Like @jhb8426, I think my first “budget” metal was the Duncan Metal Zero. Which, honestly, was probably the first budget metal at all. I remember everyone was pretty excited about it when the rumors showed up about the price.
That said, it was a pretty cruddy yoyo. I wasn’t impressed. Thought that has to be view in the context of my general “meh” opinion of most of the small-bearing Duncan plastic yoyos.
Gold YYF Shutter (current 2018 vintage).
Red horizon
myy n8
Myy m002
Wow LOL! If it was around 1999, the famous (and expensive) metal yoyo then was the Playmaxx Cold Fusion and similar metals from Playmaxx, that’d be my guess.
Oh boy this is going to date me, a Yomega Metallic Missile. I believe it was $25 and I thought man that’s a lot for a yo-yo.
So I am not sure what constitutes a budget metal. But first metal Yo-Yo was the prototype for the Silver Bullet 1. Didn’t even know it was a prototype until meeting Tom Kuhn at a club meet up and he flipped when he saw it. Pretty sure my dad had that for less than $20 in the 80’s. He got it before I got into Yo-Yoing which spawned our collecting. Then in 2000 I got a red and black anodized SB2. I forget how much those were back then. Maybe around $70 which was crazy money for a Yo-Yo back then. Of course I (my dad, I was invited High School) bought a Cold Fusion when it came out which was in no way a budget Yo-Yo at the time. This year I got a Shutter which is my first “modern” Yo-Yo as I stopped playing for 16 years.
Let us not forget the glory that was the SuperYO Samurai. $130 would put this baby in your 1999 pocket.
Wow cool!
It was this innovation [first ceramic bearing] that allowed Matt Owen to set a former long sleeper record of 12 minutes 2 seconds on October 23rd, 1999. Its 2.1.0 construction makes it so that there are no parts to be lost.
Umm… do you know the significance of this? I don’t have the drive to Google it. I can do it tomorrow if you don’t know what this means.
Solid “2.1.0” design – that is, 2 halves, 1 ball bearing, and 0 parts to lose.
I guess the axle was machined into one of the halves?
Looks more like it was soldered in or otherwise mechanically attached to me, that makes sense as a machined aluminum axle would be… err… bad.
Thank you, sir.
Yoyofactory hectic. 65$ was budget back in the day
Shinwoo Zen 3. It had an interesting shape and played like a rock, but I loved it.
Me too! Man in hindsight only slightly better than the metal drifter.
I used to own one of these and it tried to kill me. So I gave it to the neighbor and now it sits on a shelf, safely.
Wow, some people started on some really nice yoyos. Good for you guys! I couldn’t convince myself, nor my parents, to let me spend $30 on a yoyo for nearly a year after I got into the hobby (I’m pretty cheap).
I operated under that rule for a few years. $30 was my absolute limit. Then Anti-yo came out with the Fluchs and I had to have one.
Keep in mind that not every answer here is to the question: ‘What was your first yoyo?’ The conversation was just about your first ‘budget metal’.
Lot’s of folks started on plastics.