was actually using the Silicone gasket maker.
I remember pulling out the Oxy rings with a sewing needle. Flowable silicone(even when applied to a not quite clean surface) adheres at least somewhat to the response slots. That is the nature of silicone.
The Oxy rings normally stayed put primarily by compression. Try sticking a pin in a flowed in ring and see about pulling it out…hahahaha.
1 Like
The Yoyorecreation (at the time it was 44re:creation) Stargazer v1 was a game changer and should be on the list too. I think it was released in 2008.
The original Stargazer was the first yoyo with flat cups (+ super short axle, also see 44re:creation Stargazer | YoYo Wiki | Fandom), a design that is taken for granted now. This innovation was important because it enabled much lower center weight (and it just looked really cool 8)).
And as an aside, the Stargazer v1, while nice to throw, was a bit on the heavy side and its short axle threads were very prone to getting stripped. I’ll take a guess that this is why Yoyorecreation went on to use 7075 in all their yoyos afterwards - because the higher strength of 7075 aluminum would be better for short axles and less prone to stripping, unlike the 6061 (I think) aluminum used on the original Stargazer.
Shark Honor.
1 Like
I have an old Dreadnought. I have always thought it was 6061 - but who can really tell? Is it possible that those were also made from 6061? It does not feel as dense as my other YYR.
If we are counting 7075 as innovation, that was me too
The Alph was the first 7075 yoyo.
So many of us learned using a Dark Magic or a DM2 that they should be included,
2016 sengoku kenshin. First 7068 yoyo. Now 3 prominent companies and a handful of other smaller companies are using the alloy, and I predict more will use it in the future because of it’s better strength, its ease to anodize (compared to 7075) and cheaper price compared to titanium
1 Like
2017 - Sengoku Hattori ?
You may also want to consider adding the Hasbro Morph Master to 2015.
It was originally sold under the Auldey brand and then Hasbro licensed it. The yo-yo stands out for its very easily modifiable configuration as either wing or tournament shape. It took a Tom Kuhn staple for many years and bumped it to the next level. Very unique design. (It was also just awarded a US patent!)
1 Like
Such a great list @oldyoyoguy.
It’s fascinating how the Draupnir was so influential (and expensive) in 2013, and today we take that level of quality for granted in almost every modern throw released. Huge increase in baseline quality and design, industry wide.
1 Like
This does get tough. Absolutely no idea what to list for 2018, it’s hard to see “important” without at least a year of perspective…
2014: MarkMont Classic
2015: Terrarian, that was a massively important release for so many reasons.
2017: A-RT grail without a doubt. I think that was a 2017 release?
Edge Beyond for 2018?
3 Likes