So, i got a BBYY JO in the mail a few weeks ago, and i spontaneously thought i’d do a review just now, so here it is.
Pre-getting
I never got a shipment email form the person i ordered from, so i wasn’t real sure when it would come. It was either supposed to be Thursday or Friday of a few weeks ago. Thursday, nothing. Friday nothing. I was getting a little ticked and thinking that maybe it wasn’t sent when i thought it was. Saturday, it finally came. I went down to the mailbox, opened it and my eyes got wide when i saw a box. The time had came.
* Diameter: 55.90 mm
* Width: 44.00 mm
* Gap Width: 4.50 mm
* Weight: 69.50 mm
* Bearing: C-Sized Standard 8-Ball
* Response: Flowable Silicone
First Look
I practically ran back up to the house from the mailbox with excitement. I opened the box, and behold…PEANUTS!! wait…oh, it’s lost somewhere in the peanuts? okay, fine.
After some searching, i found the plastic case that BBYY has been so fond of. I unscrewed it, opened the pull string baggie, and there it was. Holding i im my had, it wasn’t the monstrosity that reviews i had read had made t out to be. I’d say it was no bigger than a DM. The ano job on it was B-E-A-Utiful . Im not quite sure what kind of blasting it was, but it as very attractive in the light, and the texture was interesting to feel.
First Throws
The JO came with a standard 8-ball bearing and highlight string. I wound it up and gave it a nice strong throw and one word came to mind. Loud. I couldn’t get past that, so i switched it out with a 10-ball in another yoyo for the time being, and tried again. This time i heard the satisfying, silent hiss of a 10 ball. Thats better.
Now i can concentrate on the good stuff. Upon throwing, there was a satisfying thud on the end of the string, as i landed in a trapeze and proceeded to do a few tricks. One thing i noticed is that it had a nice balance in feeling between heavy and floaty, and it DEFINITELY did NOT feel like 70 grams, but felt more like a 60-65 gram throw. It is also super, super smooth. I let a couple friends of mine throw it around, and they were stunned. My one friend went so far as to say that it makes his P2 feel like a rough(is this the right word?) throw.
This thing, although it is pretty big in comparison with some other yoyos, is actually quite the player. It wizzes across the string with the greatest of ease and feels great while doing so. When i first got it, it did tend to bind up when i didn’t intend for it to, but now that problem is gone and only binds when i need it to. I guess the problem was the silicone needing broken in.
Now for Grinds. This thing grinds like a dream. Spins forever on your finger and has enough spin left for another trick and bind. Thumb grinds are just as good (on a side note, this is one of the best grinding yoyos i have. I dont know what happened but i dont think that my Dv888 got the blast it was supposed to have gotten to give it a good grinding surface, but thats another story).
Now for the new one. I’ve never tried matador before, so this is from the POV of a complete newb. I grabbed the spikes on the end, and found out that matador is HARD; nothing like hubstacks. But, for the record, the spikes are as well done as i can imagine. I heard that with BB’s previous yoyos, the spikes dug into your fingers and hurt. Not the case here at all. The spikes are sharp enough to keep the yoyo spinning for long times while being held, but dull enough to not hurt your fingers.
Impressions Now
Ever since i started yoyoing, my dream throw that i would probably never get because of the price tag was the 888. Recently, i discovered that my preferences have shifted. I used to love undersized, now i like standard. I liked hubstacks and now i realize that they take relatively no skill to do things with, and are generally useless (for what i do). The Juvenile Offender has everything that i knew i liked and changed my opinion of the things i didn’t like. The JO is my dream throw now, and i own it, and thats a good feeling.
And my final thought can best be summed up in one of the final episodes of string burn live with Josh saying “…I’m not big on Full sized yoyo’s and im not big on heavy yoyos. [The JO] is both of those things, and…it overcomes those prejudices…This is a unifying yoyo.” I fully agree with this, it is the best thing i have ever thrown, and my favorite and main yoyo currently.
PS. I know that a balanced review has positive and negative things to say, but i honestly could not find any bad points.
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