A few ole school mods from others>
The very Patriotic yo-yo is a YYJ Patriot featuring the Organic Masterful dye skills of Eric Wolff.
The other is a Duncan Zero showing serious skills from a guy that called himself YoyoPainter. Included is a custom counterweight die and a small yo-yo as an alternate counterweight.
Not sure what happened to him. He was very active for a good year or 2.
I appreciate the kind words old friend 
We all made some crazy stuff back then, but you were always up at the top of the pile.
I miss modding… grabbing a box of parts and having fun… fixing the thing that the manufacturer got wrong… repairing the beloved yoyo that had an unfortunate accident.
The “mod room” at the world yoyo contest from 05-13 was so much fun. Many hours of sharing ideas, making new stuff, doing mods for competitors, even fixing brand new prototypes for sponsors to show off. We taught classes on modding and design, held “Iron Mod” making things on the fly from random parts, taught wood and metal turning, etc.
I’d argue that without modders we wouldn’t have the yoyos we do now. It’s nice in a way that we don’t have to work so hard these days, but maybe we need another round of crazy ideas to shake things up.
And yes, the physics books are free. Don Watson, who we lost earlier this year, was kind enough to entrust me with them (I officially purchased the rights for $1) and since I was able to digitize them I don’t have any printing costs to cover. Sharing the knowledge was always the goal. I fully intend to build an interactive website built on them to teach people a out everything from the basics to how to design modern yoyos… I just haven’t had time for the project yet.
Here’s to the innovators and pioneers that gave us great ideas. 
No, 3d printing is its own beast.
I’ve printed many hundreds of yoyos… In 2013 I built a system that allowed anyone to order custom built yoyos, both machined or printed, and explored how best to make printed parts.
3d printing is all about design, you can do anything. It’s manufacturing.
Modding is all about taking something that exists and making it new. Upgrading, changing, bending it into something that works for you. It’s a very different approach.
I knew a modder it was his side gig i would not say a happiest he serviced others to my knowledge to be a hobbyist in fact I believe he lost much more then his name for me to know where he has been erased.
Thanks for sharing i miss him too. Wish you where on the yoyo expert when i was online with him so reading and viewing your history is quite nostalgic to me
Thank you for sharing his work.
I know we discussed it some time last year, but I am still in Awe thatthe books were written by hand!
Randoms added>
Anti yo from long ago
The Stunt Snake is still one of the best looking YoYos. Glad you created it.
Did somebody say Nightmoves?
Interestingly, edited I posted this pic, I had been looking for my all metal Nightmoves but could not find it🙀
Next up… MG
I’ve told the story before, but it was a long time ago. Many many years ago when Duncan release the MG yo-yo, Steve Brown was working with them at the time. I remember Steve getting one from what I think was the very first part of the first batch? Obviously, if he drops by and just happens to read this post, he would probably have better information on the timeline of this yo-yo’s production and him ending up with it.
Anyway, he was quite the traveler at the time, going all over the civilized world, promoting Duncan products and attending contest and related events and demos and whatever.
This basically started as a brand, new, beautiful Clearcoated magnesium finish and Steve decided that he would do with it whatever he needed to do with it in order to show people that the yo-yo is a two and a toy
Little off string with an MG? No problemo.
How about let’s walk that dog all the way down the street until we get tired of walking the dog, how about we do that? No problemo.
Several years after he started putting this MG through the trick grinder, we were hanging out one day at a contest, and I told him, ‘ Steve, I want to ask you something. When you get tired of beating that sucker to death, I’d like to adopt it. I don’t care how far into the future it is, I just think that would be the coolest thing to have since you’ve taken it all over the world and bounced it off all kinds of surfaces in and outside of the United States. It’s obviously like a timex watch it took a lick, but keeps on ticking.’
I don’t remember what length of time passed by after my request? But it had to be at least several years. One day Steve contacted me to make sure he had my address correct because he wanted to send me some miscellaneous parts that I could use to cut up.
We got that straight and then went back to life, both of us…
A few weeks later when he had the time, he sent off a box of miscellaneous parts. Halves, bearings, spacers, axles….
