Vs. Newton YoYo Company Battosai
Reviewed by Chris Rhoads
January 7, 2011
Introduction
With all the companies I have reviewed during my time at High Speed YoYo it never ceases to amaze me how the unknown up-and-comers can just completely take the industry by storm. Vs. Newton YoYo Company (aka. VsNYYC) is the most recent example of this phenomenon. VsNYYC released its first product, the Sky Walker, just under 7 months ago and has just not lost momentum. Heath, the brains of the company, has since gone on to publish several new designs, including a titanium and an almost oversized both based on the Sky Walker design. He has also released a super limited yo-yo called the SADR and now we are up to his junior release, the Battosai that I am reviewing today. The Battosai was first released in prototype form at Worlds 2010 and has since been tweaked and refined into the release we have here today. Heath has said that the Battosai is designed to keep similar specs but play almost exactly the opposite of Sky Walker. That is an interesting design path to take and I am wondering if it will capture the same level of success as his freshman effort.
Specs
• OD: 51.1mm
• Width: 40mm
• Gap: 4.1mm
• Weight: 65.5g
• Bearing: 10-Ball Bearing
• Response: Silicone Groove
Construction
On first inspection, one cannot help but be taken aback by the odd design of the yo-yo. Heath has said that the ILYY Noctu influenced him when he initially designed the Battosai but in all honesty I do not see it. To me it looks like the illegitimate offspring of an Hspin NVx and an antique doorknob. While this may sound bizarre, I would not change a thing about the shape. The profile of the yo-yo sports some seriously large, rounded rims that transition to a steep, concave catch zone. Moving to the face of the yo-yo we can see deep cup with a well-designed IGR carved into the underside of the rim. The floor of the cup has a small raised plateau in the center adding some weight and stability to the yo-yo. The guts around the response area have been redesigned in reaction to the minor problems that cropped up in the Sky Walker. All of the edges that would come into contact with the string have been rounded and Heath has taken it upon himself to hit the entire response area with a Scotch Brite pad, all in an effort to reduce the string breakage issue that affected a small number of the original Sky Walker run. I am a huge fan of companies who listen to their customers and go the extra mile to make sure that past issues never pop up in future models. The finish on the Battosai is beautiful. The unit I am reviewing has what is called the Perfume Cloud finish. If you do not find this colorway appealing, no problem, all you have to do is visit your yo-yo store of choice and pick from one of the ten other colorways that the Battosai comes in ranging from solid colors to an exclusive 28 Stories colorway. One thing I must mention about the finish. The same company that CLYW currently uses for all of their yo-yos is doing the finish on VsNYYC’s products as well, and Chris has given his blessing to Heath to use the 28 Stories colorway. Overall, I cannot find a fault in the design of the Battosai. Its odd shape fits my large hand quite well and the lack of harsh edges makes for a pleasant feel during even the most intense of play sessions.
Weight
As I stated in the introduction, this yo-yo was designed to be the antithesis of the Sky Walker in play. To that end the Battosai meets its creator’s goal; while the Sky Walker played light and floaty the Battosai plays solid and with purpose. It plays just as fast as the Sky Walker but it hits the end of the string with authority. The deep H-Shape design pushes almost all of the Battosai’s 65.5 grams to the rims of the yo-yo giving long spin times.
Response and Bearing
The stock response in the Battosai is flowable silicone that has been recessed slightly to give dead unresponsive play. As with any flowable silicone response the Battosai was grabby at first. Once the response had been broken in, it played as you would expect flowable to play.
The Battosai is following a recent trend of using the One Drop 10-Ball as their stock bearing. It is one of at least three non-One Drop companies that are using this bearing. I like this trend. Most are finding that it is the go to bearing for durability and its silent play.
Playability
So… Freaking… Smooth. Those were the three words I texted Heath at the end of my play session with the Battosai. I was thoroughly impressed by the feel of it on the first throw. The Battosai is one of those yo-yos that you do not feel moving on the string. If it was not splash anodized you would not be able to see it moving either. It takes an absolutely horrendous throw to knock it off kilter. During the play session of this yo-yo I decided to focus primarily on whips, slacks, and suicide tricks. The design of this yo-yo, with its wide-open catch zone and ultra low walled guts, just screams to have those types of tricks thrown at it. I even learned a new slack/suicide trick that requires an underpass around my throw hand pinky, and then a catch of a slack loop on my throw hand pointer. There is a lot of string contact during the trick that can close that loop quickly but I found that it was easy to pull off the trick on the Battosai. When it comes right down to it, the Battosai didn’t have a single problem with any of the tricks that I threw at it. Grinds are a thing of beauty with the Battosai. Since VsNYYC is using the same company as CLYW, if you like the grinds on that Gnarwhal, Marmot, or Peak in your case you will love the grinds on the Battosai. Palm and arm grinds are easy to pull off, the same goes with finger grinds that will straddle your index finger in that large catch zone. Thumb grinds are a snap with the IGR. I have been working on a thumb grind to plastic whip combo that I have just now started to hit consistently during the review session.
Final Thoughts
This yo-yo is an excellent follow up to the Sky Walker. It plays distinctly different from Heath’s first release while still having a similar feel that lets you know that the same company made both. VsNYYC has come a long way in such a short time and it looks like it will only get better from here. As far as the Battosai itself, I would whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone. It is a versatile and fun throw that will easily mesh with most anybody’s style of play.