Maybe I am just old, but I can hardly tell a difference between these V’s and W’s and the like. They seem quite subtle to me. What am I missing? Also what are the “supposed” pros and cons of each. To me they all look like “butterfly” shape. Granted it’s a way to designate differences in butterfly’s? Which one is a blue morpho?
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I have a hard time with shapes as well. I try not to classify them, that way no one can judge me when I call a draupnir an organic yoyo 
The four canonical shapes are the most apparent in their extreme forms, but most yoyos are a blend of these shapes, making clear categorization difficult.
You would think that One Drop’s Benchmark series would serve as ideal reference yoyos for each shape, but I don’t personally feel that their Benchmark H really expresses the canonical H shape. For that I feel you have to turn to yoyos like the iYoYo TiRROX. (Their other Benchmark shapes are good references though.)
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Look up the Charm (W) as opposed to something like the Draupnir (V)
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Shapes!
W versus H can be subtle, and ironically I think the onedrop benchmark series didn’t really do their H quite right. The perfect H is probably iYoYo which is notorious for their strong H designs!
H is all about the angle between the response pads and the inner rim. If it is a straight line, it’s not an H…
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Ha! I came here to say the same thing. To “fix” their H you’d need to do this:
The line from response area to the rim is still too straight on the benchmark H. I remember originally getting the benchmark W and H and barely being able to tell them apart…
Wait! I was thinking @zslane, does onedrop even make any “true” H shape yoyos?
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Not that I’m aware of. But I am not an expert on the full history of their models. A “true” H from One Drop could be as mythological as a One Drop bimetal.
Their full history of releases is on their website, which is nice!
It would be funny if OneDrop is allergic to the H shape 
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@codinghorror those photos are perfect. Thank you!
I am also just going to stick with “gotta catch them all”
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The modification you made still doesn’t alter where the line connects. Also, I feel like this is not a sufficient definition of the shape
Edit: example- this line idea neglects things like the vertical drop off from “outer rim” to bearing/response area. That’s always been an H hallmark
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You can’t exactly move the response pads, so I do not follow?
Show me pics with markup, I don’t know what you mean.
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http://blog.yoyostore.cz/en/yoyo-shapes/
Here’s a handy diagram… I think Rosenberg means the vertical step at (2).
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Wait, so an H shape does NOT have a straight line? That seems…confusing, considering what the letter “H” looks like 
This is picture is awesome though - the only difference I really knew for sure was organic vs others. Nice to see the distinct differences of W, H, and V next to one another.
Meant to reply yesterday but yes that’s exactly what I meant
I’ve seen undercut yo-yos like the Glacier Express and Avant Garde called ‘Z-shape’ in the past.
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Z shape sounds cool I like it
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I feel like there is substantial confusion about what an H shape is on this thread. The most iconic H shape is the Yoyofactory genesis, and it is not the angle that determines what an H shape is. It is the difference between the rims and the inner portion making a H like shape. They were made popular because you could create a longer spinning yoyo by increasing the rim weight. In my opinion the one drop H shape is a lot more standard for what an H shape is than the Firrox. I would consider the Firrox a mixture of an organic and an H shape because it doesn’t have that much of a prototypical step. W shapes don’t have a step and are more of a hybrid between a V and an H. They became popular because you could get the rim weight of an H but the catch-ability of a v shape. The prototypical w shape is the One Drop Code 2.
Just to add some visual clarification on the H shape:
Genesis:
And also a Silenus:
I think it’s definitely that hard step in the catch zone that makes an H an H.
The One Drop H:
Is what I would consider a true H.
And the Silenus would be more of an organic H, because it has that hard step in the catch Zone, but it also has rounded rims.
This is just my two cents. I’ll get off my soapbox now
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Ah yeah I forgot about the Z