I was going through the box which was about the size of a shoebox, and I noticed a little piece of cloth in the corner. I found that interesting so obviously I reached right for it and grabbed it. I unwrapped the cloth and what do you think was in it? His OGMG for me, whoopie!
Without hesitation, I would say that it is one of my most prized yo-yo related possessions. First of all because it was given to me by a good friend. Second of all because it was one of the original MG’s in that natural color. Thirdly, it has been to states and countries that I’ve never been to and will probably never go to. And Fourth, I don’t have to ever worry about accidentally hitting it on the ground because Steve intentionally hit it on the ground. Last but not least, he didn’t charge me a penny for it.
…. Now I got admit, you can’t beat that as bad as he beat this yo-yo. But he didn’t clobber it to be intentionally brutal. He just used it to serve the purposes necessary to show the versatility and durability of a magnesium yo-yo.
PS… the yo-yo was actually cleaned up some… to take the sharp edges off some of the skid marks. It looked pretty bad when I got it, 
Many years ago, Dale would send yo-yos to me as he made a batch of this or that.
He must have sent me a dozen Phenoms.
Since I got them for free, I gave at least 6 away to people that were looking for them. I didn’t feel right making a profit on gifts. So I figured I just make some people happy then never had a chance to get one.
Then one day when I was screwing around with my pile of yo-yos, I found a raw Phenom. It actually had a little film of oxidation on it. Which I thought was kind of weird because where I live it’s not really that humid very often which in my experience tends to have a negative effect on aluminum yo-yos.
So I decided to clean it up and throw it around. I had forgotten what a really good yo-yo design. Dale had come up with so many years ago. This yo-yo could be released today and I think it would still be considered pretty darn good.
When I polished the yo-yo, I didn’t try to turn it into a mirror. I just put what I call utility finish on it. Which wears a lot better in my mind because it doesn’t start super shiny and then fade out. It just pretty much stays the same as the one in the images. And then if it does start to dull a little bit, I just rub it with a jewelry cloth. Bring it back to the utility look.
I put a gold bearing in it. I should say a concave gold bearing with no shields. I don’t really think the gold makes any kind of miraculous difference in the performance of a bearing. I’m not saying it doesn’t do anything, but to me it’s more of a psychological visual impact thing , actually well the sting works so good because it’s cold blah blah blah.
Just my opinion on that, but it is pretty. And it really works well in this particular yo-yo. So obviously the performance I’m getting is a result of the yo-yo design and what just happens to be a Random bearing that I found while I was digging. I don’t even remember what I took it out of? But I know where it’s at now🥸
Many years ago, Steve Buffel(SPYY) Released the SPYY TYY yo-yo. I ended up buying two. One for display potentially, and the other to throw around. A very well-made and well performing titanium yo-yo.
Years past and Andre set up a fundraiser/auction to help out very good friend that was having a medical issue that necessitated revenue beyond his means at the time. I wanted to help so I sent both of my SPYY TYY Yo-yos to help raise money for an excellent cause. No problems, no hesitation no regrets. A good number of people that I recall, Participated in generating some cash.
Regardless, after a few years, I decided I needed to try to track down another TYY yo-yo.
I start checking out the BST‘s. I ask a few friends that are a lot more active in buy sell trade groups, To keep an eye out for me.
…… Days past weeks past a few months past without a single clue in my search.
I decided to contact Steve directly. I had this Bright idea that if anyone might have one for sale or trade, it would be the man himself, possibly from his own collection of things he held back as he was manufacturing selling his yo-yos. Steve told me that sadly he could not help me out because he had depleted good part of his inventory over the years. But he did tell me he would ask around to see if anybody had one possibly willing to send to another home?
He got back to me a week or two later and said a good friend and yo-yo collector up in Canada would be willing to sell one at a reasonable price. I told Steve I was interested so he said he would talk to the guy and possibly move ahead with solving my search.
Steve mentioned to me that this particular yo-yo for whatever reason he couldn’t remember, was put together with 2 halves that both had serial numbers on them. I told Steve I didn’t care what kind of halves somebody mixed together, lol…… SPYY TYY…… Count me in.
