I received a tester Battosai for review purposes. I’ve been playing it constantly for about a week now, so lets begin with the specs:
Diameter: 51.1 mm
Width: 40 mm
Weight: 65.5 g
Gap: 4.1 mm
(Pictures following the written review)
Packaging
The Battosai arrived in a small cardboard box, with a VsNYYC sticker and a Bottosai sticker on it. The word “tester” was sharpied on the bottom of the box. While packaging isn’t the most important part of a yoyo, it is especially nice for collectors. This box serves its purpose just fine, and is branded, so it sits nicely on my shelf with all of my other boxes.
The first look
This Battosai is a prototype, so it was anodized in a really clean looking gun metal gray color with a vibrant red splash. The splash was applied sparingly and tastefully. It isn’t overwhelming, but it is there and adds a great effect!
The shape is… exciting. My first thought was it looks like a safer Noctu, maybe the Noctu crossed with a NVx to round it out a little. But it has rounded rims with a pretty steep h shape for the catch area. When inspecting the hub area, you will see the hubs are slightly raised, but flat, almost as if you cut off some matador spikes so they kind of plateau. The IRG area really pops out at me. The lip is pretty extreme, and feels like it would just grab onto your thumb and hold the grinds forever.
The feel
The Battosai’s finish feels nice and smooth, but not sticky. There is the slightest texture so it feels nice to hold, and it seems like it will grind quite nicely.
I think that the shape feels great, but it might take awhile for others to get used to it. I like the steep h shape because your middle finger sits very nicely between the rims. It has a nice solid feel to it while holding it.
How it plays
Ahh… the most important part! (well, of course that is my opinion) When I throw any yoyo that I am critiquing for the first time, I usually just throw a strong sleeper, see how smooth it its, check for vibe or wobble, do a little finger test and grab the string to see how it feels. You know, all that fun stuff.
The Battosai has a nice, heavy feeling to it, even though it weighs nicely in the mid 60s. (65.5 g) It hit the bottom of the string and stayed nice and smooth. It hummed quietly and showed no signs of vibe or wobble. As I touched my finger to it, you can barely feel the movement of the yoyo. Niiiice and smooooth. When holding he string right above the bearing, you could barely feel anything on the other end. No vibrations coming up the string or anything. Great first impression!
Now is the time to throw some tricks at it and see what it can do and how it plays.
It is a really solid throw. The stability and speed of this thing is great! It moved in and out of all my tricks smoothly and gracefully. All of my binds were nice and tight, and held any amount of string layers I shoved down its gap. I was really impressed with its grinds. The grind area, the blast, and the rims make for awesome finger grinds. Your finger sits so nicely in between the two rims, right above the gap. The blast is very nice and lets you grind forever. I had no problem hitting long or multiple grinds. Thumb grinds were also just as expected, the Battosai’s shape grabs onto your thumb and grinds like a champ. The lip is awesome, steep enough to stay on there, but not sharp or overwhelming.
I think a pretty common idea that I keep coming back to with this throw is a potentially extreme element, done just right so it isn’t overwhelming. What do I mean by that? Well the shape is pretty close to… sharp and bizarre? It took a very strongly pronounced h shape, but toned it down just enough to make it work. The splash is the same way, along with the IRG and weight distribution. It feels super solid, but doesn’t quite become a rock. It seems like a large amount of research went into this throw (as does with most companies releases) Also, you can’t beat how this thing looks while spinning! The red splash on the gray base just looks phenomenal! Heath really took the time to combine some strong elements into one really nice and good looking package. Good job Vs Newton!
Pictures
Now that you read all of that, feast your eyes on some pictures of this monster. It looks so very nice! :coolsmiley:
And now some spinning pictures!!
Thank you all very much for reading my review. If any of you have any questions, or want to see any other specific pictures, just let me know. I encourage all of you to please try a Battosai, you will not be disappointed!
~Lee