SR1
January 12, 2013, 5:57pm
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I haven’t been around since 2000, but I have been around for awhile and know what the Samurai is. I would say yes, it is pretty much a collectors item. And it first was released in 1999… so you have one of the first. I found some interesting stuff on the Nation that might be useful information for you.
Samurai was pretty slick when it came out- '99-ish I think. At the time I think it was one of only about 3 yo-yo’s that cost $100 or even close to $100. (Cold Fusion and SB2 were others) plastic ruled the day and there was really not much reason to ever spend more than 20 bucks on a yo-yo.
SuperYo had some other neat products too- Their Renegade yo-yo was lots of fun and very popular- easy to customize, nice price, came in lots of colors. Anyone who’s been playing for more than 10 years probably has (or had) serveral of these in their collection. (first 3 -in-1 ball-bearing yo-yo)
I agree that the Samurai doesn’t play the same as “today’s” unresponsive yo-yo’s, but I’ve tried one back in the day and I found it to be very smooth and nicely balanced and pretty cool in general. I still think it’s a very cool collectable (provided you are happy about what you paid for it) from an era when metal was not the norm. Cool shape, neato graphics, and if it’s still in good condition, probably very playable.
It did some out around 1999. At that time the Cold Fusion, Isotope, SB2 and Tom Cat were the most expensive yo-yos on the market being around $100 to $150. The Samurai hit the market with an MSRP of $199. I should know. I bought it from xxxxxx at that price :idiot2:
I still have a paper catalog from 1999 at home with the Samurai pictured in it at the original market price. I was going to look at it tonight to confirm the original MSRP, but I don’t have to as I just found a web site that confirms it was $199
I bought pretty much every high end yo-yo that came out in the 1999 - 2003 timeframe. Pictures with detailed captions of all of them including 10 pictures of the Samurai (with all original packaging and contents) can be seen here: http://picasaweb.google.com/benjustinbaker/OldSchoolYoYos#
Whereas this yo-yo pretty much sucks by today’s standards, to my knowledge it is still unique being the only aluminum yo-yo I know of with hallow halves.
I can’t recall what the Intelligap system is, but I don’t recall any Loctite. I think the axle can be completely removed. I’ll check tonight to see if the axle can be removed and I’ll check the documentation to see what the heck the Intelligap is.
Oh, and to this day no other yo-yo sounds like this yo-yo when thrown. The hallow halves give this yo-yo a unique high pitched noise similar to that of playing a dry ceramic bearing… or for all I know it might be because the stock ceramic bearing it shipped with is dry. I really need to pop the shield off that stock bearing and check out its guts. The bearing might just be as good if not better than most of todays bearings. Now that I’m thinking about it I really should try putting that bearing on some recent yo-yos and find out.
So, although it is a collectors item and not really made for modern play, considering the fact that you have an original AND it is mint, I think it’s worth quite a bit- it’s original retail price at least. Since one hasn’t really been for sale recently, it’s hard to judge how much it’s worth, but I would say definitely over the original price, $200.
Hope this helped, and if you have any other questions just ask!