It took a few days to set up the the details to finalize the deal because everybody was busy doing other things in life, obviously.
Totally unrelated to my finding the yo-yo I was looking for, I was hanging out with some friends, and one started a conversation on the subject of lucky numbers. He insisted that some numbers are historically known to be lucky. As much as I talk, sometimes I have nothing to say on subjects I know very little about. The reason being, if you know nothing about a subject, you’re only guessing and not really adding anything to the conversation.
He said five was a lucky number. Also 11. In in a few countries around the world 888 is considered a very lucky number. He said some people when they’re looking to buy a house will consider the address number of the house as a factor in whether they buy it or not?
I listened and contributed nothing because I had nothing. That isn’t until he said the luckiest number is 13. Hands-down, he said 13 is the lucky number. That’s the number to go by.
So I decided out of pure curiosity if this guy would be willing to share a couple examples of when 13 turned out being a Lucky number?
He said well offhand I can’t think of the direct example? So 13 is a lucky number, but no examples or explanations as to why?
Over the decades, I’ve heard people say lucky 13. I’ve seen it on shirts. When I was really in the Harley motorcycles, it seemed to be a big thing , Lucky 13 logos and shirts and whatever.
Some people would say on the other hand that 13 was the unluckiest number. Without really any examples to support that viewpoint, you’re only guessing, right?
As the conversation moved on to something else, I’ll never forget the look on that guy’s face and how serious he seem to be, about convincing everybody that 13 was a lucky number.
Life goes on……
A few weeks later, I get a package from Canada. I knew what was in the package and I was too busy to open it up at the time so just stayed in the box and I put it in my electronic vault.
When the hectic pace of things slowed down around a week later, I decided to go down to the shop and play with my new toy.
I open the box and there she was. A beautiful, very shiny, SPYY TYY yo-yo! I started tossing it around and totally refreshed my memory and how good the yo-yo was. It seemed like only a week past since I passed my other ones on. It was like if somebody got amnesia and then their memory came back to good times.
I got a phone call that I had to take so I immediately put the yo-yo back in the safe and took care of business. A few days later, it dawned on me that I never checked the sides out to see what Steve was talking about?
…. So that evening when I got home from work, I immediately got the yo-yo out of the vault and put some good light on it. The one side said 001. I thought wow wow that’s about as low as you can get production wise.
I quickly turn the yo-yo over to look at the other side. It said 012. I thought to myself, wow, that’s pretty low too… 012.
As I connected those two numbers in my mind for whatever reason, I just decided to add them up. Kind of abstract reasoning and just pulling the idea out of the seat of my pants, but I couldn’t help it. 12+1 = 13🙀
Just like time travel, I immediately went back to that conversation with that guy that was insistent about 13 being the luckiest number.
I know it’s kind of a stretch, correlating one with the other. But those two numbers are on the halves of the same yo-yo. So go figure?
Maybe 13 is a lucky number? At least, in this instance, I have an example to support that claim…
Not a stretch. Jesus (1) + Disciples (12) = 13
Many years ago, when JD was selling his Yoyofreaks yo-yos, he designed one of the very best playing small yo-yos ‘ever’. At this moment, can’t even think of the name?
By the time I figured it out he had pretty much sold out.
He said he had 1 left that was a special one off, just for his collection.
Several days later, I get a package in the mail from Johnnie.
I opened the box and there it was. The only one of the 100, was an Unknown unit.
He is like a nephew to me…. But he owed me nothing. He is just ‘that Cool’.
Beautifully designed small yo-yo, displaying great looks, great detail and a great player.
Also… waaay back a few. Dave Geigle, released one of the very best Titanium yo-yos ever. It could be released today. It’s that good.
The gold dipped TIger>
And one more for today. Years ago, Jason Wong was one anodizing maniac He was just naturally good at putting color on yo-yos.
One day he decided to sell a few yo-yos to fund a project. This was one of them. Based on a General Yo M10, his impeccable ano skills are accurately represented. One of my very favorite yo-yos.
