Hey everyone, hope you all had a good weekend. I thought tonight we could talk about one or two things as a little Sunday night convo.
What was the first yoyo you ever threw that made you wanna keep going? Not necessarily the first yoyo you ever got as a kid or anything, but the one that made you go “okay, I really like this and wanna pursue this more”
Or
Do you have a throw that you wish you had never gotten rid of? Either traded or sold, lost, thrown away etc.
I’ll start and answer both. The first yoyo I ever threw that made me really wanna learn more and opened up my world to the hobby was a glow in the dark yomega fireball that my best friends dad had got at a company picnic. (Yes It was the 1995 version, yes we are very sad we don’t know where it is or what happened to it😅) We got on that ole desktop, googled “yoyo tricks”, found expert village and Andre’s videos and the rest was history. Come to think of it based on where I am and how much I love yo-yos now, that was one of the best days/times of my life so far.
The one yoyo I regret not having right now that I did have? That glow in the dark Yomega fireball in its box (check eBay you’ll see why) and my OG Peak I traded to a friend after maybe a month of throwing it. (I deserve all the hate and questioning for this one, it hurts everyday trust me lol) Oh speaking of the GOAT Andre, I’d have to thrown in my Dark Magic 2 as well which sadly, took a dive on the pavement and was never the same again
Great topic! A throw that made me wanna keep going? A few come to mind because as usual with me I can never pick just one lol…
But I guess the one I thought about first was the General Yo Hatrick. I know I talk about this yoyo and how I got it all the time (sorry lol), but my acquisition of it really was like the most “formative” yoyo experience I’ve had. It wasn’t even my first yoyo or first metal yoyo or anything like that. But it WAS my first “boutique” or “high end” yoyo. It was $100 at the time.
When you’re an adult, $100 seems like nothing, but when you’re 12, $100 feels like a million bucks to you. And spending $100 on a throw was something that I had never done at that point, and to me almost seemed like “Wow, if I do this, I really gotta take care of this thing and ALSO get as good as I can at the same time.” Spending $100 on a throw as a kid was a commitment to actually using it consistently, and really pursuing throwing/getting better. Because I had pretty much dropped all I had at that point on that Hatrick, I was not only driven to use it more, but it was also the first time where I was like, “Damn, these yoyos can be NICE.”
As far as your second question goes - with me, yoyos come in but very rarely go out lmao. If they leave, I probably have multiples of them or just straight up didn’t like it haha… So no regrets there thankfully. A lot of the times I want to sell a throw, right before I list it, I pick it up again just to throw it and I’m like… “Wait, I kinda like this thing lol”
For sure, it’s been awhile since I’ve posted in the collection thread, so I should probably get an updated pic as that’s missing about 50 throws lol… and my most recent pic that I haven’t posted is missing about 20ish or so
This is awesome I can relate to this a lot. So I was 14 when I got my first high-end boutique and that is exactly how I explained it to my parents lol. It was a Spyy Addiction 2 (that I thankfully still have) and I think it was 120 or something? Anyways when I opened it up for Christmas that year I was like okay, they really invested in me here I have to follow through and get a lot better and use this everyday etc.
A red Butterfly was my second yoyo in 2015. I learned forward pass and around the world on it. Took a month and half or more to learn but I was stoked. I knew I never wanted to stop. It wouldn’t be until 2018 that I learned brain twister on a responsive Sage and considered myself a hardcore thrower. Four years after learning brain twister I’m still only interested in frontstyle brain twister combos and anything frontstyle-related.
The yoyo that really got me into this hobby (despite having gone in and out of the hobby a few times haha) was the kickside yoyojam. I just love this yoyo, and I’ve never sold it, it’s been with me for 15 years now.
The yoyo I had, and the one that was most sentimental to me, was an yoyojam x-convict. I remember strongly that here in Brazil (yes, I’m Brazilian haha) it was a little more complicated to have imported yoyos because of the price~currency exchange, and I asked for an x-convict as a birthday present for my parents, I had for around 11~12 years old, and we were having a very difficult time in the family in financial/other terms, and one day my father gave me some bucks and with him, I bought 5 very cheap fixed axle yoyos, and I sold them at school, repurchasing and reselling until I got the $ for the x-convict, and when I went to look at the site, I hadn’t considered the cost of shipping to Brazil, so my parents helped me with the cost of shipping, and I finally managed to buy it. After a few years, I was out of the hobby, and I ended up exchanging it for a yoyofactory counter attack, but for me after a few weeks of the exchange, I saw how sentimental it was for me to have him because of everything that was going on in the family, and how it all marked me, along with this “purchase” of x-convict. However, after a few years of looking for it, I got an identical one in perfect condition again.
