Has anyone played the redesigned MYY Katana? I haven’t played it or the original sadly, but I have some thoughts.
As someone who was obsessed with trying to get one of the originals for about a year, I’m a little disappointed to see how they changed it.
I understand updating classic yoyos if you’re a company needing ideas, wanting to cash in on nostalgia, or if the design isn’t as desirable with changes in modern standards/tastes, but the demand for the original product as is seemed like it was there. No one can know for sure, but judging by how insanely hard it is to find the og and all the positive reviews it had, I don’t think anyone was asking for tweaks. I personally don’t prefer the aesthetics of making this version more V-shaped, and I fear it will only make it sharper (can’t say for certain without trying it). If that’s the case, that was the exact opposite of what I would have changed, if anything.
To be fair, I can’t say the rest of the changes are necessarily bad. I can’t recall a single reviewer wishing it was more rim weighted, but this could have been done to get the weight down from 66g (which Yap! did comment on, but only him iirc) without sacrificing power. Still, not following the trend of being a light bimetal with extreme rim weight was one thing that set the original apart. I was a little underwhelmed with the colorways at first, but that’s really only because the og had a crazy amount of awesome colorways. The more I look at the new ones though, the more I think these are great colors (I’m a sucker for blue w/ raw rims).
Some differences are perhaps even positive. Kudos to MYY for bringing the price down $15+ by skipping the NSK gold bearing. Also to their credit, it appears that the medial part of the SS rings sit more flush with the body, and the grind finish looks like it might be better.
Left: Original; Right: New (sorry it’s washed out - not my pic).
All my gripes aside, I can understand why MYY made these changes. It will appeal to the nostalgia of those who had or sought the old, and the redesign will appeal to those looking for something different than the original.
I’m planning on getting out of the hobby, so unless your reviews change my mind, I’ll be thankful this release doesn’t tempt me as much as I thought it would. Curious to hear your thoughts.
P.S. Not saying anyone shouldn’t buy this. If you do, I hope you enjoy it 
P.P.S. If anyone wants to sell their original to get the new, I might be interested. I don’t need more yoyos lol.