What’s happened to all the old school yoyo companies oxygen spyy difeyo
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I believe at least as far as these are concerned, they were pretty much a one man show and the principals moved on for one reason or another such as family obligations and possibly retirement.
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Carlo Menon ‘was’ Oxygen. His father owned a high level exotic car machine shop. One of the reasons that oxy had such precision work in the construction of their yo-yos was that Carlo did the work right in the family machine shop. Basically growing up in a machine shop allowed Carlo to be in close proximity to master machinists.
Carlo became an accomplished musician, who had a vision of becoming an orchestra conductor when he got older.
Sadly, when his father passed away, Carlo became the head of the business. Life got in the way.
SPYY…. Steve Buffel ‘was’ SPYY. Steve, also a top flight machinist, had access to very precision level machinery at his place of employment… Doing his hobby part time with his Employers’ permission, he turned his hobby into a Business. A near death experience and a few other challenges, made Steve recalculate the importance of things in life.
Frank Difeo , a Master machinist and Tool and Die Prototype Engineer, started making yo-yos ‘because he felt like it’. When Frank introduced the KonKave bearing to the yo-yo world, it left an indelible mark in the history of yo-yo performance. To say the KK had a positive impact in certainly an understatement. The majority of current yo-yo bearing makers, have figured out one way or another to skirt around the KonKave Patent with a multitude of stepped or faceted bearing offerings, which essentially do the same thing as the original Difeo KK>>> direct the bearing to the center, lol😂.
Somewhat still unknown to many, Frank has made several designs and production of yo-yos that have been marketed by Internet Yo-yo/skill toy Businesses.
He cut back on his Business to focus on the fun that potentially comes with retirement.
He has 2 different residences(one in Mass. and one in Florida) and may be at either one, depending on the ‘weather’.
All 3 of these masterminds are alive and currently in good health and financially secure.
That’s all.
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I was sponsored by Oxygene, I did tried 100% of his products and it’s true that the care that Carlo put on his throws was unbelievable, very high quality on every release and Carlo is such a nice person, I still exchange one or two comments with him on Facebook, I let him notice when every now and then someone looks for his products here!
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I would do anything for my red oxy v back if he’s got any extra, ill fly to Italy to come scoop it, he doesn’t even need to ship it 
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That was honestly a great designed yoyo, looked great and the finishing was amazing, I had one full red and one with the polished rims, I destroyed them as I always do with yoyos 
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You can still buy Dif-e-Yo stuff it is sold directly through the popular internet auction site everyone knows by name.
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Wow that answered everything! Thanks man
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I’ve always wanted the oxygen obsidian!
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I remember Big Brother YoYo (BBYY) being a small brand that I really liked about ten or more years ago. I had a Bully and a Wedgie.
For some reason I think their was a yoyo gang called DitchDown44. I believe it required a tattoo to be in the club. I don’t know why, but I feel like BBYY was tied in with them.
Anyone know anything about this?
I might need to get a tattoo.
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Well stated again Doc…. You really do rock the yoyo history man…. and spot in with the details too! We do
appreciate yoyo aficionados here on the forum…. Thank You
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DD Crew member checking in! Ditch Downnwas started by John Huber and a few others with the only requirement that you yoyo and be inked somewhere on your body below a ditch (knee or elbow) - basically have visible ink and throw. A loose band of hooligans that somewhat fragmented along the way.
BBYY did a special Bully and Wedgie you had to be a member to get.
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What a blast from the past. My buddy had a TT I used to throw all the time. I was always fascinated by the dangerous spikes
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Duuuude the TT was the OG of mega dangerous spikes
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