Just got this one
Iâm really happy with the Ace so far, in fact out of the 4 I just got, this is the one I want to pick up the most, but just by a hair. Iâm a novice so take this with a grain of salt. Iâm really enjoying all 4 of these. The Koi is super comfy in the hand but I caught it just wrong on a catchy bind and it literally hit a nerve, it hurt probably more than anything this far into my yoyoing journey (even the one that felt like it fractured my skull), but itâs a fun throw too! I donâtâ know much about AceYo but this feels like good quality to me but it certainly wasnât too pricey.
HOT DIGGITY- DAWG!!! YESSSSIREEEE BOB!!!
Hmm.
I was really excited for the Thruline. I really wanted to like it. But itâs just⌠really weird lol. My prediction is that this will be one of the most divisive releases of the year.
In theory, a wide, non organic yoyo with a shape leaning more towards the performant end of the spectrum from One Drop is akin to an ice cold glass of water and some shade on a brutally hot summerâs day. People (including myself and a few vocal others) have been wanting this sort of thing from them for awhile. Designs are definitely trending towards the bigger end of the spectrum these days so the specs didnât put me off even a little bit. And Iâve been loving all those bigger releases that have dropped in the past year or so. If anything, I was expecting it to be maybe a bit too light for its size.
However, upon receiving it, to my surprise, I think the weight was one of the only things I actually liked about it. I donât wanna waste anyoneâs time so Iâll get straight to the point: I think the shape is weird and takes some getting used to, and even when you do get more used to it, I think itâs so big that it actually gets in its own way sometimes. Iâm sure this is a great yoyo if a lot of your tricks involve risky catches and zoning, but very bluntly, I donât think people buying OD yoyos are doing a whole lot of that. For more intricate tricks, it just kinda gets in the way of itself and if there are a few string layers or elements it can get caught up a lot more easily in that. I do want to say that on the string, the yoyo feels actually pretty great depending on what youâre doing. I found myself appreciating it more during play after feeling like it was kinda weird at first. But then, Iâd pick up a different yoyo, use that for awhile and then come back to this, and it was just kinda weird all over again.
So, in an effort to see if my experience was the same for others, I took it to DXL to get more opinions on it. Basically, I wanted to check if I was tripping or not, and if people didnât end up feeling the same way as me, thatâd be totally fine and Iâd love to hear their thoughts on it, because I trust a lot of these people to articulate very clearly why they do or donât like a yoyo, or why they think itâs a good design or not. Some of these guys are quite literally the best yoyoers in the country, so I donât take their opinions lightly. Most of the people that tried it ended up actually not liking it very much and feeling similarly to what I had thought about the Thruline myself. Several comments on how the shape felt a little strange in the hand and on the catch, and how it was just too big.
Two other things I wanted to be sure to mention: Not sure what was up with the QC on these? Mine came with a lil ding on it fresh out of the box, and normally I donât care about dings, cause Imma ding it anyways eventually⌠AND I wouldnât have even brought this up at all, except I was talking to someone else who brought up that theirs came with a ding on it as well, without me even telling them that mine did too. I just think that if youâre charging $70 for (1) a monometal and (2) what is a brand new A-Grade item from your store, you should probably inspect them before packaging them, because not everyone is as lenient on that sort of thing as I am. And secondly, thereâs this quote on their site as a description of the yoyo: âAn experiment in algorithmically informed cross-sectional mass distribution.â So uhh⌠maybe this is a joke to say âWeâre trying what everyone on social media has asked us to do for years nowâ in a more subtle way, and if so, thatâs fine I guess. But what makes me think it might not be a joke is the fact that for the Fat Tire revamp in May of last year they literally recruited a physicist to help them achieve âoptimalâ weight distribution for âfloatyness.â From their site: âWeight distribution is the key here. Chris examined yo-yos which were universally considered to be Floaty and was able to figure out what they all had in common through deep physics. [âŚ] The re-work stems entirely from physics analysis.â So like⌠is this yoyo based on some physics âalgorithmâ of some sort? Why not elaborate on that in the description? That would actually be pretty interesting if it was the product of some sort of algorithm and it would be cool to know more about it. But the marketing for this yoyo is just kinda as confusing as the yoyo itself.
Someone at DXL brought up the point that a yoyo that is 59mm should have quite a bit more spin power than the Thruline. Not to say that the Thruline LACKS spin power, itâs just that when you start getting into that territory of diameter, you start to get pretty insane spin power and it just spins forever and ever and ever. The Thruline feels very⌠comparable to decent monometals in the 56mm range, which is fine, but not whatâd youâd expect from a yoyo this size. If this yoyo was âalgorithmically informedâ somehow, (again, the description might be admittedly going over my head and I could be over-analyzing it - but itâs hard to think they arenât serious when they were serious about the Fat Tire physics stuff lmfao) you think it would be able to calculate the proper, ideal weight distribution for the yoyo to achieve maximum spin power.
