Hey there, so this weekend I decided I’d use some yoyos in my collection that I hadn’t used in a while and I had some thoughts on two which caught my eye.
The first was the OD Gauntlet, which caught my eye because it is an organic throw with little rim weight, but since it’s wide and is still pretty hefty at 66.smth grams it really really surprised me how much I enjoyed it. Surprisingly stable, and also since it has a step at the centre it has little string rub. In general it was super chill to use and I’ve never really heard anyone I’ve met talk about it.
The other one that caught me by surprise was the OD Top Deck. Now… I know this yoyo has a great reputation as one of OD’s better performance yoyos, but it just fell short for me for two reasons. The first which is completely subjective is the look. I like the profile, yet I feel the recessed scoop rim looks a little weird to my eyes, and I’m not a fan of the rounded nub. (this point is completely moot for anyone that loves the look of the top deck, this is just personal preference). The second and most important one, is that it really didn’t fit the category of being either a “just for fun” or full on competition yoyo. It reminds me a bit of the CLYW Boy which fills a similar void, it’s an inbetweener of a competition and a fun yoyo, but IMO doesn’t really excel at either, so I often don’t gravitate towards it.
Either way this post is getting long but I’d like to start a discussion… What throws do you think deserve more attention and which ones are overhyped and why?
I feel that every single yo-yo I own is great… worth every penny I spent on it and looks superb and checks All the important boxes for me and plays waaaay beyond my skills potential.
On the other hand, every yo-yo I don’t have looks boring, seems like horrible designs, prolly has odd weight distribution, comes in silly colorways, probably doesn’t really fit into any style category and is obviously blatantly overpriced, overhyped and pointless>
Underrated - 1. SUS YOYO MECHANICS Transmission Cross Ratio. Its powerfull, very confortable and well made. Amazing yoyo.
Overrated - I agree with the OD Top deck being overrated. Not a bad yoyo, but I do not understand the hype. For me it is stable and confortable, but lacks power, I can´t finish most of my long combos. I much prefer other OD yoyos such as the Overture, the Virtuoso and Freesolo.
I have had much more issue finishing my combos with the free solo than I have with the top deck. Maybe switch bearings to see if that affects things. The top deck has substantially more power to me than the free solo.
For me in the underrated category would be Anthony Rojas collabs. The octave, your mom, and dune are all criminally underrated imo.
As for overrated for me, and no disrespect to Jake, but I just cant vibe with banshees. They do exactly what they are supposed to do, they just feel so sterile to me.
Oh I can totally see the banshees not being for everyone. I have the B22 and I think it’s too much of a feather, wish it had more oomph with that aggressive profile. It fits a similar cagegory to me with the boy and top deck where its good but I would never compete with it
Underrated: ZGRT Brass Don, Yoyorecreation FYFO. The ZGRT Brass don is so much fun. It has great power and the d sized bearing gives it a very fun feeling in play, but it stayed in stock so long that yoyoexpert had to put it on sale.
I understand the criticism of the FYFO for the price, but seeing them sell for $40 to $60 second hand seems like a complete steal. I traded for my mine and was pleasantly surprised by its play. It has really good spin times and a very pleasant weight distribution, not to mention its insane quality being manufactured by one drop.
Overrated: Topyo Silenus, and OD Freesolo. I know many will disagree with my assessment of both of these yoyos but the silenus feels heavy and sluggish, and the free solo feels empty in play lacking both an interesting weight distribution and performance.
I understand that the silenus is inexpensive at $35, and when it originally released, there were not many yoyos for the price. Now there are so many options that I can safely say that the topyo silenus is not even close to being the best for its the price.
The freesolo is the least powerful of the 5 one drops that I have played (Dang 2, Top deck, Free Solo, Kuntosh 5kqv, and T1 2020). The weight distribution is too balanced for me as well, making it seem like it was meant to be a performance yoyo but doesn’t have the power to back it up. It makes it through my combos fine, but it makes me feel like it wont and that has made it hard for me to enjoy the free solo.
Underrated - YYF x JDS Shutter & ZGRT Brasi ed. Don
Both go so unfathomably hard and I don’t think I ever see people talk about them
Extremely Underrated: Basecamp Navigator
When this dropped I think it was the least popular of all the basecamp models, and I don’t understand why. This yoyo goes hard lol
Overrated: Pano/Diorama
My local police station has advised me not to proceed further for fear of my safety.
I agree on the iQ. It was a flash in the pan when it released, but not much else. It’s still my catch-all throw that is just a joy to play.
As for the TD, I switched the bearing to a DS, and I never have any issue with power. In fact, it equals many of my bimetals. It seems like it picked up some middling reviews after the re-run drop, but it’s one of a few that is constantly in my daily rotation.
The DD Emotion deserves more attention, too. It seems to get good vibes here, but it’s just so freaking good!
I’m not really sure what all is considered over- or underrated. I just look at a few specific reviewers, as well as the ones on YYE and Rewind. As such I’m just going to assume poorly reviewed and/or lesser exposed yoyos equate to underrated. So with that…
overrated: any a-rt or atmos yoyo i’ve tried. with a-rt i’d rather just play a freehand lol.
atmos i just don’t understand their design philosophy really. why so wide? why keep using that response bump? they aren’t “bad” yoyos but i don’t really get them.
underrated: grasshopper 2 is probably the best bimetal you can buy new for that price.
I personally feel the atmos design philosophy is minimalism and searching for a specific relaxing playfeel. Id give the “projects” section of the website a read, while at face value it looks like they don’t have much variety their design chops are a lot more subtle. I do think the yoyos are not for people looking for performance really, which is why I could see a lot of people disliking their stuff
