No kidding. How long did you live here? My mom went to school with some of Capone’s nephews.
Rockford was very big at one point. Forgot the percentage, but up until the 60’s-70’s (?) the vast majority of bolts and screws were produced in Rockford, IL. The list of factories, and items made here at one point is pretty large. It’s a shell of what it once was. But hey! Based on population Rockford is the most violent city in the country, and highest unemployment
@YOHANS Just thought, is that why Playmaxx would come through for the contests almost yearly in Rockford? The Hobby Lobby in Machesney Mall had a playmaxx contest almost every year from 94/95 to 99 or so.
Machesny Park Mall is where I first watched Return of the Jedi. Playmaxx demos would have been 1997-2000. YoYoHouse would have had a major presence at Cherry Vale Mall (follow the yellow brick road)
Do you remember the cart at Machesney Park Mall? It was near the center of the building, near Spencers gifts, then I believe they opened in a small shop next door to Spencer’s for a short time. Did your family have anything to do with that one? A good friend of mine went and bought up a ton when they finally closed, that is where the majority of my Boom era collection came from, he gave them all to me about 6-8 years ago. Bought so much from that cart.
Man, all of this has me going down memory lane big time!
I was about to ask about Custom Products the first monometal I ever owned was a green stiletto. Thought it and my old green Losi were like the best lol
I think you’ve got all of these right except maybe the shutter. I’m tempted to replace it with the Dark Magic, but maybe the Shutter is this generations Dark Magic.
@YOHANS point on the Shutter braking price point barriers and all the performance you get from an engineering perspective makes it the best candidate to represent where yoyo is today. I can agree with his argument.
It seems that the Shutter is being called revolutionary on the basis of its price tag. If that can be a criterion for landing on this list, then I’m surprised there is no bi-metal that is considered top-5 revolutionary.
Most current Bi-metal yoyos have lower rim to body ratios than YoYoJams of over 2 decades preceding them and Its hard to put the revolutionary Bi-Metal in especially with the lack of results for Bi-Metal yoyos in competition. Maybe the revolution is still occuring?
I highly doubt this. There are so many things you can do with bimetals in terms of weight distribution that you simply can’t do with monometals. My guess is that as the price for bimetal production goes down, bimetals will grow to have a greater presence in the current yoyo market.
The other top 5 topic was about 1950-2019, specifically because I wanted to rule out the really old stuff. But if we are talking all-time, then…
#1 and #2
Of ‘all time’ your first choice has to be one of the really old original historical patent models, and your second choice has to be a Flores / Duncan. There’s no way around those. None. Positions #1 and #2 are locked up.
#3
I also think the first ball bearing model, however you define that, has to be the third entry. To me the real “first” ball bearing that people could really buy and use and knew about was the Tom Kuhn SB-2, and that’s 1990?
Sadly this only leaves positions #4 and #5 to represent all of modern yo-yoing for the last 30 years … and that’s kinda limiting.
I disagree with the inclusion of the shutter because bang for your buck doesn’t really change the game like others that where mentioned. If anything being able to buy second hand throws online had a larger impact on people with a tight budget.
