Gonna have to go with Duncan Limelight. Please, please hear me out.
Hadnāt really played with a Yo-Yo since being a kid. It was 2019 and I was on lunch break. I went to Ollieās Discount store. They had Duncan Limelights and some other models. I bought a Limelight for $3. Reading the package, I saw Duncan HQ was 40 minutes from my house. Spent time on the google machine and saw 2019 yoyo worlds were soon going to be an hour from my house. I went to see what this was all about.
Next thing I know I own a bunch of yo-yos (more than 10 less than a Farrakhan Million).
That all says influential to me and it is my list.
I think in general despite there being lots of excellent and either important or historically noteworthy models released in the past decade, itās a lot harder to find truly influential models. Influential in my mind means that the model caused many other yoyos to take design cues from it moving forward.
Just being the first of something isnāt influential if it doesnāt influence a trend going forward. I think with this being said I would demote the Haymaker X to being an innovative model, while the Kagerou is the one that was actually influential.
I was talking about this with some friends last night and I feel like the SF SF and Edge deserve some credit for being influential. SF as a brand and their design language definitely prompted a lot of imitators and was a key figure in the comp scene of the late 10s. The Edge I think Iād attribute to the adoption of āwideā yoyos. One of my friends wanted to argue for Shutter Wide Angle over Edge, which I think you could make a good argument for.
This is why I have it at #1, it also came out a year before Wangle, you could argue it influenced the Shutter and @gentrystein play. The Edge was considered the 2017 Yo-Yo of the year, even though it came out in 2016, and it was a used by several players with a few runs. Not only pushing things wider, but also in play encouraging the focus on āBangersā. I never played a JT Kagerou (2021), but it did seem very popular with some hype for Japan Technology pushing design forward, probably why they were always sold out.
Yes, One Drop Panorama (2021) was a big deal, I feel it really made āCasualā play more legitimate and @sakatuca repeater tricks show the beauty in technical play.
Iād like to find a video of Takatsuās performance with the Panoā¦ Repeaters are something Iām really interested in and that yoyo looks so dope! Might be a great intro into organics too
Sengoku Kenshin: first 7068 yoyo, also cemented the design idea of creating low weight, fast designs with all the weight on the rims.
Cadence: cemented the trend of competition monometals wider than 45 made of premium aluminum
Wilderness 7075: standardized yoyos wider than 50 as the new competition width
Kagerou: started the trend of wide bimetal h yoyos
Recognition: made people believe that yoyos could be heavy and good. For a time, if a yoyo weighed more than 65, everyone assumed it would be heavy, slow, and unusable for competition. The recognition changed everyoneās mind by being so good but weighing about 68 grams
GoodLife pharaoh: started the trend of using plastic to enhance weight distribution
First freshly dirty d bearing yoyo: I donāt know which one it is, but I believe freshly dirty started the d bearing trend in the US
Art grail: established what a modern organic should be
MYY Skyva: fingerspin dimple
Speedaholic xx: started the trend of modern competition plastics
