What is going on with the Bettynova Models?

I have just purchased an original Bettynova, and I’m sure I’m going to love it. It’s a 68.3g thumper and solid is what I’m after. Nice choice, Betty!

Looking at the 2022 model, the dimensions and gap are all the same, but its a whopping 3.6g lighter! Not to mention it has the ‘DNA’ fingerspin caps.

It makes me wonder what’s going on here. Did Betty decide she got the weight horribly wrong with the first model and that she now really needs fingerspin caps within a matter of months? These are pretty drastic changes and that’s very hard to imagine somehow.

Or was the first model not successsful enough from a sales perspective because of the heavy weight and all the kids want these days is DNA? Is it simply more palletable to customers?

Not sure! :man_shrugging:

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Glen, I think it’s simply more about sometimes the yo-yos evolve with the players tastes.

The Original yo-yo checked all her boxes at the time.

….Every yo-yo is a rolling experiment. A player gets a signature yo-yo and spends much quality time squeezing all the juice out of it. As they play the heck,out of their signature yo-yo, they seek a different ‘recipe’ based on what they have learned about the model they have been throwing.

Coming out with a ‘Tweaked’ updated model does not cast any shade on the Original model. Not even sure why I am telling this to you. Working with wood as much as you do… or have, I have no doubt that your yo-yo weighting/shapes/sizes/gap variations, changed as you learned more finer points based on your experience.

Betty is a very skilled and dynamic player. No different that Evan Nagao, she is constantly in search of a yo-yo to match her skills.

I guess Yoyofactory could have just called it by a different name and you never would have been concerned with 2 Bettynovas being ‘so different’.

But they didn’t. Maybe in a year they will come out with a Bettynova 3? And it will have hubstacks and weight 65.5g?

The first and second don’t ‘cancel each other’.

50 people can make a chocolate cake. And all 50 can look and taste different. But they are still called chocolate cakes.

One is not necessarily better than the rest. They are just different.

Look how many Edge model variations Evan has: Edge… Edge Infinity… Edge Ultimatum… Plastic Edge… Titanium Edge… Edgeedgeedge……

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Well said, Doc. I have no doubt at all that professional’s tastes and requirements change. It just appears a rather drastic change rather than a tweak. I just wonder why Betty would have tested such a heavy yoyo and approved it for her signature, then turn around only months later wanting it over 3g lighter. The DNA caps are also very different to the open, flat face of the first. The added plastic in that ares would also rather drastically change the feel and weight distribution.

Its just a bit curious, thats all!

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Idk about Betty but consistently using a yoyo over 66g makes my tendinitis rear it’s ugly self and my wrist,elbow KILL , that’s why I personally would want it 3gr lighter :sweat_smile:

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That’s what I was thinking. I have finally been having some success with DNA on my Shutters, and my elbow woke up the next day telling me how much it hates me.

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I’m not saying this is what happened, but there were a lot of complaints once the weight was revealed. Many of them coming from people that never played. it. I have one of the originals. My daughter and I were watching the livestream when they released them, and she said she really liked the purple one, so I bought one. When it arrived, I still hadn’t read what the specs were, but I would have never guessed it was a 68g yoyo. It doesn’t play that “heavy” at all.

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Same.

I bought the 2022 version first. I liked the shape but didn’t care for the plastic caps, so I bought the original. I didn’t even look at the weight and until today it never occurred to me that the original may be one of the heaviest yoyos that I own. It is definitely the one of the smoothest.

I would guess that the 2022 changes were to make it more appealing/accessible to the newer players, rather than a reflection of her own evolving requirements. Her IG seems mostly dedicated to outreach on behalf of yo-yoing and YYF.

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I think @AaronW and @hsb have the right idea. Very few people want a 68g+ yoyo and the '22 version a more appealing yoyo for a wider audience.

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I’d also note that she’s had a lot of success on Youtube, Tik Tok, etc., in fact she’s the first yoyo youtuber to reach 1 million subscribers. Maybe this yoyo was more focused on that aspect of her yoyoing

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I would guess that the 2022 changes were to make it more appealing/accessible to the newer players, rather than a reflection of her own evolving requirements.

Agreed. Though, with the two being so drastically different AND coming out so close together, I’m not sure why it wasn’t released with a unique name to differentiate.

Maybe its just me, but I always saw Bettys signature throws as geared toward beginners.

I also feel like the companies behind the yoyos have influence on the yoyos just as much as the player. So if yoyofactory wants to cater to that crowd using Betty as the player, finger spins and lighter makes sense.

She is a fan of the YYF arrow, so i wasnt surprised at all by the design of her new axolotl yoyo.

Yyf is very specific with their signature throws. Gentry is like the shutter and whatever, you got 2up with the speed designs, betty for beginners etc. Nagao is the hardest one to pin but hes a handy marketer for any yoyo with his name on it, doesnt he have like a few at least?

I know this thread was started in 2022 but I think it’s pretty clear now that more time has passed. She has over 5x more IG followers than Gentry and well over more 10x YouTube subs. In the yoyo world, her online presence is absolutely massive and if anyone is individually in a position to create the next yoyo boom (therefore making heaps of money for the people/money at the forefront of it), she is arguably the #1 person to do it.

The reality is that despite her competitive talent, she isn’t competing with the Bettynova to begin with (at least not recently). She won WYYC Women’s with the IQ, an objectively better yoyo. First adding fingerspin caps to the yoyo with her name on it, then introducing the Axolotl alongside a sub $20 version shows she’s headed in a clear direction. That is, she wants her signature yoyos to be affordable, user friendly and able to very easily perform the only super recognizable trick on social media (that also happens to look very flashy). Letting someone grab something for $18 so they can learn a thing or two before potentially moving on to the $50 model if they choose is a super easy way to keep people engaged. I could easily see myself boredom purchasing 10+ Axolotls if I was throwing a party just to make my friends learn how to do a DNA once we all started drinking. All it takes is 1 thrower or 1 person that saw someone yoyo on social media and think it looked cool and all of a sudden 10 drunk adults or 10 kids at a birthday party have a yoyo in their hands.

tldr; I don’t think it’s a specifically “What happened with the Bettynova?” thing. I think it’s more that Betty and YYF just recognized that given the power of her online presence, her signature yoyos needed to be designed with a very specific kind of performance in mind in order to give yoyo the best chance at another boom and give themselves the best chance at maximum payday.

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