My yoyo that I bitterly regret selling was a pyro gold I had and sold it about 6 years ago. But luckily, a friend of mine got me another one, and I bought it from him!
Currently there are only two hspin pyros left for me to complete the collection. The black pyro, and the pyro sex on the string. I hope one day I can get them. (Speaking only of the pyro “fat”, not its strands like pyro light, 66% pyro, pyro x, etc etc).
For those who want to see my Flickr, there are some pictures of yoyos
The yoyo that made me want to keep going was the iYoyo2. At the time my skills had completely plateaued and I was on the verge of giving up yoyo due to frustration. While in Berlin to visit family, I found a store that sold yoyos and bought an iYoyo2. For some reason it helped me break through my plateau and learn a bunch of new tricks.
In the early 2010’s, I gave away my Yoyojam Spinfaktor HG to a friend in an attempt to get them in to learn yoyo with me. They gave up on yoyo pretty quickly and then moved out of the country with the yoyo. I really wish I could get that yoyo back.
YoYo that made me want to keep going was a Yoyofactory Dogma (still have it, yellow splash) it was the first YoYo I picked up that was non-responsive and played really well, honestly it still is a great YoYo. It still brings me back to when I first picked it up.
YoYo I wish I hadn’t let go……. Hum…. Probably my MFD fire devils. But it was time to let them go on to the next owner.
When i got interested in throwing, i ordered a YYJ speedmaker. But i couldn’t wait so i went out and snagged a duncan butterfly. Practiced on that thing and with the hype of knowing my speedmaker was coming, that butterfly had me hoooooked.
As far as yoyos i regret trading/selling… ha… i regret everything. Lol if i had to pic one, it’d probably be the one drop markmont. The OG nickel plated one that looked like a onedrop Project. The project as well i regret selling… my gun fu collection, had 9 of them at one point. All the YYJs i had that are worth gold now. First run 888 too. Lots of regret but my collection these days has me fairly content.
I told this story when I joined the forum, but I’m old and repeat myself often. Sorry.
I was at a discount store walked by the toy rack and saw a Duncan Limelight for $3. Figured I could afford it. Noticed on packaging and did some research finding out Duncan was about a half hour from my house and in all my years I never knew it.
Next thing I found out Worlds was soon coming an hour away in fabulous Cleveland, OH. Worth a day trip? Why not.
I had no idea at all how yo-yo had progressed from the 70’s.
At Worlds my girlfriend and I were apprehensive to interact. Small groups everywhere with yo-yos spinning everywhere. Vendor tables lined with yo-yos, players examining all the offerings while I was afraid to touch anything. Bryan Jardin was the first yo-yoed I met. He made us feel very welcome in our role as an observers.
My girlfriend asked me lots of yo-yo questions. I had no clue so I asked a nearby enthusiast. I asked how much is reasonable to spend on a yo-yo? What yo-yo does he throw? and why?..He politely answered at the same time we introduced ourselves. At that point, I learned that Mark Montgomery throws a Markmont. I felt like I just asked Michael Jordan what shoes he wears.
So that’s my story and yes I did find my first yo-yo - a yellow imperial with golf flake circa 1972.
The answer to both is the Sage. It was my gateway into unresponsive tricks and I spent about half a year throwing only that before getting any other yo-yos.
Unfortunately, I also ended up throwing it out one day after messing around with it (it was on it’s last legs anyway and I wanted to see how it would play as a fixie, so I screwed it together without any bearing in it and I over tightened it, causing the bearing posts to warp).
Just a reminder that nothing lasts forever and everything is temporary. cue existential crisis
The yoyo that started my first interest into throwing was the freehand. I started learning tricks back when there was no online place to learn, only the cd that came with it.
But that was 15+ years ago… . My recent experience of modern throwing, that reignited my interest was from watching that netflix show about competition (i believe?) Where Gentry won the WYYC and the first yoyo i got was a YYF Shutter. Almost 2 years now. Still a good yoyo!
One night after seeing my friend blow my mind with his 1A skills, under his advice i got a yomega FireBall and a yomega Raider (still have both in my display) at Toys-R-Us!
A couple months later i got my first of many Bumblebees regular and GT… eventually i splurged on the cold Fusion and never looked back.
