This may be old news, but I haven’t been able to find them for sale online anywhere yet. I went by Toys’R’Us and it was like Christmas morning seeing a full end cap completely full of Yo-Yos. (Now this is exciting to me cause the most advanced yo-yo I’ve ever seen in a retail store is a Duncan Mosquito) They had the NEW Duncan Freehands, the presentation of them alone was pretty cool. They looked like a lot better plastic moldings were used on these then on the FH2s, and the Caps (IMO) were FAR superior designs to the FH2 Caps.
I almost cried cause I didn’t have any money. But I’m going back first thing tomorrow morning to pick some up, now that I have some cash. But I was also impressed cause they had a few others I normally don’t see.
Duncan Dragonfly, Pulse, Reflex, Speed Beetle and their Footbags. As well as Yomega Brain, Fireball and Xodus II. Been there many times and never seen so much as an Imperial at that store… Classic Wooden Yo-Yos, and some cheapy ones for like Yu-Gi-Oh. And today I saw these first thing, right through the front door.
Wait, are you talking about FHZ’s? The last time I checked my local Toys ‘R’ Us, all I could find are a few Yomega Brains, Dragonflies, FH2’s and those cheap novelty yo-yo’s.
No… I’m talking about the New Freehands (basically redux of the Freehand 2. With stock recessed stickers. The Freehand he’s using in this video is completely stock.
For $14 its a MUST buy. I picked mine up last weekend and they play so much smoother than the first gen FH2. I have mine setup w/ the bearing cleaned and one Duncan sili sticker. This puppy plays dead unresponsive! SO, SO WORTH IT!!! ;D
I think they just shipped last week. They probably won’t be in the stores for another week or so. Maybe sooner. I’d call your location to see if the new ones are in. This IS the FH2. It’s now just pad recessed.
Alright, so I picked up my Freehand today. I’ve had all day to play with it. So (this isn’t a review, since I’m not really a reviewer) my first impressions are:
First off, I personally think it’s worth mentioning that these come with 2 replacement Friction Stickers. I don’t know if I just missed them in my previous Freehands, Freehand 2s or Freehand Zeros but it was a nice addition. Second, I would have rather seen a Die counterweight or at least the Die head instead of the Character Heads. As I am not a big fan of the Character Heads.
Alright so how it plays. First note is that it definitely feels like higher quality, and I don’t know if it is in my head but it feels better in the hand then the Freehand 2. Fresh out of the package it is actually fairly responsive, but still takes more string in the gap then the previous Freehands. So if you want to be able to do some of the more complex string tricks, but still keep it responsive, this is nice. These are also definitely smoother on the string. Without any adjustment, cleaning or anything they also spin noticeably longer then previous models. I can only imagine how it will spin once I clean the bearing. So now after removing 1 sticker, it’s still fairly responsive but not too bad. I can easily get 3 to 5 layers of string in the gap, and still it keeps spinning freely. Very nice.
Some things to note: I have no clue if the stock stickers are Silicone are not. They do feel a little less tacky, but I’m not certain. And the extra spaces that come with it certainly seems like the exact same spacers that come IN them, only silver instead of copper. It also would have been nice if the CD that came with it were even a little bit updated. But instead it’s the original one.
Hope someone got some useful info from that. Oh and the Translucent ones are sweet looking, I picked up the Yellow Translucent and it almost looks like it glows.
it is helpful to play responsive. it smooths out tricks and makes you a better player. i am not trying to convince u to play responsive all the time, but play a little bit.
in my experience with freehands, the best way to make them unresponsive (besides with the help of modfother) is to clean the bearing and take out one sticker