I think with some refinements this could actually be a real banger - keep the weight the same, make it 57mm, adjust the width ratio according to the new diameter, round out the sharpish edges at the rim even a liiitle bit more, and adjust the shape just a tick to make the hand and catch feel a bit more comfortable, while still retaining this sort of shape.
Even though this review is on the more negative side, the LAST thing I would want is for OD to read this or hear similar thoughts, and drop the pursuit of this kind of design (bigger, wider, rim weight pushed to edges, etc). I want to be clear that I think they are really, really moving in the right direction with the ThruLine. To me, this yoyo is kinda reminds me of a game of Battleship - sure, it was a miss, but damn⌠it was ONE peg away from a direct hit. Theyâre so so so close and itâd be a shame if they moved to a different section of the board, so Iâm definitely looking forward to seeing whatâs next from them.
Reading at your review I would like to enlarge the discussion a bit, not about OD which is doing itâs best but about every brand around.
To me is weird how a brand miss in this way to do a good yoyo (as you said no one that tried it liked it, which is insane), letâs be honest when we say competition yoyos have âstandardsâ you can mess up a bit with those standards but a yoyo should come out anyway good.
I mean, every brand more or less has a team, they did not let try the prototype or the team member say âyes yes coolâ all the time to do not offend/fear to be kicked out? I hope not, otherwise is better change team members, if Jorge send me something that is bad I have no problems to say âthis is hella bad, you can change those stuffâ and work around it and find a middle ground to make a product better, be in a team is also this (I think).
For me itâs obvious that the team tried the prototype and at this point is impossible that every person in that team or around them that tried that yoyo liked it and said âthis is perfectâ, if then I do not explain why so many people around are not liking it. I mean, you said it trip on itself, no one has tried a tech combo with it? Or even Idk a Superman combo some old stuff but some busy stuff, try tech and intricate trick is one of the test everyone should do on a proto to see how the yoyo behave in busy string environment.
My ones are conjectures as I do not know how it works that team in particular but it seems weird to me that every average skilled player will say âthis is coolâ to something that maybe is not andâŚthis is the result, a huge missed opportunity.
Again, I am not talking about OD, I am talking in general and this was a perfect example to use because is incredibly weird that something like this can happen, as this seems is not even about preferences but a problem of the yoyo itself, I will look forward anyway to try it as well!
My recently purchased Parlay has a small nick in the catch zone as well. They must be going aggressively with the Pyramatte.
Atmos Ekta, this couldnât have arrived on a better day!
Not sure if all of them have this on all their yoyoâs but on the lower rim, if you look really close, you can see some coordinates on it. Thatâs pretty awesome.
Nice write up Spence. It seems OD designs have not been your cup of tea for some time, I guess its no surprise this one isnt your jam either. But that can be a pretty big deal when its coming from someone who almost singlehandedly created a collector market for the Panorama model for a few years.
I just wanna tip the scales a bit and say I think the Thruline is good, and its competitive nature fills the niche in my collection I wanted it to. Iâve already used it to work out some tricks ive been stuck on, so it may become my âlearnerâ if you will.
Good read as usual, I do hope other people like it as much as I do
Something weird happens with OneDrop QC. I have already received few yo-yos with dents. I enjoy how they play, but I canât say the same about coating. It is far away from old OneDrops qualityâŚ
UPD: all these yo-yos were refunded or replaced. But coating is still not consistentâŚ
Almost every One Drop Iâve ever purchased came with some kind of flaw or dent.
I should have reached out, itâs probably too late for me now
Edit: Nevermind, Onedrop has next level customer service.
Iâve had that same thing with other brands. Turning Point St. Elmo comes to mind, had dents and the bearing barely turned. The dent didnât bother me though
These look like they are under the coating, so possibly something that occurs in the Pyramatte apparatus.
If so, on a yoyo that I purchased that was otherwise okay, I would ignore it.
I can see why another person would not, and itâs good that they are exchanging them on request.
I agree it looks below the anodize. If I had to guess it would be from the cut-off operation in the lathe when it drops into the parts bin.
Thatâs some serious bad luck. Iâve never received a blemished One Drop and Iâve bought dozens and dozens from them.
Round #2 for the dayâŚ
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From left to right: C3 Berserker, C3 Krown, OD Terrarian (no discernable dings) and of course, I do like these Sochi strings so I got another 100 but Iâm trying the fat out this time, so thank you all for the suggestions and I got a few more Pixel Bearings. These are my first C3 yoyoâs, Iâm looking forward to trying these out. I have 3 more (Dressel Designs) throws on the way and then Iâm done for awhile, I know Iâve said that a few times before, thatâs YAD (Yoyo Acquisition Disorder) for ya! 8 new throws in 2 days, Iâve got a lot of yoyoâs to get accustomed to!
I want to get a yoyo in the mail soon.