The Shawn Exploder, coming August 2nd

General Yo-Yo
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Hey crew, I just wanted to give you a heads up about a new yo-yo that will be available on August 2nd.

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The Shawn Exploder is Shawn Garcia‘s first signature yo-yo. Shawn is a yo-yoer and photographer known for taking beautiful photos of yo-yos floating in air. This “exploded” photography is what first drew me to Shawn and was the inspiration for the name. The Shawn Exploder is a wedge shaped competitive yo-yo that was designed to look great in photos. I’ll say that again…

The Shawn Exploder yo-yo was designed to look great in photos.

When I asked Shawn to design “a yo-yo that photographers would love” he sent me a sketch of a wide v-shape design with stepped edges. These hard contours created distinct areas of light and dark on the yo-yo. In stark contrast, and because I’m a huge fan of organic throws, I added a smooth contoured bowl to the outer walls of the yo-yo. These work great for fingerspins and claw grinds, but also distribute weight in an interesting way. I think the end result is a competition style yo-yo that feels fun and floaty.

The Shawn Exploder will be available in blue or yellow on DoctorPopular.com, with a small batch of red fades going on YoYoExpert.com. Additionally, a run of “Superblack” Shawn Exploders are now available exclusively to my sponsors on Doctor Popular | creating yo-yo vlogs, virtual hangouts, and tutorial videos. | Patreon. Each Shawn Exploder comes with a silkscreened micro fibber cloth (for wiping your camera lenses) and an acrylic yo-yo stand featuring art by Rob Armin and Doc Pop.

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That’s so cool, making a yoyo based on photography principles! I wonder if those photography principles translate to a great playing yoyo.

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Great question. I feel the aesthetic choices ended up having positive benefits for play. The most obvious one being that the stepped ridges will help reduce string friction when the string rubs against the inner walls. This is similar in theory to what schmoove grooves accomplish and has been utilized by many other wedge shaped yo-yos before.

The other difference, which I think is more subtle, is the weight distribution that comes when you design a bowl shape on the outer wall, but a wedge shape on the inner wall. The original SE prototype didn’t have the bowl shape on the inner cup, so it’s fun to compare the two versions. I think the version with the inner bowl feels more fun and floaty than the original. Perhaps because it has a bit more weight distributed near the center of the yo-yo.

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I’d just get one for that tiny lying cloth.

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That sounds awesome! Looks like design and photography aren’t too far apart.

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I got one of the Exploder’s and the cloth too. :wink:

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