I gotta add Alpine to this, I almost forgot that came out this year as well - have been EDC’ing it pretty much every day for the past few weeks. Also, it might be too early to tell for sure (honeymoon period is real), but the new Plastic Fulvia is almost too good to be true.
So I guess I could make my 2022 list look something like this:
Fav 2022 bimetal: GTR-JS
Fav 2022 monometal: Diorama
Fav 2022 Titanium: Alpine
Fav 2022 Plastic: Plastic Fulvia
Hard to pick a #1, so here are my top 5 in no particular order:
Butterfly: Gosh, what an amazing throw for $3. Pure fixed axle simplicity.
Fulvia: This one is arguably still in honeymoon phase, but it’s already got a lot of love. A great finish, smooth, floaty, capable. And for $30 it’s a steal. Also great colors.
RBC: The love this gets is well-deserved. More metal responsives should use the MR85 bearing. Feels great in the hand and play like a pure distillation of responsive yoyo.
Beater: I just like this one. I’m apparently and oldhead organic lover. The rootbeer color is cool.
Freehand One: This one felt like it opened up new play horizons for me. I think it’s something that everyone should try. It’s like nostalgia that pushes you forward rather than backward.
Yoyoers are such rule breakers and scofflaws. Half of these favorites are from '21! 
December yoyo releases are the single greatest enemy of “yoyo of the year” rankings.
Yeah, it’s a little like in Price is Right where someone just guesses one higher than the previous person. Well, not really, but…it can be an upset in the year’s landscape if something like the RBC drops in under the wire.
Freehand One and RBC are definitely the two big outliers. Such great yoyos that only got ~2 weeks at most to shine in 2021.
Although maybe the packaging of the Freehand is just encouraging bad practice…
I didn’t realise that the cup of the Kamuraiju and the Wyvern were so similar until now.
While I do prefer the original wooden bloodcell(it just has the perfect woody response) the rbc is just an instant classic! I think it’s the best yo-yo of this year and the design is just genius. It’s a great player and the yo-yo has a recognizable brand
The powdered steals are amazing for edge retention… but its not real damascus.
Define “Real” damascus?
We talking Wootz? Bulat? Or pattern welded steel? We talking blade damascus edge something else?
For the latter the Damasteel company makes some very nice powdered steel pattern welded damascus…
The boring answer really is “it depends.”
There’s also blades out there with powdered “supersteel” cores or edges and damascus sides.
Asking which is better, damascus or monosteel is like asking which is a faster car…a ford or a toyota…
Which Ford? Which Toyota? In what circumstances? In what budget etc etc
Hi 2023 Yoyoers Long time no see
