my whole life yoyos were nothing more than casual time killer toy. one day im doing loops and rocking the cradle on cheap yomega fireballs and then seemingly out of nowhere Yoyofactory released the 888. One throw and everything changed. what i experienced was a moment of pure zen as an entirely new world of yoyoing opened before me.
what yoyo changed things for you?
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I’d have to go back to the original ProYo. At that time, all you really had to choose from was the Duncan Imperial or the Duncan Butterfly. Neither could be taken apart easily, and neither felt particularly built for “performance” (such as it was in the mid/late '70s). Then the ProYo arrived and it was like yoyos had taken a huge leap forward.
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I learned almost everything I know on this bad boy.
I guess it exposes how short I’ve been in the game!
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I was born in 81. Growing up on Long Island the Roosevelt Field Mall if I remember correctly was the third biggest in the country & it was awesome. One of the coolest stores to loiter at was The Sharper Image where my best friend and I were introduced to the Yomega Fireball. Our lives were changed forever, he still has his.
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i live in freeport!
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FHZ and the mods.
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I will have to go with the Yomega Raider. Until then the best yo-yo I had played with was the wooden Smothers Brothers yo-yo. That was the first ball bearing yo-yo experience.
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This guy. The YYF 401K (Oktober Red!!)
I was learning on a FAST 201 and getting into it a bit. Found some forums and an online store…decided I wanted to try a “good” yoyo. This thing blew me away. The adjustable response allowed me to grow at my own pace. Figured out binds, lacerations, a green triangle or two. Started with a narrow gap and tug response and grew into a wide gap trickster. Still love it all these years later.
kgb
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Several different ones…As a kid, I always saw yoyos as toys that just went up and down, string tied/glued into the axle or press fit into the side. My first yoyo experiences consisted of yoyos like that (party favor ones, and cheap grocery store yoyos). Here’s what changed it for me and why:
-Duncan Imperial/Butterfly - noted above, yoyos to me were just up and down, dribbled like a basketball. I never knew about them being able to sleep as I didn’t see one being properly used until shortly after getting a cheap “string tied to axle” yoyo
-Fireball/Brain - it was like a nice upgrade as my 5 second sleepers were tripled, more time to learn. At first, I thought the brain worked like a yoyo ball (had seen them but never played one) where it would just go down, hang there and retract on its own…I was sort of right but didn’t realize it was spinning when I first saw one in action doing basic sleepers.
-RecRev Fig. 4 - This was my first modern yoyo that used standard/up-to-date components, I learned a lot on this thing. I still give it a spin time to time but it’s due for some fresh pads.
In the end, it all started with a party favor yoyo from the dentist.
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I grew up before the modern day yoyo was conceived. As a child, I loved yoyos, but my experience was limited to loopers. I had no interest in string tricks back then, as it hurt like heck when the thing snapped back unexpectedly. I couldn’t enjoy throwing in that way, always anticipating it snapping back prematurely, so I stuck to looping. So that one yoyo that changed everything for me was the unresponsive yoyo. It truly was a game changer.
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Like others have mentioned as a kid it was the Duncan Butterfly for me. I had 2 or 3 of these and one of them was always with me. Getting them to sleep and learn any tricks was difficult and at some point became boring. It wasn’t until years later when I had my own son who came home from his friends house and said he wanted a yo-yo because that was what they had been doing all day. This immediately took me back in time to my days so we hopped in the car and headed to Wal-Mart where my son finally chose a Yomega Firestorm.
We had a lot of fun with that firestorm and it also opened my eyes to how much change there had been since the Butterfly. At this point I decided that I wanted to see what more there was and ended up buying myself a Playmaxx Turbo Bumble Bee which opened things up to me that I never had as a kid. From there came the Yomega RB II’s. So for me the Firestorm piqued my interest enough that I wanted to explore my old toy. But the Turbo Bumble Bee and RB II are what got me back into it.
The Firestorm, Bumble Bee and RB II’s still sit on a shelf in my office to remind me of some great times with my son.
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Me too! Everything but finger grinds… can’t do them yet
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On second that I bought an imperial duncan 20 years after first throwing it as a stocking stuffer, then someone tossed a modern yoyo my way and I found yotricks and got into 1A play .
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My first legit yoyos where the yomega fireball and raider. I was in heaven. Until i played with The BumbleBee from playmaxx … i probably had a dozen over the years. I had to own a Cold Fusion and the rest is a history you can follow on my amex card.
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The Fast 201 was my first “serious” yoyo. Then my parents got me a Duncan Cold Fusion (after duncan got rights to the name) and that’s what did it for me. I remember right around that time seeing the 888 just come out and the hspin pyro was pretty big at the time, but i wasn’t going to be able to convince my folks to get me another $100+ yoyo
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